How to Get Along in an Online Forum

[Wolverabid]

Chris Pirllo has long been very helpful to computer users. His sites and their content are top-notch. Recently some guy named Ralle sent Chris an e-mail and posted a few tips:

• Read the rules You may have been on other forums and gotten around there smoothly but if you are joining a new community you have to read the rules. You may be doing something that every new member (who didn’t read the rules) does and in worst cases get banned. Read the rules and follow them.
• No 1337-speak Posts that contains 1337-speak is not always easy to understand. 1337-speak is a very geekish way of writing. You try to replace every letter with numbers and symbols. For example, 1337 means leet, short for eleet -> elite. 1337-speak is even disallowed on some sites. Use proper English and spell check your typing. Do everything to look as engaged as possible. Do not ever use caps-lock for your messages. It makes you look dumb and you for sure will not receive valuable response.
• Have manners The worst thing is people who join a site and request people to do everything for them. If the site has an introduction forum, introduce yourself to the community. If you have a problem, don’t ask people to do things for you, do what you can to figure out how to do it and in worst case, ask how to do what you want.
• Try to help others When you have been in the community for a while, you might know more than the average user. Use your intelligence to help people. Tell them what they did wrong and tell them how to do what they want. Moderators can not help all users. Users are there to help and get help.
• Search before posting Always search before posting about a matter. Every common forum system has a search system that allows you to search through every single post on the forum. Many things get answered several times because some users don’t search before they make their request. This will help the moderators so they can focus on other things, the site itself, so it doesn’t get filled with loads of the same stuff.

Chris added the data to his video blog (pronounced the submitter's name "Rally" hehe).

Take alook at the vid gang!

http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/01/28/how-to-get-along-in-an-online-forum/

 

[Gilles]

Off-topic - how is Ralle pronounced?

Never heard of this Chris guy. Not a bad video blog.

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

It would be hard to pronounce for anyone not danish. But it's just straight forward, just with another kind of way of saying "a" than the english/american way.

 

[DarkDenizen]

Good find. I've seen Chris's stuff before.

 

[The_Taxidermist]