Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Eva]

The IGS (InterGalactic Summit, aka GalNet) is the in-character forum for Eve Online as a whole. Representing ourselves there is an important way of promoting our corporations or alliances, letting people know what we're about, creating roleplay opportunities and of promoting RP to the community as a whole.

The forum itself, however, periodically suffers from a degeneration to something very close to the dreaded Corporation Alliance and Organization Discussion [CAOD] forum, which is known for:

• Containing no actual information
• Illiteracy
• Endless repetitions of the same argument
• Posts and replies with zero relevant content

That's my personal view of it, at least. It's not something I want to read, nor could I take pleasure in reading it.

So how do we create content for IGS in a way that will increase the pleasure we derive from that forum while still using it as that all-powerful political weapon - the PR outlet?

The following posts in this thread will lay out some ways of doing this that I have found to be fun and seemed, from my point of view, to be effective.

[Eva]

Part I - General Communication Pointers

Grammar and Spelling

Using correct grammar, typing out words in full and checking the spelling of your writing has a number of benefits when forum posting.

Firstly, it simply makes your communication easier to read. Languages have rules because there is a consensus on how certain structures affect meaning. Your reader wants to read effortlessly, not stop and try to puzzle out what you're saying. Having to do so causes the reader to experience a moment of frustration which makes them not enjoy reading your post.

Secondly, in many minds, whether consciously or not, poor grammar and spelling creates the impression that the writer is stupid, which can lead a reader to decide that the message is unimportant and not worth the time it takes to read.

Thirdly, poor grammar can obscure or even change the meaning of a statement. Consider "The panda eats shoots and leaves." This is a rather famous example and has a book named after it. One misused comma and we have "The panda eats, shoots and leaves." The meaning has changed.

This does not mean you have to use exquisitely formal grammar. Suit your tone to your post. Just don't use wrong grammar if you can avoid it.

If you know you are a poor speller, it can help to type your posts in Word or Open Office first. A spellcheck will catch most mistakes, at least the silly-looking ones. Homonyms (words that are pronounced the same but spelled differently) are something you will have to check yourself to make sure you've used the right form in the right context.

Grammar checkers can also be helpful; they won't produce a beautifully-written piece if you use auto-correction, but they will guide you to areas where your sentence structure might be possible to improve.

Typing posts in a local document before posting also means you won't lose your post when the forums kick you off, and you'll have an easily searchable record of your posts to refer to later, should you choose to save them.

Verbosity

TL;DR is an acronym I hate (it stands for "Too Long; Didn't Read"); it shows a contempt for the writer who has made an effort to communicate. But you want a reader to read your post and on the web, in particular, the reader as a rule has a lower tolerance for long posts because back-lit screens cause eyestrain and headaches and they have a game to go play.

A very famous writer once said "If you can cut a word out, cut it out." This is especially good advice for writing on the internet. As an exercise, imagine you're Batman in the 1970s TV series. You're being in peril and have to explain it to Robin while speaking in gasped, single-word bursts. "Boat... sinking... pull.... lever... stop... Penguin!" Those are keywords - a string of nouns and verbs that tell Robin exactly what he needs to know. If you can strip a sentence down to just the keywords, then add the minimum of words necessary to make it a proper sentence, it is a good web sentence.

But what if your character is verbose (or conversely, extremely terse)? Find a compromise that suits you, but remember that your post means nothing, no matter how perfectly in character it was, if no-one reads it and remembers the message.

White Space

Ever seen a post that is just a wall of white letters running from one side of the screen to the other all the way down the page? "Wall-of-text" is a phenomenon that makes reading feel intimidating. Wading through the material will be work and a reader doesn't want to work; they want to read and relax. "White space" is important in any long post for avoiding this.

"White space" is basically paragraph breaks. Leave a line between paragraphs so your writing doesn't look so dense.

Headings

If a post is very long, break it up with headings and subheadings. Decide on a format convention first - for example, main headings could be bold and underlined, and sub-headings could be just underlined - and be consistent with it.

Headings not only break up the page, but guide the reader to sections of interest and help reinforce the message in their memory.

[Eva]

Part II - Characterization on the IGS

The IGS is the in-character forum for Eve Online. That's not the same as a roleplay forum, where interactive fiction or OOC discussion of RP might occur - it is an area where your character posts.

It's also not the same as a FW forum, or an "I'm at war with an RP corp" forum unless you want to talk about those things in-character.

More coming, but have to go do some stuff.

[Eva]

Part III - Creating Quality Content

Coming soon!

No, this will not be a post about "I create awesome content and you all sux0r" 

[Eva]

Part IV - Managing your Thread

Coming soon!

[Eva]

Part V - Showcasing Your Organization

Coming soon!

[Myyona]

Interesting so far. I hope you will add a point about posts should have clear (or even better; open) points to have content. Personally I see two ways of failing this, 1: writing too little (most common problem), 2: writing too much (a few does this, but it is equally bothersome).

Inability to make you point clear is as bad as having no point at all, I am sorry to say.

[Nakatre Read]

Sounds like it'll be a promising and educating read. Looking forward to the rest of it

[Merdaneth]

- Putting your existence in the public eye is easy
- Putting your existence in the public eye in a manner that is fun for others is a lot more difficult
- Putting your existence in the public eye in a manner that is fun for you *and* for others is harder still

Sometimes I put stuff myself on the IGS that is primarly fun for me, and don't directly consider the fun of others. If you don't like formatting it will be very hard to get a big response to your IGS posts.

1. Hooks: For me, the most useful information on the IGS is information that delivers hooks. Hooks are open ended bits of info that invite interaction. Sometimes it is simply a request for aid.

2. News: Besides hooks I like news. Events that have happened, stories that have played out. Events that happened in-space or in bar channels but never get out to a big part of the player base unless somebody actually posts about it (of course, I can read it in the IC blogs, but I avoid those).

3. Stories: Last on my list is opinions and personal stories. These are the most posted threads, but the least read. Avoid those if you are just starting off. When you're better known, your friends and opponents will read your opinion and personal story posts and might even respond, otherwise, you might see no response at all.

Titling: one can understate the importance of a title. It should cover the content, but also invite people. When I post a thread with the title: 'Wheat Fraction II' I know most people won't read it. It is simply not interesting unless you already know what's it about. If I post a thread with the title: 'Why is UK still NBSI in Providence?' I know it will get much more reads.

A good title suckers people into your thread, good formatting makes them read the post, relevance and hooks makes them actually respond to it.

[Shalee Lianne]

One of the most irritating things on the IGS for me is when people respond to their own threads with their alts, and continue to say the same thing.

What is the point of having an alt if you're going to be a carbon copy of your main character?

[Morwen Lagann]

[mod]Personal attacks are not permitted. Please refrain from posting them.Offending post(s) removed.[/mod]

[Rodj Blake]

If it's something that your character wouldn't talk about in public, don't have your character talk about it in public.

[Silver Night]

One of the most irritating things on the IGS for me is when people respond to their own threads with their alts, and continue to say the same thing.

What is the point of having an alt if you're going to be a carbon copy of your main character?

Self-thread-bump, I suspect. Though the more advanced use of this method is to have your alt act as a foil - presenting slightly flawed counter-arguments for you to tear down, making it difficult for your actual opponents to raise similar points with any success.