Oppo Open Floor (Topic: sharing comments to Oppo)

"Gamecat235" (Gamecat235)
12/17/2013 at 12:01 • Filed to: sharing comments

I would like to provide a space for an open discussion of this ability/feature, and to start I would like to provide my personal opinion, and one which is shared by more than a few of the moderators (I haven't spoken to all of them regarding this, and I won't speak for everyone).

I would also like to point out that this post and topic are not targeting any specific commenter. This has been something which has been on my mind for months.

I would like to see some additional restraint in regard to the usage of the tool which allows any author on Oppo to share a comment from any post in the kinjaverse to the Oppo page.

Please take a moment to think if sharing the comment (your own or someone else's) to Oppo will provide the adequate context and understanding within the paragraph or image which is shared, to understand why the comment is being shared.

Additionally, remember that these are, in essence, posts, and should still follow the rules of Oppo (don't be a dick, no shit stirring, no trolling, etc). If the purpose of the reshare is to provide for knowledgeable continuance of a conversation, or to highlight a comment which is imminently relevant to ongoing topics, then share away.

When these reshares do not seem to have any obvious context, my own approach and thought process is that I think of these posts as spam, as they just take up space and generally are distracting without contributing to the overall flow of the community. I am of the opinion that a lot of the shares to Oppo end up just being out of context and are generally nothing but self promotion, or attempts at shaming another commenter.

There has been a feel to this of being an unspoken rule of Oppo for some time, and I wanted to discuss it before any actions are taken (or, possibly to state an unofficial position and leave it at that). We can codify it if needed, but are uncertain that there is a need to do so.

If you feel proud (or driven) enough to share a comment (yours or someone else's), in general I encourage you to write up a new post which links to it and provides additional context to the conversation and the comment or thread you feel is worthy of sharing.

My personal approach to this process seems similar to that of the front page. These are rare events in general. Once every few days (though sometimes there are weeks without a shared comment) an author on the FP will share a comment to Jalopnik proper, which highlights a position, or in the case of J. Walter Weatherman's piece on the Afroduck fiasco, showcases and clarifies the approach to a situation. In these cases the leading paragraph has set the tone and you understand the context of the approach. Very few comments meet this standard. I feel that this is the best way to maximize the usefulness of this tool.

Please share your opinions and thoughts in the comments.

DISCUSSION (52)

HammerheadFistpunch > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 12:04

"If you feel proud enough to share a comment (yours or someone else's), in general I encourage you to write up a new post which links to it and provides additional context to the conversation and the comment or thread you feel is worthy of sharing. "

This but not as much for the reasons you might be suggesting as it is for the fact that "sharing" just links you to the source so you cant comment or glean any context (as you say) from the share itself. What if its a page you don't want to be visited, what if additional info is needed, what if you want to comment outside the post it was originally from. Write a new post and link...this "sharing" concept is terrible in general in my opinion. just my 2 cents.

Gamecat235 > HammerheadFistpunch
12/17/2013 at 12:06

Agreed. But since we can't do away with the tool completely, let's talk about attempting to manage usage for our community.

Also, minor edit to include "proud (or driven)".

For Sweden > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 12:07

Under the current system, shared comments with images take up lots of Oppo real-estate. If someone likes an image, they should submit the image as an individual Oppo post, and link to the original comment if necessary.

Gamecat235 > For Sweden
12/17/2013 at 12:08

I don't mind this. I miss large pictures. It's the pixelation of pictures which shouldn't be enlarged which can be maddening.

Joe_Limon > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 12:10

I believe this was partially aimed at me. Reposting the FM5 competition. I understand how it can be taken as spam, but on a couple occasions now I have been thanked for reposting.

Klaus Schmoll > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 12:10

I have to say that I never liked that feature in the first place. All it does is reward laziness. Why not write a line or two to give a little context, and let us know why there was the need to share?

If it is withing your powers to remove this feature, I'd applaud it if you did so.

ddavidn > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 12:10

I agree. More often than not, I also view these shared replies (especially when folks share their own reply!) as spam. But on the occasion that I like the post, I don't feel comfortable responding to it because it's in a long thread, where the tone is set by the lead comment, as you said. So I'd love to see more actual posts with links to comments, or with the post copied and possible even reformatted to fit Oppo, rather than a comment thread.

