#peppy is the team strategist for a reason

[spacenintendogs]

i think he wants the ball

[iguessishouldbethankful]

BOUNCING OFF THE ASK I ANSWERED rant about [pairing] FOR FALUCY? TY ILY 💕💕

SHIP ASKS:

TW: Death, depression, suicidal ideation.

Can it be a good rant? Because let me tell you something...

Out of all the female characters that Star Fox had, for some reason, I fell hard for Lucy Hare back in 2010. Why? I have no idea. All I know is that playing Star Fox Command made me adore her more than I should. And of course, seeing as Falco is my big favorite in the entire series, I wanted to ship them. But at the time I had no idea how to--I was also not as active in the RP community then so most of it were skin deep ideas and maybes.

Until I jumped in deep back in the end of 2018.

You see... I made a Lucy Hare Rp blog and I went deep into Lucy’s character and headcanons. Her history, her motives, etc. And a lot of my headcanons for Vivian Hare comes from Immy’s version of Vivian so shout outs for her. Anyway, I started to think about Lucy’s past and her relationship to the Star Fox team and it occured to me that Lucy would have been introduced to Falco when she was 16, a year before the war. And there was absolutely no romantic interest between the two. Falco was new and super awkward around everywhere and probably not exactly all that friendly at first. And Lucy? She was fucking salty. Salty like the depths of the Dead Sea. Why?

BECAUSE FALCO TOOK HER SPOT IN THE TEAM.

Peppy and Fox denied her entry to the Star Fox team because, well, Peppy didn’t want to lose his daughter, and she was too young, and Vivian needed someone to help her around. So Lucy was stuck and incredibly sour about it--the reject, so to speak. But she never said anything to Falco. Instead she just forced a smile, being daddy’s and mommy’s good little girl.

Be the good girl.

Dealing with the war, protecting her mother, dealing with her strong crush to Fox because of course she would have a crush on Fox. They were inseparable as kids, why wouldn’t she have a crush on him? Why wouldn’t she be hopeful of being his right hand pilot, or even a strategist. Go to the Academy, be a team with Slippy and Bill like they always dreamed of! She didn’t expect James to ever die and change her father’s mind, or for Fox to break his promise... For things to change.

Finishing the Academy after the war, graduating as a pilot, but decides to go to college afterwards because, well... She didn’t want anything to do with piloting. Her heart broke. So Astrophysics it was. She’s very smart, but of course being rejected stung enough that it did make her question if this was what she really wanted to do. 

It didn’t matter, do what you can. Keep an eye on mother. They survived the war, Peppy was out there with Fox still. They’ll be back soon. They’d be able to talk about stuff and she’d feel better.

Thing is, Peppy hardly returned home at all. Answered calls less and less, trying to maintain the Great Fox together was the lack of jobs was increasing. And Lucy was feeling too numb to even have a reaction--as her mother was slowly wasting away. You see, Vivian has a rare rabbit disease that usually affects the females of the family. She’d slowly lose feelings and become paralyzed. It got worse after the war. Lucy was taking care of Vivian up until they moved her to the hospital.

Soon, Vivian could only breathe because the machines manually did it for her. Lucy was too numb to care about her father. When she finally reached him, it was an emergency call. Dad, she’s gone.

You see...

The second time Lucy met Falco, was during Vivian Hare’s funeral. Lucy was emotionless, possibly perceived strong, but she had cried her eyes out before hand. Whereas everyone comforted Peppy instead. The rabbit was devastated. Falco mostly kept to himself, silent as well. There was nothing to really talk about. He... wasn’t good with grief. He wasn’t good with loss.

It scared him.

A year after this happened, Falco left the team, and Lucy graduated from college and left Corneria for an Academy job on Fichina. there was nothing but silence and cold from all corners fr a long time. And Lucy kept tabs on the team, hoping maybe one day she’d get closer to them but understood her father’s reluctance about the subject. Give it time, he was grieving too.

So Lucy became accustomed to the frigid world of Fichina. The underground city layout due to the intense weather it had. The lack of sun. The rising rates of depression and ideation, limited resources because everything needed to be imported, and her having only so many cadets interested in her subject despite it being important. They wanted to fly, not study. Slowly, her heart was very limited. Her smile plastered on to hide the fact that she was still hurt and a little angry.

