Forum rules, usability, changing titles, moving threads, etc.

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on December 4, 2021, 3:44 pm

@mathieu

On this thread, the title was "power dynamics".

"Power dynamics" is a whole discipline, it says nothing of the content inside and/or what you need or want to say.

Check the guidelines in my signature (and seek to follow them both for yourself, and for all of us in the community as it makes for a better place for all).
We want to use specific titles for a number of reasons (and for proper communication in general, that also applies to when you send emails).

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on June 30, 2022, 1:54 pm

@bel

On this thread, if it's a new situation, feel free to open a new thread for it (you may quote my answer in that thread if it's relevant as a bridge and to provide the reference).

Quote from Ali Scarlett on December 15, 2022, 11:57 pm

We could say this is my first official act as admin :).

See below:

1. Added a closing parenthesis to my journal thread's title: it's now "What I'm Doing, (Maybe Where 🙂 ) & Why"
2. Put an apostrophe for the "thank you" thread's title and removed "experimental": it's now "Short Thank You's and Feedback"
3. Moved "Cover design feedback (Ultimate Power): how does it look?" from the "Random" section: to "Feedback/Ideas"
4. Moved "Cover design feedback: which one is better?" from the "Random" section: to "Feedback/Ideas"
5. Added "DPD" to "Cover design feedback: which one is better?" thread title: it's now "Cover design feedback (DPD): which one is better?"

Feel free to let me know if anyone disagrees :).

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on December 16, 2022, 4:10 am

Great stuff, Ali!

Edit:
What I do if a thread was opened by someone who is still around is to ask if he's cool with me editing it (especially if it was a reflection or anything more personal -it's a form of power protecting, so the more personal a thread is to someone, the better it is to ask-).
However, I think that in this case it was cool to just edit it.

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on December 24, 2022, 11:05 am

Hello @maverick,

From this thread, I changed the title from:

"Remote Power Move"

to

"hang up now telephone power move".

It's challenging to pick a good title that will summarize the full thread, for sure.
Yet, it's worth trying because it isn't just about the forum: summarizing a concept in a few words is also a life skill.

A few ideas:

• Go several levels lower in specificity: while "remote" was indeed befitting, "telephone power move" would have been already a step forward
• Use the words verbatim: if the words of the power moves are brief, you can simply use the exact words as titles
• Use the category: if you know it's a form of tasking, you could say "tasking to hang up on the phone"
• Come up with a name: if you can come up with a name, that's also a good option. For example, Bel came up with "triangular raging", mixing "raging" and the "triangular" power moves

Also, if you use the blockquote for actual quotes, you'll make it a lot easier for people to read (and more likely people will reply).

Check out the forum guidelines for more.

Cheers!

Quote from Maverick on December 24, 2022, 3:42 pm

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on December 24, 2022, 11:05 am

Hello @maverick,

From this thread, I changed the title from:

"Remote Power Move"

to

"hang up now telephone power move".

It's challenging to pick a good title that will summarize the full thread, for sure.
Yet, it's worth trying because it isn't just about the forum: summarizing a concept in a few words is also a life skill.

A few ideas:

• Go several levels lower in specificity: while "remote" was indeed befitting, "telephone power move" would have been already a step forward
• Use the words verbatim: if the words of the power moves are brief, you can simply use the exact words as titles
• Use the category: if you know it's a form of tasking, you could say "tasking to hang up on the phone"
• Come up with a name: if you can come up with a name, that's also a good option. For example, Bel came up with "triangular raging", mixing "raging" and the "triangular" power moves

Also, if you use the blockquote for actual quotes, you'll make it a lot easier for people to read (and more likely people will reply).

Check out the forum guidelines for more.

Cheers!

Thank You, Lucio for your  ideas to come up with a good title.

I had Telephone Power Move in mind but changed it to remote, since it might apply to broader  situations, like gaming, zoom meetings, or online chats, texting,and  "hang up now telephone power move" clearly states what the thread is about, which is a nice addition.

