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Is My Topic a Good Topic? An Unofficial Guide Created By Users For Users


Tara

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This is a brilliant topic, Akito! Informative, yet witty. In all honestly, it has a slight Cracked flair to it. This looks like something that could be extremely helpful to new members on the site.

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I still don't understand why threads asking for help with projects are a bad idea. I mean, I have nothing, but me and my friends will be working on a game and we need help.

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Holy balls, this is a high-quality thread! Now I'll know where to look if/when I need to make a topic myself. Thanks for putting all that effort into this instead of just being like "Yo, don't make bad topics, you stupid butt."

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This is a brilliant topic, Akito! Informative, yet witty. In all honestly, it has a slight Cracked flair to it. This looks like something that could be extremely helpful to new members on the site.

Thank you!  I do read a lot of Cracked, so I was aware of the influence in that department.  I'm happy that everyone here seems to have enjoyed it!

 

Also, don't feel like you simply /need/ to make topics just for the sake of it, I think a lot of newer people tend to have that impulse for whatever reason, so just follow above.

Yeah, that's sort of what I was getting at with the "On Topics In General" point.  Sometimes members are too concerned about simply having a topic in their name than actually contributing to the boards.  It's not a very good mindset to have.  Thanks for your support! ^^

 

Also, I'm pinning this.

Thanks a bunch! =D

 

c5SxnNe.gif

Edited by Akito
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Hot damn this is one of the most, if not THE most informative thread/OP I've seen on this forum made by a regular member. It's pretty much spot on with the things I felt uneasy with in making a topic.

 

Granted, I still don't think I'm that good enough to make a wholehearted, well thought out topic any time soon, this is a great read on the 'how to' and 'how not to do' of it all.

 

Excellent job!

Edited by TheChaosBacon
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Excellent topic idea.  I always love looking at the recent topics column and even before clicking on the link I can tell if it's already been locked or not just by the title.  And that's been happening A LOT lately.  Hopefully, this will help remedy that.

Edited by Snatcher2047
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I still don't understand why threads asking for help with projects are a bad idea. I mean, I have nothing, but me and my friends will be working on a game and we need help.
Recruitment threads are just that: they exist to call members to a task, which inevitably has little to no discussion value. This is especially noticeable when people sign up just to make a recruitment thread: The end goal is not to interact with the existing community here in a conversational manner but to take members away to another project.
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This is literally the sexiest post I've ever read. Congrats, and thanks, this topic needed to be made.

Edited by Indigo Rush
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The title reminds me of...

 

"KIDS BOP BY KIDZ FOR KIDZ"

 

Anyways, I agree that this is an excellent guide. It seems like we've had many users come by posting threads for the first time and act all surprised when they make one.

 

I wonder if it would be possible to make a little warning before posting your first thread of this thread.

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            I think if someone is unsure about making a topic they should message a moderator about it. I mean, I'm not a moderator, but if I was one I would rather message someone that its not a good idea rather than shutting down a topic. Its also good to ask in the comment box to see if anyone would be interested in a topic. If it would bring positive discussion. So if your unsure, just ask. For instance, once I wondered if an Equestria girl topic would be a good idea so I asked the community through my comment box. And the moderators kindly told me that the My Little Pony topic also counted as the Equestria Girl topic. So that worked out really well because I learned that sometimes topics are combined. 

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I got one little concern about this which is that this is EXTREMELY LONG! It does got lots of great things and helpfulness huge effort. Could try and put this with regular help and rules to combine it.

Questions!

1. If there was new person, would this be intimidating?

2. Is it very long which could be intimidating people?

3. Could it be compacted without losing its message point?

Congratulations! You get a smiley for that EXTREMELY LARGE! effort!

Okay you are awarded one smiley! :)

Edited by TailsTellsTales
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I think this may be the best topic I've ever seen on here.

 

The detail it goes into; and how casual, friendly and witty it is alongside and the PMs; dear lord, that "piece of goat cheese" one made me nearly die of laughter.

 

I can imagine this topic being REALLY useful in the future! This kinda thing had to be made sooner or later.

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Mods, I have another question regarding appropriate topics; a documentary film my friend is in just got funded, would it be okay to make a thread for it?

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If the focus on the topic is about your life in relation to your friend's life and his work in a documentary, I might suggest making a topic in Personal Discussion, although you could also consider adding it as an entry in one of the other Personal Discussion topics, like Express Your Emotions Topic.

 

If the focus is more effortedly headed towards discussing the documentary in general, a topic in Chit-Chat would be more suitable, though there are also topics like if that feeds your needs.

