This thread is in regard to all the “cringey” posts (if you will) I see come up, especially here lately. Honestly, I don’t know where to begin as I am personally unaware of the greater issue here. I could start talking about just general forum etiquette, or discuss what should be discussed on a myrmecology forum. Bet let’s just take a look at the many things that drive a great deal of us mad. If we all follow these guidelines, then we shall have a wonderful flawless community
Number 1. One word threads. If your post is is shorter than your title, then it’s likely not going to be enough information to get a detailed response from another member. Generally a thread should be multiple sentences and in most cases,a full paragraph unless a person is sharing a link for example. This is especially an issue when people are filling out ID threads and there is barely enough information to even determine if is an ant or not. Which by the way, we have a template for that.
Number 2. Titles that are horribly misleading. Your thread title should accurately represent what I am about to read. If a new thread title says, “Formicarium,” how am I supposed to know whether this is a question regarding the making of a formicarium, or a completed project you have made, or advice on which one to purchase from a company? If it were a question, perhaps asking for advice on building a formicarium, then you would want to give it the title, “Advice on Building this Formicarium.” Or something similar so we have a general idea of what you are looking for prior to clicking on it.
Number 3. Ridiculous off topic posts that no one cares about. I understand some people just have one colony and they like to give them a name for fun. That’s perfectly ok. However making threads asking people what you think you should name it, or even worse asking people what some other bug should be named doesn’t belong anywhere but in chat. This goes for alot of things, including “what colony you should keep,” or “the next bug you should buy?” These are just a few of the many examples, and lets all be real honest. Does anyone else care? Posts like that pull the professionalism right out of the community.
Number 4. Posts that are so numerous and rapid they take over the side of the of the Latest Posts area. Now, there is nothing wrong with “frequent” posting as I am am quite active myself. Activity is appreciated by the community. However if your name and avatar completely starts to take over the “Latest Post” sidebar, then you are posting too much. If your name is showing up more than 4 times in a row in the sidebar, then you are posting too much. However there is occasional exceptions, like for example you just got done updating journals and had made a comment or two on other peoples threads.
Number 5. Commenting on journals with “Good Jog” or “awesome XD.” It’s okay on a occasion, but going through everyone’s journals just saying “nice ants” “awesome” “good job” etc is generally just kind of pointless. If you are commenting on people’s journals, then there should be an actual discussion, like asking questions or offering constructive criticism. If you just want the person to be aware you like their post, then use the like button. No need to make a bunch of posts with one or two word posts cluttering up their journals.
Number 6. Posting in correct subforums. This one we all know about. It’s just general forum courtesy to post your topic in the correct subforum, not only so everything stays neat and tidy, but also so moderators don’t have to waste their time moving them to the correct subforum for you.
Number 7. Good grammar. You all knew this one was coming. Grammar is so important and I see a lot of posts missing correct punctuation, and completely forgetting about capitalization. And of course there is the “slang” and “chat acronyms” which is also not proper grammar. When you post in a forum such as this, the information will be found by others and used for years to come. It’s important it’s professional to some extent.
Number 8. Posting in topics that are months, or even worse, years old. Once a topic has been there for so long, then it is just for reading purposes. Bringing up old topics is simply just bad practice. The discussion is dead.
Number 9. Quoting posts with images in them. If a post has an image in it, it’s not a big deal. However if you are quoting someone’s post with several images in them, then remove the files from the quote. Nobody wants to have re-scroll through all them images they just did in the original post. It’s just annoying.
