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[FAQ]TIPS/SUGGESTIONS ON WRITING TOPICS (Forum Posting 101)
StTyrael
Registered Users 73 Posts
Forum Posting 101
Introduction to Forum Posting 101
Welcome to Forum Posting 101. I will be your professor this semester and my name is Mr. James. Forums get cluttered all the time with topics that are impossible to decipher from their titles, topics that are grammatically impossible to read, topics on the wrong forum sections, and just poorly written topics that leave the (o)riginal (p)oster scratching their head wondering, "Why do In have only 23 views, and all of them are from me?". This semester I will do my ****est to help unclutter and reorganize forum life and hopefully educate a new generation of future, bright iintelligent minds who waste their time like myself writing on forums when they could be with their girlfriends.
Due to sleep requirements and real life, some lessons may be short, and if time permitting, in depth. Feel free to point out my typos and grammatical mistakes yourselves since part of a great post always involves being perfect, but don't expect your grade to rise any from it. Perhaps expect the opposite? Speaking of grades, yes I will be grading participants. Or as I like to call them, unwitting students forced into a class by clicking a link. Failure to participate upon initially clicking and reading the intro is an automatic F and nobody will notice but you will feel shame everyday for the remainder of your life.
"But Mr. James, how are we getting graded?". First off, one of my rules is never to interrupt me while I am lecturing so that is an automatic failure for you for the day. Second, I always like to say there are no such things as intelligent questions, only stupid people asking about that which they are ignorant about. How will you get graded. At the end kd each lesson or when K decide to log off to perhaps sleep or spend time with my woman or work or eat, I will assign a homework assignment to show me how well everyone has learned the day's lesson. I understand people are spread across timezones, so homework will be graded as I see it come in, and all work.not completed by known students by the end will count as an F.
A known student is what I call somebody crazy enough to actually reply here with answers to the homework. This means I will probably use your name during lessons when giving examples, and just generally give you hell as well as grades. A known student is expected to find each day's lesson and stay until the end. If not, your shame will be double that of somebody who just reads the intro and clicks the back button.
There is a silver lining though if you do decide to become my student. You will learn some valuable techniques, the first kof which comes tomorrow when I collect homework and conclude this morning's lecture. You will also earn my respect if you complete the class, which admittedly isn't that huge of a silver lining. OH! And to anyone who just decides to sit in and not participate each day or those who skip class completely and only my lectures once the full class has ended, there will be no shame for you so don't worry. Your first born or your first born's (if already with child out of sin) will suffer a horrible condition where they will sweat from their eyes profusely all the time and the sweat will smell like sweaty jock straps.
With those pleasantries said, I'm sure we'll all have a super time and get along
Introduction to Forum Posting 101
Welcome to Forum Posting 101. I will be your professor this semester and my name is Mr. James. Forums get cluttered all the time with topics that are impossible to decipher from their titles, topics that are grammatically impossible to read, topics on the wrong forum sections, and just poorly written topics that leave the (o)riginal (p)oster scratching their head wondering, "Why do In have only 23 views, and all of them are from me?". This semester I will do my ****est to help unclutter and reorganize forum life and hopefully educate a new generation of future, bright iintelligent minds who waste their time like myself writing on forums when they could be with their girlfriends.
Due to sleep requirements and real life, some lessons may be short, and if time permitting, in depth. Feel free to point out my typos and grammatical mistakes yourselves since part of a great post always involves being perfect, but don't expect your grade to rise any from it. Perhaps expect the opposite? Speaking of grades, yes I will be grading participants. Or as I like to call them, unwitting students forced into a class by clicking a link. Failure to participate upon initially clicking and reading the intro is an automatic F and nobody will notice but you will feel shame everyday for the remainder of your life.
"But Mr. James, how are we getting graded?". First off, one of my rules is never to interrupt me while I am lecturing so that is an automatic failure for you for the day. Second, I always like to say there are no such things as intelligent questions, only stupid people asking about that which they are ignorant about. How will you get graded. At the end kd each lesson or when K decide to log off to perhaps sleep or spend time with my woman or work or eat, I will assign a homework assignment to show me how well everyone has learned the day's lesson. I understand people are spread across timezones, so homework will be graded as I see it come in, and all work.not completed by known students by the end will count as an F.
A known student is what I call somebody crazy enough to actually reply here with answers to the homework. This means I will probably use your name during lessons when giving examples, and just generally give you hell as well as grades. A known student is expected to find each day's lesson and stay until the end. If not, your shame will be double that of somebody who just reads the intro and clicks the back button.
There is a silver lining though if you do decide to become my student. You will learn some valuable techniques, the first kof which comes tomorrow when I collect homework and conclude this morning's lecture. You will also earn my respect if you complete the class, which admittedly isn't that huge of a silver lining. OH! And to anyone who just decides to sit in and not participate each day or those who skip class completely and only my lectures once the full class has ended, there will be no shame for you so don't worry. Your first born or your first born's (if already with child out of sin) will suffer a horrible condition where they will sweat from their eyes profusely all the time and the sweat will smell like sweaty jock straps.
