Mod Note: If you feel any changes need to be made or you need to talk to a mod for any reason, please contact any of them with your concerns: AngelGamer, Mr PMS, Sartoris, erkenbrand, Eddie Dean, King Sushi, Cheech11, Almo and Rinoa

I've been posting on the GI forums for like 5 years now and things have always been very organized. Well since the redesign there has been a flood of new users, causing many duplicate threads and threads being posted in the wrong board. Well this thread is here to help out the new users. If you follow these guidelines you won't get near as much grief from older users.

1. Please use the "find something" box at the top of the screen to search for a thread already made about your topic or question before making a new one

First off, the most common thing people are doing is making a thread for a game that already has a thread. There is no need to have 12 threads discussing Modern Warfare 2. Just because there is new information does not mean a new thread is needed; the original thread (it sometimes says OFFICIAL) is where you should post. If you don't see it on the first page, you can use the nifty search feature shown below.

Please do not start a new thread without searching beforehand.

If you do not find anything in your search then it's okay to make a new thread.

2. Please post in the correct section of the Forums

As I mentioned earlier, there are many threads being posted in the wrong board. An example of this was a thread created in the Microsoft boards the other day about the Super Nintendo. Now unless I missed something, Microsoft has nothing to do with the Super Nintendo. So that's why there is a Nintendo board. There is a board for all three companies, as well as a PC board and a General Gaming board for multiplatform games.

See, there is a board for everything :)

3. The proper use of the Off Topic section

Another one of the many boards here is Off Topic, and while it might be for many things, it's not supposed to be where the gaming threads are. That's what the other boards are for.

4. Selecting "Discussion" or "Question"

The last thing you should know is when making a new thread make sure you select the box for either question or discussion. If you just want to give your opinion or post some news, it should be a Discussion thread, not a Question thread. There is an option to choose at the top of the new thread screen as shown below.

5. Caps Lock

Arob7777 adds:

This is not your friend here at GIO. Please, make sure it is OFF before any post. Caps can be nice sometimes when using for certain things like jokes, and to get your point across, but it is usually frowned upon because it makes it seem like you are shouting.

6. Please use the Edit Button

7. Personal conversations should be kept to the Conversation tab

Mr PMS demands:

So I am adding another little concern that has been noticed by a few others, including myself.

Please for the love of god keep conversations on the conversation tab. If you want to discuss something personal or directly to another person, this will the best way to handle it. Not making seven different posts where you and another person are just discussing if they other person has xbox live and if they have a gamertag.

Conversation tab is like the new and improved PM box. And I made a handy little guide for you to follow.

Step One: Panic

Step Two: ???

Step Three: Profit

8. Please do not make "walls of text"

From Enigma:

Instead of doing this, use proper indentations, use the enter button, separate it into paragraphs, that way, people will actually read it. Thank you, and sorry for stealing from the Newbie Cheat Sheet.

Hopefully all of you new users will take a few moments to read this thread as it will make your time on the forums much more enjoyable.