Threadiquette

[the_std]

There are certain examples of thread/posting etiquette that I consider essential to most "mature" boards (this board and CS would be included in that definition)... Most are what not to do.

1) Grammar and spelling consideration.

Now, I don't expect everyone to consult a dictionary every time they want to post. But wen som1 post lik dis I am going to walk away without reading anything they write. Or when someone posts like this with no punctuation and proceed to wall o text forever it becomes a run on sentence and I would rather shoot myself than read it anymore argh formatting is really damn important!

2) Familiarizing yourself with the thread content before posting.

This is especially important on boards like this one. Again, I'm will give leeway in threads that have twenty pages or so of postings - I don't expect everyone to read each individual post. But keeping current with trends or ideas in threads is absolutely integral when you want to stay relevant and, most importantly, not annoying the people who've made the effort to keep up.

3) Knowing the rules of the community you're a part of.

It is insanely frustrating to watch someone commit a big no-no and then turn around and get crazy defensive because they obviously did not read the rules of a forum. It's like if you were to come to Fratching and go into one of the religion debates and say "lol Christianity is the BOMB and the_std is a fucking faggot for not agreeing!" and then, when they get reprimanded, turning around and saying, "yall are NAZIS wat about FREEDOM OF SPEECH im leaving and never coming back!" Guess what? You're not gaining any sympathy here, it's your own damn fault for not reading the rules, bucko!

That's all I've got for now. Debate my points or add your own here!

[HYHYBT]

On #2... it depends. If a thread has meandered, there's nothing wrong with addressing a point from earlier that's gotten left behind. The only purpose stopping that serves is to provide ammunition for those who like to complain that they're being shut out of the conversation simply by others' continuing it. (Or, for example, threads where people pretend that the fact that others are making jokes stops them from posting on-topic. Sure, the current portion of the thread contains jokes, but there is NOTHING stopping you from making a serious reply to the serious portion of the thread, nor stopping anyone who wishes to read and respond to that reply from doing so, etc.) On the other hand, if the point's been thoroughly covered and you didn't notice because you only read the OP, that's different.

[gremcint]

Use the enter key.

I lose my place very easily when it's a wall of text.


EXAMPLE
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque ultricies vulputate dolor, id ultricies urna porta quis. Phasellus sem erat, congue nec auctor ac, eleifend sit amet dui. Etiam ut lectus et enim facilisis malesuada. Sed bibendum ultricies condimentum. Aenean tempus lobortis libero, vel varius nunc volutpat vel. Curabitur venenatis, neque nec porta tristique, augue velit suscipit nunc, vel commodo tortor orci aliquet justo. Phasellus vehicula, leo non semper sodales, nulla lacus dapibus orci, non sollicitudin orci velit vel erat. Ut ac justo tellus, ac fermentum felis. Nulla facilisi. Mauris aliquam, augue vel pretium venenatis, lacus nisl laoreet enim, non interdum sapien tortor vel erat. Nunc sem sapien, eleifend nec hendrerit at, aliquet a justo. Donec eleifend commodo quam a commodo. Praesent non elit arcu, eu gravida turpis. Suspendisse vitae mauris felis. Integer fringilla convallis eros, vitae venenatis lorem volutpat ut. Integer sed nulla vel libero laoreet consectetur. Aliquam rutrum commodo dictum. Aliquam sollicitudin, lacus quis vehicula mollis, urna ligula cursus enim, at fringilla velit justo et augue. Mauris et felis sed elit pulvinar dapibus eget ut nisi. Nam ac sapien tellus, id rutrum risus. Morbi odio est, suscipit vitae varius id, adipiscing ut dui. Ut congue scelerisque ligula. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nam aliquam hendrerit varius. Aenean convallis est a augue commodo consectetur. Ut accumsan, nisl mattis hendrerit ultrices, quam arcu euismod mauris, sit amet sodales libero massa et nunc. Aliquam erat volutpat. Ut sollicitudin hendrerit metus sit amet sagittis. Maecenas placerat semper convallis. Nullam hendrerit varius dapibus. Praesent viverra, orci eget convallis congue, libero ipsum dapibus diam, vitae auctor dolor elit in justo. Vestibulum imperdiet nunc id lectus vestibulum vestibulum et at magna. Integer luctus feugiat elit sed adipiscing. Donec est urna, dignissim sed dapibus sit amet, elementum ut lectus. Ut lobortis mollis mi, eu rutrum ipsum tempor sagittis. Maecenas lectus lacus, posuere quis convallis nec, auctor sed purus. Nam mattis dui ut urna consectetur laoreet.

