A Guide to Posting on SoapBoards

A GUIDE TO POSTING ON SOAPBOARDS

On every Internet forum, there are guidelines and rules, which the members follow. By knowing and following these, the forum is not only kept clean and tidy, but also is a friendlier place to post in.

This is no different on SoapBoards. Here, we have a certain posting trait which members follow, which means that people can express their opinions, and not become an irritation in anyway to the other members. As well as the rules (which can be read in more detail here: ), we have certain guidelines, which will be explained further here.

So what’s the difference between a rule and a guideline? Well, essentially, not a lot. A rule, however, must be followed by every member and is definite. The guidelines, however, is just certain traits which people follow in their posts. These are not set in stone.

So, to make everything a bit easier for everyone, here’s the guidelines of SoapBoards

GUIDELINES

SPELLING, PUNCTUATION AND GRAMMAR

Not everyone is great at spelling, we all know that. But on SoapBoards, if you put the effort into getting it right, then that’s all that counts. Putting full stops, commas, and dashes into your posts isn’t hard, so if you just read through your posts before you post them, then it comes across a lot better to the rest of us readers.

Remember you can edit your posts after you’ve done them, if you notice a mistake. Just click the “Edit” button at the bottom of any of your posts, and hey-presto! A window will open, and you can edit your posts easily.
http://www.soapboards.co.uk/forums/i...ttons/edit.gif

QUALITY NOT QUANTITY

Its an old saying, but on SoapBoards it really is true. Don’t feel like you have to post, when you really don’t have much to add to a discussion. Use your common sense when your posting to decide if your only posting for the sake of doing so. Remember, people prefer you to add a couple of smart comments which add to a conversation, rather then posting pointlessly over and over again, which throws the discussion off topic.

STAYING ON TOPIC

This leads on from the last guideline. When you’re posting, try to stay as close to the original topic as possible. We all understand that sometimes you go off a little bit, but doing this over and over again, and straying way from the point isn’t appreciated by anyone. If you want to talk about something else, then feel free to start a new topic in the right forum, and let the other topic carry on being about what it’s meant to be about.

Simply, If what you’re posting has nothing to do with the original post, you’re going off topic. So, just please, don’t :D.

DUPLICATE THREADS

Everyone understands if you post a thread with is exactly the same as another one, every now and again. But be warned: It will be closed as soon as a mod finds it. So to make their jobs easier, just have a quick check to see if it is a duplicate.

Theres 2 ways you can do this. One way of doing this is by doing a search of SoapBoards.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/181...asearch0tc.png

As the picture above shows, you can do this by clicking “Search” at the top of any page on Soapboards. Then type in the subject of the topic your planning on starting, and press go. Then any topic with those words in it, or with that subject, will come up in a window, and you can check if your thread is unique of not.


You can also search by clicking http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/2...wthread7jz.gif and then typing in the subject in the subject box. Then a button to the left of it will become active. Click on that, and any thread with that same topic will pop up. The button you need to click is shown on the picture below…

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/3...ssearch3xv.png

As I said at the beginning of this, these aren’t rules. You’re not going to get alerted, or banned if you don’t do this. But at the end of the day it all comes down to reputation. If you constantly make extra work for the moderators, then they’re not going to think as highly of you, compared to if you’d put the time into trying to prevent it. It only takes a few minutes, maybe not even that. So put the effort in, and people will think higher of you :D

TEXT TALK AND SHORTHAND

This overlaps with the rules, but because its kind of important, I thought I’d explain a bit here too. I use text talk a lot. I always have, as do most people my age. But when you read the forums the first thing you’ll notice is that no one uses it. That’s because not everyone uses nor understand text talk. We all know proper English, its what we’ve all been taught at school, so just use it on here, even if you don’t use it anywhere else. It stops your posts looking childish, messy, and makes the whole forum just easier to skim through, rather then have to work out what everyone is trying to say.

As I said, this is a rule on SoapBoards. You can’t use text talk 24/7, nor can you post in capitals. But I think that when you first start out at a forum, you can lapse back into old habits. The mods will understand if you do it a little bit (maybe writing “You” as “u” the odd time). But just take the time to read through your post, and you’ll avoid any bans or alerts from doing it over and over again.

AND FINALLY….. NOT EVERYONE IS THE BOSS!!!

If someone asks a question about how SoapBoards works or something, then feel free to answer them. As long as it’s the right answer, then you’re just doing the mods a favour. But when you start having a go at people for breaking the rules, or try to tell people off… well that’s stepping over the line, to be honest. The moderators are there to keep the boards clean, tidy, and deal with any situations with members. If someone’s breaking the rules, report them to a moderator and they can deal with it properly. They’ve been chosen to be moderators because they are unbiased so they can deal with things like that- so let them do their job! Don’t take things into your own hands, because it’ll just make you look bad really.

So just to sum that one up- help other members, but don’t take matters into your own hands, if someone’s breaking the rules. That’s not your job. At all. Far from it in fact!

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I hope that by reading this you understand how we all are at SoapBoards. As I said, every forum has its own posting traits, and these are ours. If you have any other questions, then you can ask them in this thread. That way, all the questions are kept together, and makes it all neat and tidy :D

Thanks x

Written by Abi
Edited by Norman Bates

Also, please keep all Joke threads in the Fun & Games Forum from now on.

This prevents the problem of one word replies ("lol" etc...) being counted towards a user's post count :)

Hey everyone,

A few of the Mods have been having a discussion and we've come up with a list of a few things that are either against the rules or extremely annoying which have become a bit of a habit for a few members.

We feel that we need to point them out to everyone and hope you understand that members who continue with these habits can expect to receive an alert or even a warning, depending on the Mod who spots them.

Here's the list:

1. Text Talk - It states clearly in the Usage Rules that text talk is not allowed and whilst the vast majority of users never use it, many people still continue to, even if it is only a small amount like saying "no" instead of "know". No matter how small the amount of text talk in a post, it's still against the rules and makes the board look very untidy.
   
   
2. Constructive Comments - This has increased a lot recently. Members are making more and more pointless posts such as "Yeh lol" or "I agree". These do not add anything to the subject being discussed in the thread and 99% of the time they are only posted to increase a member's post count. If you have something to say then say it but if you are just going to post something small and pointless, it will be deleted.
   
   
3. Duplicate Threads - This has become more of a problem in the Soap/Drama sections than anywhere else. Please remember to check the forum using the search facility before writing and submitting a thread. There is a button next to where you type your thread title that will quickly and easily allow you to check for existing threads. Duplicate threads will be closed.
   
   
4. Re-answering Questions - Users seem to continually feel the need to answer a question in a thread that has already been sufficiently answered by another member. This is obviously not necessary and unless you have something worthwhile to add to the previously posted answer, don't bother posting.

Thanks.

A few people seem to be thinking that the rules don't apply to them lately, so just to clarify, the site rules are not optional. By posting on this board you are agreeing to abide by them and you also realise that if you break them then you will be given a warning or an alert solely at the discretion of the moderator who spots it. If any member doesn't like the rules then they can leave.

I can safely assure everyone that no member is above the rules and none of the mods will think twice about banning members who constantly break the rules, even if the member has been here for ages.

Bumping so it shows as a new post for everyone

As a result of a lot of members posting spam on the shoutbox recently, in order to get further up the leaderboard, the shoutbox and leaderboard will now be cleared on a very regular basis.

We also request that you stop accusing other members of spamming on the shoutbox. Please leave it to the Moderators to decide if members are spamming, and take action on.

Thanks