Want to get more views on Triond? Want to make friends and keep them? Here are a few little tips to make sure you won’t offend, irritate or generally get on the wrong side of anyone else. I am not writing this for anyone in particular, so don’t take it personally! These are based on observations I’ve made of other users in the years I’ve been here.

The Forum

A lot of new writers seem to be starting with the forum, and plenty of us within the community have bee using it to boost views, however, for many users this is their first experience with using such a site. What to do? Here are the two golden rules of forum use.

Forum rule one: Spammers out!

Users wise up to “check out blah blah blah” pretty quickly, although this may seem like a really easy way to clock up views and you may get a few, in the long run you’ll put off more users than you attract. Posting links is fine if you have a topic which is REALLY relevant to the topic, or in a topic that invites links, something asking about your best article or a any other sharing thread is fine. (PS, “thread” is net-geek speak for a topic on the forum, for those who don’t know, think of it as a conversation. “Forum” generally refers to the message board as a whole or to one of the sub categories.) Otherwise, talk to people rather than just throwing links at them! If you’re really proud of a particular piece and want a critique, that would be acceptable too, provided you word it well and don’t try to persuade people to read everything you’ve written!

Forum rule two: If you can’t be nice, be good.

In any community you’ll come up against people with views that jar against your own, and though it’s fine to agree to disagree, try not to get into an argument! The world is full of different people, that’s what makes life interesting, so try your hardest to be tolerant of every religion, gender identification, sexuality, race, and view. Since Triond is a community for all ages, try to keep language PG rated (believe it or not, I swear like a marine in the outside world!) You will also occasionally come across people who like to stir things up, cause arguments, or just plain pick at people, in net-speak folks call them trolls. My advice would be, try to stay out of their way, unless they launch an attack on you personally. Standing up for friends is fine, but slagging matches are not a good idea.

Private Messaging and Friends

Private messages are a great way to bring conversations out of the forum and get to know people better. They are not for pestering people into viewing your content, or into adding you as a friend. Telling someone that you’ve added them is fine, as is telling them that you liked their work or comment in the forum, but be careful how you phrase it! Saying “Hi I really like your work so I added you as a friend, it’d be great if you look at mine” is likely to make you popular, but saying “I added you, add me back please” sounds demanding and is more likely to annoy someone so they’ll just ignore you. Friending without messaging is also fine, only a foolish user would be annoyed at that, but don’t be put out if they don’t add you back immediately. Some users don’t regularly check their fans list, others will only add users whose work they really enjoy to keep up with their work. Some popular users will probably get scores of new fans every day, so don’t take it personally if a popular user does not return the favour straight away.

Content and Comments

Commenting on another’s work can be a great way of getting their attention, but again there’s a good and a bad way of going about this. As with the forum, spamming is a no-no, you can’t simply post a comment saying “nice article, read mine”, this simply suggests that you haven’t read it and that you’re flicking through pieces at random copying and pasting the same message into it. Write comments that actually reflect the content as it shows the writer, and fellow readers that you actually pay attention to their work. I’ve had a lot of lovely comments but also some that really don’t fit the work, for example, reviews with “good info” despite a review being my opinion, or even a simple “nice”. For long articles, it doesn’t take much for a writer to check their “my content” list and compare the number of comments and “I likes” with the number of page views! The same goes for social networking sites like Stumble Upon, if someone sends you a link, don’t automatically stumble it without reading it, you have no idea what it is! Nor should you just stick a comment on every new piece a user adds. Commenting on tips for the use of a gadget you don’t own is pointless, unless of course you want to commend the quality of the writing or something similar.

Writing a good comment is something of an art form, the best comments will pick up something particular about the piece, maybe a detail or even just the general tone, commend good features and suggest grounds for improvement if you feel it necessary. All creative communities have trouble with “bad” comments, so don’t worry! Over on deviantart there are some users have started to campaign for better comments rather than “lol nice”! Basically if you don’t have something to say, don’t comment! One good comment is more likely to gain attention than ten boring ones! An “I like” won’t get you any more views, but is a good way to say you enjoyed the piece without clogging up a writer’s inbox with identikit comments. That’s not to say don’t comment, just comment wisely! Remember, you can always tell a user you like their work on the forum or in a message.

And that’s it! Hopefully you’ll find these tips helpful. Try to keep to these as much as possible and let’s build up the community we have here.