draconis

Posting Thesis

There are few things more important to a forum then posting. If only two people post once a week each anyone else will come see the forum and not want to wait two or three weeks to get a reply and leave. Many others will post one thing forget their pass word and check on the post to see responses. Yet another group of people will post a few things and feel that they are not responded to fast enough or plentiful enough and will move on. But in the end posts get people to stay or leave even more then content. They might check it out because of the content but in the end they want to feel like a part of something.

So let’s take a look at the types of posts.

1) Interest ~ Interest posts can often go in any direction. Imagine someone posting an article about the US having fewer paperboys today then in 1950’s but leaving just the article. It could spin off to the economy, paper vs. electronic media, conservation, child labor etc. These types of posts often have a life of their own and it is a 50/50 if they even get a hit at all.

2) Hook ~ The second largest responded to type of post. It can be a simple article about “love, mental or chemical” Then left with a question for the forum readers which do you think it is? Mostly this is an art form of knowing what the audience is, wants and will reply to. Almost anyone (regular poster) will give a response or two and check to see what others have to say.

3) Bait ~ Much like a hook this is used more as a set up. It throws a question out expecting a reply. The original poster already has a reply to who ever he has baited knowing he can beat him/her in any argument.

4) Help ~ Many forums are set up simply to help people on relationships, love, medical etc. Many get the help me threads because of this. They often are the fourth most posted to. Mostly from others that can either relate to the post or give advice.

5) Fun ~ Nothing makes a forum explode like fun threads. Fun threads can be responded to every day and sometimes every time a person goes to a forum. They feel like they have never wasted their time there. These get the most amount of posts on any forum. People that uses these have the highest post count. The down side is it takes away from the in depth of thinking through a post. Some people run up a tab just on non-serious posts. Though it might attract more people, have a higher post count and have more regulars nothing matches it for losing the seriousness of a thread.

Some examples might be:

A)
Mood thread ~ Each day post your current mood. As time goes on people will look and a post that is regularly loved changes to confused might generate questions and responses.

B)
Word association game. Also known as WAG

Here are the rules.

1) I'll start off with a word. "Cookie" you say any word that you relate to it.

2) The word can be anything you can relate to it. ie cookie can become milk, cake crisp , dough, chocolate, etc.

3) You can not double post or post to yourself.

4) Have fun.


Cookie

You can see were this one can get going, how it can be abused to get high post counts, and why some people love word games. Like I said above no one likes to come to a forum that isn’t happening. There is something about this exact thread that is always moving and people that “play” have a great time.

C)

Person Above You

This game is simple. Just state something about the person who last posted.

^
He is funny, wacked etc.

This can turn a bunch of ways. Mostly it pokes fun at someone and becomes a polite insult contest. Often it works on forums where everyone knows each other. Someone is bound to take it to seriously though and get offended or be plain rude. It is fun and does in the right settings get people to regularly post.

6) Poll ~ Simple you either ask a simple question i.e. What is the best tasting fruit? Or you have an actual poll they can cast a vote a, b, c or d and it tells them the tally so far that people have voted on. Under it has a place people can actually say why they voted the way they did, though often people vote and go.

Now of course many are wonder about me and forums. I know to much about forums. I have set up twelve myself. I am the Admin on two forums and a moderator on another. I post about two hundred times a day on different forums about a wide selection of stuff. I know what makes forums work and what makes many tank. I know what they do to make money to pay for the domain site, the redirect or how they use free forum generators and what they have to deal with.

One thing I always try to do is be polite. I might totally disagree with someone’s point of view but it is no reason to get bent out of shape about. I take very few things said on a forum personally and I think in politic threads I have been called every bad name you can think of and then some.

Forums live and die by the people that post. If you want to see a forum survive give an intelligent post everyday.

draconis

Chris H.

Pretty impressive Draconis!

List off some of the forums you started, I'm interested...

__________________

draconis

Sent you some stuff as a PM.

draconis

draconis

Posting Thesis II (Netiquette )

In my first thesis I talked about the types of posts you can make. In my second I would like to talk about internet etiquette or Netiquette. Just as you might talk to someone face to face with respect on the net there are some of the same rules that apply and some new rules.

I) Rules ~ Always read the rules of the forums. When in doubt use these rules as a guideline to post. Ask if it is okay to do stuff before you do it if you have questions. If a moderator or Admin get upset they might just give you the boot without telling you what you did wrong. Assume all forums are PG13 unless otherwise stated.

II) Read ~ Before you jump in and start to post , read what others have posted. It might be helpful to see what is acceptable. I once jumped on a forum and didn’t use capitals where they belonged. I got grief from many people on the forums because they expected it.

III) Advertisement ~ Do not use a forum to promote your product, service or business. This is called spam. Just like the junk you get in you email it is annoying.

A) Iggy spammers ~ Ignore spammers and do not respond in the threads they start. If you know they are spammers don’t even click on the thread. Make it as worthless for them as possible. Tell a moderator so the thread can be removed.

IV) Warex ~ illegal downloading, warez and cracks are illegal to post on most forums.

V) Sigs ~ Use an appropriate signature. Anything to large or advertising may get deleted.

VI) Copyright ~ Watch posting copyrighted material. If you cut and past from a website give a link to where you got the information and if you can use your own words.

VII) Title ~ Use the appropriate title for your post. People will stop going to your posts if you are known for using misleading titles.

A) Wording ~ Do not use urgent, or important in the title. I am sure everyone feels this way.

VIII) Cross post ~ Do not change a word or two so that you can put up the exact same post more then once. Do not post it in multiple sections.

IX) Hijacking ~ Hijacking is when you take away from another’s post.

A) Do not start a conversation in the middle of a post.

B) Do not change topics (start a new thread instead.)
X) Ramble ~ Don’t talk on and on around a point.

