Forum Etiquette

[Farger]

I would like to propose a forum etiquette post in the official forum area of the Hub, unless there is something like this already that I am not aware of. There seem to be various practices that some people expect everyone to follow on the forums, but these practices are not necessarily known by new people to the Hub or the forums. An example is posting on forums that have been around for a few years. From what I am learning, many people expect that you look at the age of the post and then research whether the original poster is still active or not. I can also understand that one may want to consider if what you are adding to the post adds value to other readers who see the information. If the new information does add value, it does not seem to me that the age of the post is an issue. I understand that others may disagree with that statement; but then again, I don't know what all the unwritten rules are.

I have personally received sarcastic jokes on the forums for not following the unwritten forum rules. I don't feel like this is a joke of laughing with me, it feels like it is a joke laughing at me. I have come across other comments to new account holders on the forums which are downright rude. I feel that this issue aligns with another practice of etiquette to consider, to be patient and kind to each other, to be encouraging more than anything else. I am all for free speech, yet I don't like to be in an environment where people are being mocked. You are free to do so, but you should consider how your actions could impact others in ways that you may not realize. I am basically talking about the golden rule, and the platinum rule.

There are a host of other things to consider for etiquette, such as the fact that many people on the Hub do not speak the same language. I mention this because sometimes things do not translate to what the author intended, so it is always a good practice to be slow to react and taking the time to make sure of clear understanding before jumping to negative conclusions.

Etiquette is a set of norms of personal behavior in a polite society. I encourage everyone to consider being polite to each other.

 

[HolySchmidt]

With all due respect, you are overreacting. I know you refer to this thread cause I myself was thinking about saying something to you about the age of this topic. I decided to say nothing cause I don't wanted to be the "Sheriff". But a few minutes ago I saw this 3 and a half years old thread and thought I drop some words.

First things first: I'm totally with you. I'm trying to be polite and friendly to everyone as long as the other person(s) deserves it. It's about respect, totally with you. But regardless if you have experience or not with forums on the internet, there's kind of some unspoken rules, everywhere. That could be cultural rules or society rules or whatever, they exist but no one is telling you cause they are kind of natural to everyone. If you don't no them you will learn them by time, and this can be a frustrating experience.

Ok, someone made a joke on you, deal with it. No one was yelling at you or insulting you. And believe me, this forum is pretty friendly at all. You have no idea how my german "fellas" behave in their bubbles of whatever, you wouldn't stand it.
What I wanna say is: you made a mistake, someone pointed it out in a funny way, say sorry, lesson learned. That's how it works sometimes. Of course the "ideal way" would be if everyone would be friendly all the time, saying "Hello my little darling, I noticed you did something that isn't comaptible with the existing rules and I just wanna give you a friendly reminder to not do this again."

But this is not how the world works, that's Disney World. You made a mistake first, not the reacting person. Again, I'm with you, kindness first. But not every rule is written down as I said and no one on the internet knows who you are. If you are 60+ and I would know, I personally would be a little cautious in this case. But how do I know? And to be honest, answering to threads that are 2 or 3 years old and just adding some "chit-chat" is a little odd and kind of common sense not to act this way. This way current threads will vanish and the relevant stuff disappears.

So, I really took my time to create this post (nearly an hour) cause I do care about your feelings and am very precise with my words. I'm no native speaker and I often have to research my words to express what I wanna say. But it's your part as well to care about regular known rules, so to say global forum rules. You crossed a red light but you didn't know it meant "stop"cause you thought it's just disco lights? You get a ticket. You didn't know, now you know. No drama.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum

Bumping

A thread is contained in a forum and may have an associated date that is taken as the date of the last post (options to order threads by other criteria are generally available). When a member posts in a thread, it will jump to the top since it is the latest updated thread. Similarly, other threads will jump in front of it when they receive posts. When a member posts in a thread for no reason but to have it go to the top, it is referred to as a bump or bumping. It has been suggested that "bump" is an acronym of "bring up my post";[19] however, this is almost certainly a backronym, and the usage is entirely consistent with the verb "bump" which means "to knock to a new position".[20]

 

[hazmhox]

I'd had two things :

• Written rules are nice, but since 98% of internet does not read anymore. This is probably pointless for most people as they will not go through that sort of content (from beginning to end).
• Knowing that you're talking about "bump", you could have that inside of that post. But, assuming we would have written that guide before this happening, bumping wouldn't even have made the shortlist of those rules because it's today, way too common knowledge to add "ho wait, avoid bump".

THAT SAID. Your suggestion about the fact that the forum is multilingual and the community very diverse AND we're in a community focused on sexual content, we could have a warning at account creation for a couple of important behaviors... I don't know what the team would think about that suggestion.