OFPEC Forum posting guidelines

OFPEC is a pretty informative place, and we like it that way. It wasn't always like this, and over the years we've created a few guidelines to help maintain the consistency of quality within the forums.

Consecutive Posting

Picture the scene: you just made a post on the boards outlining an editing problem you encountered. Then, you go back into the mission editor and discover something else about the problem. Coming back to your forum thread a couple of minutes later, you want to add the new information you discovered. If no-one has replied to your post, this is when you should use the 'Modify' feature, to edit your post.

The one exception to this is when the first post you made was 3 or so days back, and no-one has replied since. We call this 'bumping' a thread, as the new reply to a thread bumps it up to the top of the board. This happens very rarely, as OFPEC is a thriving place and practically all threads get answered within hours - if not minutes.

Duplicate Posting

Picture the scene: you just made a post on the General Editing and Scripting board, and suddenly you realise that it's a question about a multiplayer mission you're making. Since OFPEC has a Multiplayer Editing and Scripting board, you decide your question needs to be on that board instead. This is when you should use the 'Report to Moderator' function to let the mods know you've posted in the wrong place and would like your thread moved to a more appropriate board, rather than making a copy of the same post in another board.

Remember: one question, one thread, preferrably on the right board. The forum board structure has been developed and refined over the years, so it should offer you a pretty good idea of where your question best fits. If in doubt, ask a moderator.

Previous Post Quoting

Picture the scene: you just came back to the site after a week, and you're reading a new thread which is 20 posts long. You read something in post 2 which you want to respond to. This is when you should use the 'Quote' feature, to make your reply specific to that post. More than this, you should only quote the part of the post to which you are replying - don't quote the whole post.

If you are simply adding a reply to the thread, there is no need to use the quote feature. Quoting the post previous to yours is a waste of screen space, not to mention bandwidth which has to be paid for.

As ever, there may well be exceptions to the above guidelines, and in these cases the moderators will make the final call.

These three simple guidelines have helped OFPEC become the clear source of information it has become reknowned for over the years. Help us to maintain this reputation, and bear them in mind as you make your contribution to the community.