Scratch

Over and over again, the Scratch team has told us: be nice to each other. But how exactly am I supposed to do that and still let everybody know that I'm right and you're wrong? How am I supposed to do that and still stun the world with the brilliance of the ideas which stemmed from my epic mind?

Well, the answer lies in a few of these tips:

Keep an open mind
Suprising as it may be, other members may have things to say that are actually worth reading. Be sure to read their posts while bearing in mind that you might not actually be right, keeping an open mind, and staying that way while responding.

You're not wrong, I just don't like the idea.
You can still let everybody know that you're right, though, while remaining a pleasant person to talk to. Saying "You're wrong about [thing]!" is rather mean and confrontational, while saying "I'm not sure I quite like the idea that [thing]" sounds a lot more polite.

Re-read your posts to establish a tone
Sometime's it's difficult to protray your emotions on the internet. Re-read your posts to make sure it actually sounds like you want to sound. If you're trying to be calm but your posts makes you come off as insane beyond belief, then you'd not be respected very well.

Multiple exclamation marks are annoying. So are capitals.
People generally get the point when somebody puts one or two exclamation marks at the end of a sentence. Putting more than that are unnecessary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All caps CAN ALSO MAKE IT SEEM LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING. If you want to emphasize a word, try italicizing or bolding it - which you can learn how to do here. In The Spirit Of Capitalizing Things Try Not To Type Like This Where Every Letter Is Capitalised Because It Can Be Difficult To Understand What You Are Trying To Say.

You might not know everything
Really ties in with the first point here, which is keeping an open mind. Just keep in mind that you might not actually know everything. To avoid embarassment, typing "I don't think [thing] is true." seems a lot better than "[thing] is not true!" and also redeems you if you ever turn out to be wrong.

If somebody is being rude to you, report the post, don't insult them

Person A: You smell like rat bogeys!
Person B: Your mother smells like rat bogeys! And that's not very nice!

The above conversation is clearly not the right way to handle the situation that occured. If somebody tells you that you smell like rat bogeys, report the post, don't tell them it's not very nice and/or insult them/their mother back. That's why the admins and moderators are appointed as such.

And that's all folks! Until next time!

(PS: I'd really appreciate it if this was stickied)
(PPS: This is different than Lucario621's post in that this is more about having a pleasant conversation [which isn't rude] than communicating your thoughts clearly)

Last edited by coolstuff (2010-05-30 23:07:27)