Helpful tips for forum posting, posting FAQ

[seattlejester]

Per wrenchtech's request, some helpful features in posting.

 

First off the very basics. These should really be looked at prior to posting. They can be found pinned in the announcement section. Scroll to the bottom for actual tips.

Please try to follow them, they are pretty general, but more or less encourage good behavior. 

 

The posts that blatantly violate them or make no effort to follow the rules may be found in the tool shed section.

 

Understandably if english is your second or third language, mistakes can happen, there are some excellent translation programs, or using word or the free open office version to type your response will help find common errors prior to posting, but for everyone else, please make an effort. You are asking for and most likely receiving FREE advice. Spending an extra minute to use some punctuation, capitalize letters, and spell out the full word is an appreciated courtesy. 

 

Make an effort prior to a post, taking 30 seconds to run a search and looking at the broad subject and narrowing down your specific question will help get a specific answer. Use links to related subjects or show some options you are entertaining. You ask a specific question, you will most likely get a specific answer. You ask a generic question, you will probably get more questions.

 

On that note the search function is not the best. You can use the link below to search through google restricting it to the forum.

https://www.google.com/search?ei=2h77WrOkMYmkjwPl6ZG4Dg&q=site%3Ahybridz.org+&oq=site%3Ahybridz.org+&gs_l=psy-ab.3...4138.7660.0.9392.17.17.0.0.0.0.87.820.17.17.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.5.379...0j0i67k1j0i131k1j0i131i46k1j46i131k1j0i131i67k1.0.aahCofzmEHc

Or similarly just go to the google search bar and type "site:hybridz.org" before your search terms.

 

On that same vein:

This is done not because people want to find you and steal all your things. Contrary to that hybridz members are some of the nicest and skilled people I have met, more likely they will be lending or assisting. The reason is to help focus in on your question. If you are looking for help, someone local may be able to offer it. If you are looking for recommendations, someone local may know the local shops or suppliers. If you are looking for a car or parts, your location may dictate condition and price. City will be fine or state if you want to be mysterious is fine. 

 

On to post subjects:

This is more of a technical board, at the same time not everyone has an immediate understanding of cars and mechanics. The terms employed will be more of a technical nature, and if you are called out for using an incorrect term please don't feel offended, the standard for correction helps search terms. Using tube instead of pipe to refer to a structural cylinder will be helpful if someone was searching for tubular control arms for example. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With that out of the way. Here are some helpful tips for forum posting.

 

First off:

It seems to be a forum software issue. Using symbols like percent, ampersand, pound, apostrophe, or foreign languages in the title of your posts may cause the post to be inaccessible. If it does happen get a hold of a moderator and they will be able to save your post.

 

There are some neat features, with the update.

 

Posting a link directly into the body will generate a linked box as can be seen throughout this post.

Similarly posting a youtube video will automatically embed it. 

If you do not wish for this to happen, after you post the link a grey bar will appear at the bottom of the text box asking you if you want display as a link instead.

http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/39435-help-what-brake-options-are-available-for-s30-z-cars/

Clicking it will generate a hyperlink with the address like above.

 

If you want to hyperlink a word, you can highlight the word with your mouse and click the chain symbol 5 over from the left at the top of the text box. That will turn your word into a hyper link and ask for the URL to associate it with and can keep your post body cleaner for flow, like say these turbo manufacturers, like borg warner or garret.

 

If you want to quote a reply you can hit the quotation mark 6 symbols over from the left to get a box like this

Quote

 

Where you can copy and paste the section you are quoting. Or you can hit the quote box in the post from the person you want to reply to which will be under their post, you can do this several times to quote several people. Doing it this way will actually ping the user/users that they have been quoted. You can also trim the quote by clicking in the generated quote box and deleting sections so you are only replying to a specific portion, or you can just highlight the section you want to quote, that will generate a little window under your cursor with a "quote" option. If the post contains many pictures, it is suggested you delete the pictures from the quote box to minimize the thread size.

 

A new feature is also pinging people manually. Say you want someone's input or know someone might have experience. Using the @ symbol you can ping them so @wrenchtech will ping them.

 

Hope that helps, and if anyone has anything to add please feel free!

[NewZed]

No offense to SeattleJester.  Just saying, this problem persists even though it's known.  Not sure why.

 

There should be a post like this at the top of the FAQ area, and in each sub-forum there.  But, even better than this post, there should actually be some information about posting in the FAQ area.  The title here says "posting FAQ" but there's not another word about posting in the FAQ area.  People are still posting in the FAQ area and waiting for replies but it is not possible to reply to an FAQ post.

 

This should not be hard.  Just pin a post to the top of each FAQ sub-forum that says "people cannot reply to your post if you ask a question here".  Someone could even just put those words at the top of each page so that people don't have to open the post.  WARNING - people cannot reply to your questions here!

Edited January 21, 2021 by NewZed