r/worldbuilding • u/Pyrsin7 Bethesda's Sanctuary • Jan 15 '23
Meta PSA: The "What, and "Why" of Context
It's that time of year again!
Despite the several automated and signposted notices and warnings on this issue, it is a constant source of headaches for the mod team. Particularly considering our massive growth this past year, we thought it was about time for another reminder about everyone's favorite part of posting on /r/worldbuilding..... Context
Context is a requirement for almost all non-prompt posts on r/worldbuilding, so it's an important thing to understand... But what is it?
What is context?
Context is information that explains what your post is about, and how it fits into the rest of your/a worldbuilding project.
If your post is about a creature in your world, for example, that might mean telling us about the environment in which it lives, and how it overcomes its challenges. That might mean telling us about how it's been domesticated and what the creature is used for, along with how it fits into the society of the people who use it. That might mean telling us about other creatures or plants that it eats, and why that matters. All of these things give us some information about the creature and how it fits into your world.
Your post may be about a creature, but it may be about a character, a location, an event, an object, or any number of other things. Regardless of what it's about, the basic requirement for context is the same:
- Tell us about it
- Tell us something that explains its place within your world.
In general, telling us the Who, What, When, Why, and How of the subject of your post is a good way to meet our requirements.
That said... Think about what you're posting and if you're actually doing these things. Telling us that Jerry killed Fred a century ago doesn't do these things, it gives us two proper nouns, a verb, and an arbitrary length of time. Telling us who Jerry and Fred actually are, why one killed the other, how it was done and why that matters (if it does), and the consequences of that action on the world almost certainly does meet these requirements.
For something like a resource, context is still a requirement and the basic idea remains the same; Tell us what we're looking at and how it's relevant to worldbuilding. "I found this inspirational", is not adequate context, but, "This article talks about the history of several real-world religions, and I think that some events in their past are interesting examples of how fictional belief systems could develop, too." probably is.
If you're still unsure, feel free to send us a modmail about it. Send us a copy of what you'd like to post, and we can let you know if it's okay, or why it's not.
Why is Context Required?
Context is required for several reasons, both for your sake and ours.
Context provides some basic information to an audience, so they can understand what you're talking about and how it fits into your world. As a result, if your post interests them they can ask substantive questions instead of having to ask about basic concepts first.
If you have a question or would like input, context gives people enough information to understand your goals and vision for your world (or at least an element of it), and provide more useful feedback.
On our end, a major purpose is to establish that your post is on-topic. A picture that you've created might be very nice, but unless you can tell us what it is and how it fits into your world, it's just a picture. A character could be very important to your world, but if all you give us is their name and favourite foods then you're not giving us your worldbuilding, you're giving us your character.
Generally, we allow 15 minutes for context to be added to a post on r/worldbuilding so you may want to write it up beforehand. In some cases-- Primarily for newer users-- We may offer reminders and additional time, but this is typically a one-time thing.
As always, if you've got any sort of questions or comments, feel free to leave them here!
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u/KonLesh Jan 17 '23
What about youtube videos or blog posts? Every so often, someone posts a video and never make a context post. Do you consider the video as providing the context (like the infograph that self contextualize itself example on the resource tab) or does someone posting a video/external link still need a context post? Does being an external link have any consideration on context?
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u/the_vizir Sr. Mod | Horror Shop, a Gothic punk urban fantasy Jan 17 '23
Depends:
If it's a resource, like a video on, say, medieval cuisine or ancient Near Eastern religions, a good title can often provide sufficient context.
If it's a lore video, then we expect the context to be posted here on Reddit as well.
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u/Iron-Phoenix2307 Creator of Altias Feb 27 '23
I'm glad that the Mod team is making an effort to elaborate rule two in this way, i've been off this sub for quite awhile now specifically because of rule two's very subjective handling. (Ie mod john doe thinks this post is pretty self explanatory and may leave it be, but mod doe john doesn't, removes it and strikes your account). It's nice to have this cotified in such a way that it makes clear what is expected of me the poster.