A) Be direct

B) Be succinct

XI) Empty posting ~ Post something with meaning. Empty posts are those that people use “lol”, “Good One”, “ty” . These are looked down on. A post should be 20-40 words. There are times when I have seen <I concur> mean a lot. Some threads like W.A.G. or conversation thread often have 1-2 word posts.

X) Quoting ~ When quoting someone use only information you need.

A) But do not take it out of context.

XI) Information ~ Do not post personal information or information about other people.

XII) Humor ~ Watch what you say. You might find it funny another might find it insulting.

XII) Shouting ~ Avoid all capitol letters. Caps equal SHOUTING. If you use it to highlight a word. It does NOT matter that much. But using it all the time is rude.

XIII) Whispering ~ Avoid using all lower case. Some people on some forums will be annoyed by this.

XIV) Double posting ~ Many forums have timers from 15 seconds to 2 minutes on how fast you can post so you accidentally do not post the same thing twice.

XV) G/T ~ Give and take are important to forums. First don’t go on a thread and post more then three times in a row. People will come to believe that it has become your thread and let it die.

XVI) Giveback ~ To many people throw up a question on the forums and when they get what they want they leave. It is much like going to a strangers house eating their food and leaving. Sure it is nice to say thank you. But it is better if you can stay around and pass alone your knowledge too.

XVII) Attachments ~ Explain an attachment or provide a link to the information.

XVII) English ~ I do not mean you have to be perfect but the better it is the more people will understand you.

A) Spelling

B) Grammar

C) Avoid slang

D) Avoid acronyms

E) Punctuation

F) Avoid Toggle lock (LiKe ThIs ToGgLe LoCk)

G) Avoid No or excessive punctuation

H) Avoid Excessive spacing or no spacing at all.

I) Avoid Leet speak, Leet lite(1337 or l33t l1t3)

J) Avoid Binary



XVIII) Civility ~ Be civil as much as possible even under attack. You can always quote what they are doing later if need be. For the most part you are talking with people you’ll never know personally. Take comfort in that.

XIX) I.M.img ~ Feel free to IM someone you get closer too, or someone you have a disagreement with.

XX) HTML ~ Some forums do not cover all HTML so find out what the forums can handle.

XXI) N00bs ~ Everyone is new at some point. You want the community to grow. Be nice to the new people.

XXII) Bandwidth Theft ~ Some forums do not allow theft of another’s bandwidth. If I see someone avatar that I like and url link it to use it, it steals from another. This can actually shut down some sites, or force the owners to have to pay more money for higher bandwidth.

XXIII) Respond ~ Any post you make may have criticism respond appropriately.

XXIV) Patience ~ Remember the people responding to your posts are helping or sharing without any expectation of reward for helping. Everyone has their own time that they can post. Some people rarely have time, while others do it all the time.

XXV) Community ~ Consider a forum a community of people. Working together we can all build it to be stronger with more regular activity.

XXVI) Build your Reputation ~ Answer some other people’s questions and offer
solutions to their problems.

XXV) Dignity ~ Treat others on the forum with respect.
Do not use personal attacks, hate speech, racist or sexist attacks, sexual harassment, lewd sexual comments, or slanderous speech, because it will not be tolerated.

XXVI) Proper ~ Do not use graphic language, nude or sexually explicit images.

XXVII) Flaming ~ No posting just to incite people.

XXVIII) Trolling ~ Do not post to incite others to flame.

A) Provoking other users to respond with flames

B) Making misleading topic titles

C) Asking obviously useless questions

D) Posting false information as fact

E) “Spoof" Threads, where they are not allowed.

F) Informing users that you have reported their post on some forums is considered trolling.

G) Flaming on threads because you know the thread will be removed anyways.

XXIX) Impersonation ~ Either hacking or using another’s name, namesake etc.

XXX) Shang high ~ Don’t join a forum to “steal it’s members”

XXXI) Diplomacy ~ Without intending, it's easy to seem snapping: "I already did all that".

XXXII) Challenging ~ Do not question everything someone says and have them prove everything they post. I have been in discussions were ever time I said something they wanted the link and the information. The one time I provided a link that went down after a week it was as if my word on everything was suspect. 99.9% I can back up and prove my posts, although I shouldn’t always have to.

A) Don’t challenge, flame, or troll just because you personally don’t like someones point of view.

XXXIII) Tacking ~ Do not just add to your thread because it isn’t up at the top. Start a new thread if need be. It is okay to tack if it is important to have the old information.

XXXIV) Future-Help ~ If you solve your own problem put up the solution so other can use it.

XXXV) Debate ~ This should be of the ideas not between the posters.

XXXVI) Shotgun Posting ~ Posting the same question across several sites.

XXXVII) Bumping ~ Posting on old dead threads.

XXXVIII) Power Posting - See Empty posting #XI

XXXIX) Chat Boards ~ Places where people can chat back and forth on open forums.

A) Romance

B) Role play

XL) Moderators ~ All moderators have certain powers including:

A) Hiding threads
B) Moving threads
C) Locking threads
D) Deleting threads
E) Hiding posts
F) Deleting posts
G) Banning users
H) Viewing all your posts
I) Edit all posts
J) Exceed the character limit
K) See all unapproved topics in Feedback
L) Approve un-approved replies in Feedback
M) See you IP address
N) Create, Move, Modify, Delete or reorder boards.
O) Create, Move, Modify, Delete or reorder Categories
P) Modify Rankings
Q) Censor words
R) Reserve names
S) PM All user
T) See invisible users
U) See all profiles including hidden information
V) Modify a users profile
W) Reset a pass word
X) See Last Known IP
Y) See Last Login Date
Z) Change account status

So treat them with respect.

Draconis