Deal Breakers. What makes you "walk" away?

cherbear said:
when people say "I set a minimum length so I have something to respond to" what they're actually looking for isn't words, it's meaning. the greater the information density of a passage, the more meaning it contains per word.

the reverse is also true: for a given amount of meaning, increasing the number of words reduces the information density. so by setting a minimum word count, all that's accomplished is diluting a post's meaning by spreading it over more words, which is the opposite of the requirement's goal.
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Or sometimes they're actually just asking for something to respond to that reflects the work they put into their post? Like sometimes it literally is - I wrote X words so please mirror that.

I mean I agree to an extent that you don't have to mimic people's exact word count to give them something to respond to. But I also don't think that's necessarily always what people are asking for when they set out to make a minimal post requirement.

Some people really are just asking for a specific word count because that's what they're comfortable reading and responding to. Like they are comfortable in the 1 - 2 paragraph range per post and so they want their partners to write the same.
 
geeking out said:
Or sometimes they're actually just asking for something to respond to that reflects the work they put into their post? Like sometimes it literally is - I wrote X words so please mirror that.

I mean I agree to an extent that you don't have to mimic people's exact word count to give them something to respond to. But I also don't think that's necessarily always what people are asking for when they set out to make a minimal post requirement.

Some people really are just asking for a specific word count because that's what they're comfortable reading and responding to. Like they are comfortable in the 1 - 2 paragraph range per post and so they want their partners to write the same.
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Length isn't indicative of effort.

10,000 words can be mirrored by 500, if they contain the same amount of meaning. An entire story can be written in a single sentence.
 
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cherbear said:
Length isn't indicative of effort.

10,000 words can be mirrored by 500, if they contain the same amount of meaning. A entire story can be written in a single sentence.
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But that's not what those people are asking for tho. Or at least not all of them.

Some people when they say - you must write X words in your post OR I mirror posts

They aren't saying :

You need X words to have the same meaning or story quality as my post.

They are saying that if you write X words you are expending the same effort as I am in writing an equal number of words.

And I prefer to read posts the mimic the length of my own because to me this means we are both putting the same amount of physical effort into the story.

It's not really related to story elements is all I'm trying to say.

That's also what they mean when they say I need - X words to respond.

It's not about story quality or meaning of the words.

It's I prefer to respond to 1 paragraph with 1 paragraph. Or whatever the limit might be.
 
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geeking out said:
But that's not what those people are asking for tho. Or at least not all of them.

Some people when they say - you must write X words in your post OR I mirror posts

They aren't saying :

You need X words to have the same meaning or story quality as my post.

They are saying that if you write X words you are expending the same effort as I am in writing an equal number of words.

And I prefer to read posts the mimic the length of my own because to me this means we are both putting the same amount of physical effort into the story.

It's not really related to story elements is all I'm trying to say.

That's also what they mean when they say I need - X words to respond.

It's not about story quality or meaning of the words.

It's I prefer to respond to 1 paragraph with 1 paragraph. Or whatever the limit might be.
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Number of words has absolutely no correlation with the amount of effort the writer is expending. Adding stuff is easy. Deciding what to remove is hard.
 
I'd like to posit that the effort expended in increasing word count is simply figuring out how far you can dilute the information, and is wasted energy you could've used to actually come up with information to include.

In general, I don't have to work very hard to produce a certain length of a reply, about this long: I'm naturally concise. It has a decent information density. Anything longer than that takes exponentially more work and frustration and anxiety, for what? A paragraph full of fluffing fluffy fluff, that's what. And barely any more real information.
 
We're not composing a newspaper ad though are we? One person's fluff is another interesting detail or flourish. Minimum lengths can often encourage people to come stuff they otherwise wouldn't think of but that dos add value and characterization.
 
cherbear said:
Number of words has absolutely no correlation with the amount of effort the writer is expending. Adding stuff is easy. Deciding what to remove is hard.
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I agree. I'm just saying people have well thought out reasoning for their preferences.
 
cherbear said:
Is it really well thought out if it doesn't get them closer to what they want?
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But they do get what they want.

