Please read before posting
This community has been created so that you can exchange ideas, converse and meet others who share a common interest.
Here are some basic guidelines:
- Keep your posts relevant to the forum category.
- Please be respectful of others and don’t sweat the small stuff.
- Please do not post any personal information or photos that you wouldn’t want to be seen by the public.
- Do not post hateful or illegal content. Do not post copyrighted material without proper attribution.
- SPAM will not be tolerated.
In summary: be polite, enjoy yourself, and help us build a great community. Below you can find some tips for getting the most out of this forum.
- Make the discussion title or question as descriptive as possible. A good discussion title is a short preview of your post and is what gets people to click and read. A well written title is also going to help search engines better index your post which will bring more people into the discussion.
- Proof read. Spelling mistakes, typos, and bad grammar will distract readers from the point you’re trying to make. Vanilla automatically saves drafts as you type. If you’re writing a long post, save it as a draft and come back to it after a few minutes or as long as it takes your brain to forget what you had written.
- Use minimal formatting. Overly formatted posts can also distract from the message and it encourages others to do likewise and you end up with a hard to read thread.
- Put your post in the right category. The right category can be the one that has a relevant category name or it can be a category where this kind of post is often made.
- Use tags. Tags are helpful for others to find keyword related posts. It also helps the site admins get a sense for what topics are popular.
- If you want responses, ask for them. In marketing this is called a ‘call to action’. If you want others to comment, you can encourage them by asking them to do so. If your post is just an FYI then don’t.
- Add an image. Images add visual interest and make your post look great when shared to social networks. You can upload an image (*.png or *.jpg) using the button bar, or you can copy/paste the image from your graphic application. The maximum width of an image in this forum is 714 pixel - if the image is larger, it is automatically resized to fit. As a rule of thumb: scan stamps at 600 dpi, covers at 150 dpi if you want to show them in the forum. In case you want to upload an image for your avatar, the recommended size is 180 x 180 px.
- Want to embed a YouTube video, a Pinterest Pin or a Tweet? Just paste in the link. Vanilla will handle the embedding for you!
- Mention others. Credit other members if you are building off their previous comments or if you want to draw them into the discussion. Put the @ before a username to mention someone. They’ll get notified when you do.
- Take ownership. Most important of all, take ownership of the discussions that you have created. Respond to comments promptly and thoughtfully. Thank others for commenting on your discussion and help with moderation if things get heated.
You might also want to ...
- Use the reactions. These let you share how you feel about other’s comments. The most liked content shows up on the "Best Of" page.
- Update your notification preferences. You’ll receive a notification if someone mentions you or posts to a discussion that you’ve bookmarked. You can set notifications from the Edit Profile page.
- Send private messages. You can private message members by going to your inbox, or visiting their profile page (click their username anywhere).
- Don’t want to see everyone’s signature? You can hide signatures by going to Edit Profile > Signature Settings.
- Check out what’s going on with other community members on the Activity page.
Have fun!