General Posting Guidelines

[sublime1184]

Here are some guidelines and posting etiquettes that I think should be followed. Some "Do's and Don'ts." This is for people who have just joined AC or are not clear on the "Unwritten Laws."



#1 - Please read the stickys, announcements and forum rules in each forum. Each forum is different and has a different set of rules\guidelines. For example, General Chit-Chat has rules about posting threads involving these topics: Religion, Politics, Sexual preferences and so on...For more details click here. Be sure to check out the GCC forum and all the announcements and stickys regarding these issues. However, General Chit-Chat is more of a "Post anything except help with fish" forum. So please post with those thoughts in mind. And for all things that do not involve fish there is the Chat Room. It is a good place to have conversations about things that are not related to fish (Computers, Music, Movies etc...)



#2 – Post your topic in the appropriate thread. That is pretty self-explanatory. While it is not the end of the world if this happens, I find that most of the specialists are in certain forums. You will get more help about Cichlids in the Cichlid forum, than in General FreshWater. Just because there is more people in GFW doesn’t mean they all know about plants, cichlids, catfish, etc.... Also note that there are many knowledgeable people here, but not everyone knows about all topics. One last note: after posting a new thread, stick around to check on it and answer questions that you might have forgotten to .



#3 - Be descriptive with your post. If you need help with a fish sick, don't just say "My fish are dying, what can I do?" This is too vague and won't work. Elaborate more by saying what the disease looks like, what kind of fish you have, the size of the tank, list any tankmates with your sick fish, what you have done already and your tank's test results if you have tested them (test the levels of your ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, ph and kh). Post those results for everyone to see and you will hopefully get advice from those who can help you. This goes for any post that you make or any thread that you start.



#4 - Do your own research. You should ask for help here when you need immediate help with a signifigant problem. Otherwise, use google and research about your inquiries. Esspecially if there is no crisis. Google is a fast search engine for doing research with great results, as well as searching the threads here at Aquaria Central. Posting threads asking for a complete run through is just plain lazy, do your own research and when you are still stuck we will help as much as we can. Suggestions, however, are a different idea because you are researching after you get ideas from people and then researching before making your decision.



#5 - Respect your fellow AC members. Aquaria Central is a great forum to find quick help for all your aquatic inquiries. Vulgar language and obscenities are not acceptable. Period. No matter what the reason, do not loose your cool. If you find that someone is blatantly disrespectful or using this kind of language, report it to the administrators or the moderators. This can be done by sending them a PM (Personal Message) with the violator’s name, and a reference to the thread (simply copying the web address). By responding to the violator’s vulgarity with rude behavior of your own, you are lowering yourself down to his level and risking the chance of being kicked off of Aquaria Central. Please PG Rated discussions when on Aquaria Central. There is a major difference between a Civil Debate and an All-Out-War. Sometimes is hard to distinguish between the two, especially when you are on the outside looking in. Civilized discussions and heated debates can be very fun, but hard to tell apart from War Zones. That brings me to Hi-Jacking Threads. Threads that are Hi-Jacked are simply taken over by people who are very off-topic. This excludes threads in General-Chit-Chat. In GCC, anything goes when discussing Hi-Jacking.



#6 - Keep in mind that Threads go by so fast, especially in General FreshWater, where it seems that most members are viewing GFW at any given time. So if your thread is posted and you have not checked on it for an hour, it might have gone back a few pages. It is a simple matter of "bumping" your thread in order for it to be the most recent again. "Bumping" a thread is as simple as posting a reply with the word "Bump" in the message box. The most common reason that it might not have been responded to is that people may not have known the answer to your question. In my opinion, it is better to receive no advice than to get bad advice. If you wanted a tank mate for your Black Piranha and I suggested that you put a 10” Tiger Oscar and a 10 “Jack Dempsey with your beloved 14” Black Piranha in a 10 gallon, and you went and did that, you would have some crowded, fighting fish very soon. It is not good advice at all! So please wait for the appropriate poster to help you.



#7 - LOOK AT THE DATES OF THE POSTS\THREAD.....This seems to be a common problem where old threads have been brought back to life from someone who is not the Original Poster, or someone who is not updating. There is no point to answering a thread that is so old that the question\problem is resolved by now. This will discontinue the pointless post that accompanies these threads.



