Hello, I just wanted to put together some thoughts about suggested etiquette and methods for the board. Some of these have been posted before, though not all and not all in one place...BTW, I'm not giving anyone orders here, so if you disagree with me, do so politely and respectfully. You are still free to behave anyway you want to on the boards within the "rules, policies and disclaimers" you had to agree to when registering.<p>
1) TURN OFF CAPS LOCK - This is seen universally across the internet as someone that is YELLING. There are times when you will want to capitalize to make emphasis, but an entire posting in this mode usually turns people off and they refuse to read what you wrote.<p>
2) Paragraphs, paragraphs, paragraphs - When you are penning a missive here, please try to utilize paragraphs. It certainly makes your post more easily read and followed. When there are two or more screens of "run-on" text, it is very easy to miss a sentence or a point being made. Use your own judgement, but I find that paragraphs of 10 lines or more usually max me out. I, personally, would suggest trying to keep paragraphs 10 lines or less, but use your own judgment. In addition to using paragraphs, be sure to put a blank line in between each one. If you don't, it ends up being just as difficult to read as with no paragraphing.<p>
3) Address every response - When you create a post and start to receive replies, acknowledge each and every responder by name. You don't have to write a dissertation for each response, a simple "[your name] - Thank you for replying. I do understand what you are saying and I will think about it". You can keep it simple, but if someone takes the time to reply to you, it is simple manners to acknowledge that response whether you like what the person said or not. <p>The whole time I've been on this board, there have been threads where someone complained about receiving few replies or none at all. In a lot of cases if you go back and review that person's prior posts, you can see that they might have had 10 responses to a post, but only acknowledged the one or two people with whom they felt a connection or with whom they found themselves in agreement with.<p>
4) Use boldface - When you are responding directly to an individual, it is very helpful if you use the bold attribute on their screen name. The use of bold makes the name stand out and is useful for someone to know whether they are being talked to or about. It's very easy to do...example: [ b ]Heartpain[ / b ] resuts in
Heartpain. Just take out the spaces between the braces when you put it in your post and you don't have to use my pseudonym. [img]images/icons/grin.gif" border="0[/img] <p>
5) Signature lines - Please see Chris (CA123)'s post :
Signature line - 5 lines or less, please!<p>These long signature lines can be a real "turn-off". It gives the same impression as when an e-mail is sent, a reply made, a reply to the reply and so on, and *all* of the previous communications are included.<p>
6) Judicious use of "Reply with Quote" - There is no need to do this without drastic deleting of the original note. The original post is still right there and everyone can read it. If you are responding to multiple points, it is much better and more readable to quote the individual passages as you address them. There are several methods to do this. One is to use the [ Q U O T E ] (remove the spaces) UBB code. Another is to place the passage within quotation marks. You may also use the
bold or
italic attributes. Any one of these will be successful in highlighting the point(s) you wish to respond to. To save yourself re-typing, just use cut-and-paste.<p>
7) Long posts - If you have an
extremely long post, some people consider it helpful if you indicate so in the subject line, i.e., "Why do I feel this way?? (Long post)". This is a blessing to those using lower-speed dialup access whose time is valuable. They may prefer not to have to wait until 400 lines of text are downloaded, only to find that it is a topic they don't feel they can respond to.<p>Well, that's all I could think of now...I know I had a few more, but I'm an old man, you see, and I forget things....
