Some simple forum netiquette: 3 – When and what to post

When you’re new on a forum, either you’re an idiot or you want to be at least a bit careful about not getting up other people’s noses. Here are some clues about how to be accepted rather than despised.

Vanity publishing

If you’re new to the Internet and to forums, you may be quite excited at the heady prospect of everything you write being visible to other people all around the world. You may also be eager to have conversations with all these new-found friends.

That’s great. But try to resist the urge to post on every topic on the forum you’ve joined, just because you can.

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Some simple forum netiquette: 2 – Starting a discussion

When you’re new on a forum, either you’re an idiot or you want to be at least a bit careful about not getting up other people’s noses. Here are some clues about how to be accepted rather than despised.

A fresh start

The golden rule on subjects and forum topics/threads is simple: there should be only one topic on any given subject, and only one subject discussed in any given topic.

So when should you start a new topic? Obviously, you’ll want to check what’s already been posted to make sure that your chosen subject hasn’t been raised before.

Having done that, if you find that you really have got something genuinely new to post about, then please start a new topic about it. Please don’t hijack an existing discussion and take it off-topic – including if it’s one you’ve started yourself! – as this only buries information and irritates other users.

Don’t forget to give your new topic a sensible subject title too (see “Subjected to torture” below).

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Some simple forum netiquette: 1 – Joining a forum

When you’re new on a forum, either you’re an idiot or you want to be at least a bit careful about not getting up other people’s noses. Here are some clues about how to be accepted rather than despised.

Follow the rules

Many forums or bulletin boards have rules or guidelines that they ask the people using them to follow.

It’s important to remember that although a forum may be open to public view and even open to anyone to join in, it’s public as in “public house”, not as in “public right of way”. So the forum owners are perfectly within their rights to impose whatever regime they like. The people who like what the owners are doing, stick around. Those who don’t, generally move on quickly (and if they don’t, they may be chucked off – very often to the relief of the community that’s developed around that particular forum).

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