One liners and netspeak

[Mistress Siana]

I don't wanna be a git or something, but I'm starting to get annoyed by posts like 'I agree', 'I don't think so', or simply ???. A lot of other forums have a one liner policy, which means that posts under 100 characters or something are generally forbidden.

Another thing: Personally, I think that people should at least be encouraged to use proper capitalization, spelling and grammer. We have a lot of members whose mother tongue is not English, and I've seen forms of netspeak that are hardly recognizable as English. I mean, posting in a forum is like talking to a person, and using proper language is a sign of respect, like looking somebody in the eyes would be. Honestly, you wouldn't want to read a love letter saying 'i luv u cuz w/o u im nothin', would you?

Anyway, we've gained a lot of new members lately, which is great, but since the amount of posts as grown so incredibly, I think we should introduce some language or post length guidelines for the sake of a better understanding.

Any thoughts?

Regards,
Siana

[Person1]

i don't agree













No, jk, i dont think there should be a character limit, expecially due to the fact that some thoughts are best simply put, if someone wishes to agree they should be able to say so, as it shows thier standing on the subject, and as so, you know what they believe in the discussion.


As for language, yah it culd use sum werk.

I think alittle bit of short-typing is ok, as long as its not constant throughout the whole post, a bit of "w.out" or something I c as being ok, but if it gets really bad, well then so be it, do what you must. But, a lil bit of it should be ok.

[Mrs. Luca Black]

I know that I'm among the many that have recently joined, and therefore my opinion isn't regarded as highly as my predecessors, but I agree wholeheartedly with Siana. I, too, find netspeak to be disrespectful, as well as incredibly annoying. Generally the only forums and boards that I've enjoyed enough to want to stay for any amount of time have had a ban on netspeak. I don't think it would be a bad idea here. I enjoy this forum thus far and would hate to have to leave just because some people can't take the time to properly write "you."

I do have an issue with what Sianna said though, but a specialized issue. I think that discussion posts need more "meat" to them than a one liner and the many "i agree" posts are irksome. However, please do not put an all encompassing ban on short posts, like say in the coding of the forum, because of the word games.
I'm not even sure if you could put that sort of restriction on posting. I have no knowledge of how a forum is made or operated from a technical standpoint. If it is possible and was implemented, it would destroy the word games and I, among others, really enjoy them.

[Nightcrawler]

Totally agree. My spelling is pretty shocking at times, but I'll never deliberately misspell simple words out of laziness. I'm not picky. I can deal with the occasional "u" instead of "you". The "I agrees" can get pretty annoying though. Overall I feel that the board is great at the moment, and nothing major really needs to change. Perhaps a mod could just post a sticky in some of the forums where this problem occurs most frequently?

Something else I've noticed is quite a few double and triple posts. I think everyone here has done them from time to time, and I'm certainly no exception. But I think they should be kept to a minimum.

[Ginny Potter]

My only concern, as some may have seen me post about, is disresepect for differing opinions. Differing opinions is what keeps a forum interesting to me...if we all agreed, what would there be to discuss? Not only that, but no one knows for sure what'll happen in the 7th book as nothing's been really released about it, so it's all speculation. It just grates on my last nerve to read things like "this is how it is so deal with it" or variations on that in regards to speculations on characters or events...JKR left it wide open, so it could go a multitude of ways. My point being, for me anyway, it discourages posting when you read posts that put others down for having a different point of view...just because someone doesn't agree with you doesn't mean you have to change your mind. Even if you turn out to be dead wrong about something, you shouldn't feel persecuted for thinking it at the time or wonder if someone's going to gloat about how wrong you were later.

In other words, no need to make it personal! The amazing thing about this forum is the magnitude of the knowledge and theories about this series...you can learn SO much about these books and movies by coming here and reading what people write. It really is astounding all the things you can learn about or see that you missed because most people who post here REALLY know their Harry Potter.

[Scellanis]

We do try to encourage the new members to use proper english rather than netspeak, Paul has told a few when they request to be sorted and I tell them the same when I catch them in the welcome forum.

Alot of the time though telling people like that to use proper english doesn't work at all they just get annoyed and get worse....and people who come on using netspeak are the type who don't read rules and guidelines anyway.

The best way to deal with it seems to be to refuse to sort them untill they start typing properly.

I think alot of the one liner posts come from people spamming to get their post count to be sorted so I were moderating the forums where they do it I'd delete those kind of posts particularly if the person has under 100 posts.

[Tanuki]

My big worry is that some wierdo in the forum is gonna start using l33t. God only know that's gonna be harder to deal with

[Scellanis]

I think that has been done before actually....

[SunsetG|rl]

Something else I've noticed is quite a few double and triple posts. I think everyone here has done them from time to time, and I'm certainly no exception. But I think they should be kept to a minimum.

actually there are a few places on the forum where you can't edit yout posts. so then you have to double post if you forgot to say something.

My big worry is that some wierdo in the forum is gonna start using l33t. God only know that's gonna be harder to deal with

i do hope that they don't get to that. i mean the people posting on this forum should be book readers, and so have some little respect for the written language and not turn it into some freaky mixture of keyboard symbols.

[Scellanis]

yeah people do double post when they can't edit but recently we have had a number of people who do it just for the post count. Its annoying because it takes time for the moderators to edit them into one post and delete the extras but if we don;t they suceed in getting their high post count...

If you do make a mistake and want it editing you can always double post then pm the moderator and ask it to be fixed for you....

[SunsetG|rl]

If you do make a mistake and want it editing you can always double post then pm the moderator and ask it to be fixed for you....

never knew that...i'll remember now thanks

[Scellanis]

yeah editing posts was disabled a while ago when there were some trouble members to stop them changing their posts after the damage was done but the moderators have the power to edit posts in their own forums.

[Ginny Potter]

We do try to encourage the new members to use proper english rather than netspeak, Paul has told a few when they request to be sorted and I tell them the same when I catch them in the welcome forum.

Alot of the time though telling people like that to use proper english doesn't work at all they just get annoyed and get worse....and people who come on using netspeak are the type who don't read rules and guidelines anyway.

The best way to deal with it seems to be to refuse to sort them untill they start typing properly.

I think alot of the one liner posts come from people spamming to get their post count to be sorted so I were moderating the forums where they do it I'd delete those kind of posts particularly if the person has under 100 posts.

I think Scellanis's idea of holding back sorting them until they provide either substantial (quality, not quantity) posts and/or use proper English is a good one (and deleting spam posts). Or holding something else back that they want. It is aggrevating to read spam...that said, be kind to those who do give feedback even if their theories are a wee bit off the wall.

[Scellanis]

Its not my idea, its what we already do, check the sorting hat threads, we've had alot recently that needed to be told to post correctly.

[Ginny Potter]

Sorry. I was trying to be nice...