[Child of the 7th Age]

Saucie,

I especially appreciate the dilemma you're facing in terms of the quiz room. Many of those responses, though only a few words, show a great deal of effort in searching out information or, alternately, in having an impressive amount of Middle-earth data stored away in someone's brain. My personal feeling is that, when a poster demonstrates real effort or expertise, it should be acknowledged, even though the particular post doesn't meet the exact "criteria" you might have set up in your mind for a typical post in Books.

Some time back, I brought up the problem of adapting the rep system to RPGs. So often, a person's contribution depends not on a single, scintillating post but a pattern of involvement: reliability, care with grammar, close attention to the story line. I try to acknowledge that with my rep points. And this certainly includes recognizing improvements by newbies or those just getting started with RPGs. This, to me, seems just as important for the quality of the site as well thought out posts in Books or relevent, one-line quips in other settings.

This type of thing is easier to do when you know a particular forum well. It would be difficult for me to recognize "improvement" in the quiz forums because I don't spend a lot of time there. In the Shire, I have a much better idea about people's writing and can see if someone's putting forth real effort and showing improvement.

Like you, I'm concerned that the system be inclusive and consciously try to think in those terms when I rep a post.

EDIT: BW - I'm certainly glad we have no one like Wormtongue. And I will definitely keep in mind Fordim's "out-loud" test when deciding what to rep!