Gamecat235 > Joe_Limon
12/17/2013 at 12:12

This was targeted at no one. And has been written in a few forms for a couple of weeks. No one person or thing triggered this.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 12:12

I'm sorry. I'll stop, but I click it accidentally on mobile sometimes because I get into a rush to edit and the varying delay of what comes on the arrow button.

Gamecat235 > Klaus Schmoll
12/17/2013 at 12:13

Unfortunately, we are stuck with the feature. So I wanted to bring the topic to Oppo and see if we can decide how to best use it (hopefully sparingly and thoughtfully).

Gamecat235 > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
12/17/2013 at 12:15

Like I said elsewhere, this was targeted at no one. And has been written in a few forms for a couple of weeks. No one person or thing triggered this.

This is just a thought and issue that I felt needed talking about, because there are times when I remove shared comments because I view them as spam. But perhaps I am being the bad guy here, not the one who shared them.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 12:16

Nah, you're good.

ddavidn > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
12/17/2013 at 12:16

Oh yeah, this does happen as well.

Joe_Limon > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 12:16

See, now if these old posts had been shared a bit more maybe I would have seen them ;)

In all seriousness though, I would be cool not posting pictures with my bumps. The bumps themselves have no headlines, so without pictures they really aren't wasting any screen real estate.

Gamecat235 > Joe_Limon
12/17/2013 at 12:17

All of my previous versions were just drafts that were either private or just on my own page.

And, regarding ongoing topics with ongoing participation, I don't see an issue with reposting sporadically to maintain the interest in the topic if others seem receptive.

Joe_Limon > Klaus Schmoll
12/17/2013 at 12:21

When I use the feature, I do write a new line explaining the link. I make a comment on a old burried thread, then share that comment to resurrect it.

Joe_Limon > ddavidn
12/17/2013 at 12:23

What if the comment is directed to the oppo main page, but posted on an old thread?

Biased Plies > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 12:25

I hate the self promotion aspect. When someone makes a comment and almost immediately shares it to Oppo it just looks vain and self serving. Comments should succeed on their own merit, not by pestering Oppo for views, recommendations and replies.

There are some comments are posts worth sharing so the feature isn't entirely pointless but the majority of the time when someone shares their own comment I think it's a little pathetic.

I know this is harsh, but that's my opinion.

ddavidn > Joe_Limon
12/17/2013 at 12:25

There's always exceptions to the ideal situation, but not sure what you mean. I still think a "real" post with just a couple intro lines would be nice.

Victorious Secret > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 12:28

Sharing should be more fleshed out.

Right now you share but you share a comment with no context. I honestly hate sharing and not providing context, but making a NEW post with that link seems like a bigger waste.

Maybe sharing to such places and being able to add a few lines to explain context? Maybe go all Twitter on it, limit to 140 characters just so we can add some information behind the sharing.

Or just strip the feature out entirely. It seems (on my end too) its used more for "Is this guy serious" as opposed to "this is cool!" purposes. I don't think thats what should be happening. But I know my opinion on such matters is not worth much so c'est la vie.

Gamecat235 > Biased Plies
12/17/2013 at 12:30

Once upon a time, when hashtags worked, we would self ridicule our attempts at #shamelessselfpromotion whenever we reposted something to Oppo. There were times when sharing a moment of absolute brilliance was not looked down upon. And there are comments that people spend 15 minutes or longer on, that a lot of folks would have missed. But if you do this more than once every couple of weeks, we'll notice.

I guess all I am saying is that the work you are proud of, you should be ready for any and all critique if you feel strongly enough to inflict it, intentionally, on others. I don't want to take away that ability. But some thought should go into it before sharing.

Gamecat235 > Victorious Secret
12/17/2013 at 12:32

Perhaps I have a secret hidden agenda by trying to persuade people to create a new post, rather than just click a button that people will do this much less, thereby realizing my hopes through a subversive attitude shift.

But it's a secret, so don't tell anyone.

Joe_Limon > ddavidn
12/17/2013 at 12:35

I "spam" oppo by reposting about the weekly competition in Forza I am running. The intent behind the posts is to let people who live in different time zones or who have different schedules be updated on the competition.

My process has been to make a new post on the old thread detailing why it is being shared, and then sharing it to oppo. This keeps all relevant posts to that competition in a single thread and makes it far easier to manage.