 

If the purpose is more to advertise and recruit, this is preferably (and often more efficiently) done through profiles, signatures and, if appropriate and not spammed, in the Status Updates.

 

 

I still don't understand why threads asking for help with projects are a bad idea. I mean, I have nothing, but me and my friends will be working on a game and we need help.

 

The main rule of thumb is that topics are reserved for efforted discussion value, while assistance topics more often than not go against this due to their nature. While I personally am not against something like a dedicated topic or subsection for assistance and guiding, like one that previously existed alongside Personal Discussion, related to technical difficulties, the current main rules for topics has become the way things are run here.

 

For assistance with developing a game, I suggest using the Status Updates asking for help. Furthermore, I suggest putting details regarding your project on your profile page and in your signature. Posting around in various topics, members are going to notice you and your signature, and if they know the answer to your trouble, they are just as likely going to respond to you by profile feeding or private messaging as if they were posts to a topic. There is Miscellaneous Works, and if you have something to show off, you could use the opportunity to announce your technical difficulties, however keep in mind that this section is dedicated to showing what you have made so far, keeping everything else to a minimum.

 

Best of luck with your project!

 

Mods, I have another question regarding appropriate topics; a documentary film my friend is in just got funded, would it be okay to make a thread for it?

 

I feel this might lean more toward events in your life, and if I am right about that, I would say a topic in Personal Discussion could do, if not a post in Express Your Emotions Topic. With subjects like these, it all comes down to your presentation, purpose and goal.

 

Also, this is a great topic. Thank you for all the effort and thought put into these guidelines, Akito. They will come to good use.

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I got one little concern about this which is that this is EXTREMELY LONG! It does got lots of great things and helpfulness huge effort. Could try and put this with regular help and rules to combine it.

Questions!

1. If there was new person, would this be intimidating?

2. Is it very long which could be intimidating people?

3. Could it be compacted without losing its message point?

Congratulations! You get a smiley for that EXTREMELY LARGE! effort!

Okay you are awarded one smiley! smile.png

If someone isn't going to take ten or so minutes of their life to read a relatively lengthy post for the sake of improving the nature of the topics they post here, then they may as well not post in the community at all.  Namely because the community is already rife with incredibly long posts, so by now it should be expected.  Besides that, it's a completely optional topic with policies that aren't enforced by the staff.  If they don't want to read this lengthy wall of text, then they certainly don't have to.

 

The purpose of this topic was to go into as much detail as humanly possible so that people could understand why their topic was locked or ill-received by the community and to help them improve.  Condensing it would defeat that purpose.

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I like this topic :). I think it will be helpful to newcomers. It is also nice that some long time users want to help newbies. It is nice :).

  I wanted to ask about topics that you want to make that you search for, but can't find, then yours gets closed because it already exists. Sometimes I get a little confused using the search feature. Any pointers?

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I like this topic smile.png. I think it will be helpful to newcomers. It is also nice that some long time users want to help newbies. It is nice smile.png.

  I wanted to ask about topics that you want to make that you search for, but can't find, then yours gets closed because it already exists. Sometimes I get a little confused using the search feature. Any pointers?

The only thing I think can be said is to consider as many different ways one might word a topic as possible.  Other than that, there's not that much you can do.  As far as I'm aware, it's typically not a huge deal anyway as long as the other topic isn't literally on the exact same page as your own.

 

EDIT - Also the "Sort by" feature is a really good way to search for topics only on the basis of name.

Edited by Akito
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Further pointers regarding the Search feature: Clicking the tiny cogwheel icon next to the magnifying glass button will bring you here. This lets you use the advanced form for searching up content posted across the forums. This allows you to do things like searching in all or only specified sections, entire posts or just titles, by author, tags and date. You can also customize the way results are displayed. The advanced search mode is very useful to me when searching up topics, and I have had a lot more success with it than with the basic search field.

 

Happy searching!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a question;

 

 

Why was something like this not created before? Seriously, this is a really imformative guide that I hope will help with newer members especially, as they seem to be the ones whose topics get locked the most.

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  • 1 month later...

As I mentioned in the welcoming topic and shall soon add to the top of this page, even though I am now a staff member, the principles listed in this topic are still guidelines and suggestions, not rules that are enforced by me or any other members of the staff.  They are there to aid, but there will still be instances which may contradict what is taught in this tutorial.  You are now permitted to ask me things where it says "ask a staff member but not me," but I will not always be using this guide as a reference when deciding the fate of a topic.

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