One post tagged with "writing"

Opinionless Trend​

Have you ever read an article for a few minutes, only to have it end with a generic, opinionless, open-ended line like 'it depends on your use case'? At some point it starts to get insulting to be told so repeatedly.

Unfortunately this has become an increasing trend with writers. Luckily however it's only a rare occurence in other forms of media(books, games, manga, tv shows). And hopefully it stays that way.

I've actually had several face to face conversations where I needed to specifically ask for their personal preference. Just imagine asking for their choice pizza topping and being told about the pros and cons of each. Still no answer at the end, mind you.

Neutrality Nobody asked for​

I do understand, and respect, the writer's desire to be open minded or neutral about their opinions, a given answer will likely appeal to specific people's use case but not to others. However it's still preferable to have an irrelevant answer than no answer at all.

Catering to the majority would often end up satisfying nobody. I know I'd sooner relinquish the last slice of pizza rather than share it. And I definitely wouldn't want to be like an MC of a manga. Besides it's not like your content would lose anything from adding your opinion in.

Reader's Expectations​

I assume most readers read these articles with a purpose, a question/s to answer. Unless you're a couch reader just wanting to kill time while they prepare your starbucks coffee.

Readers looking for alternatives to their current solution, in which case any leads to new information are welcome. Usually this comes in the form of pros and cons comparison. So that's one question solved.

Readers who would simply prefer to imitate someone with more experience. This is an ideal option for beginners or those lacking the time to carefully choose at the moment. Sometimes this also reveals a different perspective for readers, something along the lines of "you might not want that feature after all". Don't underestimate how valuable the writer's opinion is, and the question/s it can answer or reveal for readers. Even if the writer themselves is indecisive, I would still love to learn their current personal preference.

By beginners I mean people trying out something new, not to be confused with professional amateurs. Like a chef cooking a dish for the first time. Leave the experimenting to the pros.

Most content would have some sort of commenting system at this point, it's standard, so there's no need to worry about this one. By the way, the comments at the bottom are just as important as the content itself. Since a lot of articles are one-off static or never updated after they've been written, it's fortunate to know that comments can still live on long after.

So you might not want to skip reading the comments, you'll often find good samaritans sharing useful insight.

Proper Conclusion​

It isn't really a problem to remind people of seemingly common sense logic like "it depends", the issue is when it's used as a final conclusion. If the writer's intentionally being ambiguous for the reader's sake, it won't hurt them to share their opinion. If the writer's indecisive, that's fine too, a working solution is just as useful as a perfect solution. If the writer wants a quick and rushed ending, they've already wrote this much so the least you can do is finish it, because it's an even bigger waste of time if they didn't.

It doesn't even have to be one answer either, being open minded and opinionated aren't mutually exclusive. You can at least narrow down the options to the best few, perhaps through process of elimination by increasing your standards.

My Own Opinion​

Personally I'd avoid being opinionless both in the content I write or in real life conversations. I absolutely hate it when a manga has multiple ending routes and no canonical route, I'm more interested in the author's story than I am of the fans' story.

Maybe there are very specific uses cases where being opinionless would be a good idea. I can't think of any but I'm open to the possibility.