Post Quality
Not all of the posts in any message bored discussion on any topic
are going to be good ones. Good posts have specific attributes. An example of a
good post can be seen in a post on the WRT 235 bored written by Lorissa Harris.
The thread was originally hers on discussing a minority’s view on hate speech.
Her point of view is different from anyone else’s in the discussion, as she was
the only African American participating.
In this particular post, she is responding to other writers who had
joined her discussion.
Lorissa does a good job talking directly to certain people who
responded, discussing what they had to say, and then subsequently answering the
questions posed by the posters. She clarifies ideas either the respondents misunderstood
or had questions about. She then closes by directing people in the direction of
other threads she is active in where they can see her point of view pertaining
to other discussions. She also puts forth a question that people can respond
to, and invites new people to join the thread and talk about things.
All of the above things are present in
a good, well thought out post. One has had to be sure to pertain to what has
been said already, without just simply repeating it. They must also word their
ideas in a way such that they invite further discussion on the topic. A good
way of doing this is to end with a few questions like Lorissa did. Another
thing you can do is either point to an outside article where someone may be
able to obtain more information on something you are talking about, or to point
people in the direction of other posts, your own or others, where similar ideas
are being put forth. It is probably best if you write the post in an actual
word processor so you can look at it, and more easily manipulate it in order to
truly get what you want.
To encourage posts like this, the organization may want to work
with people when they are initially posting. If they are taught correctly from
the start, they are more likely to do better posts later on. The organization
may want to hold some sort of workshop or possibly have a tutorial on its
website to teach people how to post. Another idea is that when they are
initially posting, other members of the community who are more experienced can
work with the newcomers and help them develop their sense of style when it
comes to posting on the board.
