Can they see it? Give your post the attention it deserves!
Have a question no one is answering? Struggling to keep interest with a large post? Here are some tips to help you on your way!
I originally put this up on EUW boards where it was appreciated and since the NA boards are more popular, I felt it would be useful to put here also. I apologize for any incorrect English (US) spelling errors as I wrote in English (UK), I have tried to fix any of these errors :)
Thumbnails
Thumbnails are the book covers of your post. They are there to draw you in, grab your attention, and can encourage you to click on the post.
Your thumbnail is generally the first visible image on your post, but it does not have to be visible! You can ‘hide’ an image from your post by typing [](-image URL-) at the very beginning of the post. This causes the image to appear as your thumbnail without actually appearing on the post itself.
Titles
If the title is not interesting, how is the post going to be? When choosing a title, you need to explain the post but also be interesting. Remember that people will have no idea what your post is about, aside from what they see in the title and thumbnail, if you use one! For your title you should try to summarise your post, but keep it interesting!
For example, you could have a title saying
“I died to Warwick, he is too strong, please Nerf”
And not get that much interest, or you could say
“A bad dog with a nasty bite! Warwick is too strong”
Having a more interesting title whilst still explaining the post is about Warwick’s strength.
Legibility
- Spelling
Please read over your post to check for spelling mistakes, an occasional typing error is ok, but if your post is overrun with spelling errors, it just diminishes the whole post, and can also make it difficult to read.
Common mistakes:
- Your = Your passive heals you
- You’re = You are an Ahri main
- Their = Their blue buff
- They’re = They are taking dragon
- It’s = It is our chance to take Baron whilst they are dead
- Its = Look at that board, click its link!
- Break up the post
If your post is just a wall of text that goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, it will eventually lose its viewers interest. So if your post, like this one, is fairly large; split it up a bit more by using things such as:
- Indenting
- Bullet pointing
- Using quotes
- Using pictures
- Line Separation
Doing this can make your post more manageable to read, and can allow larger posts to be read much quicker.
- Emphasise your Points!
A great way to intensify and draw attention to your post is through the use of formatting, especially Bold and Italics. It lets you express when you really mean something, and can help you to get your point across.
When to use bold and Italics:
- Bold
- for drawing attention to keywords and quotes
- Italics
- for conveying emotions and feelings
Be sure to use them in moderation though, overusing these will cause confusion to the reader, and make them stop reading.
- Engage in the Reader
Do you feel involved in this post?
Now that there is a question for you, do you feel more involved?
Asking questions, even rhetorical questions, engages the reader and makes them think about what you are asking and the point you are trying to put across.
You can also throw in some clever puns or jokes if you wish, just to engage with the reader, and don’t worry if they are awful puns, Rammus will think they are “Ok.”
[zombie-brand-facepalm]
Again, this is not something you want to overuse, as overusing it takes away from the actual point in the post.
- Clutter
Clutter, for example:
Big Words
Bigger Words
Smaller Words
|Tables---|Ahhh| |- |Help|Please| |TOO|MUCH|
BOLD ITALICS STRIKETHROUGH
- Bullet Points
- Icon Spam
Be careful not to bombard the post by spamming all these things. Yes, you want your post to be read, but the reader cannot do this if the post is so cluttered that they cannot tell what is going on.
Having extra things to help your post become more interesting is great, but too much just causes a distraction.
It is good practice to skim over the preview of your post, and if you can easily do that, you should be good to go.
http://i.imgur.com/WmgxVcp.jpg
- Vocabulary
Not everyone’s first language is English, and not everyone knows the entirety of the English language, and certain phrases do not make sense to many where their “mother-tongue” is not English. It is good to bear this in mind when writing posts.
e.g.
Scintillating, scinti-what-ing? – It is doubtful the majority of the people would know what you were meaning, if you were to use a word like that.
or
“It’s raining cats and dogs”, where in French, for example, they are most likely to say “il pleut des cordes”, which translates as “it is raining ropes”
Keeping your post at a level in which it is understandable by most will allow you to get the most out of your post.
Useful Links
Boards Formatting: Make Your Point Heard! by me :) (NA Boards)
How to: Boards Formatting by TheLUCKYfighter, one of the brilliant volunteers. :) (EUW/EUNE boards)
Both boards cover formatting, with different explanations, and both contain some information that the other does not, feel free to check them out.
