The Forum/ Forum Posting Guide
Introduction
Welcome to the STS Guide to Forum Posting, written by yours truly, Harmicide. I hope you will find it helpful in terms of what you need to know about our wonderful forum, how to use it, and some helpful tools/tips to help you succeed as a member of this forum. Please look at the Table of Contents below to find an area in which you would like information on, than look for the section even farther below with the title you want to read about. Thank you and enjoy your stay on the STS forums! I will be updating this guide frequently; so check in every so often.
Table of Contents
*Forum Etiquette
*Using The Forum Interface
*Grammar and Spelling
*FAQs
Forum Etiquette
Alright so, I'll say first thing, if you want to be a well respected community member on ANY forum, you should be mature, think about your actions before you make impulsive decisions, and use proper spelling and grammar so people can clearly understand what it is you are trying to say. STS, unlike most other forums, is unique in the sense that it is a relatively small community with a few well known Role models. STS is small enough that what you say WILL be heard and most likely responded too. This can be a very good thing, but can be bad for some. The thing is, since we have such a small community, we will get to know you fairly quickly, so first impressions are important. Come across as a friendly individual with an interest for what these forums are used for, and you will do great. Now that you somewhat have an understanding of what our community is like, let me set a couple guidelines that will make life on this forum easier for you. Some of these might sound somewhat repetitive, this is because I am really just conveying the point to act mature and kind in many different ways. They are as follows:
1) Don't just DOUBLE think before you post, QUADRUPLE think.
*Does my post address the topic at hand?
*Does my post offend/insult anyone in a way that tops what is considered acceptable by the community?
*Is my post worth posting?
*Is my post legible enough so that people can understand what I am trying to say? (Also, if you use Firefox, it should underline in red your misspelled words. It's pretty useful. The forum also has a built in spellchecker, but it goes through each word and can be annoying to use.)
2) As a general rule, try to be polite and professional as possible, especially when criticizing somebody else's work. Remember that we are all doing things at different skill levels here, and people post their work, whatever it made be, to get praises, or suggestions to help them improve their craft. Saying comments such as "It sucks", or "you suck", aren't helpful to anybody in anyway, and are not appreciated. A much better approach would be, if you don't like it, and it looks like they have clearly put some effort into their craft, tell them what you don't like so they can improve. Now in turn, if it looks like somebody is spamming the forum with garbage that didn't take them more than 5 seconds to complete, YOU SHOULDN'T POST AT ALL. Instead, if it clearly appears to be spam, let the staff handle it. This saves many headaches and is much more efficient anyways. If you have honestly been verbally abused by somebody on the forum in a post, it is likely the community will side with you and tell the person who has done so to shape up. If you are being harassed by PM, (and this like never happens, but in the rare case it does..), Either ignore the person, or if it gets really out of hand, contact a administrator and explain to them your situation.
3) Don't "Necro-post". "Necro-posting" is a forum term that means reviving old/dead topics that nobody is longer discussing. The general rule for Necro-posting is posting on a topic that nobody has posted on since 2 weeks. The only exception to this rule is that you have something CRITICAL to add to the topic, which you will have to be the judge of. After 5 weeks, the topic is officially dead, and should no longer be posted on. These aren't of course set rules, but just general guidelines you might want to keep in mind.
4) Don't flame. Before I even get into this, I just want to make very clear this doesn't mean "Don't argue". Actually, I encourage intellectual arguing, it makes for good debate on forums such as these. Just make sure while your arguing your point, you don't go the other route, and begin to "flame". "Flaming" refers to the intentional, outright bashing of other players. Such as name calling, making a mock of, etc. Just remember the golden rule: Do unto other the way you wish to be treated. If you wouldn't want somebody calling you a "Walrus-Licker", than don't call anyone else a "Walrus-Licker". Simple enough.
5) This next one is just a quick rule of thumb about "signatures". A signature refers to the text that essentially "signs" each persons posts. It is always the same, and is at the very bottom of there post under a big borderline. The big thing to remember is, try not to make them too big. People hate HUGE signatures because they suck up thread space, and look rather obnoxious. To get an idea for a good size, look at other peoples. All you need is to take a glance. Also, I am referring to the height of the picture/text, because that is what takes up space. Remember the limitations are 500x100 pixels.