Biased Plies > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 12:37

Sharing a comment of absolute brilliance or where a lot of effort has gone into it I can appreciate, I'm just saying that most of the time the feature is abused. Back when #shamelessselfpromotion was happening, it went more along the lines of what you suggested in your post. On the odd time that someone would promote their own comment, they would do so by making a post about it. This was good.

The share feature promotes laziness in self promotion. This is bad.

#oppositelock

Biased Plies > Joe_Limon
12/17/2013 at 12:41

This is fine. As Gamecat has said, this serves a purpose and is not self serving.

In this instance though creating a post for each week's competition would be actually be fine, perhaps even better. They could be kept together and organized with a tag on each post.

You can then bump the weekly post a couple of times through each week to maintain interest.

Joe_Limon > Biased Plies
12/17/2013 at 12:43

That is exactly how I run it, each week gets a new thread, and all threads can be accessed via http://www.kinja.com/tag/forza

Biased Plies > Joe_Limon
12/17/2013 at 12:47

Woops, guess I'm not around enough to see the weekly thread. I've seen the shared replies to bump it but I think in this case it might actually be better to share the whole post. With the share feature up top you could type up a little reminder (intro) and add an image, similar to what you do with the shared reply, it would just look a little nicer with the bolded title and non-pixelated image.

ddavidn > Joe_Limon
12/17/2013 at 12:49

I've not viewed your posts as spam. I see your reasoning for that. A limitation of the system is that it will automatically pixelate your images. I never really see why you're sharing your reply, I just see the pixelated image. So re-posting the post or creating a new reminder post that you re-publish at different times might be the best way to do it. But that's all a bit nitpicky, your posts aren't a problem. Make them in whichever way suits you. That type of post is the exception to the guideline we're talking about, I think.

Joe_Limon > Biased Plies
12/17/2013 at 12:51

I haven't been able to share to whole post, the share button for the whole post links to kinja general, facebook, twitter or tumblr.

Biased Plies > Joe_Limon
12/17/2013 at 12:56

I think we might be talking about a different button. Here's what I see by clicking the share button at the top right area of a post:

Kinja'd!!!

Joe_Limon > ddavidn
12/17/2013 at 12:57

I like to keep the number of threads down so it is easier to manage and find fastest times. Making new threads for successive bumps complicates things. Further, one of my shares was deleted minutes before this topic went up. I thought it was nibbled at first so I reshared it.

Joe_Limon > Biased Plies
12/17/2013 at 13:07

This is what I see.

Kinja'd!!!

Biased Plies > Joe_Limon
12/17/2013 at 13:20

Ah, mobile. I would think the Kinja button might bring up something similar to what I see, with an option to publish to Oppo. See what that does.

Joe_Limon > Biased Plies
12/17/2013 at 13:33

Hey cool beans, I learned a thing! This shall be great at further decluttering my threads with bump posts.

Supreme Kiwi Zorro > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 13:40

I find myself agreeing that people have indeed gotten out of hand with sharing comments lately. I can understand why people chose to share comments to Oppo, but they tend to forget to be mindful of their audience; not all great minds think alike. The comments that were shared are rarely worth reading. I don't appreciate the vast majority of comments that were shared (personal attacks, calling out people, trolling, etc.).

I won't point fingers, but someone recently shared a very lengthy but confusing profanity-laded comment. I have no idea why it was shared, but I'm chuffed one of the moderators wisely ripped it off quick like a bandage.

If you want to share a comment that you're not sure if your audience will approve, I suggest sharing it to your personal blog . Here's how:

Kinja'd!!!

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my thoughts, cheers!

Gamecat235 > Supreme Kiwi Zorro
12/17/2013 at 16:23

I have been responsible for unsharing a vast quantity of shared comments to Oppo. Mostly based on my personal opinion that they didn't contribute to Oppo. Actually, this is the primary reason for this post. And it was not one specific person, but rather a large number of them.

And your idea of resharing things to your personal blog is awesome.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 18:26

GameCat - thanks for the note. I'm all for clearing up OPPO from some of the extraneous crap and letting the "good stuff" (content and discussions) shine through. The worst thing has to be when someone clearly spends serious time on writing something up or sharing lots of pictures, and it's completely lost in the fire hose of OPPO after an hour. Anyway, I'd like to get your feedback on the appropriateness of one of my shares from today.

