Most of us have been guilty of the following errors at one time or another. Let’s keep them in mind whenever the urge to post or comment moves us.
Expressing thoughts or feelings because they occur to us and not because they have real value for the community.
Failing to do research on a topic before talking about it. Doing research means looking up posts or comments that have covered the same ground.
Not taking time to express ourselves well enough to be understood, to communicate effectively.
Introducing a new topic–usually an app under development–without saying enough to enable people to evaluate it adequately. Just posting a few words and a link is not enough.
Posting a link without clarification and brief summary text.
Straying off topic.
Let’s remember that the forum is not a storehouse of what occurs to us on the spur of the moment and what we have a spare minute to express. It is a place for thoughtful, reasoned comment–ideas that help others, enlarge or enrich the collective understanding.
When the urge to post or comment strikes you, remember that you can draft a response and return to it later.
Great to put these together. I think Contribution Guidelines should be a page in the menu, where the FAQ also resides. I’ll make your post a wiki, so others can edit as well
(I lack the time currently to edit, but will pick this up later).
Hi @patm, I’d like to combine guidelines with how-to information on using the forum, and create the text in short, single-line sentences. So I took the liberty to re-write your input as shown below. The good points you make are all in there.
Creating contributions guidelines to keep this forum organized and efficient
This wiki post can be edited by anyone (press the ‘edit’ button), to add/improve guidelines. Once complete they will be moved to a separate page in the dropdown menu, and referred to from a headline text above the forum. Here my the draft guidelines:
Creating topics
Research your topic to see if others have posted or commented on it
Before creating new topics, use Search to see if your theme has been discussed before.
When you find existing topics that are relevant, then either:
Add a post to that thread instead, even if if older, inactive for a while
Create new topic and cross-reference, i.e. Copy/Paste links to other topics/posts
Give your new topic a descriptive title that is not too long
Bad: “Feedback on my thesis”
Good: “Thesis feedback wanted: The effect of tech on social skills”
Select the best forum Category for you topic, from the dropdown list
Add relevant Tags to the topic, or create new tags as appropriate
If possible choose existing tags, even if they not fully match (e.g. ‘addiction’ vs. ‘addictive’)
Only add new tags that describe humane tech-related terms (lower-case, dashes not spaces)
Do not add too many tags. Four or five should be the maximum
Very clear and useful tool !
I only want to highlight the importance of the cross-mention topics and posts.
If we develop this attitude and skill, we are first of all creating a criteria for posters in the path of give value to previous ideas .
This will facilitate a more synergy and the develop of strong shared collaboration
Yes, good thoughts, @ALFREDO. The idea of giving “value to previous ideas” is very important. Too often I see members bringing up things that have already been discussed, adding little to what was said before.
And yes, synergy and developing “strong shared collaboration” are critical to the success of the forum. You have hit the nail on the head!
A few responses to the guidelines:
I would add to this that people who respond to posts or comments by typing on their smartphones need to proofread their text. Often I see misspellings, grammatical errors, and other things that obscure the meaning or significance of what folks are trying to say.
I know that I have been guilty of this, so I am now trying to be more conscious of what I say. Every response—whether it is time well spent to read or not—gets listed. Too often I click on something only to find a member saying “Thank you,” “I didn’t know that,” or the equivalent.
For fun, I made this graphic, dedicated to the Queen of Soul.
button
(only joking)
. A single emoji should suffice
icon on the formatting toolbar: