Forums are great places to share your ideas with other like minded individuals, yet a lot of these thoughts may go unnoticed or may become easily disregarded. This can easily be countered by making sure you have a very point orientated beginning (or abstract), a body which contains supported facts or research with evidence (not just personal opinion) and a concise conclusion that ties everything together. All people reading your post should be able to know everything they need to by reading your first paragraph and last paragraph and should feel compelled to read the middle based on those two paragraphs.
The initial way to get someone to read your post is an interesting, relevant, or important title. I, and many others, skip over titles that look like they may contain monkey dribble in them. I click on a lot of posts that seem like they may benefit me in some way or that I may be able to contribute to. More often than should be the case, however, I find I can't find the point, reason, or solution a post may be trying to make.
While this certainly doesn't pertain to everyone, I feel like it needs to be put out there that to create a decent post certain criteria must be met. First, every lengthy post should contain an abstract at the beginning. Something that should explain to the reader what the post is about and what your suggestion or remark may be. This generates interest for the reader to read the seemingly boring body of the post which should contain the most important aspects of your post. Finally, a post should end with a conclusion or a discussion. A recap almost, that brings back your initial point and your possible resolution to it.
In short, many ideas on forums may be overlooked due to messy forum post layouts.
*edit*
Also, as someone who has never written a topic and who has only posted silly responses, you are not the target audience. Consider all the time you saved now.
I was going to move this thread to Site Suggestions or General Discussion (not the D3 one), because it isn't really related to Diablo.
Any counter-arguments to that? If we have any I might leave it here (it's an overall interesting read that pertains to the whole forum, still.. I'm not sure).
In short, many ideas on forums may be overlooked due to messy forum post layouts.
What you've described is just the most basic structure of an essay, which teachers try to drill into peoples' heads in high school. Yep, kids, things you learned in school are useful.
I'd also like to add that long posts that lack clear structure or arguments are surefire troll-bait. Do not feed the trolls!
I was going to move this thread to Site Suggestions or General Discussion (not the D3 one), because it isn't really related to Diablo.
Any counter-arguments to that? If we have any I might leave it here (it's an overall interesting read that pertains to the whole forum, still.. I'm not sure).
The major counter-point is that is probably won't be read by those it's targeted at. On the other hand, simply telling people to stop writing in a wall of text is mostly pointless on an internet forum, as it's generally a matter of education in writing and/or language.
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The initial way to get someone to read your post is an interesting, relevant, or important title. I, and many others, skip over titles that look like they may contain monkey dribble in them. I click on a lot of posts that seem like they may benefit me in some way or that I may be able to contribute to. More often than should be the case, however, I find I can't find the point, reason, or solution a post may be trying to make.
While this certainly doesn't pertain to everyone, I feel like it needs to be put out there that to create a decent post certain criteria must be met. First, every lengthy post should contain an abstract at the beginning. Something that should explain to the reader what the post is about and what your suggestion or remark may be. This generates interest for the reader to read the seemingly boring body of the post which should contain the most important aspects of your post. Finally, a post should end with a conclusion or a discussion. A recap almost, that brings back your initial point and your possible resolution to it.
In short, many ideas on forums may be overlooked due to messy forum post layouts.
*edit*
Also, as someone who has never written a topic and who has only posted silly responses, you are not the target audience. Consider all the time you saved now.
Any counter-arguments to that? If we have any I might leave it here (it's an overall interesting read that pertains to the whole forum, still.. I'm not sure).
I'd also like to add that long posts that lack clear structure or arguments are surefire troll-bait. Do not feed the trolls!
The major counter-point is that is probably won't be read by those it's targeted at. On the other hand, simply telling people to stop writing in a wall of text is mostly pointless on an internet forum, as it's generally a matter of education in writing and/or language.