http://www.phunland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7281
That topic is about why and how one should post with correct English. This topic will show you how to post like a pro (lol arrogance).

1. Correct English
Well yea, Physics Guy has that covered.
But don't worry too much about it. Those who pick out minor errors will be seen as grammar nazis, and they're usually quite annoying, especially due to how grammar is usually irrelevant to the initial subject. So don't worry about other people's English too much. A side note is often good enough.
*Important: When arguing/debating, never focus on grammatical errors and the related. It implies that you are losing.
**I know there's a lot of subject-pronoun agreement errors, but I can't be bothered to fix it all.

But don't ignore correct English completely. You have all the time in the world to make a post on message board, as compared to instant messaging and chatrooms.
If one posts with terrible English, you can make the inference that: English is not their first language, they can't type fast with correct English and they were typing fast, they're prepubescent or younger, they don't care, or they're not too smart.
Most of the time, they don't care. When one does not care about how one posts, one does not care about the people who read their posts nor they care about what people think of their post. Therefore, one shouldn't post at all if one doesn't care. But I hope you care.

2. Relevance and importance
Topics are called topics because they have a topic. I just wanted to make that clear.
In order to be a good forum member, during the process of replying to a topic, it must be related to the topic, or a topic that's relevant to the topic, or else it would be off-topic.
If one posts off-topic, then one doesn't care about the topic due to how their post is irrelevant to the topic and how that shows the person is not paying attention to the topic. Therefore, one shouldn't post at all.
Well actually you can make an off-topic post that's combined with an on-topic post to express random comments and the such.

So let's say we have an on-topic post, but it is only one word: "lol".
No one needs to know that you are laughing out loud to whatever you are replying to. It serves no purpose and is completely useless, except for making the person making a joke feel good or something.
If there were more details, then people would actually care about your post, and maybe respond to it.
After all, if you want to be a good forum member, people must care about your posts.
So make sure your post is something that people would care about, even if it means just adding a bit more detail.

3. Attitude
Alright, so now comes a controversial subject.

a) Misinterpretation (thanks to Mystery for bringing it up)
A huge part of human communication is made up of body language (posture, tone of voice, etc). Due to how we are limited to text, a lot of communication is lost, and we are forced to fill in the lost details, which is a lot. This means what we say on the internet is open for interpretation and may not mean what it seems.
Due to the loss of information, we should avoid using language that requires major use of body language and tone, such as sarcasm. If one wants to use something like sarcasm and doesn't want any confusion, one should make it very obvious that it's sarcasm, such as sticking in "(sarcasm)" in the sentence.
Also, be aware of how you word your sentences. I'm not too sure on how to explain it, but there are times when others simply misunderstand what you are trying to say, sometimes taking offense in what you are saying, even when you don't mean it. So, in order to prevent a meaningless flame war, you should imagine yourself in front of the other poster's computer monitor and predict what they would think of what you are about to say. If there is this gut feeling that what you are about to say may be offensive, then it probably will be.

b) Personality
To gain respect on the internet, one must have a good personality. Different personalities would yield different amounts of respect from different types of people.
Examples
An old and faithful member that would often put down new comers
This type of member would have respect from other old members, but no respect from the newer people
A postwhore person who posts a lot in off-topic
Condemned by members who care about the integrity of the forum, respected by members who like having fun or enjoy talking to people through posting.
The good internet user is a user who can play the role of any type of internet user, knows when to not take the internet seriously, and knows the distinction between the internet and real life. This type of internet user can gain respect from almost anyone on the internet, which includes being a good forum member.
The quality of a good forum member varies on the demographics (age groups, internet maturity, etc) of the forum one is on. Generally, one should take into account of the following qualities:
Maturity
Seriousness
Tolerance
Lulz
okay i need some help with that

Last edited by Conundrumer (2009-05-04 16:34:49)