VS

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Pellentesque ultricies vulputate dolor, id ultricies urna porta quis. Phasellus sem erat, congue nec auctor ac, eleifend sit amet dui. Etiam ut lectus et enim facilisis malesuada. Sed bibendum ultricies condimentum. Aenean tempus lobortis libero, vel varius nunc volutpat vel. Curabitur venenatis, neque nec porta tristique, augue velit suscipit nunc, vel commodo tortor orci aliquet justo. Phasellus vehicula, leo non semper sodales, nulla lacus dapibus orci, non sollicitudin orci velit vel erat. Ut ac justo tellus, ac fermentum felis. Nulla facilisi. Mauris aliquam, augue vel pretium venenatis, lacus nisl laoreet enim, non interdum sapien tortor vel erat. Nunc sem sapien, eleifend nec hendrerit at, aliquet a justo. Donec eleifend commodo quam a commodo. Praesent non elit arcu, eu gravida turpis. Suspendisse vitae mauris felis.

Integer fringilla convallis eros, vitae venenatis lorem volutpat ut. Integer sed nulla vel libero laoreet consectetur. Aliquam rutrum commodo dictum. Aliquam sollicitudin, lacus quis vehicula mollis, urna ligula cursus enim, at fringilla velit justo et augue. Mauris et felis sed elit pulvinar dapibus eget ut nisi. Nam ac sapien tellus, id rutrum risus. Morbi odio est, suscipit vitae varius id, adipiscing ut dui. Ut congue scelerisque ligula. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nam aliquam hendrerit varius. Aenean convallis est a augue commodo consectetur. Ut accumsan, nisl mattis hendrerit ultrices, quam arcu euismod mauris, sit amet sodales libero massa et nunc. Aliquam erat volutpat. Ut sollicitudin hendrerit metus sit amet sagittis. Maecenas placerat semper convallis.

Nullam hendrerit varius dapibus. Praesent viverra, orci eget convallis congue, libero ipsum dapibus diam, vitae auctor dolor elit in justo. Vestibulum imperdiet nunc id lectus vestibulum vestibulum et at magna. Integer luctus feugiat elit sed adipiscing. Donec est urna, dignissim sed dapibus sit amet, elementum ut lectus. Ut lobortis mollis mi, eu rutrum ipsum tempor sagittis. Maecenas lectus lacus, posuere quis convallis nec, auctor sed purus. Nam mattis dui ut urna consectetur laoreet.

END EXAMPLE

Then there is also font and colour, I'm sorry but a lot of colours people use to be special are very difficult to read as well as other fonts.

Also there is no reason to quote the entire post when you are the next post directly beneath it, and are only responding to a small part.

[the_std]

On #2... it depends. If a thread has meandered, there's nothing wrong with addressing a point from earlier that's gotten left behind.
[/snip]
On the other hand, if the point's been thoroughly covered and you didn't notice because you only read the OP, that's different.

By "keeping current" I meant being familiar with what is going on, not necessarily staying true to only what is currently happening in the thread. I agree that it can be useful to go back and address something that was ignored or forgotten.

My pet peeve with this one is mostly the second part of your post, someone who didn't bother reading anything except the OP and just jumping in without looking. The post I'm thinking of also leads me into a really nice segue...

