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Simple tips for better Forumbuildr submissions
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Since I have a few of the top Thread Title submissions for this week’s Forumbuildr, I obviously know everything there is to know about making good submissions, and therefore shall deign to instruct you on how to be better.
Or, y’know, I could have just gone through four-hundred-and-****ing-fifty submissions and be ranting about stupid mistakes I see over and over again that turn ideas I’d like to upvote into stuff I end up downvoting. Take your pick. Tip #1: Spellcheck, goddamnit. I realize that actual typing on the Internet is filled with misspellings, grammar errors, and mistypes. But throwing those into the description of a forum you’re submitting just makes it look like you don’t know what you’re talking about. And with Crotch Zombie using the UNINTELLIGENCER on submissions, intentional misspellings are going to be redundant. Tip #2: You can Preview your submission. Despite the rumors, it does not actually send electric shocks through your keyboard. You can have the most brilliant idea ever, but if the word_type entries and modifiers are mistyped, no one is going to vote for it. Previewing your submission not only allows you to double-check your spelling and grammar, it also allows you to see whether your word_type results work the way you intend them to. Tip #3: Keep Madlib entries consistent with the rest of the submission. If your ‘typical post’ is in all caps, make sure the word_type entry has ::up after it so that it’ll be in all caps, too. If your ‘thread title’ has every word capitalized, add ::cap after the word_type so every word in it will be capitalized as well. Otherwise, it looks broken and wrong. Also: every time you preview, the word_type entries will be re-generated. You may want to preview a few times in a row just to make sure that the random words that come up match the grammar of the sentence they’re in. Tip #4: Be random, but not too random. Having a couple of word_types in a submission keeps the item fresh. Having a dozen or two word_types in a submission creates problems. Since the initial impression is based on the text you typed (as opposed to the smaller example which gives the output), having a lot of word_types will make it harder for the voter to understand what the hell you’re trying to say. In addition, having a lot of your message come out random often pushes you past ‘amusingly inappropriate’ and into ‘incoherent gibberish’. Tip #5: @# gives you a number from 1-10; @random_number gives you a number from 0-9. If you don’t want 10 to show up as a possibility, use the latter; if you don’t want 0 to show up as a possibility, use the former. MC Banhammer edit: To generate a single-digit random number in a range, use this format: @#::2-4 [will generate 2, 3, or 4] Tip #6: Keep the Forum in mind. Yeah, sure, “SUCK MY NECROTIC male reproductive organ” is a good general Angry Reply, and fits in any forum. And will probably be posted repeatedly in response to this rant. But generic responses don’t generally get a lot of positive votes, especially when compared to responses tailored to the forum you’re submitting to. And in this case, it wouldn’t even take much work to modify it to fit- if you were making a reply for BoobTube, just change it to “I am attaching a link to a video I have uploaded in which I tell you to suck my necrotic male reproductive organ. Please watch it.” Tip #7: Don’t submit something that’s already covered by an existing forum. We already have forums about YouTube, and about conspiracy theories, and about MMORPGs, and about Republicans, and about Furries. Original, untouched subjects will always get more attention than yet another bashing of something that’s already in the game. Thank you for your time. Please add in your own tips on what makes a submission ‘good’, or what simple mistakes immediately mark it as ‘bad’. Or just flame me, I don’t care. Escher edited this message on 03/10/2008 2:17PM |
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| Posted On: 03/05/2008 1:28AM |
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View Escher's Profile
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SUCK MY NECROTIC male reproductive organ!
Just kidding.
Just wanted to add that the UNINTELLIGENCER will sometimes randomly capitalize things, so all-caps is going to be slightly redundant as well.
It’d be nice to have the option of specifying the chance if it being entered in all caps – 0%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%? Some posts wouldn’t be really fitting in all caps – like this one, FOR INSTANCE. |
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| Posted On: 03/05/2008 1:36AM |
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View Corion's Profile
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Great post Escher — it should be a sticky Log in to see images!
I can’t agree more with what you have said about staying on topic and spell checking. |
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| Posted On: 03/05/2008 4:54PM |
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View jpsteel's Profile
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escher Posted:
Oh hell yes. I’ve been trying to vote, but my eyebleeding headache from all the wall-o-modifiers has me taking a break. |
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| Posted On: 03/05/2008 8:42PM |
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View scully's Profile
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I agree that all these suggestions are fantastic and am going to sticky this thread.
