A forum contribution trophy for Jokes, Memes, and Shorts

[Cool Cory]

Maybe we could add a Golden Jester for the Jokes, Memes, and Shorts sub-board.

[Kyng]

That is a pretty good idea .

In general, the Forum Contributions are meant to reward posting in the higher-quality parts of the forums (such as Topical Discussions and Recreation and Media), and I don't want to water that down by having a trophy for everything (for example: there will never be Forum Contributions trophies for "contributions to General Chat" or "contributions to Forum Games"). But I would be open to having one for Jokes, Memes, and Shorts - and if we did, "Golden Jester" would be a suitable name .

I'll see what other people think!

[Moonshroom]

Hell Yeah!

Although "Golden Jester" sounds a bit demeaning, kinda like making fun of people

[Pyrite]

I personally disagree strongly with this, for two reasons:

1. Jokes, Memes and Shorts is a subforum of a subforum, and the forum contribution awards are generally all for whole subforums, e.g. Science and Nature.

2. It is amongst the most low effort parts of the board. I don't think people should be rewarded for posting a bunch of memes when others are not being recognised for long and thoughtful discussions.

[Kyng]

I personally disagree strongly with this, for two reasons:

1. Jokes, Memes and Shorts is a subforum of a subforum, and the forum contribution awards are generally all for whole subforums, e.g. Science and Nature.

2. It is amongst the most low effort parts of the board. I don't think people should be rewarded for posting a bunch of memes when others are not being recognised for long and thoughtful discussions.

Yeah, those are good points . Admittedly, in partial response to #1, the Golden Paintbrush originally just covered a sub-forum (before a re-organisation turned the Creative Hub into its own forum) - but still, awards for sub-forums isn't something we normally do.

Now, I am still open to adding this award, if the people proposing it can come up with convincing arguments for it. However, it's going to take more than a bunch of people just saying "This is a good idea!". The way we work in this part of the board is by discussion and consensus-building - and in order to engage in that process, people who support this idea will need to present arguments as to why they support it.

This does mean - before anybody suggests this - that I won't be starting a poll on whether or not to create this trophy, because that simply isn't our way of working. If one person presents compelling arguments as to why we should have this trophy - then, their view is worth more to me than the views of 10 people who just say "Yeah this would be a nice idea".

[Cool Cory]

I personally disagree strongly with this, for two reasons:

1. Jokes, Memes and Shorts is a subforum of a subforum, and the forum contribution awards are generally all for whole subforums, e.g. Science and Nature.

2. It is amongst the most low effort parts of the board. I don't think people should be rewarded for posting a bunch of memes when others are not being recognised for long and thoughtful discussions.

But there can be quality threads made in that sub-board. It isn't just meme threads there. People can create great discussions about stuff like funny YouTube videos and series in there, and write great intro posts about funny YouTube videos. So people could create lots of discussion and good posts there.
 Also, the tech board has a fair amount of low-effort threads mixed in too. If someone made hundreds of posts in the "Last website you visited", "last place you visited on Google Maps", "Last Thing You Downloaded", "What tabs do you have open", "Last search you made", threads, then they could possibly win an award for the tech board. So it's possible to make lots of low-effort posts in that forum and still win an award. 

Also the Golden Paintbrush originally just covered a sub-forum (before a re-organisation turned the Creative Hub into its own forum). 

Also, having an award could create more activity in the sub-board, since itcould encourage people to make more posts and threads in the sub-board. And that's be good because that sub-board struggles for activity.

[Moonshroom]

2. It is amongst the most low effort parts of the board. I don't think people should be rewarded for posting a bunch of memes when others are not being recognised for long and thoughtful discussions.

It does kinda bother me when high-effort stuff gets lost in the shuffle.

[Kyng]

Cool Cory - Thanks for your response . I'm glad we've got a discussion going now.

However, there are a couple of points I would like to address here:

But there can be quality threads made in that sub-board. It isn't just meme threads there. People can create great discussions about stuff like funny YouTube videos and series in there, and write great intro posts about funny YouTube videos. So people could create lots of discussion and good posts there.

To be honest, I'm not aware of any "great discussions" in the Jokes, Memes and Shorts part of the board - and I don't see any reason to try and encourage them either. The purpose of the "Jokes, Memes and Shorts" part of the board is not to stimulate thoughtful discussion: it is to make people laugh.

And to be honest, I don't think "great intro posts" serve much of a purpose in that part of the board. While a detailed intro post has a lot of value in the more serious Topical Discussions (to explain the subject matter), a lengthy introduction in Jokes, Memes and Shorts would just bore people (who want to get straight to the jokes - and, if you have to explain a joke, then that joke hasn't worked ).

Finally, even when people do post lengthier, higher-quality jokes: it's generally someone else who put in all the effort. People aren't posting jokes they wrote themselves there: they're instead posting someone else's jokes that they found funny. (Or, if people are posting comedic material that they've written themselves - then, that's probably better off being posted in the Creative Hub anyway.)

Also, the tech board has a fair amount of low-effort threads mixed in too. If someone made hundreds of posts in the "Last website you visited", "last place you visited on Google Maps", "Last Thing You Downloaded", "What tabs do you have open", "Last search you made", threads, then they could possibly win an award for the tech board. So it's possible to make lots of low-effort posts in that forum and still win an award. 

While it is true that Tech and Engineering has a few of those threads, people can't win awards just by posting in them.

As explained in the "Ranks and Awards" thread, the Forum Contributions trophies are "given out to those who make outstanding contributions within a particular forum. This could involve starting a large number of relevant topics, or making in-depth and high-quality posts on the subject".

Posting in those low-effort threads does not constitute "outstanding contributions within the forum" (which requires high-quality posts, or at least a lot of reasonable-quality posts). Therefore, if someone were to say "I nominate so-and-so for the Golden Mouse, because they have made 1000 posts in the 'Last Website You Visited?' thread" - then, that nomination would simply be rejected.

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Anyway, I'm starting to think both sides have a point here. On the one hand, it might be worth recognising funny jokes in some way - but on the other hand, the 'Forum Contributions' system might not be the best place to do it. So, it might be worth us thinking: what are the alternatives? Could some kind of joke-oriented contest work, for example?

[Pyrite]

I don't have much to add to this beyond what Kyng already said in response, but I think the problem with the jokes subforum is there are only so many things you can say about a joke. Longer form video content, which people could actually have a constructive discussion about, is split amongst the other subforums according to its relevance to them. And in the Creative Hub, at least someone has gone through the effort of creating something - so even though there isn't much discussion in the threads, a lot of work has gone into the thread from the artist or writer.

[Cool Cory]

By great discussions I mean people reviewing episodes of YouTube series in the same way they do for TV shows. Like talking about their favourite parts from the video, and guessing what they think will happen in the next episode.

And by great intro posts I meant someone posting a review of a YouTube comedy video or series, like some people do for threads in the screen and stage board.