#8 – Punctuation, Capitalization and Emphasizing. The Internet makes it tricky to decode attitude. Text does not allow us to tell if a person is joking, serious, playful or rude. For example, a sentence such as “Duh!” would most likely be taken offensive by the person that comment was directed at. There are many ways that this could be solved. The Smiley faces are great companions with lines like that. “Duh!” shows that there was a playful nature behind that comment. Or you can lose the exclamation point with that sentence and change “Duh” to be something less derogatory. Capitalization is another issue where one would perceive the poster to be shouting or disrespectful. Please watch what you capitalize and your punctuation. Punctuation is another topic. I have seen post in which the only part I could understand was the title of the thread. Please remember to use commas, periods, question marks and exclamations (carefully) as necessary. It will help those that wish to help you understand better.



#9 - Post Count. There is a counter under every member’s name that displays the number of posts that you have made. A lot of the time it seems that new members are posting information that is very general or simple, just to "up" their post count. This is a waste of reader's time. Sometimes we see people posting incorrect information or they Hi-Jack a thread to do this. Whether or not this is intentional is debateable, but none-the-less wrong. If you have posted incorrect information, you should immediately go and delete your old post, or edit it in order to correct this. This should be a #1 priority. Also, the following information was added by Dale W. from a different thread that I thought also should be mentioned here: From Dale W. : I would like to add that we ask you to not use animated avatars as they are very distracting when reading posts.



#10 - Trolls. If you are called a troll, it is because a) you live under a bridge, b) you're one ugly motha or c) it means you are someone who gives bad advice, despite knowing that the info\advice you gave is incorrect and harmful, if followed. In this case, the answer is "C". Now, there have been instances where the people offering advice were just misinformed. This happens and will hopefully be corrected. This is a whole other topic by itself but in short, do not give advice if you do not know about the topic. Let other people help.



That is my list and I hope I didn't leave anything out. Follow these simple guidelines and you should have a better time here at AC. For additional help, check out How To's for Beginners
I would like to thank Kasakato and Blinky for their help in this topic.

[ofarevolution31]

thanks bud

you good guy and have good tips.. i will follow them for you sir.

[jennypenny]

With such an interesting group of individuals it is disappointing that debatable topics (religion/politics) cannot be discussed in a civil manner. Even in a non-aquarium forum, like chit chat.

[OrionGirl]

There are tons of places to discuss topics which are not permitted here. PM's are another way to discuss things, or in chat. The restriction for GCC is really pretty minor, and really isn't up for debate. Unfair? Not really--this is a fish forum. Just HAVING GCC is a privilege.

[trixx]

I really appreaciate all of this info.; Iam SO new to the forum participations; I need all the help I can get.

I'm one of those folks who doesn't seem to have any answers to my BW questions... I also feel "no awnser is better than an uneducated answer"; although I'm looking forward to input.


Cheers!
Courtney

[catnipgal]

[quote=sublime1184;689807]Here are some guidelines and posting etiquettes that I think should be followed. Some "Do's and Don'ts." This is for people who have just joined AC or are not clear on the "Unwritten Laws."



#1 - Please read the stickys, announcements and forum rules in each forum. Each forum is different and has a different set of rules\guidelines. For example, General Chit-Chat has rules about posting threads involving these topics: Religion, Politics, Sexual preferences and so on...For more details click here. Be sure to check out the GCC forum and all the announcements and stickys regarding these issues. However, General Chit-Chat is more of a "Post anything except help with fish" forum. So please post with those thoughts in mind. And for all things that do not involve fish there is the Chat Room. It is a good place to have conversations about things that are not related to fish (Computers, Music, Movies etc...)


What is a Sticky? And where is the Sticky?

[Reefscape]

A sticky is an informative thread which is "stuck" at the top of a perticular forum section. When a thread is a sticky, it will always be at teh top of the forum section, rather than move down the threads as the time / posts in other threads move forward....This way, its always there to be found quickly...Please see attached picture for examples in the general freshwater section...


Thanks

[catnipgal]

A sticky is an informative thread which is "stuck" at the top of a perticular forum section. When a thread is a sticky, it will always be at teh top of the forum section, rather than move down the threads as the time / posts in other threads move forward....This way, its always there to be found quickly...Please see attached picture for examples in the general freshwater section...

Thanks

Thanks

[tripsmemaw]

Thanks this information is very helpful, as I am a new member to this site.

[93lincoln]

hello