[IMHO] This is the problem with GetDare forums

[NoMercy]

So I'm linking to my recent comment which made me think a bit about the forum meta.

http://www.getdare.com/bbs/showthrea...57#post2052757

The point is the following (details and context in link)
There are two types of users, low-effort and high-effort. And as you see each type usually finds their kind.
In this case a low-effort fake account created a low-effort thread which got a low-effort user* leave a low-effort comment. You can't do anything against it.

I just wanted to know what other users or mods think about it and what are some tips to not just find the high-effort threads and users but even automatically pass the low-effort ones. It can be really annoying that you usually have to research for users to know how serious the user is.

So briefly: do everybody just check the profiles, comment histories and blogs or is there something more I'm missing?

[RiskyFlame]

This slave thinks that you already gave the answer to your question of some sort: is there a faster way to find high-effort posters?

Originally Posted by NoMercy

There are two types of users, low-effort and high-effort. And as you see each type usually finds their kind.

Furthermore, this slave knows what you mean. 'Those' members who want get what they want as quick as possible without putting even the slightest effort in their posts. Maybe it works, this slave doesn't know for sure as he never requested anything without putting too much effort into the post.

To make sure that members who post high-effort threads anywhere on the forum, you should post something in the thread to show your appriciation. By doing so, the thread will be located back at the top of the list of threads so more members can view the thread. If many people would do this, then the best thread would stay at the top. However, in case of a member posting a s/M thread to search for one slave, showing your appriciation by posting in the thread when you actually want to apply as sub/ Dom to this person lowers your acceptence chances because more people will see the thread, thus more applications.

An even better way would be to 'Thank' the thread or post whenever you feel like it deserved a thanks. But for this to work, the 'Advanced Search' feature should also be able to sort the posts by the amount of the thread is thanked.

And to your last question: does everyone just check the profiles, comment history and blog or more?
• When writing a dare: check profile and likes, dislikes and limits.
• Checking for fakes: check date of joining getDare and check all pictures (of which the avatar, profile pictures and albums) on authenticity.
• When researching in general: signature, comment history and blog.

[RiskyFlame]

How I normally browse through the s/M advertisement section is by using the search feature of the browser: ctrl + f.

Then type either one of the following things in the search engine for the page. You'll probably figure out what it is useful for yourself.

1 • slave in

2 • switch in

3 • master in

4 • slave seeks

5 • switch seeks

6 • master seeks

When you want to include the gender also, you can type either one of the following before 4, 5 or 6.

1 • female/

2 • male/

[Iodine]

Originally Posted by RiskyFlame

How I normally browse through the s/M advertisement section is by using the search feature of the browser: ctrl + f.

Then type either one of the following things in the search engine for the page. You'll probably figure out what it is useful for yourself.

1 • slave in

2 • switch in

3 • master in

4 • slave seeks

5 • switch seeks

6 • master seeks

When you want to include the gender also, you can type either one of the following before 4, 5 or 6.

1 • female/

2 • male/

Slightly oftopic but, Holy crap thats a amazing idea!

[iSpuds]

A low-effort way to find high-effort users?
As someone who puts a lot of effort into her presence, I actually prefer that someone went through dozens of profiles to find mine, and perused mine before deciding I was someone they wanted to contact. I want them to put in that effort. If they're not willing to put in that effort (especially as a sub) it tells me they don't want to work for high-quality gains. Not to come off as snooty, but I'm worth a bit more than that.

Similarly, and this is just my opinion, the effort I put into seeking high-quality subs (or used to, since I already have one) helps me to better appreciate when I've found a real gem.

If seeking and obtaining high quality were more streamlined, the low-effort individuals would take advantage of that, as well.

I think anyone's best option, really, is to form friendships with users who are serious about the lifestyle, build a community among yourselves where you can discuss other users and your experiences with them. I personally don't believe in, like, calling someone out publicly for being a "fake" (one person's frog might be another person's prince) except in cases where an individual is decidedly abusive, but it helps a lot to have people whom, even if you don't play with them, you can still talk to them and they can point you in the direction of other quality members.

[g-man]

Im definitely in agreement with whats being said so far. I also this is becoming the norm judging by recent threads. I'll admit to contacting one or two sometimes just to try and figure out if they're just incredibly niaive, or obvious bait.

If you're bored, I'd reccomend it, some of the things you'll read can be quite amusing. Particularly this lovely young "lady" who said she was living in Britain, had a US timezone stamped on Skype, and a Skype profile that said living in the Phillipines. Pictures were obviously pulled from random websites.. Ya know, the usual nonsense.

