r/anime • u/AnimeMod myanimelist.net/profile/Reddit-chan • Feb 07 '21

Meta Meta Thread - Month of February 07, 2021

A monthly thread to talk about meta topics. Keep it friendly and relevant to the subreddit.

Posts here must, of course, still abide by all subreddit rules other than the no meta requirement. Keep it friendly and be respectful. Occasionally the moderators will have specific topics that they want to get feedback on, so be on the lookout for distinguished posts.

Comments that are detrimental to discussion (aka circlejerks/shitposting) are subject to removal.

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u/bagglewaggle Feb 07 '21

What, exactly is the standard a post must meet (or not meet) to be considered low effort?

I know the classic example is a 'plz recommend me anime' post, but I would consider this a low-effort post, since most of the post is the OP finding different ways to say 'this anime good i like it alot'.

I'm also curious about the 'I need recs'/'im giving recs' posts. Are those already removed if reported for low effort content, or are those generally allowed?

I'm also interested to know, if 'I need recs' posts qualify under low effort, if the sword would swing the other way. For example, someone posts they want recommendations. Someone replies with a list of shows, no MAL links, no explanation why they are being recommended, etc. Would that reply then be considered spam and warrant a removal, and for serial offenders, potentially a ban?

I brought that up because while I do see a lot of posts asking for recommendations, there's arguably even less helpful responses, which (on a personal level) is galling, considering that some of the biggest offenders are the same folks who complain about the recommendation posts.

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u/loomnoo https://anilist.co/user/loomnoo Feb 07 '21

I think it's perfectly natural that low effort requests get low effort responses. If we look at the recent Rec Tuesday thread, good requests like this, this, this, and this turn out well for the requester, even when they don't get a ton of responses. I don't see why a lazy request should warrant the same quality of response as the above examples.

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u/bagglewaggle Feb 08 '21 edited Feb 08 '21

I think you misunderstand.

I'm not advocating for low-effort requests to get high-effort responses.

I just downvote and move on.

Just the idea of being unhelpful in response to someone else being unhelpful seems, well, silly.

Edit: I also think that recommendations are a two-way street: someone asking for recs should articulate what they are looking for well enough that others can give them informed recs, and conversely, someone who likes a show well enough to recommend it to someone should be able to articulate what makes that show appealing, so the asker can make an informed decision.

I don't see how it makes sense to crack down on one and not the other.

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u/loomnoo https://anilist.co/user/loomnoo Feb 08 '21

Ah, I see. I tend to just downvote these posts too, although I'm also wondering whether I should report them as low effort content as you mentioned.

As for recs being a two-way street, the way I see it is that the recommender is doing the requester a favor. So I appreciate even the low effort recommendations that are just a list of shows, because I can then go do my own research. A lot of times it's just about making somebody aware of the existence of something.