I have decided to take the advice Ferrous gave me in this thread and ask for help on general board etiquette. I’m slowly getting the hang of it, I think, but would appreciate any help that comes my way! Thanks!
Hello Flame.
Here’s a thread started by Jester addressed to teenaged dopers, but it’s good for posters of all ages.
P.S. It’s in The Pit, so some people get a little rough.
Thanks for the tip, Biggirl… I think I’ll go look at it now. Meanwhile, if anyone else has any other bits of advice, I’ll be grateful!
I have been to the Pit, so I think I have an idea of how rough some people can be in that forum!
(Yes, this is probably a bit of a bump, but I didn’t see this thread when I went to the forum just now…)
My best advice would be just to watch and learn. Good spelling and grammar is always appreciated. It’s considered good form to bold a person’s name when you use it. Try not to call the mods Nazis. Think quality over quantity. Take head of Jester’s good advice. Wear sunscreen.
I posted some short tips in this thread.
D’oh!!! 
No no no, I meant it as an instruction. As in “Take the good advice given by head of Jester”.
[sub]Damn that Gaudere.[/sub]
Would this be an appropriate moment to point out that good spelling and grammar, being two things, and therefore plural, are always appreciated?
Steve Wright are mean.
Eure write.
Of course, the overarching rule is Don’t Be A Jerk. Jester’s already recommended thread provides some excellent insight into not being a jerk.
Also, don’t copy and post copyrighted works. You can usually quote a line or two, and it helps to summarize the highlights for us. It is acceptable and better to link these things instead. (though linking to pornograhy is something of a no-no).
If you stare too long at your computer screen, look away for a minute or two. And get up and stretch every now and again.
Mods and admins like it when they don’t have to moderate your posts. Try not to give them too much work to do. Rumor has it that they are busy.
Francesca, I am slowly watching and learning as I go along, and trying to apply the things that I learn… such as bolding people’s names when I use them. I agree that quality should always be stressed over quantity, but sometimes I forget, y’know?
Robb, thanks for the reminder about looking away from my computer screen; sometimes I forget.
Arnold, thanks… I read the thread a few times already! As it happened, I had already posted in that thread.
Thanks again, everyone! 
When did the bolding of people’s names first start. I know it wasn’t the custom when I first started posting here.
I like it, mind you, but now I’m curious…
Fenris
WAG: Gutenberg?
Flamsterette_X
A couple of stylistic points.
DON’T SHOUT! ESPECIALLY NOT ALL THE TIME! IT DRIVES PEOPLE CRAZY! PLUS THEY WON’T TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY! IF YOU MUST EMPHASIZE IT’S USUALLY BETTER TO USE EITHER BOLD OR ITALICS!
punctuation and capitalization are important if you don’t ever use them you will also drive people crazy no one will bother to even read you posts to try and figure out what you are trying to say because a dense uncapitalized post is just too intimidating and usually people who dont bother to use punctuation or capitalization dont bother to say anything interesting either i also thing that it is a good idea to break your posts up into paragraphs because it make them more readable you may even want to put topical headers before paragraphs in a very long post
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Long, pointless quotes of other posts are also annoying. Just quote the part that is relevant to the comment you want to make. If you leave something out, make it clear that you did by using something like . . . or <snip>
(I was gonna quote the whole thing, but then I read your last paragraph… )
The punctuation/capitalization/paragraph thing is important for more than just esthetic reasons.
For some posters (me) their eyesight is quite a bit less than perfect (me), and they (me) sometimes have a difficult time reading posts (me) where the capitalization and punctuation is missing (me) 'cause the relative size, spacing etc. doesn’t change.
I politely pointed this out to one of the posters who insisted that it was their personal style, and they very kindly made it a point to change.
I think Francesca said it best, and someone else mentioned in the thread referenced by Arnold Winkelried that there aren’t any hard and fast rules at the SDMB aside from the ‘don’t be a jerk’ one. But since this thread asked about etiquette, Flamsterette_X, the best you can do is start out your career by reading a lot more than you write. You should pick up the general idea pretty quickly, and people are typically pretty receptive to newbies who want to learn how things are done enough to ask.
It’s also common enough to see a post pointing out something that wasn’t quite kosher. So if you keep your eyes open, you should learn the ropes pretty quickly.
And just so that my post isn’t completely bereft of actual useful advice, here’s my pet peeve. Don’t ‘out’ trolls in public. If you suspect someone of trolling, do not say so on the board. Email a mod or admin and tell them what you think.
Ehh, here’s another thing. Learn the different forums, and what’s appropriate material for each one. It’s irritating to the mods to have to move threads because someone didn’t pay enough attention to put their stuff in the right place. It seems like you have a pretty solid grasp on this, Flamsterette_X.
Thanks for all the advice, and I think I sort of have a grasp on what a troll is (an attention-seeker?) and what a sock may be (someone who posts under multiple screen names?). Of course, I don’t know it all, nor would I pretend to. But I do know one thing for sure: you all are the most helpful people! Thanks! Next time I have a question, I’ll post it up somewhere… not sure where, but I’ll post it and see what you think! Later!
Almost. You got “sockpuppet” right (think of a person with a sockpuppet on each hand, talking to himself), but there’s a little more to a troll. A troll is one who posts deliberately annoying or inflamatory things to get attention, which falls under the category of “being a jerk”. By contrast, there are some folks who seek attention by (trying to) post insightful or useful information, or answering questions. It’s not the motivation of “seeking attention” that’s the problem, it’s the manner in which it’s done.
True, or I would have been banned a long time ago.
Fenris, attention whore.