In addition to baffo's list above, the following elements in a writeup will make me consider nuking it, though on their own they do not necessarily guarantee its destruction:
- Inflammatory titles. For example, Feminists can kiss my ass! immediately advertised itself to me as a potential ground zero site.
- Gross incivility. Yes, I care about manners. That same node heaped obscenities and harsh epithets upon women whose sole crime appeared to be the alleged lack of a sense of humor. Righteous indignation is fine, but uncontrolled crap-flinging is not.
- No links. It's what we do here.
- Incoherent writing.
- Bad or hopelessly outdated information. Just because a band has a new CD coming out next month does not mean they will always have a new CD coming out next month. This info automatically has an expiration date and should not be noded as such.
- Beginning your writeup with a passage defending it in advance, especially if it makes reference to "free speech", "political correctness", or says something like "this will probably be nuked" is like telling me "Even I, the author, can see that this writeup can't stand on its own merits; so I'm going to try and shame you into keeping it in the database." This makes me want to kill it immediately, and that urge will remain uppermost in my mind as I read the rest.