Pony's Posting Proverbs

[Pony99CA]

I thought I'd take this time I'm wasting and give some suggestions for posting etiquette. These are guidelines I've come up with after years of posting to various boards, but they are just guidelines, not rules.

Try to use good English. We're not all native speakers, so we have to make allowances, but proper English will make posts easier to read for both native and non-native speakers.
Learn to search. Before posting what is likely an obvious question, do a search -- both here and on :google:. Examples include "How do I hard reset my Pocket PC?" or "What good software is out there?" and so on.
No "Me, too" posts. At least add some thoughts about why you agree (or disagree).
No multiple posts. If you have something that could belong in two or more forums, post in one of them and post links back to that thread in the other forums. Do that sparingly, though.
Use specific subjects. Do not put a post in a thread with the subject "Help!!!!!!" Some people will ignore posts with content-free subjects. Say "Need Help with my iPAQ 3870" or something.
On the other hand, don't put all of your post in the subject. Unless the post is the first in the thread, people may not see your subject. The subject is meant to be a brief synopsis of the text of your post. Also, don't put half of your post in the subject and continue it in the body of the post for the same reason -- it's confusing if people haven't read the subject.
When posting a link, include some text describing what is being linked to. However, do not post the entire text being linked to, either. Post a synopsis and the link for details.
Always preview your posts. Failure to do that is why people have screwed up quotes and URLs.
Learn the BBCode keywords. They're very useful for quoting, lists, URLs, etc.
My usual rant -- don't post long URLs naked. The board doesn't wrap them, and they force horizontal scrolling. Use the URL tag.
Don't assume people know what forum they're in. There are many ways to get to a thread, and sometimes we don't realize what forum we're in. For example, if you have a Dell problem posted in the Dell forum, don't just say "My Pocket PC is having a problem," because many people might not realize they're in the Dell forum. Say "My Dell Axim X5 Advanced is having a problem."
And, above all, keep a sense of humor. :-D

That's enough for now. What do you think?

Steve

[Crystal Eitle]

How did you become a Pocket PC "Pope"? :werenotworthy: Is that a standard level in the hierarchy, or did the Thoughts crew let you make that one up?

(By the way - good rules.)

[Janak Parekh]

How did you become a Pocket PC "Pope"? :werenotworthy: Is that a standard level in the hierarchy, or did the Thoughts crew let you make that one up?
It's a standard level -- one of Jason's creations. Do you find it ironic that Steve made up the rules only after he became Pope? :lol:

--janak

[trachy]

What do you think?

An excellent foundation. I especially like the one about searching before asking. I think adding a "Top 10 Questions" to the FAQ could go a long way to easing some of the redundancy around here. In fact...here's a thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=103142#103142) I started about this.

- Drew

[Dave Beauvais]

I have been maintaining a list of forum pet peeves for some time on my personal site, which reflect several of the rules Steve came up with. I link to examples of some of them, mostly from the Thoughts forums. I actually considered posting my list here, but felt it wasn't politically correct enough for inclusion here. ;)

--Dave

My personal site is linked to using the "WWW" button below this post...

[trachy]

I have been maintaining a list of forum pet peeves for some time on my personal site, which reflect several of the rules Steve came up with.

Great rant, Dave. One that you might add, and I'm as guilty of this as anyone, is when people feel compelled to declare that it's "just my .02!" Well, duh... :lol:

[PetiteFlower]

Biggest thing I could tell people to do so they wouldn't bug me as much:

READ BEFORE YOU POST!!!

That is, read through the recent threads, and if you have a specific question, do a search for it before starting a new thread! 99% of the time, the answer you seek is there if only you look for it....

[Steven Cedrone]

I link to examples of some of them, mostly from the Thoughts forums.

It looks like all of the bad examples are from 'Thoughts. Hey spread around those bad examples a little huh?

Or just use one post: "alot of times, when i see a post or to like you'res, it makes me mabee think: doodz, r u crazie...just my .02" :wink:

Now somebody quote it and say "I agree"... :lol:

And let's get a "Bump" while we're at it!!! :wink: :wink: :wink:

Steve

[Janak Parekh]

Steve, Steve...

It looks like you've had more practice than the rest of us. :lol:

--janak

[Dave Beauvais]

I link to examples of some of them, mostly from the Thoughts forums.

It looks like all of the bad examples are from 'Thoughts. Hey spread around those bad examples a little huh?

Or just use one post: "alot of times, when i see a post or to like you'res, it makes me mabee think: doodz, r u crazie...just my .02" :wink:

Now somebody quote it and say "I agree"... :lol:

And let's get a "Bump" while we're at it!!! :wink: :wink: :wink:

Steve
Exactly! :rofl:

[Pony99CA]

I have been maintaining a list of forum pet peeves for some time on my personal site, which reflect several of the rules Steve came up with. I link to examples of some of them, mostly from the Thoughts forums. I actually considered posting my list here, but felt it wasn't politically correct enough for inclusion here. ;)
I had seen your list, Dave. That's where I got the bit about starting the post in the subject and continuing it in the body.

