Proper Posting Etiquette - List Here!

[Kov-Ice]

The following list of etiquette points have been suggested by members through this thread. They have been moved up here for easy reading.

Vbulletin usage and FAQ is explained here

If you can't say it to your grandmother, you can't say it here. We enforce a strict PG-13 policy. The obvious naughty words are automatically censored by the forum software, but obvious "workarounds" WILL be noticed, manually censored, and will earn the poster a warning.

If it's illegal, it belongs elsewhere.

If you think it might provoke an overly heated debate, you're on thin ice.

If in doubt about making a post too long, don't be. The more detail we have to work with, the easier it is to troubleshoot.

Break posts up into lines/paragraphs for easier reading. Use punctuation!!!

Be honest. Don't tell us you did nothing new, and then 3 posts later mention the new motherboard, ram, cpu, and video card you installed.

If it's NOT a home built/white box computer, please tell us if it's a Compaq, PB, HP, E-Machine or other proprietary POS.

AND ANOTHER THING... DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPS....ITS REALLY ANNOYING, IT'S CONSIDERED YELLING, IT'S DIFFICULT TO READ, AND WON'T GET YOU ANY BETTER ANSWERS ANY FASTER.

Run a search before posting

This isn't free tech support that people who post here provide out of the goodness of their hearts.

If you realize that you forgot something or want to change what you said, EDIT your post, please don't post a new reply 5 minutes after the original post or reply. The post is open for editing by the originator for 12 hours after it's posted.

Please do not open new threads concerning the same problem or issue. Keep posting replies instead so we can all see the full history in ONE thread.

Please keep the Net slang and shorthand to a minimum to make it easier for everyone to understand. Not everyone here is (or appreciates) a 733t hx0r if U Kn0w wAt eYe m33n! Plain English is always preferable, spellchecked if you have one and have the time to do it if your spelling and/or typing leaves something to be desired.

Please keep your signatures to a minimum size. Use a small font for your signature text. Remember that images are not allowed in signatures.

This is a technical forum, having a signature that gives detailed information of your computer hardware will get you solutions faster

Posting attachments or links to external sites that accept them are the preferred ways to show us pictures. We try to keep this site "bandwidth friendly" and big graphics just makes this difficult.

Read what someone posts. If someone replies to a thread you've started, be sure to read answers entirely before you reply. You could miss a crucial point or piece of advise. Also you make the thread unecessarily long by continuing to ask the same question without reading the answers.

Same goes for people replying. Be sure to read the thread starters entire post before answering.

If you feel that the problem, and suggested solution(s) are NOT helping you, then post a new thread, and mention that you have already tried the stuff in "that" thread. It helps if you provide the link to "that" thread.

If you find the problem similar, and the solutions partially worked, say so in the original thread.

If you find the problem similar, and found a different solution than those offered, PLEASE post your solution ASAP.

When a problem is solved, please post saying that it has been solved, and EXACTLY what worked. So many threads get lost because the solution is found, and the poster never acknowledges, nor replies with what did work. A little thanks goes a long way, and a little explanation goes even further, to help others that have the same problem.

Don't ask for specific people to answer your posts - let everyone have a crack at them.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO ANSWER. Some of the guys around here are real experts, but don't be afraid to give your own opinion. Do a little research and some thinking before you answer, but having done that, post your response.

IF YOU WANT TO BE RESPECTED, SHOW RESPECT to the person asking the question and the rest of the board. Nothing will cost you more soclal capital than disrespecting the person asking the question. If you think a question is dumb and the guy asking it is even dumber than the question, don't answer.

There actually are situations where a "canned" answer is appropriate, but please judge this on a case-by-case basis if you do use them, don't just throw one at a thread because you think it "might" apply.

When you get a specific error in Windows, how about looking it up on google, quite often the answer is already there, or better yet, if it's a specific Windows error, try the MS Knowledge base, it's amazing what can be cured in a few minutes.

To posters that are looking for parts pricing and recommendations: If you are not in the US, please indicate somewhere what country you are from, a lot of our members assume that the usual US vendors are suitable for everyone. It would be even nicer if you are overseas and can give us links to vendors in your country, preferably ones that have an English language option.

