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Zemblanity Insomnia Captain
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 Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 11:09 pm
Yes, it's good to be able to type up a post, but there are some guideline to follow when it comes out to actually posting. Gaia here provides you with beautiful little tools that will help you make your post prettier, more readable, but at the same time, can make people wanting to slam your head against a brick wall if you do it wrong.
This guide should help you create pretty, readable post, make your life easier and make everyone around you like you more. Basically, it's like taking a shower after you fell inside the sewers.
Table of content
1. Introduction
2. Basic Posts
3. Font
4. Images, quoting, etc.
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Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 11:29 pm
The Basic Post
Size:
You find your post to be a bit short, so you think to yourself "Well, if the letter are bigger, then the post will be longer!" so it should be all good, right? Wrong. The default size of Gaia is a size 12. Nothing should ever be written any bigger than that. You heard me? Here, I'll type it once more in bold. Nothing should ever be over size 12. Is that clear? Yes? Good. Larger size are reserved for announcements or titles or things like that, not for basic posts.
So, now you must understand that you should just always write at the default size, right? Wrong again! Size 12 is good, but is far from being the best. Size 9, 10 or 11 are the best. I personally prefer to write in size 10, but it's up to you. However, keep in mind that nothing should ever be written smaller than size 9. Smaller than that just makes it hard to read. In fact, I find size 9 a bit too small myself, but it's still a generally accepted size, so I won't complain if you us it.
Alignment:
Ah! The joy to be able to shove all you text left, right or centre it in the middles. This one will be pretty straightforward. The default one on Gaia is align=left, and frankly, why would you want to change it? Things being aligned to the left stays simple while being..."Professional" for the lack of better words. However, if you want to be a little bit fancy, you can do align=center. It gives a certain feel to your posts if you feel like it, while not being annoying. However, never, never NEVER aligned your post to the right. It just makes it a confusing b***h. So, be nice, and stick with the traditional for this one.
Colours:
Colours are a great way to make your posts look a bit more personal, but there are some guidelines to follow there too!
First of all, it's good to make everyone of your character linked to one colour. For exemple, my Keith = Teal, Neil = Green, Freja = Mediumpurple, Alanis = Palevioletred etc, etc, etc. Here is a list of colours you can use. I know, I'm too generous.
All in all, 1 colour per characters. Every character should have a different colour. It helps people tell them apart. If all your post is one colour, it can get somewhat confusing. Yet, 1 colour post for multiple characters is better than multiple colours for 1 character. That would just be... weird.
But how do you use those colours, you might ask? (Seriously, do ask) Well, it's pretty simple.
1. You colour only the speech of the character. This is, probably, the best way to do it. That way, you can see in one glance who's saying what. It also gives, in a way, a 'voice' to your character. Like Peri would say "I didn't say that! It was written in teal, not in orange!"
2. You make the whole post a colour. Now... This is a bit more complicated. If you only are only controlling one character in that post, sure, go ahead and used it. However, to use this properly when you are controlling more than one, you will need to change paragraph every time you switch characters, changing the colour at the same time. Only do this if you really feel confident.
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Zemblanity Insomnia Captain
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Zemblanity Insomnia Captain
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Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2011 11:35 pm
Font
There is three different possible font. Bold, Italic and Underline. Everyone of those have a different use that shouldn't be confused.
Bold:
What is bold? This is bold. Heavy print letters. Bold isn't there just for show, it exists for a reason and should only be used for that reason only. You will bold something when you want to bring emphasis on a certain word, usually something important.
You can also use it to mark a character speech. I, for one, like to bold all my characters speeches, to make them come out more. However, don't feel obligated to do it. If speeches are typed normally, when you use bold in them, it will show that they are pressing a certain word. Whatever you choose, you should always (see what I did there? Emphasis!) stick with it and not change style midway. This will bring confusion.
Italic:
What is italic? This is Italic. Like for bold, it exist for a reason and should only be used for that reason. You use italic for various reasons.
1. To show your characters inner thoughts
2. To had sarcasm or emphasis (less than bold) to a word
3. When speaking a different language.
4. When reference to the title of a book/movie/article, etc.
5. To show that something had been written in cursives.
That should be the only time you post in italic. Pretty easy.
Underline:
What is underline? This is underline. This is the less used of the three, but it shouldn't be used carelessly for that. It is used to bring attention to something, to give it some importance. This is different than emphasis, the difference is subtle, so be careful.
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Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2011 12:00 am
Images and Quoting
Also known as 'How To Annoy Me The Most'
Images
Back in the days, when I was but a little nobody on Gaia, Images were a big no-no. Nowadays, time have changed and people stick images everywhere. This is a double edge sword. Yes, it can make a post pretty, give you an idea of who you are talking to, etc, etc, BUT they are also my biggest pet peeve if not done properly.
This will not explain you how to do advance coding to make a post pretty using picture. No, this will tell you what to and what not to do with an image when you basically just have that, an image.
First of all, for the love of God, the Goddess, Zeus, Satan or whoever you are praying too, do not, I repeat, DO NOT make your images large. Never, ever do that. If you want me to hate you, stick a large image somewhere in your post. Images in a post should stay relatively small. Your image is to big you say? But you really want to use it? You have no idea how to shrink it? Make yourself a Photobucket account. It's free, it's easy, it stores picture for you. You should already have one anyway. It will resize and crop pictures for you.
Oh yeah, cropping. That's even better. Crop the face of your character in beautiful little square (PB will do it for you once again) and only use that at the top-center of your post. Easiest way to go while still using pictures and making everyone love you. If possible, make every picture the same size. If not, I wont yell at you for I am guilty of not doing it (which I should take the time to do) but other, meaner people will.
If you really want to use a longer picture than just a cropped face, you should still resize it to an acceptable size and align it to the left or right or your post. This will stop your post for stretching for nothing.
Really, please, do it.
Quoting:
Now, I will be direct here.... Why the hell are you quoting? If you aren't even able to tell who your character is interacting with, you are having a problem RPing and should ask for help in this forum to improve yoru RP skills. That being said, no quoting.
Well... I lied. There IS one exception. One tiny, itsy, bitsy exception.
This is, when you are replying to a post that happened SEVERAL pages back. Not one, not two, not even three. Many, many pages ago. This will help whoever you are RPing with to remember what they wrote. This can happen when someone is away for a while and other people were rping on the same thread as you.
That being said, if I catch you quoting people for no good reason, I will be severely angry. In fact, I will be so pissed at you, I will bother Serendipity Coma with 10 minutes rants on you. Now, you don't want that poor girl to suffer because of you, don't you? No? Good, then don't quote and everybody will be happy.
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Zemblanity Insomnia Captain
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