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Old 04-07-2017, 04:36 PM   #1
johndallman
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default New Technique of the Week: Spark Discussion (Writing)

Spark Discussion (Writing), Average, default Writing-1, cannot exceed Writing+3. This is the art of starting discussions in writing. It becomes very common at TL8 with the rise of online forums, but dates back to newspaper Letters to the Editor, which became common at TL5.

More seriously, it's become clear that a single new idea for a Technique, or even a group of related ones, isn't enough to get a decent discussion going. I would like to build up the list of techniques, but I'm not sure how best to go about it. I've considered trying to do it skill by skill, but find it harder to think up techniques for a single skill, than for a kind of activity, which typically involves several skills. Has anyone got suggestions for another approach?
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Old 04-07-2017, 05:40 PM   #2
whswhs
 
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Default Re: New Technique of the Week: Spark Discussion (Writing)

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
Spark Discussion (Writing), Average, default Writing-1, cannot exceed Writing+3. This is the art of starting discussions in writing. It becomes very common at TL8 with the rise of online forums, but dates back to newspaper Letters to the Editor, which became common at TL5.

More seriously, it's become clear that a single new idea for a Technique, or even a group of related ones, isn't enough to get a decent discussion going. I would like to build up the list of techniques, but I'm not sure how best to go about it. I've considered trying to do it skill by skill, but find it harder to think up techniques for a single skill, than for a kind of activity, which typically involves several skills. Has anyone got suggestions for another approach?
There is clearly such a technique at TL2, given our records of the sophists' debates. It would be based on Public Speaking or Teaching.
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Old 04-07-2017, 05:40 PM   #3
mikeejimbo
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Default Re: New Technique of the Week: Spark Discussion (Writing)

I have a modest proposal. (...I am sorry.)

Maybe you could keep one thread with Techniques. The first post you can write the introduction and index, and then you could reserve a couple posts. Rather than attempt to think up custom Techniques for each skill, skill-by-skill, I would approach it from the other direction: Think about the things someone could want to specialize in, and then think about whether it's a technique (or just a specialty). With the index, you could link to individual posts of people who submit their own Techniques, and/or copy them to a master list on one of the other reserve posts.
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Old 04-08-2017, 05:00 AM   #4
Ashtagon
 
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Default Re: New Technique of the Week: Spark Discussion (Writing)

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
There is clearly such a technique at TL2, given our records of the sophists' debates. It would be based on Public Speaking or Teaching.
It seems to me that Spark Discussion could be a pair of related techniques, one for written communication and another for spoken communication. Possibly from TL8+, a video editing-based version might exist too.
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Old 04-08-2017, 06:12 AM   #5
Donny Brook
 
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Default Re: New Technique of the Week: Spark Discussion (Writing)

I think MikeeJimbo is on the right track. Skill of the week was a good format to exegete an existing body of material we all had experience with.

Creating new techniques is a different sort of exercise. It's worth doing but, Kromm once expressed hesitation about hiring a writer for the job because he thought making good credible techniques would be hard for someone without practical experience in the skill in question.

Accordingly, a collective structure might be more fruitful.
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Old 04-10-2017, 01:08 PM   #6
johndallman
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Default Re: New Technique of the Week: Spark Discussion (Writing)

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Originally Posted by mikeejimbo View Post
IMaybe you could keep one thread with Techniques. The first post you can write the introduction and index, and then you could reserve a couple posts....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Donny Brook View Post
Creating new techniques is a different sort of exercise. It's worth doing but, Kromm once expressed hesitation about hiring a writer for the job because he thought making good credible techniques would be hard for someone without practical experience in the skill in question.

Accordingly, a collective structure might be more fruitful.
Thanks for this. What I'm planning to do, starting this Friday, is to have one monster thread for everyone's ideas about Techniques. Since they're closely related concepts, Optional Specialisations and One-Task-Wonder perks will also be on-topic for that. Now that I've learned how to make links to posts in the middle of a thread, I can index things anywhere in the thread.
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