General Forum Etiquette

I've Been TO a lot of sites.... I've administrated a lot of sites.... and I see the same problems, over and over.

I'm aiming this post at new members, though even some long standing members could learn a bit from this. I'm gonna list some DO's and some DON"TS that are a good idea for ANYONE who participates in a forum, anywhere.


DO's....

Read the forum! the whole thing!   When you first enter a hobby, you have a lot of questions, understandably. It's part of the learning experience. But in a FORUM, especially one that has been around a while, the chances are pretty good that someone else has already asked the question, sometimes Ad Nauseum ! if you read the forum FIRST, you can prevent making yourself look like an idiot for asking the same question that has been asked (and answered) a hundred or so times before. 200 responses to the same question by different people muddy's up the flow of learning, and sidetracks the CURRENT build questions. Not reading what others have already taken their time to post shows little respect on the non readers part. When I got to this site, I took a week, read the site... all of the builds, announcements, and how to threads. It actually saved me, and everyone here, a LOT of time. If you don't have time to search the site (there is a search button) then pop into chat and ask. (this keeps the "Latest topics" area clean for builds and new questions)

Be complete. If you have a question, post the info folks are gonna need to answer it! Model number, serial number, Pic's, how many cyl, whatever. Remember that we can't SEE, feel, experince the item you are asking about, even if ya posted a pic. Including such info into the question prevents numerous followup posts asking for that very info, BEFORE your question get's answered.

Stay on topic. Responding to someone else's post, or to someone who answered that post with a completely different topic is considered thread jacking, and it makes it difficult to follow the original thread topic if you are reading start to finish in the thread.

Read the REPLY's! Read CAREFULLY what has been posted back to you, and be respectful, even if you disagree. It's possible they mis-typed or you misunderstood the reply. Ask for clarification, and start a different thread to hammer it out. Most of us are self taught, and while something may work for ME, it may not work for YOU. Posts that clear up misinformation are, in my opinion, the cream of the forum world.

This is just a FEW of the DO's... I may add more later


DON'Ts

Don't be snarky. If ya ask a question, be willing to at least consider the suggestions given. Even if you don't follow it, advice that was asked for is still a gift, and should be treated with respect. Someone took the time to TRY to answer your question, so be respectful. Conversely, if you are answering someone's post, don't ry to make the questioner feel stupid for asking... none of us were born knowing what we do.... we all had to learn from scratch.

Don't be a snob. Maybe YOU have a complete machine shop, and buckets of money, but not everyone else does. Having these things don't mean YOU are superior, it means your tools and materials are superior. Don't look down on folks without your resources for engineering a way to use what they have available. THAT should be applauded, not discouraged.

DON'T BE A JERK TO THE ADMIN'S. These guys have a LOT of work to do, every day, promoting the site, editing the above type posts, fixing problems with the site, etc. They aren't getting paid for their time (usually) or their patience, so if you ask them to do something for you, give them some time and some appreciation for them doing it. Most of the admins work for a living, have families and lives outside this forum, so time is scarce.... but they are spending their FREE time on YOU.

Doc Sprocket's 2 cents worth

1) HELP ME HELP YOU! Odds are good that in the process of troubleshooting your problem, I'm going to ask you some questions and probably ask you to perform some basic test. I will use the answers and the result to help solve your problem. Do yourself a favor, and actually perform the tests and answer my questions. I am trying to help you. Help me help you, and we'll get it solved. Too many times, I hear excuses like "it's dark", "it's cold", "the dog ate it", whatever.

2) I'm not the grammar police, but try to put some effort into making your posts readable. If I have to really struggle to make any kind of sense of what you've written, I'm probably just going to move on, instead. You're asking me to put forth an effort to assist you. I'm willing to. But in return, you need to put a tiny bit of effort in, too.

3) The zombie thread, the one that came back from the dead... Please- especially the new guys- Check the posting dates on the thread you're about to reply to. If, 2 years ago, a guy asked what was wrong with his transmission- don't reply. He's either sorted it out, sold the machine, or isn't even around here anymore! Also, avoid digging up an old one, and posting "Cool LOL". A lot of us check the recent threads, and something like that is just a waste of time. On another forum I work at, this just got SO frustrating, we ended up setting threads to auto-lock after 6 months of inactivity.

Nice post Lawren!  

I'll add that any question has an infinite number of answers. And possibly many correct but different answers. Many times on a forum such as this, where people are building very unique machines, we may all have ideas. Maybe nobody will right or wrong, but there could be many different ideas.

And if someone is truly mistaken about the info they're offering, let's be kind in our attempts to educate the poster on their mistake.   

Well said

None of us get paid, actually.

Moved to Announcements.

very good lawren

Thanks for posting this, Lawren. There are a lot of very good points there. Since this ain't my first rodeo either, I have a couple things to add-

1) HELP ME HELP YOU! Odds are good that in the process of troubleshooting your problem, I'm going to ask you some questions and probably ask you to perform some basic test. I will use the answers and result to solve your problem. Do yourself a favour, and actually perform the tests and answer my questions. I am trying to help you. Help me help you, and we'll get it solved. Too many times, I hear "it's dark", "it's cold", "the dog ate it", whatever.

2) I'm not the grammar police, but try to put some effort into making your posts readable. If I have to really struggle to make any kind of sense of what you've written, I'm probably just going to move on, instead. You're asking me to put forth an effort to assist you. I'm willing to. But in return, you need to put a tiny bit of effort in, too.

3) The zombie thread, the one that came back from the dead... Please- especially the new guys- Check the posting dates on the thread you're about to reply to. If, 2 years ago, a guy asked what was wrong with his transmission- don't reply. He's either sorted it out, sold the machine, or isn't even around here anymore! Also, avoid digging up an old one, and posting "Cool LOL". A lot of us check the recent threads, and something like that is just a waste of time. On another forum I work at, this just got SO frustrating, we ended up setting threads to auto-lock after 6 months of inactivity.

Thanks everyone for their contributions to the community!

Thanks doc, and feel free to cut and paste your additions to the original. If we all kick in our thoughts, we should end up with a good guide to an enjoyable forum.

Thanks- Tell you what- I will let YOU copy/paste it in, so you can work the format as needed. You're doing a fine job, I'm not gonna mess with it!