Right, I am writing this as a sort of survival guide of sorts for newbs on this forum. I see a lot of the same mistakes being made by people over the years and figured if people who are new read this post first, then they may avoid getting eaten alive by some of the more hostile members here.
This list is not all inclusive and I imagine I will add more as I think of it or as it is suggested to me. So here goes:
1: Read and understand the rules post, but know that the rules occasionally get ignored by veteran members, and occasionally even mods and admins. Know also that if you, as a newbie, ignore the rules you probably are in for a flaming at least and a ban at worst.
2: By all means submit a new topic post on the newbies forum introducing yourself, but A: Don't expect anyone to read it or B: expect anyone to respond. Unless you are a hot female, or somewhat witty or charming. Oh or you post something stupid, in which case your post will probably get flamed by the bored trolls here. This leads me to number 3...
3: Don't expect anyone on this forum or many others to immediately respond to anything you say, ever. Forums are not like MSN, people are not waiting, drooling with anticipation, for someone to talk to. Think of it as a message board, you post something and come back later to check to see if anyone has responded(you can more easily find your old posts on your profile btw). Occasionally and with some threads, the responses can come on as quick as a convo, but this is the exception rather than the rule.
4: You are new, you are a maggot, you are the lowest of the low. No matter how affable, charming or beautiful you think you are, here, no one gives a shit. Building a rep isn't hard tho, and if you can learn the following tips, you can do this on any forum:
A: Other than your initial post introducing yourself as a newb-NEVER and I mean NEVER create a new topic until you are well established in the community. One of the fastest ways for you to become a target is to make some random topic about how this band is really awesome or this world event is really terrible, or this fad or fashion is really fascinating. Trust me, no matter how great you think your topic is, remember #4.
B: Post on established topics in either general discussion or the relationships thread. The easy ones being "what are you doing right now" or "would you _insert phrase here_ the person above you", etc this will build your rep in a slow but sure way. Think of it as killing rats in an rpg. It's lowly thoughtless work, but eventually you get to lvl 2.
C: Kissing ass can work for you, if you know what you are doing, but it can easily backfire on you. you can agree with what people say, but if you look like a sheep you will get slaughtered.
D: Don't send random private posts to people until you know them. This makes people uncomfortable, unless like #2. Sent to the wrong person this will make you a target for every forum post you make.
E: Don't expect people to warm up to you right away. The main point I would like to get across is that becoming a member of this community -can- be worthwhile, as there are great people here, but it takes time and patience, people will not warm up to you overnight, but eventually they will warm up to you if you follow these simple steps.
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