Informal WWII Forums Posting guide

Since I am an educator, I thought it might be useful to educate some of our members about proper posting. There are a lot of crappy posts out there, and what I'm trying to do is make a push toward quality over quantity posting. I'm going to cover a few of my most frustrating areas.

If it's hot, don't touch!
I never understood the desire for people to get angry and repeatedly reply to people who they clearly don't agree with. Some people are always going to discuss how great the nazi war machine was, some pople are always going to believe that with a few minor adjustments Hitler could have won the war, some people are always going to think that Patton was better than Rommel, and that Monty was better than both. It is not your duty to refute them. I mean for God sakes, this is the bloody internet, opinions are like a$$holes and if you repeatedly get sucked into these arguments don't cry to the mods when you get banned.

The Ignore Feature
Following up with the above is the most overlooked, underused feature of the Forums. If someone's posts bother you, go to their profile and ignore them. Voila! The source of your anger will be hidden from your eyes. My guess is that a lot of you little scamps simply won't be able to miss out on what that crazy member has posted and won't do this. All I'm going to say is that if you see a thread from a member you didn't like and you get sucked into an argument, you could have avoided it. The fact that this feature exists, just makes it sooo much easier for me to click the ban button in the admin profile.

Replying to Yourself
How is it possible that a sane person can make several posts in the same thread within a few minutes? I mean sh!t, the window to edit a post is 48 hours, if you need to expand on your previous posts just edit your last one. Sometime I see as many as three in a row. Even if you are replying to several people at once, you can do it in one post.

Posting just Smilies
It is never good for you to post a single smiley, or just two, or just three, as a response to a post. Honestly, no one cares that you got a chuckle out of a topic. If you do this, technically you haven't even typed anything, you just clicked the damn smiley box, and then clicked "add reply." To have an effective post you must type. Just so you all know, I'm going to start deleting such posts from now on. For every one I see and delete, I'm going to drop the member's post count by 10. I'm not kidding.

Censorship
The idea that if a mod deletes or edits your posts it is censorship. I'm happy to say that of all the Forums I've ever been to, this one is the best as far as leaving what is posted as is. That said, by definition, we are not capable of censoring you. This site belongs to Otto, and he can edit it any way he likes. If you don't like the fact that he moved your "Hitler was a great dancer" thread to the Free Fire Zone, pay for and start your own Forum. We can edit our own Forum, but we are not censoring you.

Use the F*cking Search Function!!
Sorry but you are not that original. This forum has been around since the year 2000. Do you really thing that no one has posted about the ethics of dropping the A-Bomb on Hiroshima? Do you really think no one has ever asked about how increased me262 production would affect the war? I'm sorry, but many of your ideas have probably been discussed in depth already. Don't be an ass and start a new thread, relax, take a breath, search, and then read through the older threads and add to their discussions.

Post in the Proper Forum
Each section on this Forum is titled in english, with a clear description, also in english. If I have to move your threads into another Forum because you are too lazy to read english it makes me wan to ban you.

Thread Titles
Name your threads properly. If you are asking a question, use a question mark in the title. My biggest frustration is to see a thread titled "Rommel in Africa" and when I click on it the post is asking: "When was Rommel in Africa?" If the post is a question then the title should have been "Rommel in Africa?" It seems obvious, but some numbskulls don't get it. Also, don't entitle a thread "Peppy's reserach topic #2" Every one of your posts is linked to your name, you don't need to title a thread with it. When you post, make the thread title reflect the subject matter of the post.

Be respectful to Mods
Admins and mods are not paid, be respectful of them as they have been here a long while and just might know a thing or two. Also, be especially respectful of Otto, he was good enough to build and pay for this website, and if you bite the hand that feeds you, I'll happily sick der PanzerPenguin on your ungrateful bitch ass.


Free Fire zone
While I expect you all to be respectful at all times, the rules mentioned above are less stringent in the Free Fire Zone. In the FFZ, all bets are off. You can post just 1 smiley, a picture of your dog, start a disease naming contest, or whatever, but keep that crazy sh!t out of the open Forums and in the Free Fire Zone.

One last thing...
Before you click "Add Reply" and permamnetly posts that message to the Forum for all to see, ask yourself if you are adding anything useful to the thread or forums, if you can't asnwer yes, then back away from the keyboard.