And one day, she calls in to her father and finds out that Falco returned and that they also had a new member to the Star Fox team that would be taking his place. Oh? Yes. Meet Krystal.

....oh....

Someone that had no Academy training, someone that had no prior history with flying, someone that has no connections to the team until recently... Someone that she was presented to and said that adored Peppy as though he were her own father. To Lucy, it was like tearing open so many old scars, letting the wounds fester. Especially when she saw the dreamy look on Fox’s face. The smiling look on Peppy’s face.

...I see.

Be the good girl.

Smile. Be supportive. Be happy that her father would soon be retiring. That they would... have a good pilot. That they were getting back on their feet again and quickly hired on to chase Andrew’s Rebellion that was quickly rising. Smile through the coming months of constant worry ad waiting for the retirement to come--soon she’d finally have her father closer to her. Hopefully. Smile as the Aparoids attacked Fichina, putting many lives in jeopardy. Smile as Peppy never answered her calls.

Smile when Fox finally contacts her, explaining what happened after they invaded the Aparoid home world,how Peppy almost lost his life.

Enough.

Lucy broke. She shrieked. Fox never saw his childhood friend hold so much fury before. None of the team did. Not even Peppy. Not even when Lucy was rejected to be part of the team. It lead them to visit Fichina and let Lucy confront her father, convincing him to finally retire. He was left there by the team and Lucy finally had him close to her for once.

Only for a few months however. General Pepper had chosen Peppy to take his place. Good things only lasted for a little while. The Star Fox team also broke apart yet again.It was funny how bitterness could bring Lucy and Krystal together as friends. Even if it was skin deep, Lucy still appreciated the vulpine. Funny how only then, when Fox was trying to set records straight with Star Wolf, dealing with the Anglar rising did Lucy finally get a chance to spread her wings and defend her new home. Fight along side the remains of what was the Star Fox team. Again, good things only lasted for a while.

Slippy was engaged ad about to marry in a few weeks. Soon after, so was Fox and Krystal. The team was dismantling for good. Fox’s wedding was the confirmation of his decision. A peace well needed for the family, or so, Lucy hoped. Despite the fury she spat at the team about Peppy almost dying, she never got the chance to truly say what she felt. To spill all the poison she had. And it felt as though, when James died, her world just broke apart as well. She lost her own father due to an all consuming guilt that was too focused and forgetful and selfish.

Seeing Peppy walk Krystal down the aisle to Fox was a reminder of that. A punch to the gut. So much Lucy hoped for, hoping she’d be accepted or seen, she’d been ignoring her own chances to be happy. Spent a while life waiting for a father or a glance her way from a team that really didn’t do the same. Why should they? She was never meant to be part of them. The wedding just made everything around Lucy break the bits of hope she had, realizing that... she waited for nothing really. She’d go back home to a frigid rock and she’d be there, waking up to the cold sunless planet, with cadets that didn’t care much about her classes and a father that was barely there for her.

And she didn’t want to go back. Honestly she didn’t want to go on. During the wedding reception, Lucy quietly left on foot. She even smiled when no one noticed when she was gone. No one texted her on her phone. No one called her. 30 minutes, a walk from the celebration hall to a long lonely bridge. Shoes off, climbing up the railing. Take in the rushing river, the moon, the wind that made her aqua dress move like waves. No one would notice, really.

Desperation was funny like that. A moment of weakness.

‘I don’t get how you’re not cold. The metal’s freezing to me.’

Falco leans up against the railing next to her, surprising her. Soon, both of them were watching the moonlight as she talked to her. Possibly the first real conversation they truly had. Lucy was stunned to notice that he had noticed her leave quietly. How?

‘You had that look on your face. The kind your dad had when your mom passed away. Just no crying.’

Lucy asked how did he know. How could he know what was going through her mind? To him, it was easy only because... he was feeling it too. When Lucy had chances to become something else, Falco really had none of that. No family to return to, no real drive to find another purpose. Flying is all he’s good at and the Star Fox team was all he really had. It was home. A family. That was now gone. It also didn’t help that he also had a thing for Fox. He lost that too because he was a fool. He left when he shouldn’t have.

