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#1
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
I suppose that if I could offer one piece of advice to any new CDer, it would be to use complete, proper, your-English-teacher-would-not-keel-over-dead sentences. The end result is far easier to read than "omg d00d wut iz wrong with my robot!!!!!111!1!1111!!!!!111oneoneone!!1one," making tips and advice more likely from other members of the site. (Granted, some folks will try to help regardless, but others who may be busy are more inclined to skip over the thread, since it takes more mental gymnastics to decipher.)
In the same vein, when you've got an issue with anything technical, make sure to post what you've tried to do already in as much detail as possible. Not only does it keep folks from suggesting things you've already tried, but it also serves as a way to make sure you haven't inadvertently committed some easy mistake. (The robot works a lot better when you plug in the battery, y'know.) Last edited by Billfred : 01-06-2006 at 12:50. |
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#2
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
I've already started on a "tutorial" for tagging the pictures of CD-Media. (I hope to make some more editions of it by the end of the summer. So when they do start flooding CD-Media with nonsense pictures they'll at least know how to tag them right
{Kidding})This is a link to the white paper. I'd have to agree with Billfred on this one too, I'll admit when I first started here I was guilty of the not so good English syndrome. I've been trying to improve! It makes it a lot easier to understand the problem or statement being posed if there is not any slang involved in presenting it to the community. |
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#3
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
I've been thinking about this a bit myself, and came up with a list:
Watch spelling, grammar, and leet. Having the occasional misspelling, particularly on a hard word, is fine, but it's a lot easier to read a post if you don't have to deal with spelling and grammar issues. There is a spell check, which can help you with a lot of these issues. Leet can make a post unreadable without a translator. Dave Lavery has a quote in Spotlights that goes something to the effect of "bad grammar, spelling mistakes, and leet are not professional". (This is not a direct quote, as I don't remember the exact wording and Dave can write things like this better than me.) On posting questions in the right place: first, do a search to figure out where similar threads are placed. This will also help you determine if there is an active thread addressing the topic (particularly in some forums, such as Rules/Strategy), and help deflect the dreaded "search before you post!". Second, look at the forum list (click the CD icon in the top left) and see which forum is the appropriate one, then see if it has subforums that are even more appropriate. Figure out where it needs to go, and then start the thread. If there are two places or more, put it in what you think is the most appropriate. Answering questions the right way: First off, read the entire thread. You may gain insight into what others think on the matter. Second, think about your response. Third, be respectful. Nobody wants to see "I think your idea is stupid, don't do it!" when all they want to know is if a new drive idea is likely to work, even if it is a bad idea. A better way to respond to this situation is "I'm not sure this would work because XX and YY. Have you considered option ZZ?" or "It might work, however, you might consider AA." This is known as constructive criticism, and is a much better way. Fourth, preview the post to see what it will look like. The post composition window is not all that big! Fifth, don't just say something like "yeah, what he said!" Try to offer a different view, if possible. |
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#4
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
Try to remember that you represent your self, your team, your teacher/mentor, your school, and FIRST when you post in CD. There is no getting around it. Tolerance, forgiveness, humor, and lessons learned are tools we can find here.
Jane |
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#5
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
These are all great ideas, and definately should go in the sticky "Read this First" category.
I would also like to see some how-to's for folks who are new to the whole forum concept. When you decide to reply to a post what are all those buttons? What do the response fomatting icons really do? What is a PHP tag? The big thing I have searched for is the how-to on adding quotes to your responses. I can make the shaded box, but where does the "originally quoted by" come from? And it took me forever to realize that if you click on a photo in a post that was "automatically generated..." it takes you to CDMedia and the caption of the photo is there. Is this written somewhere? And yes, I've looked! And I'd love one on signatures. The rules are scattered everywhere. Not too big, user bars ... but I can't find anything on the basics. Cynette |
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#6
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
Slow down and think before you post, this isn't like most other forums. People here are likely to see you at some point or another, don't give them a reason not to like you. Keep the smilies to a minimum, they aren't there to replace text, they are there to enhance emotions that cannot be shown easily with text.