Peppy = Ranting and raving

 

You're right but then the incentive will be gone for some of my best tirades

Holy calabash! I wasn't aware of this! Now the problem is who am I going to leave outside the ignored list

 

Heh heh. Now I see how I got off on the wrong foot! I included my name in the titles of my first three threads, and have not yet used the 'search' feature. I also just discovered what has too be the best, most informative thread yet, the QUIZ! Awesome stuff guys, and a big thank you too Otto!

In my relatively short time here, I have learned allot! I am just beginning to learn that the old saying "the more I learn, the less I KNOW" is right on!

Although new and not having even completed the entire "Quiz" yet {I have so far just gone thru too the top of page 8 of 'Quiz part II'], I would like to make an observation: The incredible thread shows [more than any other I have yet encountered] the in depth knowledge of a great many of the members of this great site. For newbies like myself, it would surely serve to cut down on un-informed posts/questions [like two of my first three threads] if we could possibly be directed to look over that thread upon joining!

Also, many times already[keep in mind I'm still less than half-way through so far], the question asker adds "what information source did you use too come up with the correct answer". Awesome! Right now, the only ones I can follow thru on will be those that give a link to an online source .

I think that for an education, I would love too have also the references used for incorrect answers! Maybe this could be incorporated into this great thread for the new year? IE, when answering a quiz question, list your source? And when congratulating the winner, list your [the question asker's] source? This would be a great help to myself, and probably the rest of the newer members as well, as then we could ourselves peruse these sources!

Another thing that would be good (but would maybe take too much time to be worth while), would be a kinda "what-if" FAQ. 2 of my 3 had already been discussed. T. A. Gardner set it all out for me, and if that could be expanded upon and 'permed' it could make a nice addition too the site. Unless, of course, there is already something like this and I just haven't found it myself yet.

Anyway, thanks for the great site and keep up the good work.

[ 31. December 2006, 03:08 PM: Message edited by: Shadow Master ]

 

Thanks for the INFO Glad i found this forum!

 

bump - because every now and then its good to remind ourselves of these!

 

Can there be a disclaimer for newbies to read this thread immediately before continuing on your way.

 

Well we could always couch the suggestion in the form of a threat

 

me neither..perhaps some of it doesn't seem valid IMHO ..

for example I must definitely disagree with the first point " if hot, don't touch" ; knowledgeable posters should do all they can to correct urban myths and misleading, misguided posts ..surely ? I know its the internet but why why do we have to keep reading everywhere that Erich Hartmann achieved 352 aerial victories when he quite clearly didn't - even by the Germans' own claims validation process (just one example..). I mean knowledge evolves and changes as new sources, facts become available...doesn't it...?

the 'use the search function' ; similar argument.. what was valid about a particular subject in 2008 may not be in 2015 so why not start another new thread! Why should we not continue to discuss the possible implication of increased Me 262 production..? For a start more archives have opened up, there's all sorts of 'rules' on the release of documents, much new material now in the public domain, a lot more authors have published the results of their 30 year researches, not to mention lots of new posters here generally...ie there's more knowledge out there now, some of it may well be integrated into a new thread on an old topic, so why shouldn't new posters have their say on 'old' topics?

what do you think?

 

Despite the wording, I believe that it is meant for members not to let a debate devolve into a "flame war." In other words, keep your debate on a low simmer, or at most a medium heat, but don't let it boil over.

Well, some forums need this more than others. This forum is pretty good at not having a tremendous amount of repeat topics.

But, some forums might have 50 threads on ME-262 production in a month - the gaming websites seem to be very good at this, but I blame that on slack moderation.

Still, it is useful information for fairly new members.

 

Thanks for the clarification; as this thread had been bumped I was looking for more current affirmation of these particular points....

 

There are also questions asked fairly frequently that could be easily answered by a quick web search, in some cases wiki would be sufficient. At the very least peforming such allows one to ask more detailed questions.

 

So many big contributors here have not come back... Wonder where Peppy went
Recently a couple sites (Reddit, Gawker) have gone through some growing pains. Their problems mainly stem from censorship.

Does WW2F have a business statement or purpose?

ps.. luv the ww2f