[OnyxBat]

Originally Posted by HumanePain

Darkemostar: choose your words carefully, with forethought, and use your best grammar, that way you will earn some respect because you will have laid the groundwork for accurate communications.

Next, choose what you communicate with forethought, for words are the dress of thought* and choose your topics with consideration for the audience you address, after all this is a public place and everyone's impression of you will depend on what you write.

The best way to consider your audience is to first look around before posting anything; read the current threads, and get a feel for the major players in the forums.

Then, after watching the sharks swim about and their feeding habits you can decide if you still want to jump in or not.

Be brave, but be smart and plan ahead, think ahead and review your post carefully before committing your words to eternity. This is not advice to suck up to the other members, but to be able to articulate your opinions well and be able to defend them successfully.

If you can do all of that as I advise, you will have earned respect, and then the real fun begins! The fun of dissecting our own thoughts and what they are based on, and perhaps even changing our opinions, of growing intelligent, and the fun of learning about new authors, new philosophies and new genres, new music and best of all new friends, the sweetest of all Epicurean delights.

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* Quoted from Dr. Samuel Johnson

100% right about that.