Posting vs. commenting

With an active community of writers there are so many interesting posts written every day. You want to leave your thoughts in the comments, to participate in the discussion... Or you could even write a full post about the topic and your views as a reply.

Linking posts between writers around one topic could also act as an alternative to group-like functionality. It would also enable things like weekly topics or prompts when all the posts could be grouped as replies under those initial posts.

In the old 200wad there was the reply-post feature that I think we all three are still missing. Sure, it would be easy enough to just write the post and then add a link to it to the comment section. That would also allow easy posting across sites. On the other hand it might make users confused jumping between all these different sites. Especially those who are not members on all of them.
Keni
Interesting.... I liked when we all used to reply-post around similar topics and debate different perspectives. Also the idea of a question/topic as a prompt usually helps new folks. 

I think commenting is actually the most important feature for keeping the engagement of writers going. 
abrahamKim
jasonleow
 - Calling you two here since this is a feature type discussion. I think commenting should count towards a streak - even more than posting. Taking time to read another person's post and giving feedback to me is more time consuming and rewarding for a writer. Not sure if y'all agree or if it is complex to code but I think comments were the main things that made 200words awesome at first. 
2021-01-03 00:26:08
Abraham Kim
I actually was thinking the same thing as you Keni. Having a streak be more complex to take into consideration comments so long as it's a certain length. Let me know what you thin should constitute a streak point.

calling 
therealbrandonwilson
because he's got a lot of opinions on streaks
2021-01-03 00:40:11
Jason Leow
@keni yes agree that comments made all the difference Not sure about counting towards a streak though...🤔 although very often I did convert a long comment into a post (which ended up counting towards a streak). 
2021-01-04 15:03:49
Brian Ball
I like this discussion. A post or a comment or a share. These things all add value. We could have multiple streaks -- or points. I think, overall, points accumulated is more indicative of value than a streak. People who lose a 100 day streak and then join the noobs -- aren't going to care about the streak anymore. People with 1,000 points will likely be seen as valuable members who show up and participate.
2021-01-09 21:15:50
Gabriel Greco
To piggy-back off Brian's idea, I'd also add that commenting points, in this type of scenario, should be as valuable as posting points. Any social platform with low engagement is dying and I'm convinced this was one of the reasons Baz couldn't keep 200wad going. A truly engaged, collaborative user base can only spell success; demand for the service, features, eventual monetization. Engagement is the currency here.
2021-01-09 22:06:15
Abraham Kim
@gabriel I like that you bring this topic up about engagement since I see you as a writer primarily concerned with the writing itself. But even with that goal you still find engagement keystone. 
2021-01-09 22:18:27
Gabriel Greco
Yes because I don't *need* the platform to write, per se, but I certainly need it to feel connected to a like-minded community who might help me more than if I only ever wrote in a vacuum. But if nobody ever comments, there is no connection and no chance of improvement. 
Yesterday, off one little short story, you gave me 2 or 3 ideas along with encouragement, which also happens to be valuable for the writing itself. 
2021-01-09 22:54:45
Brian Ball
We need an emoji on the comments to add agreement.

I got a couple of comments on my story starter that had me writing up a second bit. One thing that makes comments great - is the connection it forms. As 200word folks, I think it was easy to read ~ 200 words and still have a little energy to comment. It'd be much harder if people were submitting 5,000-word essays.
2021-01-10 17:13:19