The Stick Online Guide to Forum Posting

[Mr Pwnage]

TL;DR (A quick glance summary)
1) Ask yourself before posting:
*Does my post address the topic at hand?
*Does my post offend/insult anyone in a way that tops what is considered acceptable by the community?
*Is my post worth posting?
*Is my post legible?
2) As a general rule, try to be polite and professional as possible, especially when criticizing somebody else's work.
3) Only "Necro-post" if you are adding useful information to the topic.
4) Don't flame.
5) Try not to make your forum signature too big.
6) Avoid double posting. Edit your post instead.

Introduction
Welcome to the Stick Online Guide to Forum Posting, written by yours truly, Mr Pwnage. I hope you will find it helpful in terms of what you need to know about our wonderful forum, how to use it, and some helpful tools/tips to help you succeed as a member of this forum. Please look at the Table of Contents below to find an area in which you would like information on, than look for the section even farther below with the title you want to read about. Thank you and enjoy your stay on the Stick Online forums!


Table of Contents
*Forum Etiquette
*Using The Forum Interface
*FAQs


Forum Etiquette
Alright so, I'll say first thing, if you want to be a well respected community member on ANY forum, you should be mature, think about your actions before you make impulsive decisions, and use proper spelling and grammar so people can clearly understand what it is you are trying to say. Stick Online, unlike most other forums, is unique in the sense that it is a relatively small community, small enough that what you say WILL be heard and most likely responded too. This can be a very good thing, but can be bad for some. The thing is, since we have such a small community, we will get to know you fairly quickly, so first impressions are important. Come across as a friendly individual with an interest for what these forums are used for, and you will do great. Now that you somewhat have an understanding of what our community is like, let me set a couple guidelines that will make life on our forum easier for you. Some of these might sound somewhat repetitive, this is because I am really just conveying the point to act mature and kind in many different ways. They are as follows:

1) Don't just DOUBLE think before you post, QUADRUPLE think.
*Does my post address the topic at hand?
*Does my post offend/insult anyone in a way that tops what is considered acceptable by the community?
*Is my post worth posting?
*Is my post legible enough so that people can understand what I am trying to say? (Also, if you use Firefox, it should underline in red your misspelled words. It's pretty useful. The forum also has a built in spellchecker, but it goes through each word and can be annoying to use.)

2) As a general rule, try to be polite and professional as possible, especially when criticizing somebody else's work. Remember that we are all doing things at different skill levels here, and people post their work, whatever it made be, to get praises, or suggestions to help them improve their craft. Saying comments such as "It sucks." aren't helpful to anybody in anyway, and are not appreciated. A much better approach would be, if you don't like it, and it looks like they have clearly put some effort into their craft, tell them what you don't like so they can improve. Now in turn, if it looks like somebody is spamming the forum with garbage that didn't take them more than 5 seconds to complete, YOU SHOULDN'T POST AT ALL. Instead, if it clearly appears to be spam, use the "Report to moderator button" and let the staff handle it. This saves many headaches and is much more efficient anyways. Don't abuse this button though, it is for spam, not for reporting people who insult you. If you have honestly been verbally abused by somebody on the forum in a post, it is likely the community will side with you and tell the person who has done so to shape up. If you are being harassed by PM, (and this like never happens, but in the rare case it does..), Either block the person, or if it gets really out of hand, contact a moderator and explain to them your situation.

3) Don't "Necro-post". "Necro-posting" is a forum term that means reviving old/dead topics that nobody is longer discussing. The general rule for Necro-posting is posting on a topic that nobody has posted on since 2 weeks. The only exception to this rule is that you have something CRITICAL to add to the topic, which you will have to be the judge of. After 5 weeks, the topic is officially dead, and should no longer be posted on. These aren't of course set rules, but just general guidelines you might want to keep in mind.

4) Don't flame. Before I even get into this, I just want to make very clear this doesn't mean "Don't argue". Actually, I encourage intellectual arguing, it makes for good debate on forums such  as these. Just make sure while your arguing your point, you don't go the other route, and begin to "flame". "Flaming" refers to the intentional, outright bashing of other players. Such as name calling, making a mock of, etc. Just remember the golden rule: Do unto other the way you wish to be treated. If you wouldn't want somebody calling you a "Walrus-Licker", than don't call anyone else a "Walrus-Licker". Simple enough.

