The Good Patrons of 750 Words

1 cup

I’ll use my cup this month to cajole users of the site to offer more feedback to the posts made here. We write for ourselves, and we value the anonymity, but when we post publicly we’d like some reassurance that we’re being heard (by “we”, I mean “I”). Agree, disagree, offer a suggestion, give a thumbs-up, flame, troll, …, (well, don’t troll), but provide some feedback, please. To build a community requires communication, otherwise we’re just a bunch of self-absorved jag-offs howling into the void. Maybe the administrators could come up with a new badge (I suggest a canary[*]) awarded for X comment words written in a month, or maybe comment words could be counted towards an off day, and a user could apply those words to complete the 750 and keep a streak going. Maybe comment words only count as three-fifths of a word, or can only be applied in the month they’re written, I don’t know… My point is that a community needs a healthy exchange of ideas to sustain itself, and that healthy communities incentivize that exchange, one way or another.

[*] A nod to the use of canaries as indicators of healthy air in coal mines in the 19th century.