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thatonekidmorgan · Site Admin Joined: 08 Mar 2009 Posts: 52 Location: Alaska

I have scoured the internet near and far, and I have compiled a list of epic proportions, just to keep everyone happy. (disclaimer: he didn't really, he just liked his old forum's rules, and it worked for everybody there, so he thought 'why not here?' (the forum's rules used are at the bottom))

Gramar Grammar Grammar

Let me just start out by saying that I love grammar. It is the best thing that ever came about in the English language. Even though I don't use proper grammar all the time, I still try to. Well, anyway, let's start out with the main thing that is commonly misused in grammar today. "Their", "there" and "they're" are misused so much it just makes me sick!

1.) "Their" is a possessive pronoun derived from the word "they". "Their" is used to indicate that there is more than one person possessing something in the sentence. For example: "Billy and Sue are searching for their poor lost puppy." In the sentence, Billy and Sue are being referred to with the "their" because they possess the puppy. DO NOT use "their" in a sentence like this: "The crazy guy dressed up like a chicken is over their." THAT IS WRONG!

2.) "There" is an adverb and is used to specify a location. For example: "The crazy guy dressed up like a chicken is over there." This sentence is telling us the general location of the crazy chicken man. DO NOT say: "There going to take me away because I am a blithering idiot!" If you do, you might be the one being carted away by the Grammar Nazis!

3.) "They're" is a contraction of the two words "they" and "are". This one should be the simplest one to use, but of course people have to screw it up! When in doubt, separate the words out. If it sounds weird with "they are" in place of "they're" then you should revise your sentence. For example: "They're going to the store to buy some cheese." ("They are going to the store to buy some cheese.")CORRECT! "They're car broke down because the crazy axe murderer ruined it!" ("They are car broke down because the crazy axe murderer ruined it!") WRONG!

Quality, not quantity

Your value as a member here is not determined by the number of posts you have. It is not determined by how long you have been a member for either. There are no special ranks for people with a lot of posts or have been here for a long time. Everybody is equal. Therefore, you should not
feel that you need to post a lot in order to be respected here. You will be respected by other members on the basis of what you are actually saying. A person with ten decent posts is going to be taken more seriously than a person with a hundred posts like, "lol".

Use Proper English

This is not a chat room. It is a message board, and your replies do not have to be instantaneous. Unlike a chat room, it does not matter if you put a little extra time into your post before you make it. Therefore, you should try to type out your posts in full, and check the spelling and grammar before you post. There is no reason for you to use "netspeak" here, in other words replies such as: "how r u 2day? <insert game here> iz teh bst vdo gam eva!!!1111" Using netspeak is simply being lazy, as is leaving out punctuation or typing entirely in lower or upper case. It may be faster for some of you to type, but it actually takes longer for people to read, as they actually have to translate it. Sometimes it's so bad that I can't actually understand what is being said. If you get into the habit of typing out your posts in full, it won't take long at all until you can post just as fast.
I'm not expecting everyone to be brilliant at spelling and grammar. We are all human, and even the best of us finds it hard to avoid the occasional typing error. It just saddens me when the members who don't use English as their first language end up using better English than those to who it is their native tongue.

Excessively Long Words

This goes hand in hand with the post above. For starters, words such as soooooooooooooo (and so on) do not exist. If you really want to emphasize a point, put the word in italics, bold or capital letters. If you feel you really must type like this, only add a few extra letters.
The main reason for this point is that from time to time, some members feel that they must fill up their post with hundreds of characters, punctuation or smileys all joined together. Not only is this annoying to look at, it also tends to stretch the screen, forcing readers to scroll sideways, which is about a number 7 on the most annoying things in the world.

Topic Titles

Please make your topic titles indicative of the topic being discussed. A topic title such as "Read this!" does not tell you anything about the topic inside. It could be anything. So when you are creating a new topic, think about what you want discussed. Your topic title should summarize this to a point. For example, say you get stuck while playing Zelda 2. You decide to ask the forum for help. Instead of going into the Zelda forum and posting a topic titled "Help!" or "I'm stuck!", a better title would be along the lines of "Need help in Zelda 2".

When Making a New Topic

We do not want to discourage people from making topics, and recently there have been many that have been locked. Therefore I have decided to give a few pointers for how to make a topic that people will reply to, and that will not get locked.

1. Try to make the title as clear as possible. This will make it much more likely that people will view your topic, and reply. It will also be easier in the future for new members to revive your topic if they have something to add.

2. Try to make topics and topic titles that are interesting. I realize that this is somewhat subjective, but just try to think about what you would do if you saw this topic title. If you wouldn't respond, then likely other people won't either. Like making clear topic titles, this will attract other members to your topic.

3. Make sure that you are putting your topic in the proper forum. I know that sometimes it can be unclear where a particular topic should go, but there is no reason to put a fan fiction in General Discussion. This is really more to help us out, but also some members are only active in certain forums, and putting your topic in the right forum will help them find it better.

4. Please check the forum to see if there is already a topic about what you wish to discuss. I've said it before, as have other moderators, it is better to revive a dead topic than start a new one. Now I know that there are several pages worth of dead topics in some of the forums, and it can be tedious to scan them all, but there are two things that can help you: common sense, and the search function. This is a message board based around the Zelda games. Therefore, it's certain that topics such as, "What is your favourite Zelda game?" have been done before. If you're thinking of starting a topic about the Sheikah, use the search function and enter a keyword, in this case 'sheikah', and this will let you know if there isn't already an existing topic waiting for your contribution.

5. If you make a topic that could be controversial, take the proper precautions. Using a mature warning is a good idea if the topic will or even could contain some mature discussion, and if it is a topic on personal beliefs make it clear that it is for people to discuss their beliefs, and even debate, but not bicker about them. In this instance, try to use words like "I feel" or "In my opinion" rather than state something to be true, knowing full well that someone else may strongly disagree. Generally people will respect your views, but that is harder to do if you just declare them and get all preachy.

Finally I will add that if we lock a topic, don't take this personally. There will usually be a clearly stated reason as to why the topic is being locked, and if there isn't it is because the reason should be apparent anyway. I know that sometimes it can be discouraging if for example you make several new topics that are soon locked because they are duplicates, but take this as a sign that you should start checking to see that an old topic doesn't already exist.

NOW, if you actually sat through that, here's the more condensed version: Don't be stupid, Don't be a Douchebag, and USE COMMON SENSE!!!

Most of the content here was from legendofzeldaseries.com's forum, legend's place, and Silentwulf.com's forum.

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