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Posting Etiquette, Post Structure, and Swimmers

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acolon_5

acolon_5

The Great Namah
OG Pioneer
El Ka Bong Posted: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 12:16:14 AM


Rank: Hyperspace member

Joined: 1/18/2008
Posts: 400
Location: 49 th parallel
I get the urge to play editor ...

... aren't we all past 'SWIM'-ing ..? .. the word starts to get 'heavy' after awhile, no ?... all that hyperlinked-text, doesn't that 'slow' the forum server down, or something..? (jk ..! jk .. !)

oh .. and leaving spaces can help the read, and can sort one's ideas ... I tend to skim through blocks of text ... but it's just me, I know .. I know ...
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El Ka Bong brings up some good points here.

Can we get past using SWIM? I understand that some forum demand that this be used as a type of sidesteping the posting of illegal activites, and I am not asking anyone to incriminate themselves, but can we stop using this stilly acronym? You can use a friend, a pet, a fictional person, but this SWIM thing really mucks up threads.

Also as El Ka Bong pointed out many of the posts fail to use paragraphs. I'm not the best at grammer or spelling, but seperating your thoughts into paragraphs makes reading your posts ALOT easier. I tend to skip over massive blocks of sentances as well. It is just a little too hard to read/follow. IT IS SIMILAR TO WRITING A POST IN ALL CAPS...IT MAKES READING THE POST A LITTLE MORE DIFFICULT!!!

So please, as a personal favor if people posting here could:

A) find a different way of not incriminating themselves if that is how they wish to post.
B) organize their thoughts into paragraphs so that others are able to follow what the poster is trying to say

I and many others would greatly appreciate it.
 
benzyme said:
how about "confucious say.." ?

heh
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confucious say, extraction is going very bad!!! Massive emulsions, spice will not preciptate out? 10grams mimosa 200L naphtha! All very confusing for confucious!

Yeah, that would work...plus its funny. SWIM, not funny.
 
i always thought SWIM meant someone who isn't not me. i could say someone who is not me in all posts because often i am making up most of what i say or just relaying information i hear from people. however my mother told me that if people on this website are doing illegal things i shouldn't surf here. so as long as we are all just joking about what we are talking about or making it up or just telling stories then me not someone who is not me can continue posting here.

anyway a simple way to make conversation easy is to just start a post by saying this is what someone else told me or something similar. i often talk about dreams i have stuff like that.
 
burnt said:
i always thought SWIM meant someone who isn't not me. i could say someone who is not me in all posts because often i am making up most of what i say or just relaying information i hear from people. however my mother told me that if people on this website are doing illegal things i shouldn't surf here. so as long as we are all just joking about what we are talking about or making it up or just telling stories then me not someone who is not me can continue posting here.

anyway a simple way to make conversation easy is to just start a post by saying this is what someone else told me or something similar. i often talk about dreams i have stuff like that.
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It is 100% understandable to talk about other people on this forum. I mean honestly who out there is mixing up chemicals and bark in their kitchen??? not me for sure, that's just silly... It is just that using SWIM over and over in posts seems to muck up posts a tad.

One can always have a disclaimer as their signature stating that all posts are for fun and humor only and have no relevance to the real world or something of that nature.

I personally would not suggest disobeying your mother burnt, but no one on here is seriously doing anything illegal... It is all for entertainment, just like the horoscopes in the paper!

People can still use SWIM, no one will be penalized for using it, it was just a request to find other means of reducing personal liability for fictitious posts that could be construed as illegal activities by unscrupulous law enforcement who are looking for promotion and have nothing better to do with tax dollars than track down forum posters.
 
Also as El Ka Bong pointed out many of the posts fail to use paragraphs. I'm not the best at grammer or spelling, but seperating your thoughts into paragraphs makes reading your posts ALOT easier. I tend to skip over massive blocks of sentances as well. It is just a little too hard to read/follow. IT IS SIMILAR TO WRITING A POST IN ALL CAPS...IT MAKES READING THE POST A LITTLE MORE DIFFICULT!!!
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I am so happy that someone finally said something about this!!

I don't know about anyone else but when there is a total lack of punctuation, paragraphs or sentence structure in general, I usually skip over the post!! It's much to hard to understand!!
I am definitely guilty of writing some posts that go on way to long, but the one big block of words that has no commas or periods is just impossible to read. No matter how long or short it is.

I only speak fore myself here, but I have a hard time staying interested throughout an entire post that reads like a third grader's stream-of-consciousness.
Come on!! We are all supposed to be adults here!! Right?

I try to write like I'm having a conversation with someone else, not just thinking to myself, seems to work.
...I think:lol:

Thanks for bringing this up!!


BTW, another thing that I feel needs mentioning, sense we're talking about posting grammar & sentence structure, etc...
Is using the "quote" button when you are including a part of a post written by someone else!!

If you look up at the top of the window when you are writing a post, there are message controls up there for "editing" the grammar of your post.
The "Quote" button is the fourth button in from the left, next to the big "U" (for underline) button.
You just select the text you want to be "quoted", then hit the button.
It will look like this when posted:
This is what using the "quote" button looks like!!
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Some folks are guilty of not using any paragraphs, or grammar and putting quotes from other posts in the middle of their block of words!! It's nearly impossible to figure out what has been written by the poster and what is supposed to be a quote!!
I imagine, like myself, most people don't bother attempting to decipher what is trying to be said and just move on to the next post.
Right?