As for sigs, I love them to an extent: -Make it your own ~ please do not steal a persons signature Any image you see someone else has made and you wish to use on a website or anything ask the creator directly if possible. -keep it within the rules -if it is a gif image/animated image keep it to a reasonable file size, remember some of these members still run on dial up -keep it moral -also if it is a gif keep it 29.97 (heh) |
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#7
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
I'd probably tell the new members to wait a few days after they join to just poke around and look at the content of the forums, what threads go where, when to start a new thread, etc.
Like Morgan (MercuryRising) said, CD isn't like most other forums. You are on here representing yourself, your team, your sponsor(s), and FIRST. It has been said time and time again, and it is the one thing rookies should always remember: Think before you post!! EDIT: I'd also tell them that separate paragraphs are good. It makes everything so much easier to read instead of having one giant paragraph. Last edited by Alexa Stott : 01-06-2006 at 21:45. |
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#8
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
#1 rule: DO NOT LET A NEGATIVE REP DRIVE YOU AWAY! If you mess up, guess what, it happens. I got a negative rep as my third rep. It's no big deal. Learn from it, PM them back and ask what you did wrong.
#2: Be respectful. A lot of the people on here are very, very intelligent people. They deserve respect for that. They also volunteer a lot of time to this program. They deserve it for that too. And a million other reasons that I will not list. If you care to debate a point they've made, do not name-call or insult. Make your point, back it up as solidly as you can and be done with it. #3: It's been said already but it's important to say it again. "What you say or do can and will be used against"(/for) your team in the future. If you come on here and represent yourself poorly, people will note what team you're from. It's going to happen, if you intend it to or not, even if you write a little disclaimer at the bottom. If you're a flaming jerk, people will think of your team as the flaming jerks. That is not a reputation that you want. #4: Don't be afraid to share your knowledge and opinions! We want you here! Promise! Every person in FIRST has something to share, something to contribute. Be it your extensive engineering knowledge, or your way with sponsors, your team includes you on the roster for a reason. Find your place and shine! |
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#9
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
I was going to write "abandon hope all ye who enter here," but the rest of you are all serious and stuff. Furrfu.
(Bonus points for understanding "furrfu.") Seriously, you could do a lot worse than following the old Usenet posting guidelines: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/posting-rules/part1/. It's an amazing document from the kinder, gentler, smarter days of the Internet. |
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#10
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
Watch and learn: Watch other posters on the forum over a few days and look at how they act by example. Its the way that I have learned within my first year on CD, and it has made it a lot easier for me.
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#11
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
Quote:
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#12
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
Some of the threads will get very long, like this one (almost 300 posts...):
Championship location from 07 and onwards Before you post to threads like this, take the time to read the other posts. If you're not planning to offer something new to the thread, don't post to it. If it's already been said, you're not contributing to the discussion. (I admit that in this thread, I refer to my own posts made earlier - a year earlier. I did that to illustrate that the thread was rehashing prior discussion). Maybe the reputation system can include a "signal-to-noise" meter for its members. A member with a gazillion posts and relatively few reputation points is what I'd consider a "noise source". Whereas a member with high rep points and relatively few posts, is generally contributing "signal" - messages that have something (i.e. insight, perspective, and/or solutions) to offer to the readers. A really simple metric would be reputation points divided by number of posts... |
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#13
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
Quote:
![]() To help answer your question, the PHP tags are only need if you have PHP code to post. The PHP tag will color-code the PHP code depending on it's syntax. Here is an example use of the PHP tag: PHP Code:
Quote:
at the bottom right part of this quote in order to see the code used. ![]() |
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#14
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
Be concise.
Become nice. Wit helps. Andy B. |
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#15
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Re: What would you say to newer members of the CD community?
Probably shouldn't be posting here since I'm new myself...
But I've noticed that I tend to skip massive posts because I'm too lazy to read that much. (Accept of course when I posted the thread and I want to read everyone's posts/advice) I'm not saying that people who post massive texts have nothing important to say. I'm just saying your thoughts are not likely going to get heard (at least by me they're not). |
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