Considerations before posting (By Chekhov MacGuffin)
Posted: September 9th, 2010, 1:51 pm
There are only three hard rules in general discussion:
#1 Use a spoiler box whenever posting spoilers about manga files that haven't been turned into anime. This also includes anime episodes that haven't been subbed yet. To make a spoiler box, click the
icon and paste the text inside. It is helpful to include a description of what is in the spoiler box. You can do that by adding "=description" to the opening tag only. Writing "spoiler=your description here" will make a spoiler box that looks like:
#1a Topics that are about manga files that haven't been turned into anime belong in Story Discussion.
#2 Do not curse. This goes for all languages, not just English.
#3 Do not post flamebait.
The below are guidelines, things you you should take into consideration before posting
Don't post while angry or even while irritated. It will show and people will not like it.
If you think something is rude, annoying, or in ill taste, chances are there are 10 other people who think the same thing as you and wish someone would do something about it. Be aggressive about pointing out incivility, or that you would like to return to the topic, or flagging things for moderators to review. 10 other people will appreciate you for being the hero who stepped out of the crowd and got the ball rolling.
Text does not express emotions or voice well. Avoid ambiguity. I had to moderate several comments where it wasn't clear whether the user was joking or serious because they could (and did) provoke angry responses. A lot of conflicts that I saw started off as jokes that someone thought were serious and then it went downhill from there. Sarcasm especially does not transmit well on the internet, and even if it is obvious, people will take the bait anyway and start a flame war. I would suggest avoiding sarcasm all together.
If you are going to use sarcasm, read all of your comments before you post them in the opposite voice you intended and decide if a reasonable person could be mistaken. As stupid as it sounds, even for obvious jokes, it's much better to go overboard rather than underboard to make it clear whether you are joking or being serious. Use smilies, end your comments with a "/sarcasm", small text, or invisible text so anyone replying will obviously know your true intent.
User bashing is always bad. If you don't like the argument then attack the argument, not the person making it. This extends to categorizing users by the arguments they make or the things they support/don't support. As an example, don't make posts implying that anyone who likes the ConanxAyumi pairing is a lolicon or a pedophile. Even joke posts get into risky territory.
Offtopic posts are OK in moderation, but too much will annoy others. If something offtopic is interesting to you, make a thread in the Off-Topic Board about it if you think that there will be more than a few posts. Even better, link back to it in the main thread to redirect offtopic replies to the new thread.
Do not post everything that comes to your head to stack your post count. If you want to gain community recognition, make yourself unique, not prolific. Be judicious about what you write: fewer well written comments go a lot further than many shallow ones. People don't like it when one person monopolizes discussion.
Do not encourage or support pairing wars or an "opposing sides" mentality. The easiest way to create a battleground mentality is to war over pairings. It becomes all to easy to bash other users. Every time I see a reference to "X army" I become a little sadder inside because anyone reading the thread gets the impression the groups of users are enemies. Even worse, people will join thinking they have to pick a particular side, or that the only way they will be accepted is to hate on the other pairing. The battleground mentality also encourages escalating bashing tournaments where users try to outdo the others in disparaging the other pairing to gain "credibility". Don't encourage new users to bash pairings in their introduction thread.
Be respectful of other pairings, even if you dislike them. Also keep in mind that the proponents of a pairing are independent of that pairing's merit. If you post in a pairing thread critical of the topic pairing, please be extra tasteful and polite because more people will disagree.
#1 Use a spoiler box whenever posting spoilers about manga files that haven't been turned into anime. This also includes anime episodes that haven't been subbed yet. To make a spoiler box, click the
icon and paste the text inside. It is helpful to include a description of what is in the spoiler box. You can do that by adding "=description" to the opening tag only. Writing "spoiler=your description here" will make a spoiler box that looks like: Spoiler: your description here
#2 Do not curse. This goes for all languages, not just English.
#3 Do not post flamebait.
The below are guidelines, things you you should take into consideration before posting
Don't post while angry or even while irritated. It will show and people will not like it.
If you think something is rude, annoying, or in ill taste, chances are there are 10 other people who think the same thing as you and wish someone would do something about it. Be aggressive about pointing out incivility, or that you would like to return to the topic, or flagging things for moderators to review. 10 other people will appreciate you for being the hero who stepped out of the crowd and got the ball rolling.
Text does not express emotions or voice well. Avoid ambiguity. I had to moderate several comments where it wasn't clear whether the user was joking or serious because they could (and did) provoke angry responses. A lot of conflicts that I saw started off as jokes that someone thought were serious and then it went downhill from there. Sarcasm especially does not transmit well on the internet, and even if it is obvious, people will take the bait anyway and start a flame war. I would suggest avoiding sarcasm all together.
If you are going to use sarcasm, read all of your comments before you post them in the opposite voice you intended and decide if a reasonable person could be mistaken. As stupid as it sounds, even for obvious jokes, it's much better to go overboard rather than underboard to make it clear whether you are joking or being serious. Use smilies, end your comments with a "/sarcasm", small text, or invisible text so anyone replying will obviously know your true intent.
User bashing is always bad. If you don't like the argument then attack the argument, not the person making it. This extends to categorizing users by the arguments they make or the things they support/don't support. As an example, don't make posts implying that anyone who likes the ConanxAyumi pairing is a lolicon or a pedophile. Even joke posts get into risky territory.
Offtopic posts are OK in moderation, but too much will annoy others. If something offtopic is interesting to you, make a thread in the Off-Topic Board about it if you think that there will be more than a few posts. Even better, link back to it in the main thread to redirect offtopic replies to the new thread.
Do not post everything that comes to your head to stack your post count. If you want to gain community recognition, make yourself unique, not prolific. Be judicious about what you write: fewer well written comments go a lot further than many shallow ones. People don't like it when one person monopolizes discussion.
Do not encourage or support pairing wars or an "opposing sides" mentality. The easiest way to create a battleground mentality is to war over pairings. It becomes all to easy to bash other users. Every time I see a reference to "X army" I become a little sadder inside because anyone reading the thread gets the impression the groups of users are enemies. Even worse, people will join thinking they have to pick a particular side, or that the only way they will be accepted is to hate on the other pairing. The battleground mentality also encourages escalating bashing tournaments where users try to outdo the others in disparaging the other pairing to gain "credibility". Don't encourage new users to bash pairings in their introduction thread.
Be respectful of other pairings, even if you dislike them. Also keep in mind that the proponents of a pairing are independent of that pairing's merit. If you post in a pairing thread critical of the topic pairing, please be extra tasteful and polite because more people will disagree.