Forum decorum

Just curious as to what comes to mind when you hear forum decorum?

Sounds funny. Rhymes.

Forum decorum? What do you think this is? England? Cup o tea? Cheri-O?

This is Merica man. Hot dogs! Apple pie! Shotguns!

In perfect alignment with the rhyming scheme, for me, "forum decorum" means "try not to bore 'em".

Seeing how so many people pick up clubs, torches, and pitchforks after reading some of my posts, I think that I'm reaching exceeding my goal.

lol.

Rofl,funny. But..First,I am not a man.Second, I am not a 'murikan. The word "Merica" makes me think of shoot first,think later for some reason.

It does sounds rather comical indeed lol. I saw that phrase as I was reading some forum posts and thought it'd be interesting to hear what other folks might come up with upon reading it.

Haha! Well,you must be doing something good then! At least you are not boring.

All joking aside, when I've seen that phrase before (not necessarily on this website), then it's normally been someone with very thin skin that used those words.

Personally, I believe in doing unto others as you'd have them do unto you.

Seeing how I like things in a very straightforward manner, that is how I tend to behave on forums myself.

That's also why I spend a lot of time in the woods hiding behind trees...lol.

I thought the forums were going to get some type of decorative face-lift.

Repenting over and over again, lol.

Two things:

1. Don't be a jerk. This one is self explanatory.

2. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. If there is a custom you don't understand it's fine to ask questions, but rude to argue. ("5 minute edit limit," "Don't go around grave-digging random ancient threads" and "This ain't the place to find a date" come rapidly to mind.) "I've never heard of that. Why do you do it that way?" is perfectly fine. "That's stupid and I refuse!" is rude.

It's like visiting a family at their home, switching the toilet paper around, insulting them for having it on the holder whichever way they had it and demanding they keep it the way you put it forever. That is their custom and you are a guest.

Toilet paper?

What's that?

(The bear reaches down to the ground and grabs a handful of leaves...)

That there's none present here?

Decorum is being polite at all times, treating others with Christian grace as fellow believers, and speaking to the post and not the poster.

Oh there are a few here who comport themselves with decorum and composure.

Not ME, but there are a few here.

Decorum is also relative to where you are, and highly subjective. What is decorous at high tea with the queen of England would be pompous and laughable here in my home. Also kicking my shoes and socks off right when I entered the door would get me kicked out of Buckingham Palace.

As it relates to a forum, it depends on the customs of the specific forum. Some forums you'll get banned for what is standard procedure on other forums.

I remember an old IRC (chat) room where everyone used colored and highlighted (highlit?) text. That was how everyone kept track of who was saying what without having to check user nicks all the time. On Freenode that would get you a warning, then kicked out, and if you persisted you would be banned. But in that specific chat room it was de rigueur.

Globally as far as I understand it?

No text walls.



Get to know a forum and their rules by browsing and asking questions in the right places. Make sure that you give some thought to the proper sub-forum.

Here it's a bit unfortunate that MOST of the traffic is in BDF and if you were going to post something that's "news" even the family forum would get more traffic than there...I digress.

Don't multi-post threads in different forums unless... it's bad decorum but there are a few scenarios where I'd overlook it.

Don't post threads and then promptly forget to interact with them further. I'm guilty of this sometimes so I rarely post them.



Gravebumping is frowned upon. Check dates plzzz.
If you really feel like it's something that people need to see or it's relevant then start a new thread and link the old one perhaps?

There are reasons where an "interment bump" (where it's about to be in the grave) might be alright but typically no. It's not like it can't be done but for some reason "forum decorum" dictates that it should not be done. It's an interesting Misc topic I've been meaning to start so perhaps soon. I don't fully understand why it shouldn't be done btw, it just...eh.


Make sure you confirm what is meant before you start an argument. Discerning moods/meaning/tone within the text format can be a challenge and it's better to give the benefit of the doubt primarily...unless you are certain it's a troll (then report, don't feed).


No trolling plz. No flaming plz.

Be mindful of your audience. Plz, pls, idk, b/c, np, ty, etc. may not be understood by older users and even when you are trying to make a joke it may be lost in translation. I use plz/pluzzz/plez/pl0x only for humor "btw".




Did I mention text walls?



This forum has different site specific "form" but generally speaking I'd say these apply to most forums.

Pretend you are a diplomat and if someone is getting onto you about grammar or syntax or post structure...take it in stride or ignore it. Everyone is different with these types of things and perhaps you can actually put forth a little bit more effort in your posts to be more appealing.

Be mindful of Tl;dr's ...that varies for everyone but if you can trim it down without losing the essence? Consider doing so.

At least read the OP before posting on a thread.


Ideally, don't post just to post something.


Be patient. Sometimes threads take a while to take off past the OP...



Hopefully beneficial in some fashion, I enjoyed that.

1. To be kind.
2. Sounds like a decorating area. Maybe we should do a little remodeling.....get the rude out.

"A wise mans speaks only when he has something to say. A fool speaks when he just has to say something."

How to behave on a forum

or are you asking how I would behave? Sometimes I may break the rules, but on this one, miraculously I have not been banned!

Also try not to derail a thread....The OP posted for a reason and they by rights ought to respond to subsequent posts. But sometimes people just leave or forget about them and the threads then take on a life of their own lol