Intergalactic Summit

As I read these boards, I find that quite a few people have no idea how to make a good post. I am making this instructional post in order to teach the community how to make good original posts in an effort to improve the quality of these boards.

A forum post should be as short as possible in order to get the point across. A good analogy would be a skirt, long enough to cover the subject matter, short enough to keep things interesting. A good posts covers the who, the what, the when, the where, the why and the how. Remember the why is double edged. It needs to not only cover the motivations of the poster, but why the reader should care.

I will use a practical example. I-RED recently put out a press release about killing some Serpentis.

Here is how it should have been worded:

[In the relatively quiet hours of around delete this] At 08:00 standard time [a date would be nice], an I-RED/Ishukone Watch taskforce launched a [surprise delete, raids are by definition a surprise] raid on an advanced Serpentis research installation hidden within the 98Q "superpocket" in Syndicate. The facility itself was rather small, [the reason why pinpointing its location proved so difficult we already know it was hidden, telling us again adds nothing], but extremely well defended. [The raid was originally scheduled to take place sometime in the relative future, but its execution was accelerated following the recent destruction of Rilnais. Furthermore, intel reports suggested the Serpentis were in the process of evacuating the facility in order to relocate deeper into Serpentis-controlled territory; thus, an immediate and prompt response was required. Reword to:The raid's timetable was stepped up due to the events in Rilnais and to keep the Serpentis from escaping.] [The original purpose of the raid was not only to continue in I-RED's ongoing campaign against Serpentis forces established in the Syndicate region, but to raid the facility and confiscate any illegal products and/or research done by Serpentis scientists. If that was the original purpose of the raid, what was the new purpose? Reword to:This action was part of our continuing campaign against the Serpentis in the Syndicate region.The confiscation of illegal products and reseach goes without saying]

[Overall, the raid proceeded rather flawlessly. Delete, this is simply restated in the next sentence.] Accurate intel reports and superb training of I-RED/Watch forces led to a strong execution with minimal losses. The [surprised we know already] Serpentis forces were unable to provide strong reinforcements to defend the facility, and [thus they slight grammar edit] wiped the facility's computers clean of any data or research before our forces could obtain it. [Any illegal products were subsequently destroyed, but yup, deleting this too.] I-RED/Watch forces did succeed in confiscating some contraband goods that the Serpentis failed to eliminate in time. All [captured] Serpentis personnel [who were not killed in the fight gone] were arrested and transported back to the State for criminal processing and reevaluation.

[Of particular note, however, was the cargo retrieved from a heavily defended Serpentis transport that attempted to escape during the battle. The Serpentis forces seemed rather desperate to clear a path for the transport to escape, focusing all their firepower on the Watch frigates who were scrambling the ship's warpdrive. Noticing this, once the main Serpentis battalion was eliminated, the commander of the operation disabled the transport's systems and a boarding party was prepared. Once the transport was breached, a brief firefight ensued and Watch special forces secured the cargo the transport was ferrying - five tons of Isirus poppy. Trace evidence reveals it is from the recent attack in Evaulon, and it is likely only a fraction of what the Serpentis stole. The cargo was secured and currently remains in I-RED possession at this time. It is likely that the Isirus poppies recovered from the Serpentis transport were simply in storage at the research facility until they could be transported to Fountain, however, this is mere speculation. Interrogation reports will hopefully determine the purpose of the poppies at the research facility. I'm just going to reword this whole paragraph.]
During the engagement one transport was noticed as being heavily defended. The transport was breached by a Ishukone Watch boarding party and secured after a brief firefight and was discovered to have been carrying five tones of Isirus poppy that has been linked to Evaulon. The cargo is currently in I-RED's control. Interrogation of prisoners is ongoing in order to ascertain the purpose of the poppies at the facility.

If Combined Harvest wishes for the return of their product, I-RED will gladly comply. Simply have a representative contact Taisa Korsavius, and an arrangement can be made promptly. Furthermore, if the Federation wishes to cooperate with I-RED in our ongoing campaign against Serpentis forces in Syndicate, opportunities for talks are always open. I-RED deplores the atrocity committed by the Serpentis against Federation civilians in Evaulon, and have since stepped up our anti-Serpentis operations in Syndicate as a response. I-RED formally wishes to extend our condolences to the families of those who lost someone in the attack, and hopes some level of cooperation and coordination can be achieved between the Federation and itself in regards to countermeasures against Serpentis forces. [This paragraph is good. Well done.]

Readability is improved and all the important information is retained. Go forth and make good posts!

To be honest, I-RED's press release was one of the better posts on the forums. I was simply to lazy to edit some of the more horrible ones.

Examples:
A thesis on the solution of slavery Not only long and unreadable, but factually incorrect in many places.
Human Will vs Spirituality I'm going to be honest with this one. It's so bad that I think it's beyond saving.
We come to destroy all who enslave our people A forum post is not a train of consciousness. The poster has time to think and write and edit.

I said as short as possible. You will notice that my post was actually quite long, but not longer than it needed to be. Remember, a good post gets read and if someone sees a giant wall of text, they are less likely to read it or comment on it.

A few other rules that would not fit in the original post:

Grammar and spelling are a must. Mistakes happen, but try to limit them.
Avoid the use of capital letters except for acronyms.
Lunacy should be avoided. Another post by a Minmatar about how they want to kill all the Amarrians is not a good post. Anything by Diana Kim is not a good post.
Sarcasm and satire in text form are both difficult to pull off; know what you are doing before you attempt these.
If the reader cannot ascertain what you are trying to convey by the title or the first few sentences, it is not a good post.
For replies, quotes are your friend. You don't have to quote the whole post that you are responding to, just the relevant portion.

Oh, and remember to remain in-character, the IGS is a rp forum so all post should attempt to remain within the gaming world and without references to outside things like the real world, real money, tv programs, etc.