To members that wish to give recommendations: Please look for clues on the country of origin (the "Location" line between the avatar and the post count is a good place to start) before touting Newegg, etc. Yes, some of our US vendors will ship overseas, but there's additional shipping cost, Customs duties, and taxes involved, and often border delays to clear the merchandise through the bureaucracy.

Theres no shame in being ignorant. Don't post problems with an intro of " my kid brother/old Aunty did something really stupid with their computer and I'm trying to repair it for him.. etc.

Give an appropriate amount of time before you "bump" a thread, remember this is a volunteer forum. When "bumping" a thread up, don't try to blame/insult the forum and/or members for ignoring your question or you - if there was a solution to be had, someone would've got to you with help.

If you're a new system builder dont try ask questions about overclocking, before you can get it stable at stock speeds.

When posting an article or a software that you found on another site that you think might be useful, it's always better to just provide the link instead of posting a huge article.

If you feel that you MUST post the article, start your post with detailed information about the Author, link to the author's article. Plagiarism is not looked upon kindly here.

Dont PM or request a forum moderator to Stick your own thread to the top of the forum just because you feel it needs to be. A moderator will stick it if s/he feels that the material is important; or if it has been requested by other members.

Read the "Forum description" before posting to a forum - example: a software review forum is for people to post their experiences/reviews of a software; it's not a place where you discuss your error messages. Don't try to post to a forum just because you think that a lot more people visit it

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What are some suggestions for Proper Etiquette while posting here at PC-Mech?

I scrounged around a bit to see if there was a thread similar to this elsewhere on the site, but I couldn't find anything. Sometimes I feel like I've done something I shouldn't have (basically because I didn't know any better...), so maybe this could be a guideline for green posters like myself!

[Nuclear Krusader]

The netiquette is explained in the FAQ.

http://forum.pcmech.com/misc.php?s=s=&action=faq

[HAL9000]

To sum it up, if you can't say it to your grandmother, you can't say it here. If it's illegal, it belongs elsewhere. If you think it might provoke an overly heated debate, you're on thin ice.

[reboot]

If in doubt about making a post too long, don't be.
The more detail we have to work with, the easier it is to troubleshoot.
Break posts up into lines/paragraphs for easier reading.
Use punctuation!!!
Be honest. Don't tell us you did nothing new, and then 3 posts later mention the new motherboard, ram, cpu, and video card you installed.
If it's NOT a home built/white box computer, please tell us if it's a Compaq, PB, HP, E-Machine or other proprietary POS.

[HAL9000]

YES... I completely agree with Jim on the statement of telling us everything... nothing more that I hate than a customer that says I didn't do anything cuz they don't wanna look stupid... then after hours of troubleshooting only to find a clue to the problem, then the customer says... well... I did this.... WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME TO BEGIN WITH!!!! Woulda save a lot of my hair, and you a lot of labour.

AND ANOTHER THING... DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPS....ITS REALLY ANNOYING, IT'S CONSIDERED YELLING, IT'S DIFFICULT TO READ, AND WON'T GET YOU ANY BETTER ANSWERS ANY FASTER.

[Xayd]

And what no one ever mentions for some reason...

run a search before posting

The same questions get asked over and over and over again, some I've seen as often as every day.

If it's been asked a thousand times that means it's been answered two thousand times.

^^ and lol, yes I agree with Hal. If it's in all caps I'm not even gonna open the thread.

The more you post "OMG NEED HELP QUICK!!!" the less anyone wants to read it.

This isn't free tech support that people who post here provide out of the goodness of their hearts. If you 1) post with a title that includes any form of "need help quick!", 2) post it in all caps, or 3) post the same thing someone else posted just yesterday without even bothering to look at the 30498098 replies to the exact same thing you're about to post, the only replies you're gonna get are people posting general crap to increase their post counts, because upon seeing such posts as the ones you just made everyone automatically doesn't care about whatever your problem is due to you being very annoying.

[glc]

1. If you realize that you forgot something or want to change what you said, EDIT your post, please don't post a new reply 5 minutes after the original post or reply. The post is open for editing by the originator for 12 hours after it's posted.

2. Please do not open new threads concerning the same problem or issue. Keep posting replies instead so we can all see the full history in ONE thread.