Cheers

Quote from Ali Scarlett on January 6, 2023, 4:09 am

Small change:

• Changed "offers" to "offerers" in the power dynamics of the job market thread: it's now "Job offerers and job seekers: the power dynamics of the job market"

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on February 10, 2023, 1:30 am

@maverick and @bel

Quick thoughts on this thread here by Maverick and this post here by Bel.

As it's often the case, this isn't just about forum use, but some of these principles translate to life and communication in general.

Both have great content, but I personally find myself avoiding them because replying to them feels like wasted work, a (forced) power move on you, and going off-topic (ie.: they don't feel organized, on-topic and/or related to the title).

Let's dig deeper:

"I'm not angry" VS "don't be angry / I don't bear grudges"

The post talks about "I don't bear grudges" and "don't be angry".

"I don't bear grudges" would normally be perfect in an "I'm not angry" thread: it's very close to "I'm not angry" in many ways.

However, John's initial post had a different use case for "I'm not angry", so in that specific case, it's not related.

"I'm not angry" is also different than "don't be angry" (the former is often passive-aggressive, while the latter is more often an attack/power move).

Also, the two entries bring more issues (read below).

3 different situations in "friend who tried to outdo you"

The thread lists 3 different power moves, all describing different cases.

(the first one to me feels like a fair interjection in most cases and I often use it myself, the second one is a case of "trap question" and the third one is a case of forcing leadership and defending from that leadership attempt)

They're all super interesting.

But same as above, I'm most likely going to skip it since it puts me in a difficult spot because:

1. High demand for my investment, because addressing 3 different cases is time-consuming
2. I'm forced to ignore & power move, since if I pick 1 it feels like I'm ignoring Maverick for 2/3 of his content. And I don't want to power move members of the community, I want to give value. I don't like being put in a position to ignore people -not with people I like, at least-. Instead, I want to deal with eagles to whom I give my best (so your task is to make people want to give their best to you).
3. Forced into low-efficiency work, since because my reply is under a thread with limited connection to the title, I wouldn't be able to find it later on, and most readers looking for something similar would equally miss it.
   Meaning, my time ends up being used for very low-efficiency work (and driven people dislike being low-efficiency)
4. Forced into lose-lose half-assed work because if I decided to reply and address everything, I spread myself thin trying to be quick and efficient.
   I'd end up giving less attention to each single use case and lose both in terms of quality and social status because I produce mediocre reflection and mediocre work, and you lose because you don't get the full value of my replies

Edit:
Overall, it's easier and best for me to skip than to engage -and in good part, it's good for you too, since you'd only be getting little, while also making me work against my will and interest, which destroys social capital-.

Remember: your task is to make others want to help -or, at least, make it easy for them-.

So, solutions (as per forum guidelines):

Open new threads for new use cases. And 1 thread : 1 topic

Do open a new thread for any different situation.

I guess sometimes one may feel like it's not cool to open new threads, but if we're talking about new use cases, then it's the best approach.

Also, you're empowered learners and contributors, so don't hold back.

Sometimes it may be challenging to see what's related to what in terms of power dynamics.
In doubt, just stick to one single use case for a new thread.

Cramming more situations into one thread may feel like getting a bigger bang for the buck but, for the reason above, it's often less efficient in my opinion.

Fixing and/or understanding one single situation is more efficient for the same reasons above.
And already a huge accomplishment: it covers everything similar to that use case, and bring a domino effect as your power awareness grows one use case at a time.

Let me know if it doesn't make sense to you.

Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on May 22, 2023, 11:21 am

@maverick

Mate, this post here has room for improvement for usability / persausion / getting replies.

Please do take a look at the posting guidelines.

And just as an example of how those guidelines have real-world consequences:

When I first saw it there were 2 posts: yours, and "demeaning jokes".

Short on time, guess what seemed a better investment of my time.

Deameaning joke had:

• Descriptive title
• Dialogue trascript
• Line breaks
• Initial analysis
• Proposal for a better way to handle it (makes readers' task to reply both much easier, and much more compelling since you can comment/critize/give feedback)

It was an easy choice.

2 days later, the demeaning jokes has 2 pages of great ideas and replies.
Your thread has 1 reply only.

And that's a pity, because it's indeed a very common situation, and it's important to learn how to handle it.