Titling Discussion

[Ariel]

Imo this was a very low quality event. I think the titles that had support would have benefited from further discussion from the normal process. I also think multiple of the ones with the most support seem to fall under multiple aspects of "which titles should I not nominate?" It's also been delayed from finishing for two weeks at this point.

[Ariel]

What is that Smash Mouth banner and how do I get it?

viewtopic.php?p=11573409#p11573409

[Ariel]

so is the decision to keep the old scummies banners four months after the ceremony finished intentional or another exhibit of you not doing your job?

[Ariel]

Which titles should I nominate?

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Which titles should I not nominate?

You probably weren't asking this and most of this section should be common sense, but it seems important anyway. You should not nominate:

• a title for yourself. You will not receive the title and other users may find it annoying that you tried this. If there are title nominations for you in consideration in the thread, be careful about giving too much feedback or input - while declining a specific title or set of titles that's currently in discussion for you is perfectly fine, going too far beyond that may cause users to become uncomfortable with the current proceedings.

Ok, so this is currently a rule. I think it tries to prevent people from dominating conversations about their own title and also the title thread devolving into people mostly posting "can I have a title?" I think it also tries to help titles function as gifts from the community. I do think that it is a rule that people interpret quite differently where the line is with it.

I was kinda wondering if it might make more sense to just have a thread that is a quarantine for people asking for titles or commenting in depth on titles they were nominated for. As things stand, you can theoretically have private conversations (or even a conversation in site chat) and kinda circumvent this. So, I was just wondering if this is a potential compromise that makes the social norms surrounding discussing potential titles for yourself less confusing/more equitable.

[Ariel]

I wasn't really imagining that that type of discussion thread would be anywhere near formal enough to function as a queue, and I definitely didn't consider the perspective that people would be more disappointed by vocalizing that they would like to someday have a title and no one being able to come up with one at the time. (I would actually argue making these discussions more transparent makes titling less cliquey overall, even if it might make cliquey behavior more overt.) I've just noticed that people have always tended to disagree about where the line is on contributing to discussion about you yourself having a title in the title subforum. I do think that the rule as it stands is quite likely to make people feel like they are being treated unfairly if it appears to only be applied selectively. So I think if you have this type of space, a decent amount of posts in it would be shitposty and vaguely annoying - which is why we have the current rule. But I do figure that it would occasionally inspire a meaningful enough conversation to be worth discussing in the thread where we nominate titles, while also preventing low content discussions from dominating the nomination thread.

I guess it also just seems a little silly to me that it is more socially acceptable to say things like "I really wish I could have a title someday" or "wow I'm really flattered you nominated me for a title but I'm not sure about XYZ" basically anywhere BESIDES the forum for discussing titles. I mean places like site chat, GTKAS, GD, the site discord, and direct messages. Granted, you can make a similar argument about the Scummies, though I personally think of titles as distinct from awards. Basically, I think letting these things be discussed in the title subforum makes things more transparent and will cut down on the amount of petty arguments about what's allowed.