How NOT to post new topics

[froot]

For me this issue, which only applies to a handful of members here, has been a bit like mowing the lawn, I put it off again and again and the problem becomes more and more of a nuisance. I have updated the forum guidelines, point no. 5 to be exact, and there you'll see where this is going. I've had to update the guidelines because this particular point wasn't explained properly, and some could argue that the reason for the issue I have is because of this. I don't think so, I reckon something like this should be common sense but anyway, I vent...

I can't speak for anybody else but when I'm browsing the forums every now and then I find a good topic with a good heading posted by someone who actually took the time and put some thought into into his/her starting post. Don't you find that 100% of the time when you encounter a topic with a decent heading the content is worth reading? Then I continue browsing and find a topic with the heading "Help" and that's it, just "Help" and nothing else. Another personal favourite is a topic heading consisting of the first part of a question followed by .... (eg. "How much...." or "what 2 do...") and the post completes the question. You'll find gems like these all over the forums and it's bringing the board's quality down. Topics with headings like these switch me off even before I open them (if I decide to) and generally my eagerness to assist or contribute simply evapourates. If your name is "Dude" or "Chick", then maybe I'd understand but your parents put some thought into naming you and considering the topics you post are yours, it's a bit negligent to everyone else here and yourself achieving your objective by giving them cr@p headings.

On average I find that badly written topics are the products of lazy numnuts who couldn't be bothered with reading the forum rules (which incidently are now linked from the registration welcome email) and many of these seem to be youngsters, which is scary. They are generally repeated topics, and they are always questions answered elsewhere on the board, many of which are so unrefined and wide open I could park a bus sideways in them. If you find yourself in a swamp of nostalgia after reading the above then remember, you obviously managed to register which means you are perfectly literate, no excuse, play the game like everyone else does.

Give yourself a little respectability and put some thought into your topic by:

SEARCHING FIRST.
Not posting it if it has already been posted.
Giving it a heading that distinguishes it from similar topics.
Giving it a heading that makes us want to open and read it.
Giving it a heading that accurately relates to the content.

You'll find some topic headings with text in [ ] where one of us have pimped peoples topics up a bit so that people would want to read them. Some of the forums for instance 'Bearded dragons' and 'Leopard geckos' are basically a writeoff with regards to quality and would need a serious time consuming rehabilitation on our part. We (all of us) do not want to lose contributing members put off by sloppy conduct, and us as mods do not want to give people a hard time but we need to draw a line somewhere.
We have settings that selectively limit people's posting permissions but we don't want to use them, so please, heads up!