I do try to get online and chat from time to time to build up a gD presence, as well as putting effort to come up with some creative adverts. But hey, I'm old and fugly so it makes no difference if I wrote an ad that looked like

"I stupid slave. No limits PM!"

or had a lot of detail, I won't get responses anyway

ninja edit:

When I am checking someone that I may be interested in, I'll certainly check their posting history / blogs for additional content that I may be able to reference if I decide to contract them

[realwing]

I never really thought about it as high-effory and low-effort users, but as high-quality and low-quality posts. I guess they amount to the same thing though. There's nothing you can really do to change this.

As for tips on how to avoid them, I am no expert but there are a few things I usually do :-
- Users who have no profile picture tend to be more likely to be low-effort users than those with a profile picture. This isn't always the case though, especially for users who spend a lot of time in the chat.
- I usually try to avoid the truth and dare section. Maybe it's just not really my thing but it also seems to be plagued with low-quality one-line posts.
- Make your own thread and give an explaination that triggers a discussion. Low-effort users will end up avoiding it, as it usually has nothing to do with jerking off. This thread is an example of this.

I'm sure there are more, but I can't remember exactly what they are.

You can usually tell is someone is any good simply from what you see them write. You don't really need to visit their profile to end up putting more time into viewing it than they did creating it.

[phanmail]

Originally Posted by iSpuds

A low-effort way to find high-effort users?
As someone who puts a lot of effort into her presence, I actually prefer that someone went through dozens of profiles to find mine, and perused mine before deciding I was someone they wanted to contact. I want them to put in that effort. If they're not willing to put in that effort (especially as a sub) it tells me they don't want to work for high-quality gains. Not to come off as snooty, but I'm worth a bit more than that.

Similarly, and this is just my opinion, the effort I put into seeking high-quality subs (or used to, since I already have one) helps me to better appreciate when I've found a real gem.

Speaking as a male sub/switch I have to say thats not the case for me. The deck is stacked against high effort males from the start as there are dozens if not scores or even hundreds of males looking for attention. Female domes, who are already ultra rare, have their pick and I doubt they'll look through the dozen or so bad ads on the off chance of finding a good one.

Perhaps my bad experiences are due to my interest in this being more casual than other people, maybe I'm more of a medium effort than a high effort user. I honestly think the people above me have given the best advice for finding high effort users and there's not much I can add. I just hope people are cognizant of the fact that not everyone is good at building relationships and sometimes giving them a bit of slack can yield good results.

[Arcturus]

Other users have pretty much summed up my thoughts exactly. It infuriates me to no end to see the inundation of low effort/quality posters (I would tend to agree more with realwing that I generally think about it as a quality issue, not an effort issue). I occasionally enjoy coming up with tasks, and nothing is worse than seeing them consumed with a brief "thx be my mater?" being the only form of gratitude I receive. Worse, when it comes to tasks, the vast majority on the site are incredibly lazy/uncreative/unrealistic, which is also quite annoying to me.

Rants aside, it would be nice to find a good group of quality posters to talk to, even outside of d/s stuff. Already, I'm often ignored due to the fact that I'm a male submissive into sissy stuff, a demographic which (quite rightfully I concede) has an awful reputation about it. At the moment I'm not quite sure where else to look in the community, except for the chat which I have heretofore avoided due to shyness/laziness. Do others generally find the chat to be markedly better than other sections of the GD community, or does it suffer from the same malaise of low quality the rest of the forums do?

[mariocb]

I think you are all right, so I won't add anything on that side. But I'd like to say something from another point of view. I'm a beginner and I've been here for a little time so far. I'm quite shy and have problems interacting with new people, even on the internet. Most of the times I am struggle whether or not write an answer on a thread because of my lack of experience or because I feel "out of place". I went to tord chat these days and I always felt like an outsider even if people was nice and easy. The point is that I am always afraid to be considered as one of those users you are talking about. Because writing long posts isn't enough, in my opinion, to prove your own actual effort. So sometimes I do write short answers or posts both because I am a beginner and because maybe I don't want to spend a lot of time for something that might even be ignored (by low-effort users, or by good users that might think I'm low-effort because my posts are poor even if elaborate). Nontheless I had a couple of nice experiences contacting people that posted just one line. Out of 30-40 people I wrote just "hi" after a one line ad I found a very nice mistress who I had fun with for a couple of months. That means that even apparently low effort users sometimes turn out to be worth it.

Sorry for the long post (that doesn't make me a high effort user, of course). As a matter of fact I wanted to write something similar from the very beginning of this thread but as I said I'm always reluctant to share because of my shyness. Anyway I hope I gave you some new starting points to continue this conversation.

[The Game Master]

I used to believe there was this divide between low effort and high effort. I don't know that there really is a divide anymore though.

What I have noticed though (which relates to what mariocb said about chat), which actually annoyed me enough to take a year and a half hiatus from logging in, is there is this main clique. It seems to be pretty close to 50/50 between the site. There are those that are in this clique and get tons of support and friendship, and those that are sort of just there. Some are welcome and some are in the dark.

