Hello everyone, this is my 1000th post, so I decided to do something a bit special. Over the (almost) year I've been here, I've honestly seen the community get worse with every day. Now we have even more kids who were brought here through ZP, more people who don't care about the quality of the forums and make about ten threads a day, each with one sentence in the OP, and generally just more hate. So I thought I would do my part to help people improve the forums here. And while I know that 95% of the people who see this will go "Psh, yeah right, nobody's gonna improve themselves because of you" and move on, influencing that little 5% is still progress. So I'll give a few easy things you can do to keep the forums friendly and intelligent, unlike most of the rest of the internet.
TL;DR at the bottom.
So let's get started-
1. Check your grammar and spelling.
This is such an easy thing to do. If you have time to post a reply to a thread, you have time to quickly look through it once and make sure there are no mistakes. Also, there's a handy Shift key on BOTH sides of a standard keyboard, so I'm sure you can sacrifice the .02 seconds and almost non-existent amount of effort it takes to capitalize proper nouns and the first words of sentences. Also, if you want to get more complicated-
-Watch your homophones. This [http://learnyourdamnhomophones.com/] is a great place to study up on them. Such as, "its" is possessive, as in "Its head is green", and "it's" is a contraction of "it is".
-Watch your "could have"s and "would have"s, many people say "could of" or "would of" because that's how it's pronounced.
-Use commas in long sentences, and please end sentences with periods. I would like to show you one of the least coherent sentences I've ever seen, actually from a recent thread on this site. Some of you may know which thread and possibly the poster-
2. Don't be a douche.
I know this goes against human nature, especially with the anonymity over the internet, but just try to be nice to people. Over the last couple of months I've seen way too many hate threads, and a whole lot of people getting suspended or put on probation for acting like a dick. I'd like to take the old saying "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything" and edit it to fit these forums.
If you don't have something nice to say, move on or say it without being an ass.
Ass, dick, douche, prick, whatever it is, you should avoid being one. And it helps you avoid being modded, too.
3. Develop your thread ideas.
I have another actual example for this. There's one user on these forums who has made at least fifteen different threads since Thursday, and each one has had no more than two sentences in th OP, usually just asking a question for discussion. Every now and then there'll be a personal example, but it's never more than filler. If you are going to create a thread, I suggest that your post be no shorter than four sentences, and actually have a point to it. You don't necessarily need an obvious "THIS IS FOR DISCUSSION" sentence like many members will tell newer ones, but only if there's already discussion value in the topic. For example, the thread that I'm making doesn't have any implied discussion value, so I am going to put one of those sentences at the end. If you make a thread about the scariest moment you've had in a game, you don't need to directly ask everyone what their scariest moment is. It's like if you were having a conversation with someone. Let's say you say "I went for a walk in the park yesterday." The person you're talking to will probably reply with a personal experience involving a park, without you having to ask them "What are your experiences like with the park?" But I digress. Before you hit that little Post button to share your thread, make sure your ideas are clear and developed.
4. Read the rules.
They can be found right here. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/codeofconduct] In fact, most of what I've said here is covered in the rules, but I'm sure almost none of you have actually read them. So if you had the time to read through my thread to this point, go look at them real quick. They're extremely short.
5. Take a chillaxative.
Nothing good comes from flaming someone. You may have seen the somewhat popular internet saying, "Arguing over the internet is like running in the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded!" (IMPORTANT NOTICE: This is a direct quote, I have nothing against the mentally impaired) If someone has an opinion that conflicts with yours, remember that that's exactly what it is: an opinion. Everyone has them. They're more popular than cars or masturbation. There's a very high chance that someone else's is different than yours, so deal with it and move along with you life. This goes WAY back to some of the first reasons for war. A lot of them were and still are started because people think "my god is better than yours." The someone else says "no, mine is better" and they promptly have a dick waving competition where countless innocent people are slaughtered. If you flame someone who believes something different than you, you are no better than those people (except for the innocent people dying, at least most of the time).
Whew. Done.
So there are five easy ways to improve the Escapist community, and even if only one person improves themself in one of these ways, I've still made a difference. I have a few more that I'll give you if you want to follow them-
-Use breaks in wall o' text posts. Just hit the Enter key between major ideas.
-On a related note, if you're writing a user review, format it a bit and add some pictures. This makes it a lot less daunting and more interesting for readers.
-New users, when you add a poll to your thread, it automatically puts "Poll:" in the title. You don't have to put it yourself, otherwise you end up with another "Poll: Poll:"
-Make sure your threads are in the right section. This mostly applies to the new users. And if you're not sure which section to put it in, just choose any of the most applicable and it can be moved if you chose wrong. (My strategy is to put it in the section that gets the most traffic)
-Actually, make sure your threads are relevant and should even be posted at all. The thread that the quote I posted earlier came from was completely pointless and added nothing to the community.
-Please, don't make an "Am I the only one" or "Why the hate" thread. PROTIP: You're not the only one, and your thread will only inspire flamewars.
