What are the unwritten rules of online forums that new members always get wrong?

[Baz_26]

Every online community has rules that are not written anywhere but that experienced members understand implicitly. Breaking them gets you ignored, mocked or banned more reliably than breaking the stated rules. Curious what the unwritten rules are across different types of forums - tech, gaming, hobby, general discussion - and what the most common new member mistakes are.

[Router48]

Search before you post. Every forum has a search function. Every forum has had the same questions asked dozens of times. Asking a question that appears in the first three results of a forum search marks you as someone who did not bother to look first. The response you get from experienced members reflects that

[CobyOlaleye]

Do not post your solution was to reinstall Windows or start from scratch without explaining what the actual problem was and what you tried. People who helped you deserve to know the resolution in case someone else has the same problem. Closing a thread with 'sorted thanks' and no explanation is the most universally disliked forum behaviour across every technical community

[Oscar_57]

Lurk before you contribute opinions. Read a community for long enough to understand its norms, its recurring debates and its unspoken agreements before wading in with a confident take. Every community has topics that seem open for debate but are actually settled and newcomers who reopen them without understanding the history get short shrift

[Depot76]

Do not bump a thread that is years old to add a one-line response unless you have genuinely new information. Bringing a 2019 thread back to the top of an active forum to say 'I agree with the original poster' is the kind of thing that gets you warned by moderators on most serious forums

[Seb51]

Match your writing quality to the community standard. A highly technical forum where people write carefully constructed detailed posts will not respond well to txt-spk and missing punctuation regardless of whether the content is correct. The tone and effort you put into a post signals how seriously you take the community

[Hydra47]

Do not ask for something without showing what you have already tried. On any help or advice forum whether for tech, DIY, legal or financial questions - the quality of help you receive is directly proportional to the quality of context you provide. A one-line question with no background gets a one-line response at best

[Molly_62]

NO ALL CAPS.  please AND thank you