Stamping Question Changes

[arivess.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaaand now, stamping question changes. Most of them, we can't really change because there are still a lot of people that think they're helpful, and the mods have discussed problems with a few questions some people proposed to add, so we just have a few small changes this time.

1. Cheerful/gloomy -- A few of the mods saw problems with this one, so we're trying to change it into a better dichotomy. So far, I've got cheerful/stoic, and Tako's got cheerful/serious or playful/serious.

2. There were some proposed ideas for changing cheerful/gloomy to idealistic/realistic, but the two are a bit... different? However, a lot of us thought idealistic/realistic is a good idea, so we're proposing that as a question.

3. We are proposing to change the FF "relates to character" question to "looks up to" instead, because "relates to" skewers votes too much in most cases, whereas looks up to would be more open. For example, Breyzy says if someone says they relate to Zack, if you're deciding between Soldier and Thief, most people would be very easily pushed into voting Soldier. Whereas if it's looks up to... If for example someone says they look up to Zack and strive to be like him, then that might tip them into Soldier. But if someone says something like, they really look up to Yuna but they don't think they can have her kind of resolve, it doesn't necessarily mean they're White Mage, but it does tell you they find resolve important, which might actually push them into something like Soldier or Dragoon.

Um. And I think that's it for now and I hope I haven't forgotten any.

[Poll #1837854]

As for other rule changes, we'll propose them at a later time (but soon)!

So far, the current things on the table are:
1. Fanworks Bazaar - sunflower_mynah is on a lot of things for it! Including the proposed new layout, which you can check here if you haven't already.
2. Low-Entry Contests - chacusha is making a few options for low-entry contests that will be up for voting sometime.
3. Stamping Difficulties - We know a lot of people are a bit frustrated with stamping, because people seem to connect keywords to certain classes and just jump on them. We'll have an activity soon to help rectify this problem a little bit? Maybe? And hopefully make voting easier.

Comments

[serah.livejournal.com]

Well as far as i can say anything, the cheerful / stoic might be a bit better than cheerful / serious, there are many ways of being cheerful, even if you're a serious person, i think at least =) i hope i am not saying something stupid here but so far i think it is alright !

[glacialphoenix]

I still stand by my notion of Expressive/Stoic if you want to go with Stoic. I feel like... cheerful is only one end of the emotional spectrum, and it might be more helpful to go with how strongly you express your emotions (be they positive or negative.)

[chacusha]

This is about the Idealistic/Realistic dichotomy -- if we add this, I think it might actually be better to not make it a dichotomy and instead make it a more specific situational question. The reason I say this is because I used it in the Elemental Stamping App and then got really frustrated with it (my own question) when I was filling it out, mostly because I think "realistic" and "idealistic" are vague, ill-defined, or context-sensitive ideas that need to be clarified.

Idealistic -- Does this mean you tend to like thinking in terms of ideals and broad concepts rather than get bogged down by details and feasibility? Does it mean that you prefer stories where heroes and paragons exist as opposed to gritty fiction where everyone is deeply flawed? Does it mean you're trusting because you see an "ideal" world as opposed to a "real" world so have difficulty dealing with people who behave differently than you feel they "should" behave? Does it mean you're a perfectionist?

Realistic -- Does this mean you're very grounded and don't bite off more than you can chew? Does this mean you primarily consider the effects of something in practice rather than its effects in theory? Does this mean you have a cynical view of the world, i.e. you don't trust people or systems/institutions because realistically they are flawed? (I mean, for some definitions of realistic, I think it's arguable that ALL people are realistic, it's just that their reality is different from other people's.)

/things I think about too hard

[glacialphoenix]

Actually, thinking about it - you have a point there; it wasn't something I really had to think about too hard since I know where I consider myself on the spectrum (/cough) but you're right, it might be better to specify one definition or to put it as a situational question, although in the case of the latter you wouldn't call it idealistic/realistic - and I think the Spiderman question partially fills that gap?

[etsplanations.livejournal.com]

I like "Playful/Serious" more as "Cheerful/Gloomy" seem like things that everyone goes through anyway, and can be taken as emotions, whereas Playful/Serious is more about an attitude towards situations or even a personality facet. I think Cheerful/Gloomy also has too much of a positive/negative feel to it, whereas Playful/Serious doesn't seem like a kind of positive/negative choice.

[the-404-error.livejournal.com]

I personally prefer sunflower_mynah's suggestion of expressive/stoic, as those are actual opposites, where as the others tend to have more room for "well, it depends..." It's possible to be both serious and cheerful, and be playful around certain things but serious around others. Expressive also deals more with a wider range of emotions, so it offers the applicant more room for explanation.

I like the idealistic/realistic one. I know it would definitely be a question I'd have to elaborate on, which is a positive in itself, and I imagine the same would be true for many others.

While I like all of the other fandom related questions as it gives a perspective on how they express their opinions as well as gives the voters something to automatically socialize with them about... I've never liked that one, as it's the easiest to bias votes towards. (i.e. someone who lists a bunch of soldiers could either be pushing towards solider or it may cause them to end up there even if they're more dragoon-y) I think "look up to" could have the same problem in some respects, unless they list how they're different from those characters... and I'm admittedly a bit biased, since I've always loathed answering questions like that. I never know what to say, as there are traits I admire, but looking up to people... to what extent does that imply? I don't idolize people, much less fictional characters, so I always draw a blank there.

... although that's probably just me. DX

[chacusha]

For me, the thing with Expressive/Stoic is that it seems redundant (or at least strongly overlapping) with the Logical/Thinking vs. Emotional/Feeling dichotomy, which is already on the app under the same section. They might be slightly different, like Expressive vs. Stoic talks about your emotional range/intensity whereas Logical/Thinking vs. Expressive/Feeling talks about the way you evaluate things or make decisions -- in a logical way or based on how they make you feel. But it could be argued that Expressive and Emotional/Feeling = respond to things emotionally, Stoic and Logical/Thinking = respond to things in a way detached from emotion.

As I said earlier, my aim with the original Cheerful/Gloomy dichotomy was to get a feel of whether the person tends more toward smiles or more toward neutral faces/frowns, which is different than just how volatile their emotions are, I think?

[the-404-error.livejournal.com]

... I somehow completely forgot that Thinking vs. Feeling was already a question. /FAILS FOREVER.

Ah, I think that question is difficult to apply fairly towards the classes, though. Sure, thieves and monks are more cheerful, but I think that's something that tends to shine through the way people write and their other responses... and if people do say gloomy, they tend to automatically get typecast as soldier or dragoon, despite how there are cheerful soldiers (Tidus, Zack) and most dragoons (Kain and Cid being the exceptions) aren't really gloomy so much as... well, stoic.

[glacialphoenix]

Whoops. I apologise. I tend to think of it as Expressive/Stoic because for me that's actually opposites. I suppose Playful/Serious would be a better choice, in that case - more lighthearted and playful as opposed to a sterner, more solemn demeanour.

Huh. Cheerful/Solemn?