-USE THE SEARCH BAR. This also mostly applies to new users. Before you make a thread, search the forums to see if it's been done already. If you have something ground-breaking that you just have to add to the discussion, put it in the older thread instead of making your own. Otherwise, just move on, the forum gods have not smiled upon you this day.
TL;DR Check your threads and posts, and don't act like a douche.
So how do you think people can improve the forums, or how do you do so yourself?
TL;DR at the bottom.
So let's get started-
1. Check your grammar and spelling.
This is such an easy thing to do. If you have time to post a reply to a thread, you have time to quickly look through it once and make sure there are no mistakes. Also, there's a handy Shift key on BOTH sides of a standard keyboard, so I'm sure you can sacrifice the .02 seconds and almost non-existent amount of effort it takes to capitalize proper nouns and the first words of sentences. Also, if you want to get more complicated-
-Watch your homophones. This [http://learnyourdamnhomophones.com/] is a great place to study up on them. Such as, "its" is possessive, as in "Its head is green", and "it's" is a contraction of "it is".
-Watch your "could have"s and "would have"s, many people say "could of" or "would of" because that's how it's pronounced.
-Use commas in long sentences, and please end sentences with periods. I would like to show you one of the least coherent sentences I've ever seen, actually from a recent thread on this site. Some of you may know which thread and possibly the poster-
Don't be like that guy. You don't want people to think of you like that guy.
2. Don't be a douche.
I know this goes against human nature, especially with the anonymity over the internet, but just try to be nice to people. Over the last couple of months I've seen way too many hate threads, and a whole lot of people getting suspended or put on probation for acting like a dick. I'd like to take the old saying "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything" and edit it to fit these forums.
If you don't have something nice to say, move on or say it without being an ass.
Ass, dick, douche, prick, whatever it is, you should avoid being one. And it helps you avoid being modded, too.
3. Develop your thread ideas.
I have another actual example for this. There's one user on these forums who has made at least fifteen different threads since Thursday, and each one has had no more than two sentences in th OP, usually just asking a question for discussion. Every now and then there'll be a personal example, but it's never more than filler. If you are going to create a thread, I suggest that your post be no shorter than four sentences, and actually have a point to it. You don't necessarily need an obvious "THIS IS FOR DISCUSSION" sentence like many members will tell newer ones, but only if there's already discussion value in the topic. For example, the thread that I'm making doesn't have any implied discussion value, so I am going to put one of those sentences at the end. If you make a thread about the scariest moment you've had in a game, you don't need to directly ask everyone what their scariest moment is. It's like if you were having a conversation with someone. Let's say you say "I went for a walk in the park yesterday." The person you're talking to will probably reply with a personal experience involving a park, without you having to ask them "What are your experiences like with the park?" But I digress. Before you hit that little Post button to share your thread, make sure your ideas are clear and developed.
4. Read the rules.
They can be found right here. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/codeofconduct] In fact, most of what I've said here is covered in the rules, but I'm sure almost none of you have actually read them. So if you had the time to read through my thread to this point, go look at them real quick. They're extremely short.
5. Take a chillaxative.
Nothing good comes from flaming someone. You may have seen the somewhat popular internet saying, "Arguing over the internet is like running in the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded!" (IMPORTANT NOTICE: This is a direct quote, I have nothing against the mentally impaired) If someone has an opinion that conflicts with yours, remember that that's exactly what it is: an opinion. Everyone has them. They're more popular than cars or masturbation. There's a very high chance that someone else's is different than yours, so deal with it and move along with you life. This goes WAY back to some of the first reasons for war. A lot of them were and still are started because people think "my god is better than yours." The someone else says "no, mine is better" and they promptly have a dick waving competition where countless innocent people are slaughtered. If you flame someone who believes something different than you, you are no better than those people (except for the innocent people dying, at least most of the time).
Whew. Done.
So there are five easy ways to improve the Escapist community, and even if only one person improves themself in one of these ways, I've still made a difference. I have a few more that I'll give you if you want to follow them-
-Use breaks in wall o' text posts. Just hit the Enter key between major ideas.
-On a related note, if you're writing a user review, format it a bit and add some pictures. This makes it a lot less daunting and more interesting for readers.
-New users, when you add a poll to your thread, it automatically puts "Poll:" in the title. You don't have to put it yourself, otherwise you end up with another "Poll: Poll:"
-Make sure your threads are in the right section. This mostly applies to the new users. And if you're not sure which section to put it in, just choose any of the most applicable and it can be moved if you chose wrong. (My strategy is to put it in the section that gets the most traffic)
-Actually, make sure your threads are relevant and should even be posted at all. The thread that the quote I posted earlier came from was completely pointless and added nothing to the community.
-Please, don't make an "Am I the only one" or "Why the hate" thread. PROTIP: You're not the only one, and your thread will only inspire flamewars.
-USE THE SEARCH BAR. This also mostly applies to new users. Before you make a thread, search the forums to see if it's been done already. If you have something ground-breaking that you just have to add to the discussion, put it in the older thread instead of making your own. Otherwise, just move on, the forum gods have not smiled upon you this day.
TL;DR Check your threads and posts, and don't act like a douche.
So how do you think people can improve the forums, or how do you do so yourself?
