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Posting Guidelines / Guidelines to Make Quality Posts

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tidruG
Just a sort of an easy guide on how to make a good post:

  1. Before doing anything else on the forums, please read the Forum Rules. These are the general rules related to conduct and posting in the forums in general.

  2. Always read the Rules and other announcements at the top of the forum before posting anything... and by anything, I mean replies too! These are the general rules of that particular forum.

  3. Always go through the stickies before starting a new thread. Some of the very popular threads are made stickies. Stickies are always right under the announcements, and they're there to prevent unnecessary starting of threads on popular topics which already exist. (Edit 2 - suggested by gonzo)

  4. Before posting a new topic, use the "Search" function and make sure a similar topic does not exist. You may safely start a new thread once you're sure that a similar topic doesn't exist. Also, avoid posting multiple new topics in any forum... this gets annoying and will be treated as spam, and most of your new topics will be moved to Trash.

  5. When posting a new topic, try to make your subject as descriptive about your topic as possible. For example, if you need help with installing phpBB, instead of having a topic called "need help", you could name your topic "need help with phpBB installation" (Edit 3 : This rule suggested by Traveller, in this post)

  6. When replying to a new topic, make sure you write more than just a random word or a smiley... not only is this very annoying, but it is considered spam too... I mean, post your opinions, post your own thoughts about the topic. If you agree with someone else's reply, post why you agree.

  7. When replying, make sure your post adds to the discussion, and is not just some random line that has no connection to the topic at all... This generally happens when you attempt to post in topics that don't really interest you. Just avoid posting in threads that don't interest you. Wink

  8. DO NOT SPAM OR FLAME! At Frihost, we like to keep discussions civil and of good quality. If you are caught flaming or spamming excessively, you will get a warning, and may get banned as well. Generally, when banned, your IP address is locked, so you cannot register for another account, either.

    Here are some examples of spam for which one will not receive hosting and which could results in a ban - do not post messages like these:

    Subject: "This is my second topic. I only need 3 more"
    Message: "I must post as much as I can to get the 10 points so they will give me the hosting."

    Subject: "Very good hosting, but I have to post 5 times and get 10 points"
    Message: "I am posting this message to complete my 5 posts and my 10 points."

    Yes, these are actual examples of messages posted by actual users. Please do not follow their examples or you will risk their same fate.

  9. Write posts of good length. Writing posts that are short one-liners are not considered good quality posts. If you are stating your opinion on something, tell us why you think so, instead of just stating what you think. Of course, not every post you make can be paragraph-length. But in general, try to keep majority of your posts of a good length.

  10. Just imagine what it would be like if you and some friends, in real life, were sharing a pleasant conversation with meaningful content already exchanged, and someone completely unknown to any of you suddenly stepped into the middle of the group and started saying nothing but, "Hi! I'm here!" or "I don't really care what you guys were already saying, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm here and that you should listen to enough of my vacuous comments for me to become a respected member of your group." Obviously, that would not go over very well with your group, and it doesn't go over very well here, either.

Happy posting!

Edit 1 : OK This link was posted by lockwolf... it's a flash video which should give you some basic idea... it's actually for the Steam forums (so, the buttons and all are very different fron the Frihost Template, but you should at least get the basic idea behind posting, and where/when/how to post:

http://gprime.net/flash.php/postingandyou

If someone's got a lot of time on their hands and good Flash programming skills, a similar little Flash using the Frihost buttons and colours will be appreciated.

Members are welcomed to add their suggestions to this. The good ones will be added to the list.

Note to all members : Do not reply to this thread unless you have a suggestion to make. I will only let the replies that make new suggestions be here. All other replies will be removed to the spam can or deleted.

Last edited by tidruG on Thu Aug 31, 2006 6:57 pm; edited 10 times in total
tidruG
haris3 wrote:
Question Hi, What is a "Stickie"? How will it make me earn more points and make my forums better?

Thanks, and cool flash site by the way. I just got into flash. I'm loving it. Hope i can master it one day. Very Happy

Stickies are threads that have the "Sticky" written right before their title. Normal users cannot post stickies or announcement. However, a moderator can make a normal thread into a sticky if he/she considers it important. Stickies contain either:
  • Important information or updates regarding the forum

--- or ---
  • Popular threads... generally many threads are created on the same topic, so the Mods choose the oldest one and make it a Sticky


Basically, a "sticky" is so called because it always remains at the top of the forum, right under the announcements. With normal threads, threads which have been recently posted in move to the top of the forums and others move down.

By the way, please stop disabling BBCode in your posts... this is a general message for all users.

Last edited by tidruG on Thu Dec 08, 2005 5:07 pm; edited 1 time in total
Traveller
When it comes to message-board protocol, my pet peeve is the lack of properly descriptive message subjects. Some generic, made-up examples:
  • My new site! - Okay...what is the subject matter of your site, and why should I bother to view the message? Drawing people to advertisements for your site is as important as drawing people to the site, itself. When your site was created, you had to submit a description. Use all or some of it as the subject of the message for announcing your site.
  • Website editing software - Does your message promote such software, or does it ask a question (e.g. availability or opinions) about such software? If it is a question, put a question mark at the end of the subject or use the question-mark icon.
  • This is great! - If it's SO great, why not heighten interest by making the subject something that will allow people to decide if it is of interest to THEM?
  • Please help - With what? From the subject line, I cannot tell if the help you need is help I am able to offer.

The list is FAR greater, of course, but those are some representative examples.
HoboPelican
fribee wrote:
Me neither, f. i. what is a quote box?

So actually I don't know, for what reason I got the warning
for. Could anybody please help?

Thx

Fribee


When you are typing your post, there is a button at the top of the page (between the Underline and Code buttons) for adding tags for a quote box.

Or you can type them directly.
Code:
[quote]Quoted text goes between the tags [/quote]


This will render as a quote box
Quote:
Quoted text goes between the tags


This allows us to differentiate what is quoted and what is your own creation.
Traveller
fribee wrote:
I thought it's enough to state the source of the
copy, but obviously I was wrong.

So actually I don't know, for what reason I got the warning
for. Could anybody please help?


Well, I've only just returned from a trip, but from the above information that you posted, I hope I can help, somewhat.

One of the things considered spam on FriHost is the posting of copied-and-pasted information without the addition of any of the user's own, original content. Thus, some warnings have to do with the user's not having used quote tags, and some have to do with not stating the source. Even if those two things are followed, however, when a user merely posts a quote that anyone else could just as easily copy and paste, and states nothing else about it, that user is not really providing anything original to the discussion, and should not be earning points and FRIH$ based upon the value of someone else's work. That is why even a properly marked and attributed quote may be considered spam.

This does not mean that you should not post any quotes, but is intended to foster a better quality of discussion among users without having anyone get over on the others by merely leeching something from a webpage somewhere. If you do use quoted material, please contribute something useful or helpful within the same message. For example: you could quote something that is relevant to the topic of the thread, then add a well-thought-out commentary about the quote as it pertains to the thread. You could say, "This quote expresses my opinion better than I can, but let me add why I believe this, as well as a few points about which I disagree with the quote." Obviously, just interjecting "True, D0000d!" or "Way C0000l!" every few lines would not qualify as having added intelligent, original content (and, yes, we have seen many such posts).

I hope that helps a little bit. The posting requirement and the point system may seem a little difficult at first, but it is really not hard to maintain a reasonable degree of posting quality, especially if you treat other users just as you would any other group of friends who are already standing around talking about something.

Good luck, and enjoy!
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