Oh well, I think I like it on the dark side of the site better anyway. Less mushyness to gag on.

[Words]

I stopped posting after I responded to a few punishment requests with suggestions that seemed to me quite creative, detailed and at least amusing, but in most cases I did not even receive an acknowledgement, either on the thread or privately.

What bothers me far more is that I usually receive no answer at all when I pm a slave who wants a Master. I only reply to ads for which I seem suited, and not only do I take the trouble in my reply to engage with the ad, but I search the advertiser's previous posts to discover more about them and their interests. I also give plenty info about myself (which I now prefer to do privately rather than in my profile) so I believe it adds up to a "high quality" reply - even if the content does not interest the advertiser.

I've tried both politeness and more dominant approaches but (with a few honourable exceptions) received no reply - or, in a couple of cases, I sent on request a specimen contract for discussion, only to be met by the same silence. I don't mind the rejection, it's the way it's done that irritates me. "No thanks" costs nothing.

I know this is a common internet experience, and it boils down to the fact most people do not behave online with the same courtesy they'd extend in real life. I'm a vegetarian, but if someone offered me a nice steak dinner, I'd politely decline and not turn my back on them then silently walk away.

[camgib]

I've honestly come to realize that there is a place for both types of users on getDare: the quick-fix-only-here-to-get-their-rocks-off user and the thoughtful-inclined-to-long-term-user-who-wants-more-than-that.

The pity and the irritation, as has so eloquently been expressed above, is that the thoughtful among us have to put up with the others. As a Dom, I want an experience with a sub who slowly realizes what he wants and begins to work toward it. I prefer to get to know my submissives inside and out (no pun intended) as we slowly grow into a relationship. That's not for everyone, though, and I think that's OK, too. I don't generally respond to submissives who PM me and I don't do one-offs. That others do doesn't generally bother me.

I agree particularly, though, with Words' words above. A little consideration would be nice, but I don't expect it anymore. I'm more bothered by the subs who are looking for a long-term relationship with a Master who can't find that, than I am concerned with the Masters looking for subs of the same inclination. I think that a lot of subs get discourcouraged and give up looking for "their" Master before they find someone to meet their needs, and, honestly, I think those subs are more in danger of being abused by the "quick fix" crowd than we Masters who are looking for long-term slaves.

I met both of my current boys in the chat. One relationship has lasted for over three years and one for a year in March. That's no indication of success, though. I've had other relationships that didn't last through the first chat. You have to sift through a lot of coal to find the diamonds.

[NekoPrincess]

Originally Posted by The Game Master

I used to believe there was this divide between low effort and high effort. I don't know that there really is a divide anymore though.

What I have noticed though (which relates to what mariocb said about chat), which actually annoyed me enough to take a year and a half hiatus from logging in, is there is this main clique. It seems to be pretty close to 50/50 between the site. There are those that are in this clique and get tons of support and friendship, and those that are sort of just there. Some are welcome and some are in the dark.

Oh well, I think I like it on the dark side of the site better anyway. Less mushyness to gag on.

I agree with everything you said

[iSpuds]

Originally Posted by Words

[...]

I've tried both politeness and more dominant approaches but (with a few honourable exceptions) received no reply - or, in a couple of cases, I sent on request a specimen contract for discussion, only to be met by the same silence. I don't mind the rejection, it's the way it's done that irritates me. "No thanks" costs nothing.

I know this is a common internet experience, and it boils down to the fact most people do not behave online with the same courtesy they'd extend in real life. I'm a vegetarian, but if someone offered me a nice steak dinner, I'd politely decline and not turn my back on them then silently walk away.

(Dominant approaches...? Tbh one should only use a polite approach when contacting a sub for the first time...)

Actually, sometimes "No Thanks" doesn't cost nothing. As a female switch I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that the risk of receiving talk-back from any Dom or sub I reject almost outweighs the merit of courtesy.

Imagine that you get, say, 20 PMs from people who're all not what you looking for. You politely reject all of them, yet 2/3 of those you've rejected have messaged you yet again (instead of taking a hint and leaving you alone). Some just want to thank you for your time, but others feel cheated and entitled to more of your time. They begin to harass you, bargain with you, even beg you to reconsider.

Believe it or not, that scenario is anxiety-inducing enough to turn many people away from online dating at all, let alone taking the time to reject a person who may or may not take their rejection gracefully.

Also, assuming that a sub is getting 20-50 messages in a week, as many popular members of this site do, chances are you'll slip between the cracks a lot on this site. Not even movie stars will take the time to hand-write a reply letter to their biggest fan. People have priorities and one must accept that one may not be very high on another's to-do list.