eh, I don't think this is always true. word count isn't the bottom line, that's true, but it's also very possible that in some cases word count does indicate something about effort
I'm not talking like word vomit or purple prose padding for the sake of it, but like if I spend half an hour writing a tag that includes careful descriptions of the scene, or action and body language, that includes some interiority for context and that's like a few meaty paragraphs long, which I took the time to proof read and edit to make sure that there were no typos or mistakes in it
and then I get back like three or four sentences of quick surface level response every single tag? yeah I'm likely to feel pretty unsatisfied, and no that's not "anxiety brain" or something I need to work on
that would be me noticing a legit disparity between what I give vs what my thread partner gives
it's great to say that people shouldn't just complain about length but talk about qualitative things like content, but you're just being pedantic and stubborn if you can't reflect on qualitative questions when someone uses quantitative language. the two aren't in different universes
like "they're complaining about my tags being short and feeling like I must not be interested, so what might it be about my tags that's disappointing to receive?"
consistently tagging back is not in and of itself proof that a player is interested. it could just be proof of a player who's bored and doesn't have anything else going on so feels like dull consistent tags are better than no tags at all
people need to use more of their self-reflection and self-assessment skills instead of acting like they're justified in claiming they can't find two clues to rub together on their own
-0.5
I'm not talking like word vomit or purple prose padding for the sake of it, but like if I spend half an hour writing a tag that includes careful descriptions of the scene, or action and body language, that includes some interiority for context and that's like a few meaty paragraphs long, which I took the time to proof read and edit to make sure that there were no typos or mistakes in it
and then I get back like three or four sentences of quick surface level response every single tag? yeah I'm likely to feel pretty unsatisfied, and no that's not "anxiety brain" or something I need to work on
that would be me noticing a legit disparity between what I give vs what my thread partner gives
it's great to say that people shouldn't just complain about length but talk about qualitative things like content, but you're just being pedantic and stubborn if you can't reflect on qualitative questions when someone uses quantitative language. the two aren't in different universes
like "they're complaining about my tags being short and feeling like I must not be interested, so what might it be about my tags that's disappointing to receive?"
consistently tagging back is not in and of itself proof that a player is interested. it could just be proof of a player who's bored and doesn't have anything else going on so feels like dull consistent tags are better than no tags at all
people need to use more of their self-reflection and self-assessment skills instead of acting like they're justified in claiming they can't find two clues to rub together on their own