When creating threads in the Steelers section of the forums

Just a heads up for everyone and to our new members as they join the SA family.

Remember when posting articles about our black and gold keep a few things in mind:

1. Always give credit where it's due, post up the link to the original article so we make sure that the writer/publication gets full credit for their information.

2. Make sure your thread titles are clear and concise. This helps with search engine indexing and helps keeps duplicate threads down.
example: "Steelers Running Back Jerome Bettis should go into the Hall of Fame" is much better than "Bettis should be in hall"

3. Double check and make sure another SA member hasn't already posted it up.

4. If you are posting up an article, use the title of the Article as the title of your thread.

5. Try to comment on the article with some of your own words after posting it up so we know your thoughts on the topic.

6. Put the article as a quote so we know what is part of the article and what is you're own comment.

Carry on and enjoy SA, we're glad to have you onboard! :towel:

ha, at least i'm not quilty of number 4........hell i ain't guilty of any of those cause i always provide a link.....well maybe not always sometimes i'm to lazy to go back and copy and past the link lol. and i rarely post long articles cause i read the article before i post and if it's to long i don't even bother reading the whole thing cause i don't have a long enough attention span for that lol

and i also think you should put the article in quote tags lol.......at least that's what i always do, it makes it look nicer, plus you don't have to double post when you want to comment on the article. my :2cents:

edit: just saw my threads that were closed, it's not my fault ppl were tricking me with different thread titles then the articles lol

Something else to keep in mind as well, when we have a bunch of threads going up we do periodically merge them together so help clean up the forums so if you post up a thread and come back later to find it "missing" it's probably not really but rather has just been merged with another of a similar topic. You can always check by viewing your profile and then click on "find all posts" then you can see where it is. We do try to let you know whenever we merge a thread but sometime we forget so don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions :)

Thought I would bump this thread and have everybody read this. When we post up articles from other websites, take your time and put quotations around the article. That in itself makes the article and thread cleaner and easier to read. Also please, please put the author of that article either at the beginning or at the end of the article to give proper credit to him/her, that way there are no copyright issues we would have to deal with. I am a memeber over at SCI (SteelCityInsiders), I don't post much there but they do have a great staff of writers and members. Not to long ago while going through the forums, there were a few threads on plagiarism that caught my eye. So I went and read them, no specific websites were mentioned but there was a lot of talk about other Steeler sites "stealing" their work. So it is extremely important that the author and a link to that article be included with that article. Thanks everybody for reading this. We as the staff are here to help if there are any questions on how to do something, so please don't hesitate to ask.

Please everyone, reread this thread. Posting up new threads with "guess what" or "I just found out" or "it's being reported" or "Rumor has it" etc. is creating a lot of extra work for the staff.

When you post up a new thread, make the thread subject represent clearly what the thread is about. We merge, edit, and move tons of threads because they are duplicates. You can help us out tremendously by stating clearly what you are posting so someone doesn't make the same thread and we can keep the forums organized and moving fluently for everyone to maximize their time on the site.

We are excited to see so many people participating and contributing to the site with their thoughts and insights as well as the breaking news. We certainly don't want to discourage that, but we wanted to remind everyone how important it is to keep everything as informative as possible. You all do a great job of citing your sources for news, thank you! And on top that, we all have a great time interacting with each other in the threads.

Trust me, you don't need a "catchy" title to get people to read it. We are a premier Steelers fan site, we get a TON of traffic every day! People depend on us to report reliable Steelers news and we do a great job of that, thanks in no small part to you all :) . People will read what you post. It's Steelers news after all so it's automatically important. :tt02:

Thanks everyone! :yellowthumb:

:bump:

I wanted to emphasize how important it is to make sure that you post up the appropriate links whenever making a new thread especially, but also in your posts.

Our social networking presence is predicated greatly (but not completely) off this section of the forums so we need to be aware of how we present our information. For example, our android app pulls new threads out of this section to post up into the app so we need to make sure they are as clear, concise, and as organized as possible. Another example is that all of the threads on the homepage scrolling news section come from here so the more informative they can be, the better. Now this doesn't mean you have to go overboard or stress about how to make a thread, just be aware of how your news and information is viewed to others.

Please, Please use proper capitalization and punctuation when making thread titles as well as in your threads. It helps the search engines better index our topics. Be sure to be complete and thorough in your thread titles.

Any questions please drop me a PM.

Thank you all for being the best forum members, friends, and Steeler fans of any site I've every had the pleasure to be a part of. :towelwave: