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Taking Your Posting to the Next Level

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donny_paycheck

Inactive Super Quad Mod
Joined
Oct 25, 2001
"Taking Your Posting to the Next Level"
By mdcomp

Welcome to the forums!

This guide will share some ways to improve the quality of your posting by helping you increase the readability and usefulness of your posts.

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General Posting

The length of your post is unimportant. It is the information conveyed by your post that is important. Develop your ideas before posting so that you include only relevant information. A good response should fully explain itself.

The Search function

The search function is an extremely useful tool. Oftentimes, the question you have on your mind has been asked several times. By using the search, you can get a much quicker response with more information. Should this not fully answer your question, you can always post for clarification (starting a new thread instead of asking in a thread that searched linked you is a good idea).

Never reply to any threads with "use the search button". This is rude and contributes nothing to the thread. Should you feel it necessary to inform a poster of the search function, post a reminder that use of the search function could have been beneficial. Also feel free to provide an example of information that you found using a search.

Post Structure

The proper use of sentence and paragraph structure will make your posts easier to read. Don't be afraid of punctuation or the enter key, these give the reader a place to rest.

Proper useage of spelling and grammar also makes your posts easier to read. It also lends credibility to your posts, and gives your opinion more weight. The use of net slang should be avoided. Using "AIM" or "leet" speak makes your posts look less thought out and thusly more likely to be ignored.

It is also important to use correct terminology. For example, if you mean PCI-express, do not say PCI-X. PCI-X is used in server motherboards. PCI-express is referred to as PCI-E.

Swearing

Don't do it. There is nothing in the overclocking world that cannot be expressed without the use of vulgar language. Using it only detracts from the point of the post. There are plenty of ways to indicate displeasure or intensity without the use of the small handful of words that are socially unacceptable.

Communicating Emotion

Emotions and moods are parts of what make us human, and are also something that can frequently affect the quality of a post. There is much that is lost in written word communication. Audio and visual clues that indicate humor or sarcasm are completely lost. Some of this can be regained by using emoticons, though overuse of them will detract from your post more than it will add. Take this into consideration as you are both reading and writing posts.

This is especially important in heated discussions (eg AMD v Intel). It is expected that in these types of discussions there will frequently be argumentative and/or disagreeable members. Should you come across posts that you feel are inflammatory, contact a Senior Member or Moderator rather than respond in kind.

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These simple guidelines will improve not only the quality of your posts, but the quality of the forums. Hope this helps you out!

Thanks,
- David, mdcomp (Matt) and @md0cer

Special thanks to William and his guide, The Whats and Whys of a Quality Post.
 
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