This sort of confession was something Lucy needed to hear. To pull her out of herself and not focus so much on what she lost. It was enough to make her regret what went through her mind when she climbed the railing of the bridge. And Falco helped her down.

‘I don’t want to go back there.’

‘That’s fine, I don’t want to either. I ain’t about formal stuff.’And he was glad Lucy laughed at that. ‘How ‘bout we cross the rest of the bridge and go downtown? Downtown Corneria doesn’t sleep and we’re dressed up anyway.’

Lucy accepts, brushing the tears away from her smudged make up and taking his offered hand. Shoes back on, wristlet in hand, they crossed the bridge, leaving behind an episode in their lives and starting a new one.

Who knows.

Might lead to something so much better.

[lucyariablog]

27 Reasons Why Your Content Sucks

Nobody thinks their content sucks – or, in other words, is weak and not deserving to be believed.

After all, why would someone intentionally create something that’s utterly useless for their organization or their audience?

And yet, a lot of content sucks. We’ve all seen (and sometimes created) it.

Consider this article the proverbial splash of cold water to help you wake up (or more importantly, wake your content up).

More than 70 people responded to my request for examples of bad content, but almost all demurred to offer real-life examples. But one brave, smart content creator came forward to share her own experience: Christina Russ of Gage Diamonds.

“Sadly, I’m guilty of writing (weak) content at times,” she says. “Here’s a piece I wrote that no one will ever read because, honestly, no one gives a crap about what I’m selling.”

“Despite the fact that I write that type of content, I have my moments of sanity. Here’s a better piece I wrote,” Christina says.

Christina smartly recognized the difference between the two posts: “One is (perceived as) beneficial to the business. The other is beneficial to the readers because it provides useful information about store credit cards and financing opportunities.”

A lack of focus on the audience’s needs was frequently cited as a key mistake.

Now, that we have the audience-focus thing on the list, let’s dive into 27 more characteristics of content that sucks.

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1. Another of the same

Blog posts that just sum up what you can find through Google searches. Regurgitation of basic information that’s reformatted on a company blog with a lot of injected ads, unnecessary links, and keyword stuffing in hopes of achieving a high SERP rank. If all your blog post does is tell me the same information I can find through a simple Google search, then it’s (weak).

Dew Smith, managing editor, Vendasta

Not only has the topic been dealt with, but even the angle taken is too familiar … I don’t need to read what’s already been published 300 times. I am not saying invent something new, just don’t share the same 10 tips that everyone is sharing.

Youness Bermime, content writer, writersdo.com

I don’t need to read what’s already been published 300 times, says @YounessBermime. #contentmarketing Click To Tweet

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2. Product name here and here and there

The more mentions of the brand or its product in the bounds of a piece of content, the higher the (weakness) of that piece of content.

Eric Kinaitis, director of content marketing, American Endowment Foundation

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3. We before you

Whether it is on Twitter, blogs, or company collateral, there seems to be a recent trend to overemphasize statements about oneself or to put the company ahead of the customer. No matter the content type, this type of self-indulgence is weak. You’ll lose the reader because of braggadocios puffery. Remove the ‘I’ and ‘we’ from your marketing.

Jamie Glass, CMO and president, Artful Thinkers

Remove the “I” and “we” from your #marketing or you’ll lose the reader, says @jglass8. Click To Tweet

4. Now obsolete

“You can have outstanding blogs when first published that ultimately turn (weak) because they are outdated.

“I rewrote this post about concussion-related light sensitivity, even though it was already ranking number one for several target keywords. I did it because: 1) it took too long to answer the question that most searchers were asking, which resulted in a high bounce rate and low average time on page. The original post wasted a lot of valuable real estate sharing info on general characteristics of post-concussion syndrome vs. the meat of the content related to light sensitivity AND 2) new research had been published, which I wanted to include to make it fresh and relevant. “

Greg Bullock, marketing manager, TheraSpecs

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5. No duh

Stating the obvious. The world is round. A volcano is hot. Snakes can be poisonous. Then explaining in painful detail these obvious facts.