With those pleasantries said, I'm sure we'll all have a super time and get along
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Comments
This is the FAQS, Support, and Bugs section so it's very easy for it to become cluttered with topic titles that give little or no insight into what is actually contained within. When a topic is written here, the OP (extra credit for remembering what that means) is trying to either get the players attention KR the attention of a moderator. One of the first things learned in English 101 is to write to your intended audience so the first thing learned in Forum Posting 101 is how to target the audience you wish to read your post.
I am willing to bet most of the viewers to this post who are reading this are players of the game. How do I know? Because at the beginning of my title I prefixed it with "[FAQ]". This tells the gluadmin forum overseer, "OK, this isn't a topic of high importance for me to read yet as it doesn't have any bug reports to pass on to the higher power that be".
JohnnyQ comes in though and wants to report that he's having an issue receiving gems on a timely basis and comes here and creates a topic titled "gem! help!". I see this ALL the time and honestly, I skip over any topic named anything similar to this or just givs it a quick skim. s JohnnyQ asking for a FAQ on how to get fast gems?
Is JohnnyQ wondering why his paid gems are taking longer than normal to process? Or is he having an actual problem ordering gems in general and just never getting any cause he can't even get the "Get Gems" tab to work" I just wrote this and I don't even know what JonnyQ wants. Maybe he's even in the wrong section and just wants advise on how to earn gems.
The major problem with topics like JohnnyQ's is that the audience he is intending to view his topic never realizes that it's for them so even though it may get views, it doesn't get viewed by the one person who counts. Then JohnnyQ complains in General Discussion or in game that the Support section sucks. Or the Bug section does nothing. Or that nobody helped him with a FAQ on how to do whatever he wanted to do with his gems. One small change could have made a world of difference.
HOMEWORK #1: Use your imagination and decide what JohnnyQ was up to posting here about gems with his cryptic sounding title, and post your revised title for him as your homework assignment. When I get up tomorrow and log in, I will grade each one and elaborate more on the benefits of naming your posts so they attract the intended audience (I want that logic stuck in everybody's head while you lay awake in bed) and conclude this lesson and move on to the next.
Conclusion
Congratulations everyone! Everybody fails! Nobody completely the assignment. I expected as much as this leads into my next lesson but first let's give an answer to that homework assignment and then recap.
JonnyQ could and should have first added either "[SUPPORT ...]" or even "SUPPORT -..." to his post if he was maybe having an issue with receiving gems that he had purchased. If JonnyQ went to purchase gems and clicking on the "Get Gems" gab did nothing, he should have used "[BUG ...]" or "BUG - ..." or maybe even {BUG}.
The logic to take away from this lesson is that by simply tagging your topic is a GREAT way to attract attention to your post, and attention from those who you wanted to read your topic in the first place and who could possibly help. You can attract for example an admin in much quicker and get the help you require or a step in the right direction. The exact format of how you tag your topic isn't set in stone, but for best results, using one of the methods outlined here works best, or by using the format that you see used most in that section.
As some might have noticed, creating a multi post topic such as this that new content is added to over the course of a longer period of time is not a great idea because odds are you will get many first time viewed and these viewers probably won't view the topic again for quite some time. So creating a multi post interactive topic is not encouraged and will be highlighted in a later lesson. Multi post topics have their uses and are extremely effective especially in FAQS, but don't expect your audience to follow along as you update each post over the course of several days or longer. Write your topic with the idea that the topic will be read whole from beginning to end. Again, this will all come in a later lesson.
Our next lesson however continues with the basics and teaches you how to use appropriate titles for bug/suggezrion/announcement topics. Naming your topics may seem trivial, but at the same time I'm sure all of you are would rather click on "[FAQ] - Guide to Collecting Unlimited Gems" than one simply titled "Gems!". We'll also discuss the differences between posts and threads, and the differences between threads and topics (there is a difference). We all get caught up in writing quick lists that we sometimes use the wrong terminology and until I revise this first lesson, I may have inadvertantly used the wrong usages of those terms as well.
Until then, realize that I have already manipulated everyone who has read this topic so far by deterring anyone from replying just to prove a point that's taught text. A big thanks to everyone who unknowingly volunteered to help me with what I wanted to show. Unfortunately, no prizes or payment can be given out because I cannot see who has viewed this topic, only the number of views. Anyways, you all also refused to do the homework assignment. It doesn't matter that it was part of a deterrent, the point is that you still should have followed instructions.
Nobody decided to chose anything other than what I asked as I implied that those were the only options at a subconcious level. Nobody chose to act by posting any other usual type of typic forum response. That's because I controlled the flow of action which lead to my desired outcome. This example was a simple one but more advanced variations are used by magicians everyday. You'd be surprised to have the curtain unveiled and actually see all the "decisions" that you make daily that weren't actually yours to begin with. It can also be shocking and offending, but don't feel ignorant or betrayed or violated by this (at least in my example). Stay relieved in knowing that this is common brain behavior and why commercials and magicians engage in this daily.
This technique can be used to deter posts that you don't wish to see in your topic, to control the flow of the conversation, or a myriad of uses advantageous uses. It takes some practice to make it so that it doesn't appear obvious which can in itself backfire on you. Practice on friends before trying this in a serious situation
(You may begin posting your homework now)