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The Beginner's Guide to Posting
This small guide is targeted mostly at people new to this forum (but I think even some of the veterans might find parts of it useful). It's just a couple of general guidelines which should help you come up with better formatted posts.
This forum has undergone some serious overhauls over the past 5 years I've been around. There has been a lot of improvements and implementations for easier/better posting but somehow many people are reluctant to make use of them. By sacrificing even 30 seconds - 1 minute of your time you can greatly change the appearance of your post and make it much more readable/visible.
Quoting
This seems to be the biggest problem for many people. Some of the most common errors include:
- Quoting large blocks of text and then commenting only on small part(s) of it: it's not necessary and it's harder to follow if you have to scroll down through a lot of text you read previously just to read a one line answer. Just delete the parts your answer is not referring to or put them in spoiler tags.
- Quoting images/videos: just like with the example above, it's a pain in the ass to scroll down 2 full screens just to read one line or see one picture. Spoiler tags are your best friend here. If someone will know what you're quoting it's gonna be easier for him, and if he won't know that, he'll just look up the spoilers and get a clue.
- Multiple quoting: you really don't have to quote all the 15 people the guy you want to answer to already quoted. Just quote his last post and delete all the quotes in his post. It's only fine to leave them if there aren't many/long quotes within the post you're quoting.
- Just quoting (or quoting and answering with QFT, This, etc.): Why the hell are you even making a post if it's not adding anything relevant to the discussion? Post count isn't THAT important and it only makes the thread harder to follow.
I'll leave it at that for now.
Formatting
Text formatting is rather simple here and learning to use even the basic functions can greatly enhance the posts. Don't be affraid to experiment with the buttons above the edition window, you can always edit your post later on.
First thing you should do is reading this and familiarizing yourself with the code.
Some of the most common mistakes (not including ALL CAPS and stuff since it's been covered many times before):
- Not closing the tags: consider it like writing in xhtml instead of old html code. Not closing tags is fatal error that can screw up your entire post.
- Using wrong formatting: you should remember at all times that using colours for example is a risky thing, it's usually not really needed anyway and it can get you into a lot of trouble. If you can't decide if you should colour a part of your post or not - don't. Also, putting large parts of text in bold/underlined/streaked can make your post harder to read.
- Creating large blocks of raw text: it makes it hard to read. Try to separate the sections of your post for easier reading/quoting whotsoever. You can use bold/underlined text, indentations, empty lines, whatever suits your needs.
- Punctuation: learn it, use it, make all our lives easier. It's that simple.
- Using tags: you can make long things short (and thus more readable) by using tags. The most important here would be spoiler, quote and url ones. Try to use them if you'll be putting large images/blocks of text/links in your post.
Summary
Always think twice before submitting your post. Ask yourself if you could make it better and do so if you can spare a moment.
I hope this guide will help some of you. Thanks for reading.
+ Show Spoiler [further reading] +
 
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[huge][confused]Don't we have enough with the 10 TL Commandments?[/confused][/huge]
im jking, on a more serious note: people should really learn how to post because most of the times its either unreadable or just plain trash -.- specially on the punctuation and paragraphs part; they can modify a statement's meaning A LOT
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wtf.....I never read the rules. I should try sometime.
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[b][i][u][s]
[*]so bad
[red][*] about forgetting stuff? [\red]
But definitely a good guide to use.
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United States24668 Posts
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On March 18 2009 09:43 paper wrote:
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nice little guide on posting. Would have been handier a while ago, but it is here nonetheless
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This is true i have my bouts of typing everything N i c e a n d n e a t formatting and spell checking then i just post like its a word i can't spell close enough for the spell check to find the right one. Stupid mind i can recognize what is the correct word i want but i can't spell it.
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On March 18 2009 09:44 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On March 18 2009 09:34 Manit0u wrote:
but I think even some of the veterans might find parts of it useful The low-post-count posters who don't obey this most likely are doing it by choice lol.
we demand equal rights!
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I've edited the OP with links to vGl-CoW's and micronesia's posts. I hope you guys don't mind.
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Canada7170 Posts
When formatting posts, I'm a big fan of the [b][i][s][u] build style.
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Baa?21242 Posts
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incontrol wheres the how to: Trolling
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On March 18 2009 09:34 Manit0u wrote:The Beginner's Guide to Posting This small guide is targeted mostly at people new to this forum (but I think even some of the veterans might find parts of it useful). It's just a couple of general guidelines which should help you come up with better formatted posts. This forum has undergone some serious overhauls over the past 5 years I've been around. There has been a lot of improvements and implementations for easier/better posting but somehow many people are reluctant to make use of them. By sacrificing even 30 seconds - 1 minute of your time you can greatly change the appearance of your post and make it much more readable/visible. Quoting This seems to be the biggest problem for many people. Some of the most common errors include: - Quoting large blocks of text and then commenting only on small part(s) of it: it's not necessary and it's harder to follow if you have to scroll down through a lot of text you read previously just to read a one line answer. Just delete the parts your answer is not referring to or put them in spoiler tags.
- Quoting images/videos: just like with the example above, it's a pain in the ass to scroll down 2 full screens just to read one line or see one picture. Spoiler tags are your best friend here. If someone will know what you're quoting it's gonna be easier for him, and if he won't know that, he'll just look up the spoilers and get a clue.
- Multiple quoting: you really don't have to quote all the 15 people the guy you want to answer to already quoted. Just quote his last post and delete all the quotes in his post. It's only fine to leave them if there aren't many/long quotes within the post you're quoting.
- Just quoting (or quoting and answering with QFT, This, etc.): Why the hell are you even making a post if it's not adding anything relevant to the discussion? Post count isn't THAT important and it only makes the thread harder to follow.
I'll leave it at that for now. Formatting Text formatting is rather simple here and learning to use even the basic functions can greatly enhance the posts. Don't be affraid to experiment with the buttons above the edition window, you can always edit your post later on. First thing you should do is reading this and familiarizing yourself with the code. Some of the most common mistakes (not including ALL CAPS and stuff since it's been covered many times before): - Not closing the tags: consider it like writing in xhtml instead of old html code. Not closing tags is fatal error that can screw up your entire post.
- Using wrong formatting: you should remember at all times that using colours for example is a risky thing, it's usually not really needed anyway and it can get you into a lot of trouble. If you can't decide if you should colour a part of your post or not - don't. Also, putting large parts of text in bold/underlined/streaked can make your post harder to read.
- Creating large blocks of raw text: it makes it hard to read. Try to separate the sections of your post for easier reading/quoting whotsoever. You can use bold/underlined text, indentations, empty lines, whatever suits your needs.
- Punctuation: learn it, use it, make all our lives easier. It's that simple.
- Using tags: you can make long things short (and thus more readable) by using tags. The most important here would be spoiler, quote and url ones. Try to use them if you'll be putting large images/blocks of text/links in your post.
Summary Always think twice before submitting your post. Ask yourself if you could make it better and do so if you can spare a moment. I hope this guide will help some of you. Thanks for reading. + Show Spoiler [further reading] +
You're totally right, quoting large blocks of text is annoying.
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Man, I wish CharlieMurphy would make one of these.
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On March 18 2009 09:46 IzzyCraft wrote:
wtf how'd you get the different colors in one line
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EPT
