Forum Etiquette

Some guidance on Forum Etiquette...

Forum etiquette means maintaining a standard of posting behavior that is acceptable and appropriate. Forum etiquette can be flexible, according to the subject of the forum, but there are certain standards most people expect others to maintain. Some lines must be drawn for the safety of all posting on the forum.

One of the staunchest rules of forum etiquette is not posting personal information about another poster. Even if that poster has all but drawn a map to his house, posting a real name or address is considered grounds for a permanent ISP ban on most forums. This could compromise someone's safety. This is probably the most serious breach of forum etiquette and most moderators take it very seriously.

You can disagree with someone's opinions, but calling that person an idiot or a profane name is a violation of forum etiquette. Some forums are more liberal about this than others, but keeping it civil is never the wrong thing to do.

Do not hijack another user's topic by posting an additional question within the thread. Your problem, although it may be related in some way, should be posted as a separate topic. More than one question within a topic creates confusion and it is both frustrating and annoying to the original poster if his topic starts to follow your query rather than his/hers.

Posting the same thing over and over again is called scrolling, and is also a banning offence. It is annoying in the extreme and uses up bandwidth, which someone is paying for. It is entirely unnecessary and makes the poster look immature and childish.

Another violation of forum etiquette is posting in ALL CAPS. This is considered shouting and is very rude, in addition to being hard on the eyes. Something may be in caps for emphasis (e.g. I did NOT want to go!), but no post should be entirely in all caps.

Flaming, or deliberate insults or personal rants, is also against forum etiquette. Flaming is often employed by people who are losing arguments on a forum. Their response is to personally insult the poster disagreeing with them, usually in a long, nasty post.

Follow forum guidelines regarding attachments and images. Do not insert large images into a post if the preferred method is to attach it to the post.

And generally:
Search the other posts to see if your topic is already covered.
Use a meaningful title for your thread to aid searching.
Do not use a forum to promote your product, service or business.
Stay on topic.