5) This next one is just a quick rule of thumb about "signatures". A signature refers to the text that essentially "signs" each persons posts. It is always the same, and is at the very bottom of there post under a big borderline. The big thing to remember is, try not to make them too big. People hate HUGE signatures because they suck up thread space, and look rather obnoxious. To get an idea for a good size, look at other peoples. All you need is to take a glance. Also, I am referring to the height of the picture/text, because that is what takes up space.

6) Finally, try to avoid double posting. There is a much better alternative; You can MODIFY your posts, so you don't have to post 2 in a row. There should be a button to do so on each one of your posts. It isn't THAT hard to find.


Using The Forum Interface
As a registered member of the Stick Online forum, you have many abilities to take advantage of. This next section will describe how to do so.

*How to post: To post in a topic, hit the reply button at the bottom of the page, type your message, and click "Post", PRESTO! You've just posted. Sometimes you may want to quote somebody else's post, so what they said is in your post so that everybody know what your referring to. To do so, find the post you want to quote, click the "Quote" button, type your message, and click "Post", DOUBLE PRESTO! You've just posted to a quote. Also just as a side note, you have the ability to edit the quote your are posting to in your post. This is useful to edit out large pictures to save space, people appreciate it.

*How to create a topic/poll: Find a thread that matches the topic you want to create. (General,Suggestions,Media,Bugs,Off-Topic). They are essentially categories, for more information to help match your topic to the right thread, read about what the thread its for under the title on the forum index menu. Once in the proper thread, scroll to the bottom and select either "New Topic", or "Post New Poll", depending on what you want to do. Once clicked, the rest should be fairly self explanatory, as it is very similar to creating a regular post.

*How to Edit/Modify your post: This is very useful because you can change/add to what you wrote without having to "double post". You can do this simply by clicking the "Modify" button in the top right corner, right next to the "Quote" button. Once clicked, simply edit your post as desired, and click "save" to update your changes.

*Making your profile/signature/avatar: At the very topic of this forum, there is a navigation bar. One of the options is "Profile". Click that, and you will open your control panel in which you can customize to your desire. It is fairly self explanatory how to do everything, so I won't get into it here.

*Using the posting menu: When your making a post/new topic, in addition to the big rectangle where you enter text, you will also notice many buttons. These buttons are essentially shortcuts for various actions you can do to make your post pretty/cool/pretty cool. Heh, anyways, this forum uses BB Code, which means you edit your text by adding simple funky commands in brackets. BB Code is very simple and takes about 2 minutes to learn, you can learn more about it here to see how to add pictures, edit text for color/appearance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBCode Anyways, the buttons can be used as shortcuts for BB Code. For instance, if your want an image to appear in a post, you host it on an image hosting site (like imageshack), than take the direct link and paste it into your post, than highlight it, and click the picture from button, which will enter your link into image brackets. It is good to get to know these buttons as people love to color and format their text, and post pictures.

And I believe that for the most part, sums up the forum interface.


FAQs
An FAQ is a frequently asked question...these are pretty much useful answer to questions people usually have about the forum.

Q. Where is the download link for the game? Do I have to donate to play?
A. The game is currently only open to donors, because a newer version of the game is currently being made. This version of the game will be free to everyone and anyone. If you still wish however, to play on the donors server, a donation of $10 USD is required to help pay for server costs. For more detailed information on this matter, please read: http://www.stick-online.com/boards/index.php?topic=2.0

Q. Who is the project leader/creator of Stick Online?
A. Meiun. Here is his profile on the forum: http://www.stick-online.com/boards/index.php?action=profile;u=1

Q. Can I lock my own topic I have created?
A. Yes, you can. If you look in the THREAD your topic is posted, and find it in the list of topics, there should be a little lock icon that you can use to lock your own topic.

Q. How do I post a picture in a post?
A. Take the DIRECT LINK of the image from imageshack (or wherever your image is hosted), and put than between

Code Select Expand

[img][/img] So it's like this:

Code Select Expand

[img]<insert direct link here>[/img] Here is a link to imageshack, an image-hosting website: http://imageshack.us/ .


