I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I'm here to discuss the game, not be flooded with cellphone pictures of a circle you happened to find someplace near a line. These always get a bunch of upvotes, so maybe the answer to my request is just "no," but I thought I'd at least ask.
Posted Jul 25, 2019, 6:43 PM UTC
There are two angles here:
For one, there's a place that's best for these images, that was created for this purpose, and that place is not here. That's correct. By this angle, these posts should not be permitted, and their authors should be directed to post on r/thewitnessirl.
For the other angle, we must consider this is a small community, about a game that (although fascinating and still discussed in depth to this day) was released in 2016 and is not incredibly popular. By this angle, we should consider whether we want to have even less content around here than we would normally get. Part of me thinks these image posts are a breath of fresh air at best, and only a small occasional annoyance at worst, so maybe we shouldn't be spending any effort to cull them.
I'm torn on the issue and would like more input. What does everyone think? Other mods?
Can we at least institute and enforce a rule that they must be spoiler-tagged? The idea that you might look for these in your environment is, itself, a spoiler, and it's a spoiler for the moment the game was built around.
That's a very good point.
I completely agree with this policy
I think it's crazy to have spoiler tags in a subreddit dedicated to a game that is years old. You simply shouldn't enter a subreddit for a game that you don't want spoilers for
Where's the best place to go for spoiler-free hints about a game? How do you communicate the answer to that question to players who wander onto the internet looking for said hints?
There are two angles here:
Actually, for most of them there's only one angle
;)
Back on-topic, I've seen quite a few small subs fall apart and die because others overestimate the size of the community and begin splitting off into more specialized subs. I would hate to see that happen to this sub, it's the only gaming-related sub I follow that doesn't run into any drama or rampant shitposting.
Keeping the posts but enforcing a spoiler policy would be ideal for me. I like the posts but I don't like the idea of newcomers uncovering this hidden layer of the game inorganically.
Ideally they wouldn't be here, but in reality what you said is correct so it's fine that they're here. But they should definitely be spoiler-tagged. IMO a large number of people coming to this sub are people who haven't necessarily beat the game.
I would prefer not having them in this sub, but I understand that it might be best to keep them here.
This sub is already tiny and not very active, the posts are not off-topic, and splitting the submissions in a subreddit that sees a handful of posts a day off into an even more esoteric sub is silly.
Reddit already gives users the tools for dealing with these posts if they don't like them: downvote and/or hide.
Given that they're regularly some of the most highly upvoted posts here, and they're not off-topic, letting a few people's displeasure with them override all of the people who are upvoting them (who seem to very significantly outnumber those downvoting) seems questionable.
If they were at least consistently tagged as such (not just spoilers, but thewitnessirl spam), I could more easily ignore them.
By this angle, we should consider whether we want to have even less content around here than we would normally get.
I guess from my perspective, these posts aren't content, but off-topic spam. So yes, I want less of it.
I wouldn't call like 3 pictures per week as flooding the subreddit. I'm not a huge fan of those pictures, but it takes me only 5-10 seconds to open a post, check out the picture and close it so I can't really complain.
The titles are usually somewhat cringy though.
Maybe it's not the number of picture but the proportion of posts concerned?
Typically it's okay but the home page currently is like 70% of these
Is the sub really "flooded" though? It's not terribly active or big. I'm fine with people posting those here.
Good question. I don’t think there’s much going on in the first place. I’d revisit the question if the sub was more active.
The sub is not active enough, & we will make it even less active by moving such posts to a different sub.
Seconded
I didn't even know the irl sub existed until well after I started participating here
I agree. I like the images, but I don't come here to see them.
Every sub tries to establish etiquette in vain. Even if you write guidance in the about me, people are unlikely to read before posting
Yeah, but there are solutions. Like requesting a flair as mandatory for posting, adding a flair "the Witness IRL" and having the auto-moderator remove the posts with this flair. Which would only trick those who do not read the rules for posting.
Thirded. In addition, these pictures are very spoiler-y for newbies, and we have established here a tradition of avoiding spoilers before this trend of posting pictures of circles and lines became something.
What is it that upsets you so?
They aren’t the main reason for the sub, but they offer the occasional chuckle and flash of nostalgia.
We’d all love the see a post explaining that the clicking of the three puzzles found later in the game act as a safe lock... But we still aren’t there yet
I don't think anyone is upset.
But look at the current top post, "Help", with more than 60 upvotes. I click on that hoping to help someone out with a fun puzzle, and instead I get a JPG of a door lock. Great.
That makes sense. Thanks for answering.
I can actually see where you’re coming from
I kind of assume a post will be an IRL or that one puzzle with the two rectangles that are two boxes apart.
And find it a mice surprise when it isn’t!
But it seems if you want the rainbow, we have to put up with the rain.
(It would like others say, drive some of the audience away. And also be hard to quickly moderate)
that one puzzle with the two rectangles that are two boxes apart
Ahahaha, oh, that perfect, perfect puzzle. Never change :)
this isn't a super active sub to begin with, I don't think we should be discouraging posts