3. Please keep the Net slang and shorthand to a minimum to make it easier for everyone to understand. Not everyone here is (or appreciates) a 733t hx0r if U Kn0w wAt eYe m33n! Plain English is always preferable, spellchecked if you have one and have the time to do it if your spelling and/or typing leaves something to be desired.

4. Please keep your signatures to a minimum size, try to only use it ONCE per thread if it's more than just a few lines of text, and avoid inline graphics and image linking to external sites. Posting attachments or links to external sites that accept them are the preferred ways to show us pictures. We try to keep this site "bandwidth friendly" and big graphics just makes this difficult. Unplug your cable modem sometime and fire up AOL on a dialup and surf this place, you will quickly see what I mean. (AOL and/or dialup slams in this thread will be immediately deleted)

To add to HAL's comment about grandmothers, we enforce a strict "PG-13" policy. The obvious naughty words are automatically censored by the forum software, but obvious "workarounds" WILL be noticed, manually censored, and will earn the poster a warning.

[LocoCoyote]

I think the debate (heated or otherwise) is the strongest point about PCMech. I mean this is the only forum where I can vent my frustrations with Linux and not start a flame war. No other site has the quality of these forums

[Alaron]

To add on to the point about avoiding posting the same question over and over;

Read what someone posts. If someone replies to a thread you've started, be sure to read answers entirely before you reply. You could miss a crucial point or piece of advise. Also you make the thread unecessarily long by continuing to ask the same question without reading the answers.

Same goes for people replying. Be sure to read the thread starters entire post before answering. Don't ask what their cpu temps are or what video card they have if they have already indicated it.

[Xayd]

Stick-ified in hope that some may actually read it .

[Kov-Ice]

Xayd, stick-ified? glc said NO net slang!

In regard to limiting multiple posts on the same topic, is it bad form to post your similar problem within a thread someone else has started? I did that once and wasn't sure if I was horning in where I didn't belong...

[doubledragon5]

I bet I have been guilty of just about everything listed. LOL

[glc]

If you have the same problem, that's a gray area whether to chime in or post a new thread - I suppose it would depend on how the original thread is going.

[Xayd]

Originally posted by Kov-Ice Xayd, stick-ified? glc said NO net slang! In regard to limiting multiple posts on the same topic, is it bad form to post your similar problem within a thread someone else has started? I did that once and wasn't sure if I was horning in where I didn't belong...

If it's a short question that's gonna be a 1 post answer, no big deal. If it's gonna be more than one reply to answer start another one. The only place that doesn't apply is in Sale/Trade.

ALWAYS start your own sale threads and DON'T comment on other people's sales unless the info/commentary is asked for by the seller.

As a forum trader nothing will get you more steamed than someone crapping on your thread with "you can get the same thing at XYZ.com for 5 dollars cheaper". NO EXCUSE, more than one instance of that is bannable-offense imo. This is probably the worst thing I see people that "don't know any better" do.

Sale/Trade forums are NOT for discussion, it's Sale/Trade only.

[reboot]

RE: Hijacking a thread.
If you feel that the problem, and suggested solution(s) are NOT helping you, then post a new thread, and mention that you have already tried the stuff in "that" thread. It helps if you provide the link to "that" thread.
If you find the problem similar, and the solutions partially worked, say so in the original thread.
If you find the problem similar, and found a different solution than those offered, PLEASE post your solution ASAP.
When a problem is solved, please post saying that it has been solved, and EXACTLY what worked.
So many threads get lost because the solution is found, and the poster never acknowledges, nor replies with what did work.
A little thanks goes a long way, and a little explanation goes even further, to help others that have the same problem.

[Dangermouse1]

What about threads which ask for a specific person to answer it? That does not seem good to me and isnt that what pm is for?

[Nuclear Krusader]

I reply to them regardless.

And regarding PM, several members never use that feature. I have some PMs in my box that have never been read nor replied to.

[glc]

Don't ask for specific people to answer your posts - let everyone have a crack at them. I do have people PM'ing me asking my advice - I ask them to post in a thread then I answer them in the thread, this benefits everyone, not just one person - and my advice can very often be not ideal or even dead wrong! PM's are primarily for "personal" stuff. I do get PM's asking me to look at a specific thread, this is fine to a point, it can take a while for me to get to all the forums - but I don't want my box filling up too fast!

