( - SOE) - Five Handy Tips for Getting the Most out of the Forums - 04-27-2011 07:09

Five Handy Tips for Getting the Most out of the Forums
By Eric “Piestro” Cleaver
Community Relations Manager – EverQuest

Communicating through an Online Message Forum or other communication channels is an exciting and valuable way to communicate with fellow players and representatives of SOE. Our forums, Facebook fan pages, Live Video Casts, and any other SOE maintained communication channels offer a wealth of insight into whatever SOE game you are interested in, and we greatly appreciate those who participate in such activities.



Using these tools to communicate is not necessarily a simple task, though. There are a ton of easy and understandable mistakes people often make; these mistakes often lead to unproductive communication, arguments, or other regrettable incidents. Following a few simple rules can vastly reduce the occurrence of these and as a result we have prepared this guide with 5 simple rules that will help improve your use of the forums.

Getting the most out of forums in five simple steps.

1. The subject field is key.
In forums or other communication channels that feature subject lines, it is the single most important part of your message. Subjects let everyone know the topic that will be discussed in the thread, and are the portion of your message that determines who will read the contents and how they will be perceived.

Avoid subject titles that are confusing or directed. A subject like “Does anyone else have this problem?” or “I love this!” doesn’t let anyone know what you are talking about. They would have to read the thread in order to understand the reference you are making. Most people skip over threads that don’t have explicit subject titles that reference a subject they are interested in.

Another common mistake is to make a plea for the Development Team associated with a product to read the thread in the title. A subject like “Hey Devs, check this out!” or “Devs read and respond” almost guarantees that the Devs will probably not read that post or respond. With very limited time on the forums, the Development Team tends to focus on very specific areas of research and looks for topics based on exactly what they are looking for. Another factor to consider is that if the Devs read and responded to every post with some variation of that subject title, soon every title on the forums would read the same way in the hopes of getting Dev attention. That would mean the vital subject field would soon be completely useless. You’re actually much less likely to see a Dev response if you address them in your subject line.

2. Stay on topic.
Once you’ve established your topic, don’t talk about anything else in your post that isn’t related to the topic. If you topic is “Class Game Mechanics” and you throw in a comment about chat channels, this will lead to a split in the conversation. Soon people will be discussing 2 separate and unrelated issues, which is confusing and will lead to a variety of responses that have nothing to do with what you set about to discuss.

3. Don’t post angry.
Often times when people go to the forums to post about a subject, they are frustrated with some aspect of their favorite game and aren’t happy. This is very understandable and this frustration is information we desperately want to know. If you aren’t happy, your feedback will help us improve the game!

However, posting in the heat of the moment means that emotion is still influencing how you are communicating the issue. Other users will often pick up on the anger, and dismiss your complaints with unproductive comments. Posting like this often puts everyone else in a defensive mode, actually hindering the communication of your feedback. Strong emotion clouds our ability to express ourselves in a constructive manner and leads to all sorts of problematic situations that don’t help anyone involved. A better solution would be to wait until the heat of the moment has passed and then post a calm, well reasoned thread about the issue you are having. This is the best way to get your concerns heard and understood.

4. Never feed them, especially after midnight!
Despite our best efforts, there are always people on the internet who love to see others upset. They often try to provoke strong emotional reactions, and in the parlance of the internet are commonly referred to as “Trolls.” Trolls post to incite reaction, and the best way to keep them away from your thread is to not respond to their comments or react. Simply ignore any commentary that doesn’t add to the discussion and you will have far more productive threads that are more likely to produce the kind of results you would like.

Feeding Trolls by responding to their comments only serves to derail your thread and draw moderator (not developer) attention. While it can be hard to ignore obvious mistruths and personal attacks, your thread will be better served by doing so. Simply report any inappropriate behaviors to the moderation staff and move on. We’ll handle it from there.

5. Post with purpose.
An important factor in communicating effectively is posting with a clear purpose. Is your post explaining an issue that you see, reporting an issue you haven’t seen mentioned, or discussing something you find interesting? Knowing what the purpose of your post is in your mind and writing clearly to that point makes your message much more likely to produce the results you’d like.

Ultimately communication, both between players and between players and Devs is good for the game and should be an enjoyable break during the day. Communicating is like any other skill though, and if you keep in mind these five simple guidelines, we think you’ll see better results and have a much better time.

See you all on the forums!




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