Greetings friend, you seem very weary and tired, what happened? Oh yes, you have ventured far too deep into the realm of forums without any know how! Fret not, I have just the thing. Here have this hot cup of hot chocolate and warm up by the fire, I will teach you what my father taught me, and my grandfather before him: To survive the other dimension of the forums.
Lesson One: Finding the Rose from the Thorns (How to Find Good Posts and Avoid Bad ones.)
Things to Avoid in Topic Titles…
- Is the topic over dramatized? It’s probably someone typing their frustrations.
- Is the topic about an issue already known? It’s someone complaining or someone with little knowledge of current events.
- Is the topic something negative? Usually these are just pointless rants, if they start with good intentions, usually the post goes negative as the topic attracts negative players.
- Is the topic about an item? Since all the items in the game have max stats easily accessible, this usually ends up being a complaint thread, but sometimes it might just be a picture of the item, so keep an eye out.
- If the title says update etc. These usually just lead to people either complaining or laughing depending on how the update affected their class, and gameplay. When DR hit every update post was pretty much complaining of the such.
Things to look for in Topic Titles
- Positive titles. Usually these are just people happy with the game and just want to write how they are happy. Sometimes this attracts negative attention though, so it is a hit or miss.
- Guide topic titles. These are great, people that take the time out of their daily lives to make a guide for free are usually not trolls, the threads usually are constructive and provide some useful information.
- Titles that mention exploits. The exploits themselves are not good, however shedding light on the exploit is, because it shows the development team that it is an issue that needs to be fixed.
- Titles that mention pictures. Usually these are just threads of pictures, which is a fun little time sink that can have some great screensaver material.
- Titles that deal with lore. Usually no negative players are attracted to lore posts, not saying that there isn’t the occasional angry post, I’m just pointing out that most people deep into lore really care about the game and sharing the knowledge about the game.
- Titles that mention achievements in them. Usually these are people giving advice to others to show how they got their achievements, and 100% map completion.
- Any posts done by ArenaNet are good, for information and otherwise.
How to Create Good Posts
The Simple Guide to Be Awesome
- Make sure you have a good topic. Think about something in the game that you would like discussed, and make sure it has not been posted about a hundred times before. (The search helps!)
- Make the title eye catching. If you were skimming through posts, you usually click on the one that draws your attention. Make sure the title relates to the topic, yet can lure people in to actually discuss it.
- Use correct spelling. Please use correct spelling, if you do not, the forum will eat you alive and you will look stupid. Grammar is not that much of an issue, so long as it is not horribly bad.
- Do not post about the flavor of the month problem in the game. It is just feeding negatively into trolls, and the devs usually lock these to stop the continuation of them.
- Make sure you know what you are talking about. I am a victim of this one, and I looked like an idiot. Make sure you know what you are posting about, Google the topic and it will altogether improve the post.
- Do not put your emotions into a post. If you put any emotion into a post, be prepared to be eaten alive, it is always safer to remain neutral, but this one can be very tricky to do sometimes.
(edited by arrownin.3128)
