Chat Board Etiquette

by xhero

Nowadays, everybody seems to be getting ruder and ruder in the chat boards, which is what drove me to write this article. It is disappointing to see how some people ruin the fun for everybody there. Now, I don't know how much of an effect this article would make on the people who are acting in such a way, but I feel that it that is about time someone addressed this issue.

First things first. Think before you post. This is a biggie. I know that sometimes people will inadvertently offend someone else just because they didn't proofread their posts. This may sound like an inconvenience, proofreading your posts. I can imagine the protests now. "What? It's not like I'm writing a paper... Why should I?" Why shouldn't you? If you reread your posts before you submit them and make grammatical/spelling corrections, you can sound much smarter and mature. And everybody wants to be smart and mature, right? Yes, they do.

Secondly, please, please, and may I say again, please put your posts where they belong. General posts go to general board, posts for help go to the help board, shop ads go to the shop board, etc. I personally don't mind it much when people post in wrong forums, but I know some people who fume at it because it does get annoying after awhile.

Which brings me to another point. Spam is bad, both the lunch meat Spam and the technological spam. If you repeatedly post a board in a forum that addresses the same topic, people will get mad and will ignore your posts completely, or even worse, report you and yell at you a few times. Spamming just doesn't work, nobody pays attention and it could get you frozen. NeoPets has specifically stated that spamming is against the rules. And scamming is bad too (Lol, this should be a given). Not only does it rhyme with spam, but it will definitely get you frozen and others would definitely yell at you a few thousand times.

Speaking of cheating, don't offer items for other people's votes in the Beauty Contest/Caption Contest. It's okay to ask people to look at their entries, but not to ask for votes. People will lose respect for you and ignore your posts, which you don't want.

And if someone else less respectful does comes along and offends you, it is a good idea to let it roll. I know this from experience. I have had my share of rude people and I responded to every single one of them. Most of them always wanted the last word, and since I am also stubborn, I wanted the last word too. The result was catastrophic. Our arguments did not end until they said something so offensive that I actually blocked them, or until they got tired of me and just stopped Neomailing me. Believe me, it is a good idea to keep quiet. What I like to do after a rude post is talk to a friend about it. It is a good way to vent off anger without making other people mad and, a major bonus here, you get mucho mucho comforting from your friend.

I don't know how to make this simpler: be nice. If someone posts about some misfortune they had encountered in their life in Neopia, don't go in and post, "HAHAHAHAH! STINKS FOR YOU YOU LOSWER WHIMP! STOP WHINING FOR GOODNESS SWAKES!!!" It is obvious why you shouldn't do that. If it isn't all so clear to you, well, you need help, buddy.

Now, if you already follow these rules in the message boards, I say good job to you! If you don't and don't plan on to, well, I'll leave you with this last thought. You have to remember that the people out there are actually people with feelings, not cold-hearted stone beasts. If you could actually see these people face to face (these people who could very well hurt you physically [just kidding, of course]), would you say what you posted? Would you actually say something like that to the people at school or work? Do you really want your name to be stained with such an undesirable reputation? I would hope that you don't. Otherwise, as I've said before, well, you need help, buddy.