6) Finally, try to avoid double posting. There is a much better alternative; You can EDIT your posts, so you don't have to post 2 in a row. There should be a button to do so on each one of your posts. It isn't THAT hard to find.
Using The Forum Interface
As a registered member of the STS Forums, you have many abilities to take advantage of. This next section will describe how to do so.
*How to post: To post in a topic, hit the reply button at the bottom of the page, type your message, and click "Post", PRESTO! You've just posted. Sometimes you may want to quote somebody else's post, so what they said is in your post so that everybody know what your referring to. To do so, find the post you want to quote, click the "Quote" button, type your message, and click "Post", DOUBLE PRESTO! You've just posted to a quote. Also just as a side note, you have the ability to edit the quote your are posting to in your post. This is useful to edit out large pictures to save space, people appreciate it.
*How to create a topic/poll: Find a thread that matches the topic you want to create. (General,Suggestions,Off-Topic). They are essentially categories, for more information to help match your topic to the right thread, read about what the thread its for under the title on the forum index menu. Once in the proper thread, scroll to the bottom and select either "New Topic", or "Post New Poll", depending on what you want to do. Once clicked, the rest should be fairly self explanatory, as it is very similar to creating a regular post.
*How to Edit/Modify your post: This is very useful because you can change/add to what you wrote without having to "double post". You can do this simply by clicking the "Modify" button in the top right corner, right next to the "Quote" button. Once clicked, simply edit your post as desired, and click "save" to update your changes.
*Making your profile/signature/avatar: At the very topic of this forum, there is a navigation bar. One of the options is "Settings". Click that, and you will open your control panel in which you can customize to your desire. The edit options are on the bottom left, and It is fairly self explanatory how to do everything, so I won't get into it here.
*Using the posting menu: When your making a post/new topic, in addition to the big rectangle where you enter text, you will also notice many buttons. These buttons are essentially shortcuts for various actions you can do to make your post pretty. Anyways, this forum uses BB Code, which means you edit your text by adding simple funky commands in brackets. BB Code is very simple and takes about 2 minutes to learn, you can learn more about it here to see how to add pictures, edit text for color/appearance: Anyways, the buttons can be used as shortcuts for BB Code. For instance, if your want an image to appear in a post, you host it on an image hosting site (like photobucket), than take the direct link and paste it into your post, than highlight it, and click the picture from button, which will enter your link into image brackets. It is good to get to know these buttons as people love to color and format their text, and post pictures.
And I believe that for the most part, this sums up the forum interface
Grammar and Spelling
"hi this is mah awesum post isnt this great!!!!"
What's wrong with this post? If you can't figure out what's wrong, you should disconnect from the Internet. Otherwise, you would know that is not how your post should look. Your posts should look like this guide: Capitalization, commas, no screaming, periods, etc.
This is not your instant messenger, and this is not a video game. This is a community that relys on YOU on being able to type correctly and professionally. DO NOT MUTILATE the English language.
Here are the top 3 rules:
Do not post with random caps or numbers.
Do not post with horrible spelling.
Do not post with horrible grammar.
Secondly, it won't hurt to have paragraphs in your posts every once in a while. Whenever you are going to write a long post, be sure to have paragraphs. Nobody can read everything in one huge paragraph as readers can get constantly lost on where they were (yes, they can).
Also, here are some abbreviations that are (believe it or not) NOT words:
u
r
4u
dat
thx
k
l8r
ne1
stfu
rtfm
iow
tha
c
o
meh
Frequently Asked Questions
~Why should I type in perfect grammar and spelling?
You're being judged on how you type your posts up, you know. If you make spelling mistakes here and there all the time, how will we understand you? You make yourself look like a fool with all those horrible errors.
~Am I required to type in perfect grammar and spelling?
With all the complaints you're going to get, it practically should be a rule. It won't get you warned or banned, but it might make people revise your post to make it legible.
You have manners in real life, and we expect you to have the same manners here. The Internet is more or less, the actual world. There's no need to act stupid as you don't act like that around your parents/family.
You can contact a moderator or an administrator if none of the FAQ answered your question. However, don't expect an answer if you cannot type in good grammar or just simply can't type at all.
Hope this helped/ Made a difference.
~Harm