Holly Wolf, director of customer engagement, SOLO Laboratories Inc.

It’s trite. It’s content that tells me something obvious – an article on losing weight that recommends exercising regularly, or a piece with money-saving tips that says to cut out Starbucks from my morning routine.

Jami Barnett, associate director of research, Consumer Affairs

Weak #content tells me something obvious, says @JamiBarnett. Click To Tweet

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6. Pointless intros

Some (weak) content can be found in a lot of good content. For instance, the first paragraph or two is (almost) always filler that never tells you anything informative and can be skipped on almost every article. Go ahead and try it.

Mike Lamood, founder, Lamood Big Hats

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7. No voice

There’s no excuse, no matter the topic, for dry content with no emotion or enthusiasm. You can’t convert without getting your readers excited. Instead, throw in personality and stories, create a voice, and be human.

Brittany Berger, founder, Brittany Berger

There’s no excuse, no matter the topic, for dry #content with no emotion or enthusiasm, says @thatbberg. Click To Tweet

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8. Humdrum

In the event video world, it’s a three-minute highlights video with peppy music, generic conference testimonials, and footage of attendees networking across a table.

Briana De Marco, Media Llama

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9. All listicles, all the time

Ever read articles called ‘10 Ways That You Can Improve Your SEO,’ ‘5 Cool Things to Do in (City Name),’ ‘10 Healthy Diets That Make You Feel Good’? Those articles are boring. I get it – for a while people were obsessed with listicles. Yes, sometimes having a listicle on your blog isn’t a bad thing. But, if every article you post is a listicle, you just aren’t trying hard enough.

Dan Salganik, managing partner, VisualFizz

If every article you post is a listicle, you just aren’t trying hard enough, says @VisualFizz. Click To Tweet

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10. Unfulfilled premise

The Internet always manages to astound me with how much content delivers none of the info promised in the title.

Justin Golschneider, vice president of marketing, ChannelReply

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 11. Wrong information

Nothing will kill your content more than false information.

Emily Trogdon, public relations manager, The Brandon Agency

Nothing will kill your #content more than false information, says @QuickFoxescom. Click To Tweet

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12. Poor or no sources

It fails to establish credibility – an important concept from journalism that most marketers haven’t yet mastered. Credibility means quoting nonpartisan subject matter experts, using data from trusted, objective, neutral sources, and not editorializing. Authoritative sources build credibility, credibility builds trust, and trust drives revenue.

Jeff Roberts, digital marketing director, Olive & Company

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13. Focus on length

You can find plenty of discussions debating the merits of 1,500-word posts vs. 500-word posts. Both sides promise that their ideal length gives a surefire way of keeping a reader on your page. But that misses the point entirely. Content should always fulfill its purpose and do it in a succinct, respectful way that doesn’t waste a reader’s time – regardless of if it’s 10 seconds or 10 minutes.

Shelby Rogers, content marketing strategist, Solodev

14. TL; DR (Too long, didn’t read)

We don’t have time to read a 5,000-word article – or a long video or big volume of images on social media.

Connie Chi, CEO, The Chi Group

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15. Irrelevant

“Bad content is irrelevant for a specified audience. It doesn’t add value. It doesn’t entertain. It doesn’t answer a question.

 “The hinge here is the audience. As the old saying goes, ‘One person’s trash is another’s treasure,’ so it’s important to continuously challenge assumptions, with data, analytics and even intuition.”

Frank Strong, owner, Sword and the Script Media

16. Negativity

“It’s focused on attacking other players in the market, trying to put the competition down and creating conflict to get attention.

“When Uber tries to break into a new market, it has launched aggressive campaigns against taxi drivers.

“We see competition as helping us grow the market … Just like a person could use an Uber sometimes, and other times a taxi. There’s room for everyone in this world.”

Ela Iliesi, SEO specialist and trainer, London Marketing Academy

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17. Check-off task

It is usually written exclusively to check off a task on the marketing team’s SEO plan. You can almost always tell when you come across a post that’s written to grab organic traffic from some keyword.

