How to post on the QBasic Forum without getting flamed.October 26 2003 at 7:50 PM
|Mac (Login Mac36)|
FAQ001 = How do I post on the QBasic Forum
Well, like all forums, there is standard "netiquette" such as DO NOT USE ALL CAPS (that's shouting), avoid vulgar language, etc.
But the QBasic forum has some customs of its own:
1) If you have no text in your post, put an asterisk in the title, usually at the beginning such as
| | | * This is a no-text title | | |
2) If the only text you have is a URL, do like this:
| | | You can find help here (URL*) | | |
Namely, end the title with (URL*)
3) If you have a LOT of text, post it in the "Big Programs" subforum and then post the URL in the QBasic forum. Like this:
| | | Why does this program stop after a few minutes (URL*) | | |
4) Stay "in-thread". This means if you are answering a question or providing more detail to your own question that you should post this as a reply to something under your original post.
5) Use the same "handle" (name you are known by on this forum) for all posts.
In addition to those long-standing customs, it would be very helpful if you would spend some time and come up with a good title.
| | | I need help!!! | | | is a sample of a poor title
| | | Finally, another question from me... | | | is another poor one
| | | Need to write a large variable-length string to a file | | |
Now that is a good title.
A) Good titles have words that will eventually end up in GOOGLE. That means that if a person were to ask GOOGLE the query "QBasic variable-length string", that person who never heard of the QBasic forum would find us and find the answer (if there was one). Try some GOOGLE searches - you will be surprised how many times the QBasic forum comes up.
B) Good titles help people decide whether to open the post or not. If I see
| | | Can't find libraries using QB7.1 | | |
then I know to not bother opening the post. I have only QB1.0 and will not be able to help.
But if I see
| | | HELP! HELP! HELP! | | |
then I have no information so must open the post to see what is going on. But I will be in a bad mood because of the stupidity/discourtesy of the person who posted.
C) Good titles help people doing research. You want to scan through some pages of the forum (there are nearly 900) to see if someone has already discussed a problem you have. But all you see is a lot of
| | | HELP! | | |
Not very professional, right?