How do you feel about posts like this one? https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=870597
I don’t care. I don’t usually like to click on the link. But if it looks interesting, I might.
Generally not a fan, but your linked example has a perfectly cromulent description in the link text itself, and seemed fine to me
Reminds me of Fark.com
Heh. ISWYDT.
More seriously, I would like to see a bit more in an OP. I would hope for the OP to quote a bit of the article and provide at least a sentence or two of commentary.
This is a discussion board.
Someone has to start the discussion.
Why would an OP not start the discussion properly? Do they want us to second guess the matter at hand? Etc.
I generally don’t click. If the OP cant be bothered saying if it’s an article or video, I’m not going to look.
I largely agree with this. I take the post as seriously as the OP chooses to present it. I realize that some posters think that every random thought going through their head must be treated as pure gold. If they’re going to half-ass it, I’m going to ignore it. I am prepared to make exceptions for certain posters of long standing merit but they are very much the exception.
The OP example is fine. Many are less descriptive, and therefore more annoying
Many times, like the quoted thread, the title can convey enough information. I Note that many of these types of posts are pointing out something odd and no real dialogue is required.
Dennis
(
In my experience the discussion of a matter at hand tends to drift unpredictably into a different direction no matter how explicit the description in the OP. (See this.)
Not a fan at all of them. I think a mod note is warranted. One line with a link is fine in an ongoing discussion, but not to start a thread.
It’s the difference between ‘Show and Tell’, and an actual adult conversation in my mind.
Have you all looked at the example provided? The words in the link formatting gives context. Can’t see what’s wrong with this. I didn’t vote in the poll because I think there’s a clear difference between that and someone who just posts a “naked” URL.
Let me put it this way–what if, instead of the formatting used, Darren Garrison had made the following OP:
"There is a woman wandering around on a college campus showing girls a photo of her son and asking them if they would date him:
https://www.wspa.com/news/not-a-rom-com-mom-scouting-date-for-son-draws-campus-ire/1773871306 "
This all strikes me as a left-handed way to Pit Darren outside the Pit.
Very annoying. Slightly less annoying if you include a poll, but still annoying.
I think the example given in the OP is fine because the link has a description of what you’re going to be looking at if you click the link. How is is different than writing the sentence out, and then adding the link separately?
If there is no description and just a link, or if the description is just “What do you think of this?” and a link, I usually don’t bother.
As annoying as that friend/relative that forwards you every piece of commercial/forwarded email they get, without comment. More annoying than public polls. Almost more annoying that de-laminating fingernails, but that’s mostly because it’s easier to ignore content-less OPs.
But the poll is about links posted without comment. A description is not a comment. The thread wasn’t closed for no description, it was closed for having nothing more than a brief description.
There should be an explicit rule banning posts (not just OPs) that are just links with no explanation.
An OP should at minimum describe and summarize what’s in the link plus make some kind of commentary about it.
A non-OP post that links out should summarize the linked content and if it’s not apparent, say how it relates to the thread topic.
These should be mandatory.
I won’t presume to guess where Darren Garrison is coming from, but I enjoy that post style as much as any other. Some people like to have stuff spelled out for them, some folks enjoy being pointed in the direction of an Easter egg hunt and will treasure the discovery of the search. If the style doesn’t speak to you, 1) roll your eyeses at something you don’t understand and move on, or 2) strain your empathy and try to see why someone posted the way they did, because you’ve been confronted with something you don’t understand. But suggesting there is a right or wrong way to communicate, based on your own aesthetics, is the opposite of fighting ignorance.
Not everything of interest in this world needs, or is even worthy of, discussion.