However, my post didn't address each grammatical error individually. As much as I might like to teach people proper grammar, that wasn't my intent. :-)

One thing I left off, because I wasn't quite sure how to address it, was overusing acronyms. That's a difficult one to draw the line on. PIE might be well known as Pocket Internet Explorer, but maybe not to a newbie. FFX is probably less well-known, unless you're into gaming, as "Final Fantasy X".

Steve

[shawnc]

Steve,

Your Pope status obviously makes you very qualified to make this suggestion. I'm going to disagree with one, reiterate one, and add one to the list.

Disagree with the search concept. Searching this site is cumbersome (about the ONLY negative feeling I have about this community), though I always do it. As far as google, I don't want my answer from them. I post questions to this community because of how helpful and technical most folks are. I also enjoy the humor with which most of the posts are made. Sure I could likely find my answer on google, but then I miss the dialogue. The dialogue is a very important part of why I visit this site a few times a day. I'm not suggesting that a search is never appropriate, just that it is not always not as practical as some think. Just my .02 worth.....oops :wink: .

Reiterate one. A sense of humor is a very good idea. Lets not attack each other or take ourselves to seriously.

Add one. Avoid correcting people when it adds no value. Or if you must, use humor. No need to embarras anyone for an honest mistake.

[Pony99CA]

Your Pope status obviously makes you very qualified to make this suggestion.

Having a lot of time to waste doesn't actually qualify me for much. :-)

Disagree with the search concept. Searching this site is cumbersome (about the ONLY negative feeling I have about this community), though I always do it.
Yes, the search facility is mediocre, as I've documented in the past. I wouldn't say that it's cumbersome, but it doesn't find hits that I think it should in many cases.

However, if someone at least tries to search, they can say "I searched to find the answer to this, but couldn't find it." At least it looks like they put in some effort to solve the problem on their own instead of just relying on the kindness of strangers. :-)

I remember one user who posted several fairly basic questions one after the other in separate threads. Another user than criticized him for posting so many basic questions. I'd like to avoid both of those situations. I want people to feel free to post questions, but I'd like to avoid seeing the same questions over and over again ("How do I encode movies for my Pocket PC?" is another one).

Steve

[disconnected]

While I somewhat agree with most of the suggestions, I think sometimes for every one post asking a maybe unnecessary question, there will be six posts criticising the original post, making for much more unnecessary reading than the original post. (And it's certainly easy enough to skip over topics you're not interested in, assuming that the topic is mentioned in the subject -- actually, I think that was the most useful suggestion.)

Since this board is so addictive, I think that people get past the newbie question stage pretty rapidly (assuming they don't leave because they're not treated kindly), so most of the criticism is probably not needed.

As far as repetitive questions, well, things change. For instance, I've read lots of those movie-encoding threads, here and elsewhere, and, as each new thread on the subject comes along, different people answer, with new software suggestions or explanations. In fact, just recently, someone posted a two-step process that finally was possible for even a relative non-techie like me to follow, so I was really pleased that someone had brought it up again, and that someone else had posted an answer, rather that just a "search, dummy" response. :D

[Pony99CA]

While I somewhat agree with most of the suggestions, I think sometimes for every one post asking a maybe unnecessary question, there will be six posts criticising the original post, making for much more unnecessary reading than the original post. (And it's certainly easy enough to skip over topics you're not interested in, assuming that the topic is mentioned in the subject -- actually, I think that was the most useful suggestion.)

Since this board is so addictive, I think that people get past the newbie question stage pretty rapidly (assuming they don't leave because they're not treated kindly), so most of the criticism is probably not needed.

I agree that criticism isn't really warranted. I usually either just answer the question or give a link to a thread with the answer.

However, letting people know that they can search is constructive criticism to help get them past the newbie stage quicker. That's one reason I started this thread -- maybe some people will reference newbies here for suggestions (although that's probably wishful thinking on my part :-)).

As far as repetitive questions, well, things change. For instance, I've read lots of those movie-encoding threads, here and elsewhere, and, as each new thread on the subject comes along, different people answer, with new software suggestions or explanations. In fact, just recently, someone posted a two-step process that finally was possible for even a relative non-techie like me to follow, so I was really pleased that someone had brought it up again, and that someone else had posted an answer, rather that just a "search, dummy" response. :D
Well, "search, dummy" is never warranted. I have said things like "A simple search on video encoding would have found the 'How do I encode video?' thread" (and I of course make it a link). Yes, it may be a bit snarky, but so am I at times. :-D

However, instead of just asking the same question again, why not find an appropriate thread, read it, and, if you're not satisfied or want more, ask if there are any newer suggestions in that thread.

I think a few comprehensive threads about these topics is better than 10 threads scattered over the board. It will make things easier to find for newcomers, save time answering the same questions over and over for regulars and save Jason disk space and bandwidth. It's a win-win-win situation. :-)

Steve