# 7 Easy Ways to Online Respect or, The Dummies Guide to Forum Behavior.



## Bester

Tired of being misunderstood when you post?
Wonder why you seem to type something and get a ton of grief?
The problem my friends, may be a local one, located between your keyboard and chair.
The good news is, the solution is at your fingertips!

Here are AB's 7 simple rules to fitting in and being accepted on most online forums.

*7 Easy Ways to Online Respect or, The Dummies Guide to Forum Behavior.*

*1- Lurk at first*. Lurking is the act of reading, but not replying. Do this for a week or 3 to get the feel for the "seriousness" level of that particular discussion area.

*2- Be polite.* While you don't have to "sir" people to death, being polite and respectful, especially in your initial posts will allow you to ease yourself gracefully into the community.

*3- Don't be demanding, or hit the board screaming.* You are the "New Kid". If you come in guns blazing, demanding to be treated like an expert, bossing folks around, or just being a general opinionated ***, it is correct to expect people will react, and react negatively towards you. It doesn't matter how big, important or more likely self-important you are in the "real" world. On a message board, you are just another guy, and one that most folks have no clue about. Being a bossy jerk from the start will get you ignored, flames, suspended and even banned. 

*4- Spell Check & Grammar Check.* - 95% of communications errors online are due to misspellings, typos, and poor grammar. If you have a modern word processor like MS Word, it includes both features. If you are trying to get a serious point across, I highly suggest using it to proof your post before you hit that "submit" button.

*5- Proof Read* - Reading your whole message through before submitting will allow you to correct flaws in logic, grammar, and concept, BEFORE someone else takes you to task publicly. Remember, this is a written medium. We can't see you smiling, or frowning, and much of the meaning is lost, unless you make it clear.

*6- Follow Netiquette* - Netiquette is simply rules of behavior for the online world. It is the little things like not typing in all capitals, using readable fonts, etc.
A detailed look is beyond my intent here, but you can educate yourself on proper online behavior here: http://www.onlinenetiquette.com/netiquette_101.html

*7- Don't post simply to disrupt, detract, or destroy established discussions.* This is often referred to as "Trolling", and is a sure way to find yourself rapidly shown to the door on most systems.

7 simple rules. 7 ways to win. 7 Holy Paths to Salvation in the online world.

Enjoy

AB


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## Flatlander

Can we sticky this?  Thanks AB, that needed to be done.


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## Bob Hubbard

Stickied.


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## KenpoTess

rats.. Bob Beat me..
 *shaking duct tape off of fingers* *goes to find something else to stick*


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## arnisador

Sticky? Make it a quiz.


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## MA-Caver

How's a-'bout a suggestion box... two suggestion boxes... those serious ones and the ones that tell you where to *STICK* those stickies!


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## Gin-Gin

Good post, AB.  I hope all the newbies will read it.


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## masherdong

Sounds like good advice to me.


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## Guardian

Excellent post and sound advice.  Thanks for posting this.


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## Drac

Should be MANDATORY reading for all new members..


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## dubljay

Drac said:


> Should be MANDATORY reading for all new members..




Make it a mandatory agreement when signing up.  Add it to the Terms and Conditions.   :rules:RTFM:hammer:


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## Tez3

Can we have something that explains what are 'rude' words and what aren't? Different countries have different words, for example I will put four **** when I mean p*** off as that's rude here but I've been told it's not particularly rude in the States and if I put four **** people think it's an 'eff' word which I never use?
The worse one I think (not on here) was once when I was pointing out the irony of the fact we have a fag break during training and I got horrified replies, all I meant was we have a smoke break!


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## exile

We're not supposed to worry about what the rude words are; the profanity filter takes care of that for us. If it gets through the filter, it's legit; if it gets turned into asterisks, well, now you know. 

A UK version of MT would probably replace 'bloody' with six asterisks, but there is universal consensus on this side of the Pond that it's not an obscenity; mostly, if people register it at all, they think it has a somewhat quaint flavor, I gather. (Strictly speaking, this is so only for the U.S.; in Canada it still ranks in some quarters as a swear word.) In Quebec, MT would have to * out the infamous expletive _Tabernacle!!_, the lustiest profanity in their lexicon. The word _bastard_ is not used in polite company, and when I was a kid, it was considered ultra-profane, but times seem to have changed... me, I'm happy to just type away and let the PF do its work of turning vile language into puncuation... :lol:


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## Bob Hubbard

Also Klingon isn't filtered...but some of us can read it.


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## shane

Great post and have very useful advice for the readers .
thanks awesome man................


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