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How To Get Members Reading and Responding To Your Threads

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anthony

Founder
It has been asked of me many a times in private messages to respond to a thread, or post, because nobody responded. Well, the moment I generally look at the created thread or post, I already know why, because the member lost me the moment I tried to start reading the thing. This is not just me, trust me on that, as I get plenty of conversations about this issue, so I am posting this in order to solve the problem for members who wonder why?

Now, before anyone gets offended, this is not a MUST, it is a suggestion if you want people to read your threads and posts, and actually increase responses because they could read them, not get more confused. You have to remember, you are presenting information to other sufferers of PTSD, and if you have concentration problems yourself, guess what? So do others!

Spelling and Grammar

Spelling and grammar is a big thing, especially if the entire thread just cannot be logically read with ease. Now, you DO NOT need to be an expert in this, because the new [DLMURL="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/"]Firefox browser[/DLMURL] includes spell check, that includes as you type in your post or thread, spell check is at work underlining possible misspelt words in red, just like what happens if you use Microsoft Word, same thing. You can even simply right click your mouse button and select to check the spelling within the field your entering text. The odd spelling mistake is one thing, every second word another.

Now, part of grammar is breaking your text into legible paragraphs, that means that a few sentences, pause by breaking twice, with a clear gap between paragraphs, just like this very post, as it allows the reader to pause and break as they read. Guess what? How many people with PTSD struggle to read long long paragraphs? Just about every single one. If you want to walk away and come back to what your reading, the brain will generally read a paragraph, then be easily able to recognise where it left off.

Grammar also includes correctly capitalizing the first letter of every sentence, placing a full stop at the end of a sentence, commas where they need to be, not using them as full stops, or separators within your entire posts. This very post is an example of how to get people reading your posts and threads, and actually giving them the ability to read it structurally, not get the shits trying to read it and give up, thus no / little response.

Emoticons

Emoticons (smilies) have a purpose, to provide an emotion at key times within your posts. Amazingly enough, when you put them in for silly reasons, or just because you like them, they tend to breakup your paragraphs, thus making it more difficult for a person with PTSD to read what your saying, hence very few members pay further attention to reply. The more crap such as emoticons you put within your posts, the more the user becomes distracted from reading, and again the brain focuses on the image that is moving about. Leave them out, readers don't get distracted, so they respond to your posts with less effort.

Summary

Now, there are lots more examples I could give in order to help readability of your threads and posts, but I think the basics is enough. This is not a dig at anyone, nor is it compulsory to do, it is your choice and my suggestions to members on how you can improve responses to your posts, thus you get more reception, more ideas bouncing towards you, more insight to help you, not just blank or one post response.

Have a look at my own responses, and others here, and see how many posts respond to poorly written posts and threads, or such posts where there is no pause, just one long continuous sentence or paragraph. You won't often see my responses on them, that is for sure, because I just don't bother reading most of them, as they are difficult to read at the best of times.

This is only my opinion, use it if you want, don't if you want, no difference to me, only you the person posting and how much feedback you're likely to receive.
 
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