[reboot]

Just to add to what George said above:
Emailing a mod about a problem is a huge faux pas, worse than a PM.
Register if you aren't already, and post in the appropriate forum.
Every email I get pertaining to the board, I simply reply to post on the board.

[Nuclear Krusader]

What is faux pas?

[bigpuma]

according to webster dictionary a faux pas is a social blunder. Something you are not supposed to do according to the rules of "society."

HTH

[reboot]

A guy who uses Latin for his sig, and doesn't know "faux pas"?

Heh, just teasin' ya.

[Nuclear Krusader]

I got my sig translated, never translated myself.

I though it was french.

[newme]

its nice when people say ,yes it worked,thankyou.then you have thread that can maybe help someone else,what i dont like is someone asks a question someone replies with a possible solution,thats it you dont hear anymore ,did it work?its nice to hear the outcome.

[glc]

To expand on that, it's also annoying when someone DOES reply but just says "The problem is fixed" without telling us WHAT fixed it. The way I feel, we took the time to try to help you, but we expect something in return for everyone's benefit, we all need to learn things continually. If you think it was something simple and stupid, don't be embarrassed to "fess up" - we've all been there at one time!

[Computer Hobbyist]

As indicated above, a lot of people ask similar questions, so you should research first, but after that is accomplished, DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK (sorry about the yelling.) Somebody told me that there are no stupid questions. That is particularily relevant here.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO ANSWER. Some of the guys around here are real experts, but don't be afraid to give your own opinion. I strongly urge you to do a little research and some thinking before you answer, but having done that, post your response.

IF YOU WANT TO BE RESPECTED, SHOW RESPECT to the person asking the question and the rest of the board. Nothing will cost you more soclal capital than disrespecting the person asking the question. If you think a question is dumb and the guy asking it is even dumber than the question, don't answer. Move along. There are other questions being asked.

CH

[reboot]

I won't point fingers, but there are a few posters that give the same answer to everything, that being something like:
"Have you tested the RAM? Get this program from this place, and post back".
In more than a few cases, the problem has nothing to do with hardware at all, or if it is a hardware problem, it definitely isnt' RAM related.
Please, refrain from posting "canned" answers.
This quote comes to mind:
"Tis better to keep ones mouth shut and be thought of as a fool, than open ones mouth and remove all doubt".

[glc]

There actually are situations where a "canned" answer is appropriate, but please judge this on a case-by-case basis if you do use them, don't just throw one at a thread because you think it "might" apply.

PLEASE be as detailed as you possibly can about your system when posting a problem - we do understand that you may not KNOW any details about your system, but if you know enough about a computer to be able to register and post here, you know what version of Windows you are using. If it's a prebuilt name brand computer, it shouldn't be too difficult to give us the manufacturer and model number, we can look it up if we have to and get an idea what is in it. Whatever details you can provide immediately will cut way down on the 20 questions you are going to get before any pertinent advice can be given.

[Computer Hobbyist]

Originally posted by reboot This quote comes to mind: "Tis better to keep ones mouth shut and be thought of as a fool, than open ones mouth and remove all doubt".

LOFOL -- I am able to ignore the above saying because I am without doubt a known fool. Being a known fool makes the world much easier to navigate--because it gives you the luxury of being able to ask directions.

Although I generally agree with what Jim is saying about canned answers, testing your ideas against the experts on this board is part of the fun and most of the learning. Don't be afraid to post an answer, but do some research first and if you are not absolutely sure about the answer qualify it. As to the research bit, I know that glc keeps a window open for google searches and he is one of the, if not the, most respected expert at PC-Mech.

CH

[newme]

i think that is part of the learning curve,i know nothing about computers but if your not afraid to help ,give an answer you think might help,thats how you learn because someone with more knowledge will either correct your answer or agree,but either way you participate ,but i also give safe answers ,something i know wont screw there computer, in 5000 more posts i will know a bit more,thats why im here,to learn and to help where i can.i myself look for posts that have been buried and try to help and bump at the same time.