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u/RandomEffector [Ostrana] Dec 22 '23
Oh don’t worry it’s still super subjective and not really working
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u/Iron-Phoenix2307 Creator of Altias Dec 22 '23
Trust me, I know, I still haven't rejoined this sub because of this bullshit.
r/fantasyworldbuilding is a superior sub.
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u/RandomEffector [Ostrana] Dec 22 '23
Yeah I'm not really sure the mods have any idea what they're doing. The rules are some of the most extensive I've seen in a sub, yet many of them are either realistically unenforceable or (like this one) simply down to a whim. And it's not like the place is overflowing with high-quality content.
Alas, none of my worlds I'm working on are fantasy.
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u/Iron-Phoenix2307 Creator of Altias Dec 22 '23
I wouldn't classify my project as fantasy and I still post there as its full of the same people who post stuff here. Also their discord is very nice, I use it much more than I use this subs discord.
I remember someone saying that they were tired of the heavy handed yet often incompetent moderation of this sub and at the time I thought it was a bit harsh, but after some time i've come to understand this position.
I created my own sub for my project and wrote an entire post linking to lore, history, cultures, maps and other materials that I would consider more than adequate to fulfil rule 2, even sent it to the mods here and they said it was fine. I post here and link to the page and get the notification saying my post was removed, and thus another strike was put on my account.
That was my "fuck this shit im done" moment.
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u/RandomEffector [Ostrana] Dec 23 '23
Yeah I’ve had posts removed without warning, and other times a mod pops in to ask for clarification or extended details. This is for the same offense — so there’s no consistency.
The official guidance for how to provide context for posts bemoans that it is necessary because of how much mod time it takes up — and then goes on to recommend that if you’re not sure, you should message the mods with the content before you post it to see what they have to say! It’s just laughable.
Moreover, it’s a waste of time, especially when half the time meaningful engagement is all but absent in a sub that supposedly has 1.3 million members!
Anyway thanks for the recommend, I’ll definitely check it out.
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u/MegaVenomous May 13 '24
Seeing as I get flagged by the same mod who never has anything constructive to add, I limit myself to commenting, but haven't posted anything in a while. I was just about to create a new post when I saw this sticky post and decided to read it.
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u/Eckilzax The Awful Tower Universe Feb 12 '23
Okay, I can't articulate exactly how I previously thought the context rule worked, but this post clarified it for me perfectly. Much appreciated!
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u/ParkityParkPark Mar 11 '23
What about posts of people asking permission to include things in their world, or write things in a different way than normal? I feel like every other post that pops up on my feed from this community is someone asking "Is it ok if I take inspiration from real life" or "can I write elves as a subterranean species" or some other thing that isn't really a "does this work" question, just people asking for permission to create their own world.
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u/Pyrsin7 Bethesda's Sanctuary Mar 14 '23
You won't catch me saying those posts aren't most charitably described as "foolish", but we don't moderate based on quality. A terrible post won't be removed for being terrible, it will be removed if it doesn't have enough context, or has citation issues, etc.
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u/Aarons1234 Apr 17 '23
I think context is definitely required for the kind of content posted here, like it's nice to see nice art of some fantasy map or a spec-evo animal but having that little bit of explanation as to what it is you're looking at helps people conceptualize it more and allows them to better ask questions about it. Like that's a real issue when I see people post AMA's about their worlds on non worldbuilding focused subs I go on, they'll just say "AMA about my fantasy world" with zero explanation so we kind of have to parse out the context with our questions with is tedious and annoying.
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u/Lapis_Wolf Nov 23 '23
What do you do if you want to get started with worldbuilding in this subreddit, but you are yet to arrive at the point where you have a world to fit something in? Like say you had interest in creating a certain food or vehicle for a world and you want feedback on it, but you don't have the world as yet because you're early on or didn't think about anything else in the world.
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u/Lapis_Wolf Sep 11 '23
I can see the importance of context, but now I'm imagining someone new to worldbuilding just getting started and showing his starting point, but now needs to provide context by explaining how it fits into his greater world that doesn't exist to fit things in yet. So I feel like someone would have to already have a somewhat built world before getting started here(unless it's a prompt).