It's a comment (of mine) on a thread from Sunday, but on a point that I felt like deserved more discussion, which is what it got, and in the context of the old post, without having to create a new one.

I feel like if the first couple lines of text of the share point the reader to what the discussion pertains to, this is a good way to revive a discussion that may have died, and others might want to chime in on. Otherwise, only the person you respond to will see the comment and have an opportunity to respond.

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/any-time-you-h…

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Here's another - different instance - bringing attention to what I felt like was a particularly hilarious line (that most might have missed when skimming the FP article).

http://jalopnik.com/this-has-to-be…

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

What are your (and/or OPPO's) thoughts?

Gamecat235 > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
12/17/2013 at 18:32

Suddenly busy at work, but I will respond later.

soulpunx > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 18:40

I agree with this.

Also the posts that contain a single gif and nothing else. This isn't Tumblr, people.

Takuro Spirit > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 18:41

I haven't noticed a LOT of shares, and generally the shares I do see are relevant, or or at LEAST interesting.

As I do not visit the FP (and other Gawker sites) and scroll through the mountains o' posts much, when someone shares a really good one, I appreciate it. And I try to do the same if I spot one.

Its only going to get worse (trying to weed out good posts on the FP) with the upcoming comment layout, so the more (appropriate) shares the merrier, I say.

Gamecat235 > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
12/17/2013 at 19:15

The first one, I completely and totally agree that this was a rare case when the opening paragraph captures the essence of the tone of the conversation and lures people in to comment further. I would defend this as a case where a share, by the author or not, would rekindle a conversation which may have been incomplete.

The second one... I believe I actually unshared it for the following reason. Look at my personal page right now. I just shared it to my page. And the issue is that the quoted text doesn't come through. Which makes it really, really odd.

Literally all it says in the share is: "This has to be one of the best lines ever to grace the pages of Jalopnik.". Which doesn't do the post justice.

Stef Schrader > Gamecat235
12/17/2013 at 19:54

TBH, this is generally how I feel about reposts. I generally read back through the day's posts, so to see one posts multiple times gets a little frustrating.

One repost a day for the other-side-of-the-world crew? Fine. But unless it's time-sensitive content (Secret Senna, for example), I'd hesitate to encourage it.

Gamecat235 > Stef Schrader
12/17/2013 at 20:32

Do as I say... Oh hell. LOL.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Gamecat235
12/18/2013 at 08:30

Thanks for the feedback - I definitely see your point on the second one. I'll do my best to make sure the first couple lines of any future shares direct the reader to the topic of conversation or point of interest.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Gamecat235
12/18/2013 at 14:19

And hey, Gamecat - you know what's worse than self-promoting shares?

Kinja whining posts.

Gamecat235 > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
12/18/2013 at 14:24

Oh. Dear. God. Yes.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Gamecat235
12/18/2013 at 14:28

I just shared that to OPPO. Was that wrong? Ha!

Leadbull > Gamecat235
12/18/2013 at 14:31

So is that what happened to the comment I shared from the "afternoon favorites"?

Just wondering. I ain't mad, bro.

MtrRider Just Wants Doritos > Gamecat235
12/18/2013 at 15:05

Welcome to Gamecat As Narrated By A Black Woman, episode 1

"Ok y'all muthafuckas gotta get yo shit togetha and quit posting all dat stupid BS to Oppo 'fore I go over there and slap y'all! If ya thinkin 'bout posting or sharin' some shit, think to yoself first, "Is this really good shit"? and if da answer is no, don't be posting it!

Gamecat235 > Leadbull
12/18/2013 at 16:55

Maybe? Probably?

I shall just go on record as stating that there is a very good chance that I have unshared whatever post it was that caused the collapse of the roman empire, the arthritis flareup in your uncle Cletus, and made certain that your rent check arrived late.

I have unshared more than a few comments. But I have left a good number alone.

Gamecat235 > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
12/18/2013 at 16:57

Well, that's ironic. Also, I see that someone else unshared it. Probably better than way. (but this one wasn't me).

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Gamecat235
12/18/2013 at 17:29

Oh well - it was shared just for the irony of it, after all, so it's fitting that someone else killed it.

Hopefully I didn't get red-flagged or anything for it!