FAQ on how to use the forums?
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Is there a tip sheet or FAQ on how to optimize use of the forums? I'm new-and LOVING the discussion here, and curious about reputation and posting frequency.
newbie thanks,
Susan -
@susan-marks As a veteran to many forums, this is the best of all and works wonderfully because it has no rules and no expectations! Think of it as a world-wide studio where many artists work together side-by-side, or a large gathering of creative mind over coffee and cake or beer or wine and cheese....watherver works best for you as informal gathering ;-). You can post as little or as much as you want, whenever you want, about whichever topic crosses your mind (even if it´s only loosely related to art), post work at any stage if you want people to critique, comment or give suggestions.
It´s just like a group of friends, really. I feel many people here have become real friends. It´s a safe, respectful and productive place....so I guess the only rule there is is to keep it that way! -
Be respectful
Be helpful
Provide constructive criticism
Be friendly
Don't be afraid to post your own work
Remind to say thanks to @Chip-Valecek for making the slideshows
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Hi Susan, and welcome! I am a new joiner too and it took me a little why to understand how the forum works (still not totally sure about the privacy settings). You can find more information about the reputation of someone when you click on a profile. You can also follow the interactions of the members you are interested in. I don't think there is a ranking for top members / most active posters but I don't think it is really useful. As smceccarelli said, it is a very nice and helpful community with a lot of various topics being discussed. I hope it answers your question. Have fun!
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@gary-wilkinson LOL
@Susan-Marks I have one rule and it must be followed at all times, that is to just have fun and share your art
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@smceccarelli
thanks all--I hate when I don't make my question specific enough.- What are reputation points and how to you earn them? (I couldn't write a post for 300 seconds because I hadn't earned enough reputation points-i'm guessing that this is to avoid cluttering up the space with short bursty-kind of replies?)
- Now I'm getting "you can only post every 120 seconds?" is this always true? I tend to come into a forum, read a lot and like to reply...more than once every 120 seconds. How do others manage this?
- How to you "upvote" things-and what does that accomplish?
I was a veteran of the Ravelry (knitting) community-they have a fabulous social media/forum, pattern database, etc. It spoiled me for a well-run forum platform-there are many similar things in SVS that I love, like threaded conversations and deeper meaningful community involvement. I'm trying to figure out the technical aspects of this. I will brave up soon and post some drawings.
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@chip-valecek
Do tell: what are the slideshows??? -
@susan-marks The upvote is that little carrot next to the "quote" on the right side of the post. When you click an upvote, that basically means either, "I agree with your point," "I like this painting/drawing," or "Thanks for responding to my post/painting/drawing." I don't think I've ever seen anyone use the downvote. The people on the forum mostly abide by "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."
I believe a reputation is based on how many upvotes you get, though I'm not really sure. I don't know if the delay in sending rapid fire posts has anything to do with reputation or not. If it does, I guess I don't have a good enough reputation either because I have to wait a few seconds between posts.
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@susan-marks Hi Susan! I have never gotten the "not enough reputation points" message, but I think the reason we can only post every 120 seconds is that there was a problem a while back with spammers on the boards. (If I am remembering that right!) It is frustrating sometimes!
I have never understood how the reputation points work!
Glad you're here--welcome! -
@susan-marks I help moderate the forums here. I make sure everything is up to date and running smoothly. I also create a slideshow each month of all of the contest submissions. You can see last months here http://cshellmedia.com/clients/svs/ as well as all the archives on the side. I didn't know about the 120 second rule I can look into that if that is an issue. But you are the first to bring it to attention. As far as reputation points everytime someone upvotes your one of your posts you will get a point. It really doesn't mean anything. There are a few of us that are on here a lot and for many years. People have come and gone and some come back because they miss us.
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I’ve run into the 120 second rule. I like it. I think it reduces the tendency to spam, as @Eli mentioned. It forces people to be more thoughtful, too, I think. I’ve never even heard of the reputation points before. I’ve just treated the upvote as a like or dislike button.
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@chip-valecek Thanks--and I'll let you know if I get the "reputation" message again. I saw it a couple of times initially while trying to post too quickly-but I haven't seen it in a while.
I appreciate that we all don't want spammers!
And I also appreciate that the culture seems not to create lots of "that's great" messages-instead favoring thoughtful "that's great because....", and uses the upvotes (caret) to imply "agree/great".
