Reactions:
- The thread must receive at least 20 positive reactions from the community.
This is very straightforward. Your thread needs to get 20+ positive reacts.
Relevance:
- The thread must be about looksmaxing, blackpill, or self-improvement.
Pretty self-explanatory. Topics that don't help people looksmax, understand the blackpill, or self-improve don't count.
- It should either be educational and/or instructional.
The thread should teach people something and/or show them how to do something.
- The thread demonstrates what it promises.
If your title is "Megadictionary of Phytonutrients for Looksmaxing", please talk about that. If the thread is 95% about how fantastic plants are, or the thread doesn't really fulfill the promise of showing a "Megadictionary of Phytonutrients for Looksmaxing", it would violate this rule.
- The thread should be the best thread on that topic, and not inferior to what is already in the best of the best. If there's already another fashion thread, for example in the BOTB section that is superior to your fashion thread, your thread isn't eligible.
If there is a thread already in the BOTB section on the topic you'll discuss, then the thread you will write
must be better.
- The information in it also shouldn't be mostly or entirely water (aka common sense) to most of the target audience. This would basically mean that if the thread contains information that most non-blackpilled normies would know, it wouldn't qualify. Example: A thread solely dedicated to "Why acne destroys your looks" would violate this one.
A thread that mostly or entirely states very obvious things that normies know will not be added, like "Why Acne is a Looksmin", even if it's obvious to users, it still qualifies, as long as it isn't obvious to normies, because remember, we have much more lurkers than users. But if it's obvious to normies, it doesn't qualify.
Effort:
- The thread must demonstrate a high level of effort, and thoughtfulness. 500 words minimum.
Very easy. Threads that appear high-effort only. No moderate-effort or low effort threads.
Evidence and Quality:
- The thread should comprehensively explain the topic it promises to discuss.
The thread shouldn't demonstrate threads that are empty, narrow, limited, and shallow when it comes to information. If you're going to make a skin guide,
explain everything you know and can find online about skin. If you're talking about a more narrow subject, like How to turn straight hair curly,
explain everything you know about how to turn straight hair curly! People want
information-rich threads, especially when it comes to understanding the topic and solutions (if applicable) to the topic. Threads that are shallow or information-poor, or missing crucial information won't be added.
- The author must demonstrate a good (preferably deep) understanding of what is being discussed. Threads that demonstrate a shallow understanding or no understanding will not be added to BOTB.
This is the most important one. Especially when it comes to things that are science-based.
Get the facts right. Know what you're talking about. Demonstrate your understanding. Threads explaining things that the author doesn't know about can't be added to BOTB due to possible misinformation or the lack of crucial information.
Please, always do as much research as possible and learn as much about the topic as possible. You'd be amazed at how much you don't know. Trust me. I removed almost all of my own BOTB threads in November 2023 for a reason, this reason specifically.
Example: Someone makes a guide on how to grow taller, and they know nothing about how HGH converts to IGF-1 in the liver and the whole thread assumes more HGH = more growth, not knowing that things like protein, minerals aromatase inhibitors, and vitamins also are important. This person's thread can't go to BOTB.
- The thread should be as truthful as possible on objective topics, display solid conjecture, or backed by great reasoning and consensus on subjective subjects.
When it comes to using scientific evidence. If you took information from a scientific source of information, like a research paper, scientific article, etc. to write your thread, it's vital that you cite your sources. At the absolute minimum, show the link of the source you got your information from. Pasting the link on the thread or on the bottom of the thread in its own section is good. Citations are preferred.
Outside of that, if the thread is on things that are objective, like ways to grow taller, the information on the thread should be as truthful as possible. Threads that have misinformation on objective topics or that don't have good reasoning on topics that might be subjective (like opinions) won't qualify.
You don't have to cite evidence or anything if the topic is susceptible to subjectivity. Fashion is a good example, since fashion is susceptible to subjectivity. Anything that is susceptible to subjectivity will be assessed based on the thread's reasoning and consensus among users and moderators. If you're making a thread recommending people to wear dresses, the reasoning is bad (why would a straight male wear a dress as a looksmax?), and it won't gain consensus, therefore, it won't qualify.
When it comes to conjectural threads (A conjecture is a statement that is believed to be true, but has not yet been proven. Conjectures are based on intuition, observation, or experience, but lack formal proof and are based on incomplete information). The reasoning for the conjecture has to be solid.
For example, if you hypothesize or theorize something is likely to be true, like maybe you think a certain supplement can do something nobody (not even in the scientific community) has thought about in terms of looksmaxing, display good reasoning for it.
Opinions and theories. are touchy, since they can actually be good ones. If it's opinion-based or a theory, please add as many sources, pieces of evidence, or as much solid reasoning to back it up, to avoid the thread look like pure opinion or an uncredible theory or a hypothesis. With opinions and theories, consensus and great reasoning is the key to qualifying, so be extremely persuasive.
Presentation:
- The thread must be titled properly. Poorly titled threads like "skin guide BOTB" will not qualify.
Example Topic: Health, and how it relates to Looksmaxing
Good Title: "Ultimate Health Guide: How To Maximize Your Health & Why Health is ESSENTIAL For Looksmaxing"
Bad Title: "health guide (high effort everyone GTFIH NOW)"
- The thread must be written properly. Frequent grammar, spelling, punctuation mistakes, among others, will not qualify.
If the thread shows that the user can't spell, doesn't understand proper grammar, doesn't know how to punctuate, etc. It can't qualify.
- The thread must be coherent, structured (having chapters, sections or table of contents) and formatted properly.
Threads that are hard to read, are incoherent, look like run-on sentences, or are poorly formatted or any other major structuring or formatting flaws will not qualify. People don't want to read threads that are hard to read or ugly.
- If relevant, the thread must explain what the topic and content is about and why it is important. Unless it's super obvious, like getting rid of acne, explaining to people why it's important is necessary.
Easy to explain. If necessary, the thread must explain to the reader what the topic, and content of the thread is and why it's important. If you're talking about why people should take a supplement, explain why. You must explain the why's and answer questions users may have when reading your thread, unless it's
super obvious, like why not eating for a year will kill you.
- The thread must be clear, lucid, and easy to understand for the average person. Terms that are not commonly known must be explained simply and comprehensively.
Incomprehensible threads that sound like Shakespeare wrote a PhD paper on the relationship between looksmaxing, quantum superchemistry and teleology will not be added to BOTB, since nobody will understand it and few will put in the effort to understand it, making the thread useless even if the information in it is great.
Originality:
- The majority of the text must be written by the author. Threads written mostly or entirely generated by A.I. language models, mostly comprised of copypasta, information from external sources, or other's writing won't be added to BOTB.
This is because we value
originality, effort and expertise. Generating threads with language models doesn't really demonstrate that the user actually is knowledgeable in a subject. Language models may either not be experts on these subjects, or the user may be a poor prompt engineer, causing these language models to give shallow level information on the topic, and can possibly give misinformation, hard to understand explanations, too simple and incomprehensive explanations, or demonstrate a bad understanding of the topic or audience. People who use these tools to write their threads may not realize this since they don't know better, therefore hindering the quality of the thread. As with threads that are mostly copypasta/information from external sources, this can't qualify since that user didn't actually write a majority of the thread, therefore, it isn't original. Again, we want the author to know what they're talking about and an author that is using mostly external, non-original information is less likely to know what they are talking about.
