The biggest mistake I see as a moderator on a webmaster forum is people not reading previous replies before typing up a response. Now there are times that you could get away with this if your post is a quality one and not just 2 sentences of fluff to raise your post count or to get your signature link shown. What’s the rush to post a response in the thread? Why can’t you read the thread creators opening post and at least skim through the previous replies so you can an idea what’s been said already. Sometimes previous members who had posted a reply gave the wrong information and if you did read all the replies before responding, you’d be able to quote the member and post the correct advice besides giving more information to help out the thread creator.
If you wonder why you got a warning for “low quality” posting, it’s usually because you repeated what’s been mentioned already or you didn’t read the thread creators opening post which could have had a blog post linked in it that you was supposed to read and respond to. Quality posters who keep the thread on topic with solid advice will get far on large webmaster forum’s. Example, if you want to become a mentor on the v7n webmaster community, you need to set an example and be helpful around the community among other things. Trust me, we take notice of quality posters and take extra notice of the low quality ones who are there to post for backlinks. Yea, those folks usually end up banned anyways.
If the forum that you are on has a REP system and you have noticed that you keep on getting negative reps then you must be doing something wrong on the forum. People don’t give you negative rep for the name that you are using as your forum username. They give you negative rep because your response was too short, repeated response, copied and pasted with no link back to the source, or you was flat out rude in your response. I sometimes get a little mean but I don’t revert to name calling and get personal with the member.
This whole blog post was trying to get the folks who just read the thread title, the thread creators opening post and no other posts before responding. You won’t get yourself known on a forum as an expert in your field or a potential “mentor” by skipping the juicy parts on the thread. At least skim through the last 2 pages of a thread besides page 1 so you can have a rough idea about what information hasn’t been posted yet or you will notice a few people posting the wrong information. Remember, people come to forums usually to get questions/problems solved and getting the wrong information could hurt ones site very badly. Why not you be the one person who corrects a few bad replies with the correct information and even give resource links to back up your response.
Have a good day and remember to take your time when you are thinking about replying to a thread. Be the one person who provides the best advice while not repeating what’s been mentioned already or just don’t post like 1 or 2 sentences of fluff. I dish out GREEN rep to good solid quality posts on v7n. I will also dish out warnings and infractions for repeated low quality replies. You get to many, you are gone for good. We a friendly community and treat members right if they post good stuff.
Have a good day
Derek
@snakeair2
Hahaha love this post! Been preaching this for quite sometime now….
It never get’s old. I was so frustrated that i had to write a blog post about this instead of going nuts on the forum. lol
Hi snake! I am so loving every bit of your words in this post. Your topic seems to be the recurring problem of all forums on the cyberspace. It drives me up the wall when a member seems didn’t read the previous reply in a thread before commenting. What annoyed me more is when that thread is only a 10-post-page-thread, and the answers were all repeatedly mentioned. “Argh!!!” That’s what I usually say when I see a such. And if I spotted one, I immediately hitting report post button to inform the moderators to check and clean the thread. I’m a forum-lover, it has been part of my life since 17 years old. Reporting low quality posts, spams, and other non-substantial things are hurting my eyes.
I’m not saying I’m a perfect forum member, I did that before, been there done that.
The hope in my heart is not loosing that a forum member will change the way they usually comment., esp. those who really wanted to be a active and regular member of the forum you choose. I’d learn so much in v7n, esp. the way I should post a comment. And those learning are what I strictly imposing to myself. Eventually, that good forum comment manner will influence and touches the other people, members will follow and admire your posts. That is a great achievement for me.
For the record, to readers, Derek (snakeair) is a generous-rep-giver moderator. He hit REP button just like the way he hit ‘Like’ button on facebook. Right Derek?