Brinck Slattery, marketing director, LBRY

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18. Fluffy

Unnecessarily twisting an article by adding useless and irrelevant words to make the post 2,000-plus words to satisfy Google. It comes at the cost of bad audience experience.

Yogesh Jain, founder, Concept Allies

Adding useless words to make a post 2,000+ words comes at the cost of bad audience experience. @mrjainyogesh Click To Tweet

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19. Generic

‘We should blog a lot because it’s good for SEO.’ The firms (who think that way) often end up publishing the same blog on their site as every one of their competitors … The recycled and sterile blog articles aren’t representative of anyone at their firm.

Spencer X Smith, instructor in social media at the University of Wisconsin & Rutgers University; author, ROTOMA: The ROI of Social Media Top of Mind

20. Word selection

The words are not compelling enough. This doesn’t mean use exciting vs. boring words but words that are appropriate for the content piece’s goal and the audience who would read it.

Laura Lopez, manager, content marketing, Notarize

21. Hard-to-read structure and exciting punctuation

“Anything with lots of passive voice, dependent clauses, and nonvarying sentence length.

“Anything with an emoticon. Just don’t. Lots of exclamation points. Makes me feel like I’m reading something written by a tween!”

Amanda Austin, founder and president, Little Shop of Miniatures

22. Boring images

It is not visually engaging. Instead of posting a photo of an event’s promotional poster or restaurant’s menu, try a picture of the event or menu item with engaging copy to support the promotion. Be descriptive but not salesy! Bad content might say, ‘Enjoy a delicious cocktail at this restaurant,’ versus ‘Tacos + margs make for the happiest of hours.’

Ashley Cady, integrated communications manager, Flock and Rally

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23. Clunky design

“It’s clumsy or has a hard-to-understand layout. It’s published in an outdated manner so as to appear to be created with older technological limitations. 

“It contains overused or inappropriate typefaces or boring titles … The color compliments are disturbing or irrelevant and clumsy graphics, especially, badly rendered gradients, poorly clipped out or cropped elements; low image quality such as with lack of attention to composition, lighting, styling or color, especially low resolution, blurry, or watermarked photos.”

Rich Harris, founder and CMO, insomniagraphix

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24. Camel-like

“When everyone puts their two cents into ideas for shaping the content, it often becomes watered down. There is an old saying, ‘A camel is a horse designed by a committee.’

“(Weak) content also gets produced when you are afraid your company or your client might not approve the content you were originally planning.

Robert Barrows, R.M. Barrows, Inc. Advertising & Public Relations

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25. Unfriendly mobile and meta

“Mobile thinking should be a no-brainer. And yet, people still publish content with huge blocks of text that are difficult to scan.

“It also doesn’t have optimal metadata. No one shares an ugly link. Search engines skip over content with missing meta descriptions.”

Benjamin Collins, CEO, Laughing Samurai

Bad #content has ugly links (no one will share) and doesn’t have optimal metadata, says @extremecollins. Click To Tweet

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26. Silly expectations

With the rise of social platforms and the desire to capture user attention in short vehicles and formats seen on mobile devices, it is creating slow music audio in a long video and expecting the user to have the time to actually get through the long video.

Robb Hecht, adjunct marketing professor, Baruch College

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27. Begging

“Tweet this. Like us. Share it. Don’t reduce to begging for social shares and likes as it can reflect a negative impression and thus put your brand’s reputation at risk.”

Mehmood Hanif, senior digital marketing strategist, PureVPN

Don’t reduce to begging for #social shares & likes as it can reflect a negative impression. @MehmoodHanif Click To Tweet

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Conclusion

OK, how many of the content sins described have you committed? More importantly, how many of them do you plan to fix?

Oh, and if you have other ideas of what makes content bad, please share in the comments. Bonus points if you provide examples. Big bonus points if you own your bad examples in the comments.

Gather with over 100 experts to learn more about how to make sure your content – and your content marketing – doesn’t suck. Register today for Content Marketing World this September. 

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post 27 Reasons Why Your Content Sucks appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

from http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2018/01/reasons-content-sucks/