They get X words per post.

That’s what I meant when I said it’s not a writing quality issue.

These people literally just want X words per post.

So if they get that request than they’re getting what they want.
 
So then her character gets all sad and takes out coke from literally nowhere (WTF), and gets super high. She then comes back to my character and passes out in front of him. At this point I'm like: NOPE, I'm OUT.[/QUOTE]

I'm sorry but that's hilarious. "Takes coke out of nowhere on stranded island" Yeah i'd be done too
 
geeking out said:
But they do get what they want.

They get X words per post.

That’s what I meant when I said it’s not a writing quality issue.

These people literally just want X words per post.

So if they get that request than they’re getting what they want.
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So if I write one sentence and copy paste it till I have X words, that's what they want right?
 
cherbear said:
So if I write one sentence and copy paste it till I have X words, that's what they want right?
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I mean you’d be a dick and you’d have to ask them specifically. The idea is Called mirroring for a reason.

It’s not let’s be a dick about someone else’s preference

It’s hey you wrote a paragraph in first person perspective so I’ll reply with another paragraph in first person perspective and back and forth we go

If you don’t agree with the preference that’s cool. I don’t personally either. But I also don’t care. Like if you want a mirrored partner I’m not for you because my posts vary quite a bit in length.

But if you requested hey could you write the same number of paragraphs as me ( and assuming I liked the idea enough to bother with it ) I would definitely do so.

But if the idea is a dealbreaker for you than whatever.

I was just trying to clarify that it’s not really an elitist tool like a lot people think.

The people asking for specific word counts aren’t doing that because they think you need X words to tell a story.

They are requesting it because they prefer to respond to X words.

If you don’t or you dont care that’s also valid
 
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geeking out said:
I mean you’d be a dick and you’d have to ask them specifically. The idea is Called mirroring for a reason.

It’s not let’s be a dick about someone else’s preference

It’s hey you wrote a paragraph in first person perspective so I’ll reply with another paragraph in first person perspective and back and forth we go

If you don’t agree with the preference that’s cool. I don’t personally either. But I also don’t care. Like if you want a mirrored partner I’m not for you because my posts vary quite a bit in length.

But if you requested hey could you write the same number of paragraphs as me ( and assuming I liked the idea enough to bother with it ) I would definitely do so.

But if the idea is a dealbreaker for you than whatever.

I was just trying to clarify that it’s not really an elitist tool like a lot people think.

The people asking for specific word counts aren’t doing that because they think you need X words to tell a story.

They are requesting it because they prefer to respond to X words.

If you don’t or you dont care that’s also valid
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how bout writing enough to communicate the information you want to convey
 
keyword: preference. just because it's not yours doesn't mean it isn't someone else's.

that's the brilliant thing about this site: there are a lot of people who have the same preference as yours so you don't have to force yourself to rp with someone who has a different one
 
more than anything else, when a RPer fails to pay attention to detail, thus making our posts inconsistent. I mean it happens to the best of us, but I'm talking about this happening all the time, making the whole story awkward.
 
It's not you, it's the task. If you try and sum up that book in one sentence you're not going to do it justice. And furthermore, a summary is not a story, which is what I quoted in post 796.
 
cherbear said:
how bout writing enough to communicate the information you want to convey
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Because not everyone is focused on conveying information. I mean I don't know how many different ways I can say that.

Some people just want to see their effort mirrored, to them that means that if they write one paragraph they expect their partner to write one paragraph

If they write six paragraphs they expect their partner to write six paragraphs

That isn't for you. Okay fine. That doesn't mean their preference is wrong. Just because it doesn't suit how you do things it doesn't mean it doesn't work.

The people who want mirroring or post counts don't care about conveying a story

That is not the thing that they are focusing on.

So you can tell them until you're blue in the face that you can convey the same meaning in fewer words and they won't care

Any more than you care that conveying a story isn't important to them.

It's just a different preference.
 
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