I made a comment that it was obvious he was mistaking post length for post quality and that what he'd written was bloated beyond belief. So yeah, in cases like those you know it when you see it.
Neatly, it is in
welcome message from theymos. Let me quote it again!
If you want to maximize your rank, then you need to increase two statistics which are listed on your profile:
- Activity, which is maximized by posting once per day on average. Posting more than that is useless in raising your activity.
- Merit, which is gained by making good posts.
If you make ten thousand posts in a week, your activity will be capped and you will still be a Newbie. If you make ten thousand
useless posts over any period of time, you will gain zero merit and you will still be a Newbie. You can rank up only by
making good posts consistently. It's quality over quantity.
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When trying to write quality posts, a lot of people act as though they're writing a book report for school: putting facts that we already know into their own words. Nobody wants to read that, and you will not get merit for it. Moreover, the length of your post and the quality of your English are only minor factors. In trying to write a quality post worthy of merit, you should offer new ideas, personal experiences, or perspectives that other forum users will actually find new and interesting.
They try to write too long posts that have side effects on readers. Sometimes, readers don't read all the post. Sometimes, they will don't understand what is message behind the post.
Other times it's not obvious if someone is just posting because they're hoping to earn merits--and frankly I don't necessarily see that as wrong in and of itself. You can write a post that's witty or one that's clear there was some work and thought put into it, and as long as it's interesting, who cares what the motivation was behind it? I only care when it's blatant merit fishing, and I've noticed that those cases tend to be when a lower-ranked member creates a new thread and not when they're posting within one that already exists.
Indeed, it is better than spamming because writer actually work and spend some effort. However, it is still bad in terms of writing. They must improve how they write in order to express their opinion better. I repeatedly told newbies that writing is the art that is hard to achieve Writing Proficiency.
Honestly, when I was young, I hated and can not absorb advises from my tutors about my writing. Sometimes I thought they are too rude or any thing similar. Then, with experience I understand they are right and their advise helps me a lot.