LDS - Thread Guide!

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This is not a follow up or copy of Fixxer's Community Guide. This is purely an extended explanation on presentation with regards to threads.
Hello!
If you're reading this, that means you have successfully made a C16 account, and no one in the right mind would make a C16 account without the intent of advertising their community! So, with that being said, you are now well on your way to writing a thread. For prime example of how not to write a thread, take a look at my very first post ever on C16.

Spoiler

Hey guys, I'm the owner of the Rapture Roleplay. A very small and new community. Right now our gamemode is on an 18 Slot Server and is on a very shoddy custom New Vegas Schematic, edited to be an attempted GTA Roleplay
I know, I know, DARKRP CLONE!
Calm tits, it's not like that at all.

We use lore from GTA 3, so the Leone Family, N.O.O.S.E, LCPD, Luigi's Sex Shop, Salvatore's Gentleman's Club, ect, and unlike it's supposed counterpart of DarkRP, it's all serious and on a gamemode made for Serious RP.

We're currently thinking of going into a very seemingly boring but interesting idea of Office type RP, it would be opening a lot of opportunities for RP, both passive and interactive. The company would be a game development company and the map would be on cs_office, meaning the players wouldn't have to go far to get the map at all, just the content, which wouldn't be much. This would eliminate any chance for things such as OP Characters, factions and boring and unincluding RP, because everyone would be apart of one thing. (Asides from security guards)
This in itself would allow a lot more of a social thing to go on, characters would develop as they go through the stress of being stuck in a game dev office and get along with their co workers.
Now, you could say that this is boring and uninteresting, but if that's how you feel, there's always plenty of other generic HL2RP and FONV Servers abound for you, quite a lot of them are really good and will offer you great experiences, but for a more relaxed, slow paced Roleplay, OfficeRP is an idea we have.

Anyways, back to GTA RP.

As I said, it's a custom edited NV RP, but it looks nice, the whitelists are all edited and there's not a trace of fallout in it asides from the loading screen. The map is on Freemancity, which has plenty of personal living space which can be furnished by yourself with request of temporary pet flags. There's plenty of opportunities to mug to get by, steal cars, join the Leone or maybe the Police force. Maybe work at the bank, or as a black market dealer. All of this without the F4 Screen that we all know and despise so much.

We use P2L System, like most RP Servers nowadays, but in cases such as sniping, Passive Rolling is required. We do some casual events such as shootouts and get players involved (We do a mingecheck beforehand, make sure no one will lolrun into it without any FearRP and pick up a weapon.) and we're a very welcoming community of around 9 players.

Hope you drop by and give us a note on what you think of the Office idea! <3

178.239.170.115:27019

Sad, huh?
The good part about it is that I recieved some well constructed criticism, and since have gone on to create threads that have marvelled thousands looked pretty neat, if I do say so myself.
But, for the sake of trial and error, how about we go through all of the things that I did wrong with that thread, and improve on them?

• Text was blocky.
• No headers.
• No lists detailing content.
• No links.

For now, let's just format that into I.H.T.C (Introduction, Headers, Text, Content.)

Let's begin with how to introduce your server and/or community.

Step One; Introductions.
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This is the way in which you'll be delivering the thread your audience, who are all Roleplayers and I'd probably assume have acquired at least enough common sense in their life to understand that a thread in the community section [Barring this, of course.] is an advertisement for a community. Henceforth, come up with a nicely formatted name for your thread. As I'm pretty sure people would like the sight of, for example "Glasshouse Gaming ) HL2 Roleplay" than "New 50 Slot HL2RP Seeking Admins Custom Content Custom Lore"

The point I'm trying to make is, keep it short, keep it snappy and mention the game mode you have. Better yet, if you have a small enough forum link (tinyurl or something), put that in place of your community name. As this assures people you have a forum and are at least remotely organised.

This is just naming the thread. The actual content of which will ensue.