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u/The1st_TNTBOOM Apr 08 '24
Two questions:
Does linking to my full project count as context?
A lot of the aspects of my project have little context I could add, what do I do then?
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u/Thin_Standard6813 May 12 '24
My post was taken down, but I felt as though It did meet all the requirements. How can I appeal?
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u/Jazzlike_Garage6672 Mar 07 '23
Otherwise, know that context does help facilitate better conversations on this subreddit, so please make sure to include it when you make non-prompt posts. Thanks again! :)
Context is a really critical part of worldbuilding and can make all the difference in the level of feedback you get from the community. Making sure to provide enough of the Who, What, When, Why, and How of a post is essential if you're looking for meaningful conversations to arise from it. Plus, context can help make sure that your post is actually related to worldbuilding and on-topic for this subreddit. If you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to send us a modmail!
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u/andrejmlotko May 30 '23
Are there any kind of respurces that might help start building my world. I want to create a fantasy RPG engine, for which I already selected the tech infrastructure, but I need some points of start to where and how to begin creating. Also, I want to make sure that i will be creating something worth creating for later use for players who will play by post.
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u/Legitimate_Air_568 May 30 '24
What flair is appropriate for a AMA type post? Would I be a question or discussion?
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u/Ok-Work-5637 Aug 03 '24
“Does it fuck/is it sick” is inherently valid of a first principal to answer any traditionally exalted “W words”
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u/danktank_sublime Aug 10 '24
Hiya! Just got deleted after sharing my map and asking people to ask me questions and I'm really confused. The questions were GOOD ("what is the best cheese in your world!") and I gave enough context in my post to start the conversation.. Was it just not enough context? My point was to be vague enough to invite unique questions?
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u/danktank_sublime Aug 10 '24
I'd love to see the reason...but my post got deleted so all I have is this snippet from the notification? Which I can't share...because Images aren't allowed.
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u/jodahan Sep 03 '24
The main reason i have not posted yet about the world im developing is bc this post gets my brain fried each time i read it
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u/Tui_gen Oct 04 '24
Question: I've posted an image depicting schematics of a weapon two times on this subreddit and both times they got removed. I didn't put context on the first one, but I did on the second one, however the context I wrote was as a comment on the post.
I can't really write up a context as text below the image if I want to have the image as a thumbnail for the post (which I feel is important because thumbnails attract more attention and comments than not having one) unless I post it on my phone using the app.
- Does posting the context of the post via comments below the post violate the rules? Does the context have to be directly on the post itself as text because that's very inconvenient (I have to type out lore on the phone app and I can't highlight or put letters in bold that way).
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u/SarafinaMobeto Oct 22 '24
How extensive should one be with context? From my understanding, good readers can intuit and infer quite a load of subject matter, as long as it's related to the issue they're making inquiry of. Your explanation is fine, but in some way, it reduces this family to some sort of amateur audience. For me, it's still difficult to understand what it is exactly you're trying to communicate. On one hand, you're giving due allowance, and on the other, you're delicately censoring innocent posts.
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u/el_bhm Nov 14 '24
I have a few things to say.
Your most important rule is under Resources header.
Rules section, contains a link to Reddits rules and a button for Modmail.
Info section is the most vague description of world building description.
This sticky exists because see points 1, 2 and 3.
It is so long because see 1-4
Despite the several automated and signposted notices and warnings on this issue, it is a constant source of headaches for the mod team is caused by points 1-5.
Am I the only one to point this out as an issue?
TLDR; If Context is THE most important rule, why is this under Resources section? It is NOT a resource. It is THE rule.
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u/Master-of-darklight If you give me a 1 word answer I will find you IRL 15d ago
People should know that they have to provide context when responding to prompts, my flair is what it is for a reason
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u/FruteLupes887 Jan 17 '23
This question doesn't have anything to do with Context, though I do struggle with that, but what is the situation with ask-me-anythings? Are they not allowed?