I’d also like to say that people shouldn’t force in word types if they don’t fit. Some of the funniest posts I have ever seen in ForumBuildr were done without word types. If a word type is not going to fit in with the tone of the sentence, leave it out.
Having said that, sometimes I think, wow, that post could have used some more randomness. |
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| Posted On: 03/05/2008 8:48PM |
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View Evil Trout's Profile
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Wow, awesome! And thank you for all of the nice replies! Log in to see images! |
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| Posted On: 03/05/2008 8:58PM |
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View Escher's Profile
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Yay, sticky!
BTW Escher’s excellent tips are by no means a ticket to getting votes. You still need a good idea for upvotes – Escher’s tips are more like pitfalls you should avoid if you don’t want your awesome submission getting canned mysteriously. |
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| Posted On: 03/05/2008 9:19PM |
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View Skyreal's Profile
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Also, it should be noted that everyone is really, really tired of 4chan and YTMND parodies. Come up with something original, for gods sake. |
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| Posted On: 03/05/2008 9:20PM |
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View SirIsaac's Profile
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SirIsaac Posted:
Yes. 4chan is a big enough deal that it’s probably coming into play later; don’t submit it 4,000 times.
On a side note, I sometimes feel bad voting down forum ideas, because some of them are really funny but I just don’t think there’s enough there to build a forum around. |
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| Posted On: 03/05/2008 11:24PM |
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View ravenblooDDarkdr...'s Profile
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Great post! My pants are as sticky as this thread! Log in to see images!
I would also say, make sure your submission isn’t so good that someone else steals it, because they’ll get all the upvotes and people will think YOU’RE the thief, and vote you down.
Just kidding. I think we should add “Suck my necrotic @male reproductive organ” to Denture Chat, though! |
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| Posted On: 03/09/2008 10:06PM |
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View Jalapeno Bootyho...'s Profile
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SirIsaac Posted:
On that note, another simple suggestion:
Tip #7: Don’t sumbit something that’s already covered by an existing forum. We already have forums about YouTube, and about conspiracy theories, and about MMORPGs, and about Republicans, and about Furries. Original, untouched subjects will always get more attention than yet another bashing of something that’s already in the game.
And thank you again for the kind words! (And if “suck my necrotic @male reproductive organ” ends up in Denture Chat, I may well explode with delight.) |
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| Posted On: 03/09/2008 11:08PM |
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Since this thread is stickied, you might as well add the new tips to the original post to make it easier for newcomers to see the whole list of tips. |
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| Posted On: 03/10/2008 1:04PM |
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View Skyreal's Profile
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Good point. Done. |
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| Posted On: 03/10/2008 2:17PM |
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SUCK MY NECROTIC male reproductive organ |
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| Posted On: 03/10/2008 2:41PM |
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View Galanodel's Profile
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Good tips; everyone should read this. |
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| Posted On: 03/10/2008 9:33PM |
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View maddsurgeon's Profile
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Escher Posted:
I think people should err on the side of including more word types. If an entry has no word types, it’s only funny once; if it has lots of word types, it’s potentially funny in many different ways. Tonight I did vote up an entry that had only one word type, but only because I thought it was hilarious, and I still feel kinda guilty about it.
Sometimes I’m tempted to take someone’s entry and re-submit it with the words replaced by word types…but that would probably be wrong. Log in to see images! Still, I feel bad because some of these entries would be awesome if they just had more word types… |
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| Posted On: 03/10/2008 9:33PM |
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View Listen2Reason's Profile
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You can help! Check out the WORD TYPE suggestion thread! It’s the other sticky thread in this forum. Log in to see images! |
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| Posted On: 03/10/2008 10:33PM |
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View Skyreal's Profile
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Listen2Reason Posted:
I disagree. If something’s funny, it’s funny. Everything gets old after a while, and cluttering an entry up with too many word types makes it really funny once in a while, and an irrational mess nine times out of ten. Word types should be used in moderation. Comedy is often in the details; choosing the best word for your specific joke.
Then again, I never really found MadLibs funny anyway…
If there’s a problem with repetition, why don’t they just have a larger pool of random jokes to pull from? |
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| Posted On: 03/11/2008 1:50PM |
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Listen2Reason Posted: |
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| Posted On: 03/12/2008 9:20AM |
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View ravenblooDDarkdr...'s Profile
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On How To Change The Horizontal-Vertical Ratio Of Your Image So It Fits The Size Of The Image Logo
1) Don’t. 2) Seriously, it looks horrible.
That goes for all elements -inside- the logo image as well. |
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| Posted On: 03/23/2008 11:45PM |
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