Rage porn-ing.

People who make inflammatory remarks or only comment on a topic simply to show how absolutely outraged they are, or taking bits and pieces of information out of context so that they can twist it into something to be outraged by. In some cases, again, this can approach valid (commenting on a thread about how someone's dog was run over by a hit-and-run driver, then "That is absolutely terrible!!!!" might be appropriate) but most of the time when I see it, especially when I see it on here, it is done simply for shock value. In fact, I hate this so much that I already made a thread about it. People sure do love to have a hate boner.

[Andara Bledin]

As an addendum to the "use the ENTER key":

If you have a system that won't allow use of an automatic paragraph break, then use code. The vast majority of forums support BB code or HTML or both.

^-.-^

[Ginger Tea]

One guy on another fourm made it hard for us to read what he was after help wise, he would press enter mid line and it was almost as if he would only allow 30 characters maximum, if that per line.

Some times the flow changed and you think hes finished the question, then the next line turns the question you could anser, into something pointless to type as the rest of the line was 4 lines down.

Appologies for the length of these quotes, they are quite short really, it was just his 'way' for a while.

idk.. its just how i roll.

lol. just imagine i didnt

even do it that way.

ok?

This was not a reply to his typing style, that was commented on later, this was why he did something in code twice or something.

um. send me

the old version

plz & thx.

it may have

been edited

last night

yea..

why?

also, the game

is only 30

fps..

do me a

favor. press z

in game.

THEN tell me

its not lagging.

lol

After a while, I had to comment that his posting style got me reading with a bad William Shatner impersonator.

[blas87]

Kind of like the rage porn, people get so worked up over what they read, they don't read the little bits.

I have a thread on CS about my crazy shift lead, and I said honestly now, THREE TIMES that she does not tell people they cannot go to the bathroom. Three times. And yet, after each time, someone has legal advice on how to handle a person who doesn't let you go to the bathroom at work.

The third time, I quoted myself and bolded it.

K, I know we get passionate about bad bosses and whatnot. But seriously, calm down and READ it carefully.

[Boozy]

And yet, after each time, someone has legal advice on how to handle a person who doesn't let you go to the bathroom at work.

Everyone is a legal expert at CS.

[blas87]

You're so right, and that's just a sad thing we bitch about customers who throw tantrums and spout off about going to corporate or complaining or having someone's job.......and yet, these same people are the same ones who suggest EVERYONE go to HR, everyone call up the labor board, go after the bastards who made your day heck.

[Silverharp]

I just think life would be better if we could slap them with a haddock.

[bara]

I just think life would be better if we could slap them with a haddock.

Heh, had to look up haddock.

I'm not of fan of personal attacks. Either direct or indirect.

Direct- You are an idiot.
Indirect- like an idiot.. or along those line.

Taking hyperbole as if its meant as fact, although this could be that the person seeing it as fact doesn't understand it is in fact hyperbole or is so emotional about the issue they have lost an objective viewpoint.

[Amanita]

And hyperbole doesn't always come off as well in print as it does face to face.
Case in point- here in the local Pagan community, there is one member who has a very flamboyant, colorful personality, and a wicked sense of humor. In person, he's hilarious. But he got in trouble online when his comments in print came across the wrong way to others who read them.
He was complaining about boomboxes at the local Pagan festival, and he wrote "The auditory plague known as boomboxes!!" In person, with vocal inflection and gesture, he might have had people laughing. But in print, without the facial and vocal cues to indicate he was joking, it came across as hyperbolic and over-dramatic. And he ended up pissing off people who might otherwise have been on his side, with regards to more clearly defined party vs quiet areas, or clarification of event rules.

And in regards to personal insults, I stated it like this on another forum, in response to another member's uncalled for insults at me:
If you're throwing personal insults around, it means one of a few things- either, you think your argument needs the added slap of a personal insult to hold it up, or you know you've got no real argument left, you're just slinging mud to cover for it.