And that concludes The Stick Online Guide to Forum Posting. I hope you have found it helpful. Thank you, and enjoy your stay on the Stick Online Forums!

[daddi]

While this is done quite nicely (except for that yellow color on the Forum Interface), I still never find a use for this stuff, unless its short and sweet. New posters who don't take the time to read all about the Donation info and what not, will probably not take the time to read something like this.... and much less use it in their everyday posting.

Good job, anyhow, I suppose. I liked it and enjoyed it, good tips.

[ARTgames]

You just want to help the community! how DAR you!

just 2 complaints from me. whats with the fruit punch coloring and can you spit it up into paragraphs. I have the felling a new person will "TL;DR" this.

[Torch]

Don't EVER use yellow font. Also, try to break up your massive sections by having a blank line between each point.

Example:
1)

2)

as opposed to:

1)
2)

Helpful guide, the trick is in getting new forum-goers to read it.

[Mystery]

Don't EVER use yellow font. Also, try to break up your massive sections by have a blank line between each point.

Example:
1)

2)

as opposed to:

1)
2)

Helpful guide, the trick is in getting new forum-goers to read it.

Hate to burst your bubble, but that's not yellow font. It's orange, which is noticeably more readable. Spacing out points does help a lot with reading long topics, as I have noticed in the past.

And yes, the problem with these guides is that, more often than not, there's a gold mine of info in them, but no one takes the time to read them. This is a very good guide, though.

[Mr Pwnage]

Don't EVER use yellow font. Also, try to break up your massive sections by have a blank line between each point.

Example:
1)

2)

as opposed to:

1)
2)

Helpful guide, the trick is in getting new forum-goers to read it.

Well believe it or not, that isn't yellow. That's orange, according to this forum:
ORANGE
YELLOW
Though, I can definitely change it to a darker color.

I will also be sure to add in that spacing you all have been suggesting.

And you have to remember, while people might not come across it at first, any newcomers with questions can simply be givin' this link, and problem solved. A sticky might be helpful, but I want to see if people like and agree with it first.

Also, did anyone notice the banner was animated? Look hard. :p

EDIT: Added spacing, fixed colors, any other suggestions?

[EpicPhailure]

Spacing paragraphs would help. Other then that, I commend you on your effort =D

[Mr Pwnage]

Spacing paragraphs would help. Other then that, I commend you on your effort =D

How's that now? I think I understand what you all mean now. Any better?

[Torch]

Spacing paragraphs would help. Other then that, I commend you on your effort =D

How's that now? I think I understand what you all mean now. Any better?

Yeah, that's what I meant. It's much better.

[Lingus]

Add a "How to Edit your post" section.

Good work.

[Mr Pwnage]

Add a "How to Edit your post" section.

Good work.

Done:

*How to Edit/Modify your post: This is very useful because you can change/add to what you wrote without having to "double post". You can do this simply by clicking the "Modify" button in the top right corner, right next to the "Quote" button. Once clicked, simply edit your post as desired, and click "save" to update your changes.

And thanks.


EDIT: Off topic but, I have just realized that I have reached Sr. Member, woo! I wonder if this is the highest rank or if there is another level up...cause I still only have 4 stars, lol.

[Lucifer]

That entire post can be summarized into one sentence.
Don't be a !@#$ing idiot.

[flashmaniac]

Lol, if you don't follow any of those rules or don't know any of them then don't bother posting anything on the internet... You'll just get flamed.

[JoEL]

Forum Etiquette
Alright so, I'll say first thing, if you want to be a well respected community member on ANY forum, you should be mature,

I guess that's how you obtained your respect?
I lol'd.

2) As a general rule, try to be polite and professional as possible, especially when criticizing somebody else's work

That's defenatly a good one, perhaps someday you might follow your own guidelines.

Okay, I'm done with the quotes, overall I think it was quite good, I'm especially surprised to see that your the one who came up with this, very good job, well done. I actually learnt something from this, I never noticed you could lock your own topic, although I've never really made a serious topic before. Once again, well done.

[Seifer]

I'm Seifer and I support this topic.