Good topic!!

WS
 
warrensaged,

You signature is a perfect example of what I was talking about earlier. Simple and to the point. The writtings you post are fictional.

I'm glad some people agree with me. I was hoping not to come across as sounding whiney.

Yes, the quote thing is important. I do understand that it takes some getting used to. My earlier posts never used the quote function...now it is an invaluable tool. It really does make responding to a single post more readable.

I love this forum, but it frustrates me when I can't get through a post that seems like it has some good info in it simply because of a lack of punctuation.

I was hoping that at some point we could get a spell check function for our posts...because my spelling is pretty attrocious and I sometimes don't have the time to cut and paste to word, spell check, and then cut and paste it back to the post box.
 
I'm So GlAd No OnE WrItEs LiKe ThIs On ThIs FoRuM. ThAt DrIvEs Me NuTs!

I think the single most annoying thing is when people write one gigantic paragraph that is a whole page long. I don't even bother to read such posts because it bothers by eyes.

As far as using SWIM goes, I think most people have a habit of it from all the other forums out there that require it. I hated it at first, but I actually got banned from one forum because I didn’t post using SWIM. I was posting about someone else using a completely legal drug and I got banned because I posted the story in first person. Even though it wasn’t about me, it was about someone else, and the drug was completely legal, I still got banned for not using SWIM. Sometimes I play devils advocate and post things in first person just to make my point clearer. But after getting banned from doing so, I now always post using SWIM no matter what.

I post at many different forums and I don’t always remember all the different rules for each forum so I just do what most of them require and most require that you post using SWIM or something similar.
 
It's been brought to my attention that i have been blocking post's or threads due to my run on sentences and never ending streams of thought.

I wanted to take a sec to apoligize to the group if i caused any inconvenience or simply annoyance.
Had i read this thread before i started posting,i might have been more conscious.

One last thing,can someone enlighten me on how to quote just a specific part of someone else's post.What happens is that i'll highlight the sentence i want to quote and then hit the quote tab and it ends up quoting the whole post.I end up having to delete the unwanted words and then it doesnt look like a quote,you know when its boxed in.I feel like an idiot and have stopped quoting people.:roll:
Anyway,i apoligize to all for blocking threads and will improve my run on sentences.:)
 
Dwhitty76 said:
One last thing,can someone enlighten me on how to quote just a specific part of someone else's post.What happens is that i'll highlight the sentence i want to quote and then hit the quote tab and it ends up quoting the whole post.I end up having to delete the unwanted words and then it doesnt look like a quote,you know when its boxed in.I feel like an idiot and have stopped quoting people.:roll:
Anyway,i apoligize to all for blocking threads and will improve my run on sentences.:)
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I just sent you a PM on using the quote button.
 
Obviously my grammer isn't the best but i will work on it.The only reason i was accepted into college was because it was a fine arts school and apparently they didnt care about my grammer :lol:

As far a swim goes,although the term is silly atleast we all know what it means.I've heard of people getting kicked off of other forums for not using the term.This forum has been so helpful to me "and swim" ,the last thing i want is to get kicked off this forum for doing or not doing something thats so insignificant.

By the way,who here lies? No need for lies. :)
 
If people were to read all my posts, I think they would be in total aggreament that the Magic Clown is pretty well incriminated up to his eye balls.
 
hell,
I dont need to read all your posts.I can see just by looking at majic clowns eyes that he's not walking the straight and narrow,but what clown does? :lol:
 
Dwhitty76 said:
This forum has been so helpful to me "and swim" ,the last thing i want is to get kicked off this forum for doing or not doing something thats so insignificant.
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To the best of my knowledge no one is getting kicked off of this forum for bad grammar (guilty :? ), punctuation, or the use or non-use of "SWIM". It was just a friendly suggestion...that's all.
 
magic clown said:
If people were to read all my posts, I think they would be in total aggreament that the Magic Clown is pretty well incriminated up to his eye balls.
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hahahah aren't we all , i mean it is quite obvious , swim doesn't fool anyone but even the names and terms
sometimes used here can incriminate anyone.....
just look at mine "mr.shroom", to be honest it is my real name
so what can i do about it ?
...... nothing, except laugh when people don't believe me , so yes use different words and meanings
to describe whatever you are talking about
, but in the end ,
if swim is as guilty has a it can be , why don't
we lock up the forum so no-one can google it up
, or only allow to see the forum thru sign in , so anyone coming from outside can't see "zit" of what's going on inside
, in other forums i am in ,
you can google it up ,
but when you press the link it redirects you to the sign in page ,
so no free-bies unless you sign up ,
and to even that it would be best to only allow certain forums depending on your post rank ,
and if they actually count has posts .
i could go on forever describing security possibilities .

the point is , if you want security , just keep it quiet don't say a word or write anything
or...
go to the mountains and connect your dsl cable in your mind and communicate telepathically

the net is not safe , it was never been and it will never be .
(words of a hacker)(me)(lol)
 
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