Forum Etiquette

Things to guide you through this site.

Forum Etiquette

Postby TCS Staff » Sat Jun 06, 2015 4:24 am

Welcome to the TCS Guide to Etiquette, a guide to what we consider to be good behaviour on the forum. These are different than the official rules, and are intended as guidelines on how to behave. If you forget to follow them, it usually isn't a big deal, but a mod may remind you of them, or may even edit your post so that it follows the guidelines (such as for youtube=hidden embeds, spoiler tags, etc).

1). Post Quality: Try to write posts that contribute to the forum in some way. This doesn’t mean every post needs to be a 1000 word essay, nor does it mean the same thing for every sub-forum on TCS. General forum-wide guidelines would mean that simple posts with one or two words, or just a smiley are to be avoided. If you want to say something like “I agree” a thumb does that nicely. At the least, write a few sentences on why you agree. These guidelines are especially important for posts made in Current Affairs And Serious Stuff and Loud Noises, where more reasoned and thought out posts are appreciated. In Until Someone Loses An Eye or The Social Cellar, the aim is fun and games, silliness is encouraged, and the one or two word guideline doesn't necessarily apply.

2). Avoid Duplicate Threads: If a thread for a topic already exists, then post in that topic. If you can’t see one, you can use the search function or ask any mod if one already exists. We prefer necromancy (posting in an old thread) to starting a new one providing what you have to say is relevant to the topic. For broad topics (such as religion), this doesn't mean we can have only one thread on religion. We don't need two threads with the same specific purpose (ie. personal experiences with religion), but two different threads on religion with a different focus (ie. a personal experience thread and a debate thread) are fine.

3). Specific Thread Titles: When creating a new thread, use a title that is specific and gives information about what the topic is going to be about. Avoid titles that are inflammatory or don't give any information about the topic.

Examples of bad thread titles:

Another Terrible Article
Man on the Internet is a Real Prick
Oh for Fuck's Sake!
What do you think of...

Examples of Good Thread Titles:

5 Baddass Military Heroes
So You Have A Hamster Stuck Up Your Ass (Bulchoz Kills It Again)
US Congress Goes On Strike

4). Thread OP (original post): When creating a new thread, the OP should set the tone for the discussion and provide introductory information about the topic. Please don’t just drop a link with no additional comments, if it's about an upcoming game or movie elaborate on why you're excited. If you want to have a debate or discussion about an idea, or an article, lead with your thoughts, and what it is you want to discuss.

5). Staying On Topic: When posting in a thread, try to stay on topic. While some off topic discussion is okay, if it detracts from the thread it’s probably a suitable subject for its own thread, in which case you may make one (assuming it doesn’t exist already).

6). Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation: Please take the time to use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation in your posts. This includes remembering to properly capitalize words, using periods, commas, and other punctuation, and also paragraph breaks so that your post isn't just one giant block of text (which can be difficult to read). It can help to give your post a read in preview before posting. That’s not to say we don’t all make mistakes from time to time, but please try to avoid egregious breaks in clear writing wherever possible.

7). Double Posting: One post is usually sufficient to reply to a thread at any one time, you can reply to multiple posters and present several thoughts in one post. You can use the edit function to add new thoughts if you’re still the most recent poster in a thread. As such there is no need to double post in most threads. There are exceptions, for example, posting in a thread which has been out of use with fresh information, but in general double posting is unnecessary. Making more posts than you need in an effort to increase your post count, or double posting to try to get extra rep for what should've been just one post is also unacceptable. (If you accidentally double post you can use the report button to notify a moderator, and they'll take care of it).

8). Colours: There are various colours that are available for you to use when writing your posts, however, please use them sparingly. Colours are most commonly used on TCS to serve a specific purpose in a forum game, or when a moderator is speaking in "mod voice." These are not the only purposes that colours may be used for, but please be thoughtful when using them. Writing an entire post in bright yellow can be difficult to read and painful on the eyes. You may not use colours to pretend to be a moderator, or imply that you have mod authority. (This is a violation of Rule 6. Click here to read the official rules for TCS).

9). Smileys & Acronyms: Smileys and acronyms are allowed, but they are best used in moderation. If your post contains mostly or just acronyms and smileys, then it could stand to use a little more content.

10). Quoting: When quoting someone please be specific as to which part of the post you’re quoting and responding to. Try to avoid quoting other posts wholesale, as this makes a thread bloated with quotations of things people have read before. You can edit out the portions of a quote that you're not responding to. This helps both to make your point clearer, and avoid bloated posts. (Don't edit posts to misquote or misrepresent what someone said). If you’re making long quotes, or quoting a lot of text, put it behind a spoiler tag to reduce scrolling. Try to avoid quoting images and youtube videos as this makes the page load slower. It helps to edit images or youtube videos out of a quote and to instead add in a line noting what you are quoting. This helps reduce page load times and avoid bloated posts while still clearly indicating what you are responding to.

11). Youtube Hidden: Use the youtube=hidden tag when embedding a video in video heavy threads. You don't need to use the youtube=hidden tag for all video embeds, just ones in video heavy threads. This includes every thread in the music sub-forum. This is to help with page load times. (For more information on how use the youtube=hidden tag, read the TCS forum guide). Note: Putting a video embed under a spoiler tag does not reduce page load times.

12). Images: When posting an image to TCS, please either upload them as an attachment, or hotlink the image using your personal account on an image hosting site (such as Imgur). There's an attachment limit of 3 per post, so you will need to use an image hosting site if you plan on including more images than that. We prefer that you don't hotlink to images on other sites, or image sharing accounts other than your own. This is because it's both considered rude to hotlink to other people images (as it uses up their bandwidth), and helps to prevent link decay. (For more information on how to post images, TCS forum guide). If you are uploading multiple images, then it's best to hide them under a spoiler tag to reduce the amount of screen space used. You don't need a separate spoiler tag for each image, putting them all under the same tag will work fine. Note: Putting images under a spoiler tag will not reduce page load times.

13). Spoilers: Avoid discussing spoilers out in the open in your posts. Use the spoiler tag to hide spoilers under them, even if the thread title says spoilers. Also indicate before the spoiler tag what it is spoilers for, so that people can know if it's something they want to click. This is especially true for threads that are for a tv show, so they can know which episode they are spoilers for, and even more so when discussing spoilers in a thread not directly related to whatever it is that is being spoiled.

Example:

Spoilers For Daredevil S1E10
Birdman Spoilers

For more information on how to use spoiler tags, read the TCS forum guide.
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