The Posts I Most Enjoy

WriterCop

Junior Member
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May 16, 2011
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19
I don't post much herein, although rarely does a day go by that I don't play voyeur to the forum. But a liability to getting paid to write is that it tempts a mercenary mindset; one might get parsimonious with their offerings. But several recent threads have me examining another covetous aspect of my nature: What I like to see posted. Don't get me wrong - I like looking at all the pictures of finds even if I don't routinely acknowledge as much. But there are two types of posts that I most enjoy. The first is that from which I can vicariously profit. The posts that share some previously unconsidered point (e.g., early in my metal detecting I remember someone recommending that someone really take a lay of the land and envision what it might have at one time looked like...to look for those elevated areas of ground where trees might have once stood and that people might have congregated about). In turn, I offer one piece of advice. Always spend a little bit of extra time on gopher holes. More than once I've found coins that have been pushed upwards by those burrowing rodents. The second type of post that I most appreciate is that which gives me some vicarious sense of the adventure experienced. What kind of MD they were using. The kind of conditions they were saddled with during their search. What their VDI read, and how strong the audio was on their machine. What made them dig on a reading they might otherwise have bypassed. Some might ask why I am making such an implicit request ("Who asked you?"). Well, those who express disappointment over the lack of comments they receive tender their own implicit requests for feedback. This is my offering.
 
I think we all enjoy a well written post.
The first person narratives which make one feel as though they are present when the find occurred.
The more details the better as far as I am concerned.

Happy Hunting:D
 
"1st. point in writing for an audience, make sure the audience can understand." I figured that most herein were capable of reading at a fifth grade level, a benefit of the doubt that was my undoing and further complicated by my gratuitous civility. At least I need not wonder who's been supporting the Dr. Seuss corner of the market...
 
To be fair, you are the first person I've ever heard use the word parsimonious... normal people say stingy/frugal... :D

Instead of "vicariously profit", you could have said "learn something from", you know, like a normal person. :lol:

I agree though, I enjoy reading posts from which I vicariously profit... ;)
 
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"1st. point in writing for an audience, make sure the audience can understand." I figured that most herein were capable of reading at a fifth grade level, a benefit of the doubt that was my undoing and further complicated by my gratuitous civility. At least I need not wonder who's been supporting the Dr. Seuss corner of the market...

I thought I had an unmatched vocabulary, pretty good anyway.. But, thank you Sir, for the demiurgic obloquy!

<*)))>{
 
"1st. point in writing for an audience, make sure the audience can understand." I figured that most herein were capable of reading at a fifth grade level, a benefit of the doubt that was my undoing and further complicated by my gratuitous civility. At least I need not wonder who's been supporting the Dr. Seuss corner of the market...

I'd go detecting in a box.
I'd go detecting with a fox.
I'd go detecting with a mouse.
I'd go detecting in a house.
I'd go detecting here or there.
I'd go detecting anywhere!
But I'd need my thesaurus at each coin drop,
If I went detecting with WriterCop.


I do, by the way, agree with the original post. I like when a story and details accompany the pictures of finds. :)
 
I'd go detecting in a box.
I'd go detecting with a fox.
I'd go detecting with a mouse.
I'd go detecting in a house.
I'd go detecting here or there.
I'd go detecting anywhere!
But I'd need my thesaurus at each coin drop,
If I went detecting with WriterCop.


I do, by the way, agree with the original post. I like when a story and details accompany the pictures of finds. :)

AWWWWW Jerry - you just made me spit up coffee all over my keyboard :laughing::laughing::laughing:
 
For me I enjoy the ID your finds threads, because I like to keep up my knowledge of different items and how they tie into the history of an area, therefor causing me a great deal of exhilaration within the journey of accretion.
 
On my better finds I attempt to place the reader "in the moment" so they can vicariously see and experience what I saw through my eyes and feel close to the same emotions.
Sometimes I succeed, although I rarely use many $10 words and still seem to get my point across even though I have paid for and and have gathered up a nice collection of them.
I do tend to be verbose, ($5 word), at times, however.
 
On my better finds I attempt to place the reader "in the moment" so they can vicariously see and experience what I saw through my eyes and feel close to the same emotions.
Sometimes I succeed, although I rarely use many $10 words and still seem to get my point across even though I have paid for and and have gathered up a nice collection of them.
I do tend to be verbose, ($5 word), at times, however.

That was my point. When writing for an audience it is best (IMO) to try to relate to the average reader. Our average is a little askew considering we probably have members ranging in age from 8 to 80. All the more reason to simplify it a bit more. If writing a review for a cheese and wine tasting, by all means pull out all the stops. "Get parsimonious" for Wine Enthusiast Magazine. "become stingy with their offerings?" here. If you write and talk like that all the time I guess it would be normal for you but as my creative writing teacher told me 25 years ago, "If 50% of the people that read your writing get frustrated with fancy words then that is the 50% that will put your book down and never pick it up again. If it doesn't sound real, the reader is turned off and therefor so are you." (i'm prolly giv'n writing tips to Stephen King) :laughing:
 
When I read the original post which has now been deleted the poster was lamenting that unless it was a silver coin no one cared. I think the bottom line is we tend to read the posts with subject lines that indicate it might be something we are interested in.

For instance I know nothing about Civil war artifacts and while I love to look at them I don't think I would comment, because I wouldn't know a great find from an average one.

On the other hand I have been trying to find old coins and read just about every post about silver coins because I am trying to find them.

Post something about a magic related item which is another hobby of mine and you can bet I'll comment. I love to hear the backstory about where and how it was found.
 
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I'd go detecting in a box.
I'd go detecting with a fox.
I'd go detecting with a mouse.
I'd go detecting in a house.
I'd go detecting here or there.
I'd go detecting anywhere!
But I'd need my thesaurus at each coin drop,
If I went detecting with WriterCop.
 
With no paucity of verbosity, I'm renown for my prolixity. And with those few words I have - hopefully - proved I wasn't trying for anything overly ornate in my first post. Yeah, if anything I toned that bad boy down a notch, or two. Whatever else - and whatever my reservations about the tone of a couple of the succeeding replies - I did enjoy several of them, none more so than the creative Dr. Seuss spin (that's me genuflectin' in the author's direction). I found it interesting that Stephen King's name was invoked, as well. For one thing Mr. King advocates is that you write for your ideal reader, i.e., yourself. As I'm not one for Hemingway's stripped down prose, it follows that my tastes run more towards Mencken, Poe and Sheed. No less predictable is my own fondness for wordplay that sometimes finds me taking the scenic route in making my point. Don't like it? Then recognize the significance of my moniker herein and press on. No hard feelings. Really. Different (key) strokes for different folks. Just don't give me a hard time for how I choose to express myself, and I will extend you that same courtesy.
 
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