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Forum etiquette posting guidlines (new members please read)

6/9/099:38 AM

Greetings and welcome to the ArmyStudyGuide.com forums.

Consider this a sort of unofficial orientation to help you better integrate to our community.

First, if you haven't already, read the Terms of Service. If you should ever forget what they are, there's a handy link at the bottom of every page.

By virtue of your membership, you have agreed to abide by these terms.

Internet message boards in general
An internet message board or forum is a place where people can share ideas, make announcements, ask questions, or just have a conversation.

A forum is not like a chat channel or instant messenger. People come by at different times of the day. Some come by once or twice a day, some once a month, some only once. Some people have a lot so say, some just come to read (they are called 'lurkers'). Due to the nature of the forum, your messages may not be answered quickly (but compared to a chat room, you'll more likely to get an intelligent answer)

You might see a variety of account types on a forum. Typically you'll have basic users, moderators, and administrators (some may have different titles). These different account types have varying permissions. For example, on ArmyStudyGuide.com, a normal member can only edit his/her own messages, but a moderator can edit any messages.

Accounts with special privileges can normally be recognized by a custom title.

Specific to ArmyStudyGuide.com
This website was started to help Soldiers develop professionally by helping them study for boards. It has grown to more than that, and these forums are a big part of that.

We are for the most part a community of and for professional Soldiers. Our membership seems to be composed mostly of NCOs (I don't think there are any real statistics) who genuinely care about the Army and Soldiers. We appreciate the Army values, and aspire to do things the right way. That said, people who don't believe in the Army values generally do not find a lot of sympathy here.

Our members are very knowledgeable and eager to help. We have a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. We have officers and enlisted, senior NCOs and privates, retirees and future Soldiers, family members and even civilians with no military affiliation.

Some other forums are very strict about their etiquette, others are very lax. ArmyStudyGuide.com is in the middle, somewhere between Defensivecarry.com and Zombiehunters.org. We expect a bit of civility, but can accept a degree of crude language or heated discussion (we are mostly Soldiers after all). Explicitly vulgar or profane language is not tolerated. Messages that are contrary to the Army values will be edited (this includes but is not limited to: posting information on cheating on correspondence courses, or methods of shirking duty).

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Original Post

daddywarcrimes 2Member

6/9/099:52 AM

Etiquette
Although we are mostly professional NCOs, Army customs and courtesies are not strictly enforced here. We don't check rank when you register.

We do however believe in the Army values, of which respect is a key component. All of our members are entitled to respect regardless of of rank, MOS, or duty status. You are expected to treat other members with respect, regardless of your rank, MOS, or duty status.

Personal attacks, insults, and the like have no place here.

Guidelines for Harmonious Posting
These aren't hard and fast rules, just principles that will make it easier to communicate effectively and peacefully with other forum dwellers.

New topics

Be descriptive in your title
Consider the following title options:
"How do I do this???" vs "M-249 manual of arms"
"This sucks!" vs "Passed over for promotion"
"!!!!!!11HELP!!!!!PLEEZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!" vs "How do I tie my shoes?"

Your descriptive thread title will help attract forum members who are knowledgeable and interested in the topic. Generic titles may be dismissed by the people you wanted to discuss with.
Post in the appropriate subforum
Just like with your title, using the right subforum is important to attract the right people to your discussion. If you want to discuss uniforms, The Warrior Leaders Course subforum might not be the best place to discuss it.
Don't post the same thing repeatedly.
Some people think if they post in multiple subforums, they'll attract more attention. All this really does is confuse people, and make the moderators delete the redundant threads.

General

Post like you would write a school assignment
We realize that this isn't your high school English class. Believe it or not, this is why you went to that class.
Format your posts.
Sentence and paragraph structure are important aspects of written communication. It helps to distinguish ideas, and establishes the tone of the message.
Messages without line breaks or proper punctuation are difficult to read and may be ignored outright.
Limit your capitalization
Typing in all caps is considered to be shouting or yelling on the internet. It's also difficult to read.
Limit your netspeak
Chatspeak, lolspeak, 1337, and the like may show your uberness elsewhere, but many of our members are not part of that hip crowd.

Most of us get LOL, ROFL, and the common acronyms. Just keep it to a reasonable level.

A message board is not a chat room or IM; you have plenty of time to type out clearly thought out and formatted messages.
Edit quoted text
If you are replying to a specific statement from a previous post, there is no need to quote that entire post.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen pages of quoted text with a single sentence response.
All this does is make your post difficult to read. Don't make other members re-read everything 5 times.
The following behaviors are rude, unprofessional, and impede communication:
Flaming
Trolling (and please don't feed the trolls)
Sock Puppetry (yeah, we can tell)

A wise man said, arguing on the internet is like running in the Special Olympics; it doesn't matter if you win, you're still retarded.

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daddywarcrimes 2Member

12/15/099:14 AM

Sensitive Topics
There are certain subjects that pop up on this and other forums that frequently degenerate into flame wars. While these subjects are not necessarily prohibited on ArmyStudyGuide.com, we ask that you post with care, and be civil with other members.

Race, Racism, Gender Roles, and EO
We have fortunately (thus far) avoided for the most part any major meltdowns regarding these subjects.

EO is a very important Army program and should therefore be discussed here. Claims of prejudice and various "isms" are quite flammable.
Politics
Very little good has come of past political discussions on this site. The political threads very often degenerate into flame wars.

Please restrict your political discussions to matters that directly affect the military.
Religion
We ask that you respect the beliefs and spiritual practices of others, whether they are members of this site or not.

This is not the place to denounce any particular faith (or lack thereof). This site is also not the place for proselytizing.

The role of moderators is to ensure a good flow of useful information and ideas on these forums. If the topics cease to be useful, moderators may end the discussion prematurely.

Please note this is nothing personal and for the most part we respect the opinions of others. Several times in the past I have deleted posts that I personally agree with because they inhibit the conversation.

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