Granade’s Laws of Online Discussion
The first law: The ratio of finished projects to the number of posts and comments naturally approaches zero.
The second law: If the ratio begins at zero, it is unlikely ever to increase.
This helps explain the phenomenon where someone shows up on a forum for writers and starts talking about their fabulous novel which they never do finish.
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Comment by Jon from ifMUD
Sadly true.
Posted on June 16, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Comment by Geof F. Morris
:snerk: I’m glad that I’m not the only person who develops these kinds of “laws”. It was kind of a schtick for me back on Usenet.
Oh hey, Stephen … let me show you my manuscript …
Posted on June 16, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Comment by Jota
Does this mean that once you’ve posted about a project, you need to continue to post about it if you want to make any real progress on it?
Posted on June 16, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Comment by Stephen
Actually, if you want to keep your ratio high, you should minimize your posting about a project even if you’ve already posted about it before.
Posted on June 16, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Comment by duchess
That explains why I am not making any progress…
Posted on June 16, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Comment by Jeff
Speaking as he of the many unfinished projects, this is SO true.
I’ve slowly gotten better at curbing the urge to post/talk about things before I’m done with them.
Posted on June 16, 2007 at 11:18 pm