A Guide to Posting in the Forums

A Guide to Posting in the Forums:

Within one day back on the site I have noticed that many people amongst the site have either, horrible habits of "TYPN LIK DIS", not paying attention to other boards on the forum and spamming them multiple times, or tend to ignore many of the basic rules of forum etiquette. I'e attempted now at creating a board that combines many of the other topics into one easy to read post that will allow you to not embarrass yourself amongst other members merely because you cannot type in the fashion that is most usual to them.

~~Typing the full word~~
A lot of members have reverted back to their primal stages of using the computers. Taking the ''short-cut texting method'' to post on the boards, replacing words like ''To, Anyone, You, Very, About'' with phrases such as, ''2, any1, u, vry, bwt''. I don't know about anyone else, but when I read a post that has nearly every word cut down and abbreviated, it takes me about twice as long to even begin to understand what the person is trying to say. It takes the author about half a second to finish out the word ''anyone'', and it shows you as a more intelligent being, and not as a second grader, who is just learning how to work a keyboard.

~~CAPS LOCK~~
This is probably one of the most common cases of rage on the forums. I've read two post so far that had a serious problem, but the readers tore the author apart because their whole post was in caps lock. Caps lock usually expresses anger and emphasis, but you can not emphasize a very sever part of your post if your whole post itself is in capitalized letters. You are taught to read, as a child, using sentences that begin with capitals, and end with periods. Nearly every word besides that is lowercase. When you change that style of writing, it makes it much more difficult to read the post, and therefore can either anger, or turn the reader away from your subject immediately. If you abandon this way of typing, you will be a much more favored member on this site.

~~The Search Engine~~
One of the marvelous additions to the site is a search engine in the forums that will allow you to browse any board you want, but just submitting a title or subject. If you take a minute before posting your topic on "Boyfriend problems at high school'' quickly go to the search engine and type in keywords. The less keywords you type the more posts you'll come across, but with more keywords the fewer but more accurate to said problem. This method has been submitted multiple times to repeat posters, but yet triples of boards involving the same subject are posted, and instead of one forum covering everything, it tends to be that the first page is filled with 5 boards with the same titles.

~~~~A Few Helpful Hints~~~
*Title your post cleverly. If you're going for the element of surprise then this tip is useless, but if it is a problem with a friend who has gone in to the hospital, label your board ''Help friend in hospital'' or ''Friend in sever condition'' even the second of the two is good enough to let the reader know what is going on in the post before even entering. If you just put ''HELP PLEASE!!!'' , ''I don'y know what to do!!'' or ''What can I do?'' then, from my point of view, the board is passed over.

*Take your post and type it in word (or another engine that has the spell-check feature). This will make the read much smoother for the people you are trying to attract to your post. When you can read the post easily and there is no hesitation in what the author is actually trying to say, a response to said post is usually much easier and a lot more thorough on the actual subject. This post itself was written entirely in word so I could correct errors immediately as I came across them.

*Re-read your post once or twice. If it is a long post, a lot of the time many people (including myself), tend to get on a roll and continually type a post and get caught up in it that we quickly submit it without self-checking our work. Sometimes even if you type in word it won't catch when you use through and thorough, when and went, there and their, too, to and two. If you re-read at least once it is just that much easier for everyone else to understand what you are trying to explain.

((I am aware there is much more to this subject and I will do my best to add-on, but alas my school schedule has cut my free period short. If there is anything you think I've left out or could add please PM me on the site.))

Well I've actually just started posting on the site again. I haven't written a poem since July 25th, and my last post before my return the other day was back in like August.

Hopefully with the work i'm going to help put in to this site from now on, one day I'll reach that status.

BUT BACK TO THE POST
if anyone has anything they think needs added, message me.

and thank you =p

You guys think this should be posted in a more, well, viewed forum?

Make this into an article, that would be a good place for it.

I thought the articles were only supposed to be for poetry. I would never think of looking there for tips on how to use the site. It seems this should be part of the FAQs or a different section.

But until then, coolio.

That'd be great =p

Because I know most of the above are huge pet peeves of mine. Suggestions and FAQ seems like the best areas that this post should be viewed on. But alas, not many people check either. =/

Wow, a month without a post and its on the second page.

Can anyone tell me if this has been useful? Or should it be posted in a more viewed area?

I too believe it should be stickied, as soon as you change shorted to shortened, and th to the.

In the second paragraph and the second to last.

>Lauren

Well those two spelling errors have been fixed, I must have missed them myself.