Formatting and You! - A quick start guide to posting
This guide is specifically aimed at use within the EoEO forums, however it could also be librally applied elsewhere.
Lesson 1 - Spacing
The most important feature of a forum, like the internet, is that it is text based, users have to read your posts (which is usually done at leasure). Notice how I said the phrase, have to read your posts, badly spaced posts are difficult to read, a user reading your post will have no way of measuring how far they have read your post and will quite easily loose track or interest in your story, this is where spacing comes in.
* The use of spaces after full stops - This helps people to know when they can take a quick breather between scentences, without that space or two after the full stop it's quite easy to look over.
* Paragraphs and the enter key - An essay post with no paragraph breaks is very difficult to follow and read, every time your post takes a new direction or your paragraph is looking a bit long, why not give your enter key a few clicks? People will thank you for it.
Lesson 2 - Fonts and Colours
Another generally issue that comes up regularly is peoples misuse of the font, style and colour options provided when posting. This can cause anger, confusion and users just to ignore your post because you didn't spend a minute thinking before you chose that garish pink, size -50 font.
* Font Colours and Others - Remember, this forum has several skin styles, some are pink, some are brown, some are blue and some are covered in cookies. Your font colour needs to show up and be readable in all of them. If not you could be discomforting alot of people (Except anyone who uses Fluffy Puff style, their already in enough discomfort as it is, a little more won't harm them).
* Font Sizes - A font size isn't just a way of expressing yourself as an individule, however much it should be, it is in fact a way of making the text you post unreadable, setting a font size that is too large could cause people with lower resolution monitors some difficulty reading your posts as they could take up alot of screen space. However setting your font size too small could make people with poorer eyesight or higher resolutions unable to read your posts at all.
Lesson 3 - Caps Lock
HEY GUYS WHAT'S UP LOL IT'S TIME FOR LESSON 3, WHICH IS ALL ABOUT MY FAVOURITE BUTTON CAPSLOCK. YOU MAY NOT KNOW THIS, BUT CAPS LOCK IS DEFINED AS 'CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL', WHICH MEANS THAT IF YOU WANT TO BE COOL ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS MAKE SURE YOU HIT THAT CAPS LOCK BUTTON BEFORE ALL YOUR POSTS! BUT IF YOU WANT TO BE SUPER REALLY COOL, USE YOUR PINKY TO HOLD DOWN SHIFT AND - *shot*
Lesson 4 - Using a List
<p>There are many reasons to use the LIST function in your posts.</p>
<ol><li>It's fairly automatic</li>
<li>It plays nicely with people using disabled users access aids</li>
<li>It means you don't have to type up a bunch of stars or numbers in front of your list options.</li></ol>
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For now I will end the lessons, but as I think of more I might dd to them ^o^
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Originally Posted by Old Manus