Step Two; Headers
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Probably the most important part of making a thread is designing it so that it suits an aesthetic that looks far from blocky. Come up with a really nice .png/.jpeg (If you're a bit dim.) for a logo or a header, like I have done with this thread. Upload it to your favourite picture site (Highly recommend imgur.) and put it into a ([)img(]) Make the image sizeable enough so that it doesn't stretch over the post box margin. I learnt that mistake the hard way.
For reference to a thread I previously did for my community, "The Clapbox Gaming", see this link;
http://forums.cloudsixteen.com/index.php?topic=5770.msg48743#msg48743 lern 2 embed
For the relatively oversized headers in this thread, I went around the map that I used for the Roleplay and posed some scenarios, screenshotted them and added text using GIMP 2.0 (Ha. Ha.) Then put them as headers. Obviously, I made them too big. This is something you'll need to avoid doing. Needless to say, headings are crucial to making the overall aesthetic look nice.

Step Three; Text
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If there is one sole thing being a long term C16 member has taught me, it's not to be a pushover when it comes down to describing your server. Here are some protips that MLG Pro Thread writers always use.
[list type=decimal]
[*]Never compare or refer to any other community. Else you look like an ass.
[*]Take criticism on board. Even when dull and harsh.
[*]Don't make lists that are too long, like this one. Be them for content, or staff.
[*]In fact, unless it's super duper special, don't mention addons/plugins at all.
[*]Introduce your community as a damn community of gamers, not a company of drones. You're presenting yourself to people, don't be afraid to use a bit of humour or make informal comments, so long as they are appropriate and once again, don't make you look like an ass.
[/list]
Also, always make sure to mention the following. In order.
[list type=decimal]
[*]About Community.
[*]Lore/Canon of Community (Optional. Don't run through the HL2 lore, because we know it.
[*]Server Details. Once you've gotten the atmosphere that the game mode creates across to your audience, make it clear how you utilise the atmosphere to create the experience. Atmosphere is one thing, how you make it work is another.
[*]Content/Conclusion. This is where you list links to content packs, forums, IP address' and give a friendly farewell to your community.
[/list]
A good example to follow would be on Zephyr Gaming's old thread. http://forums.cloudsixteen.com/index.php?topic=3651.0

Step Four; Content
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You are very close to drawing your thread to a close. You've went into intricate detail in nice looking paragraphs that are easy on the eyes with regards to your content, community, lore and to top it all off there are nice headers complimenting them.
However, there are three main things that you absolutely must assemble before you even think about advertising your community and putting it out there for the ravenous dogs of C16 Roleplaying society, and that's;

• Steam Workshop Pack/Addon
• Updated forum [See Fixxer's Thread]
• IP (Obvious.)

For the workshop pack and how to create one, see this tutorial; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saCof9QqjnA
For the forums and how to create one (And make it look decent, moreover) see Fixxer's thread.
For the IP, go to your legacy browser in Garry's Mod and nab it. Or from your server control panel.

Thanks for reading, let me know if this was any help to you at all or if I was just stating the obvious and I'm a 2/10 mentor!

 

Stickied it, hoping people will read.

 

Everyone needs to read these, It's a good guide to go by.

<Will Send to bad community layouts.

 

Read?

ppfffttt

bahahaa

Really, most server owners these days have the mental capability of a three year old.

 

This is sadly true.

We need a protest like I said. Better owners!

 

Meh, good owners will read it and bad owners won't.
Really good owners won't have to read this at all.

 

Bump.
Also, take time on your threads. Don't just say "I'll add more tomorrow!" or "I'll finish it later!"

I'm Lugaru by the way

 

Sixx everyone does a rough version first.
It's just how it's done sadly before they finish it up. Even I did it.

But if you don't do a rough version first I'll tip my hat to you.

 

I do rough versions, but I make sure I save them in a .txt and go back to them later, rather than uploading them for the sake of +1'ing your community when you're shoving a half finished thread in people's direction and asking for it to be chewed to bits.

 

I done some researching and found an SMF package that allows you to save drafts for later. When I get back to my PC in 3.5 hours (as of posting) I'll post a link to it so [member=1]kurozael[/member] can add it perhaps.

 

The thread should definitely be something people get referred to.

 

I'll start referring plebs to this again.