Wave-Zero

  “Welcome to Wave-Zero, an experimental ‘blogboard’ established to create a message board format blog- a ’forum’ primarily focused on a small userbase, with the ability to grow over time.  This is unofficially a new incarnation of the community of Puppet Games. About 6 users are a constant on the Puppet Games board, and more than half of us were in favor of this new medium of expression, so here it is!

If you weren’t a regular to Puppet Games beforehand, don’t let that deter you. We’re a friendly bunch, and if you post comments that show your intelligence, we’re likely to offer you up a contributor spot in the near future. Topics of discussion range to just about anything, like a typical message board.”

-The above quote is from the first official post made here, so we’ll use it as a reference point in teaching you about our keytag system.  This topic lists rules as well as reviews the keytag system, so it’s highly recommended you take a while to read it.  For now, we’ll teach you how to set a keytag and what they’re for.

WHAT KEYTAGS ARE AND HOW TO MAKE/USE THEM:

*queue educational video reel voice now* Keytags are the navigational wonder that fuels Wave-Zero.  Why, look, there’s our friend Waves shoveling keytags into the search engine right now!  The process of creating a keytag is a little more complicated than using them, but it is a renewable energy source that keeps on giving.  *cheesy smile/thumbs up from Waves* Haha, that’s the ticket Waves.

You’ve probably got a few questions now swirling around your head.  Questions like:  How exactly are keytags used?  How do I make them?  Why wasn’t Waves wearing any pants back there?  Well, the search engine room can get ridiculously hot.  And keytags keep the fire burning here in Wave-Zero.  Let’s take a look at the crafting room.

Here is where keytags are assembled by everyday posters such as yourself.  Each keytag is uniquely handcrafted to tailor to the needs of the post.  For example, Zero is working on a post to introduce himself.  In addition to setting the category as “Intros/Exits”, he puts a tag on the post reading “itro-cast”.  A wise choice, Zero. *Smile and excited wave from Zero*

  Let’s analyze this tag.  Because the category is Intros and Exits, he has to indicate whether, in fact, it is an introduction or a post to say he is leaving.  He does this by using “itro” in the beginning of the tag.  While the word “intro” would be sufficient, it also runs a higher risk of being too generic.  We only need so many letters for people to catch on that this is an introduction, and too few would make us look like illiterate douchebags who hate spellcheck.  Ergo, the use of “itro” is perfect for this situation. 

Zero made a choice for the second half of the tag.  Instead of indicating that this was his personal introduction, he took charge and used “cast” as the second half of his keytag.  The reason for this is easily deducted: Wave-Zero is more fun with continuous threads, even if they don’t continue more than 20 or so full-bodied posts.  Therefore, Zero set the tag to “cast” so that the rest of the staff may also post introductions under the tag, successfully creating a faculty introduction thread.  Zero also placed a line at the bottom of his post in bold indicating what the keytag for his thread is.  Anyone who replies to his post with another full blog post will put the same line at the top of the body, to show what the tag is and that they are responding to it instead of starting it.  Well Done, Zero! *identical cheesy smile and wave from Zero*

Keytags are a bare necessity for posting on Wave-Zero, and here’s why.  When you search for a keytag in the search engine, you’ll bring up each post in a thread! Sort the results in chronological order and you have a list of all contributions made to the topic since it’s birth.  Don’t forget to check individual post comments!  Prior to creating posts, newcomers such as yourself simply leave comments on posts to discuss things.  This keeps the number of full posts to a minimum and allows the posts themselves to be of the highest quality.

 *gildedlink posting ‘olol hay u gais socrates is win/10′ in a philosophical discussion as a full post* When you reach the level of clearance to post a full blog response, remember the golden rule:  If it’s important enough to reach another point and start a new subdiscussion entirely, it is post-worthy.  After all, why clutter up a thread with something that a comment could both save time and gain faster attention?  By posting comments directly, a comment poster is able to immediately associate their reply with a specific post, and that’s just common sense. *gildedlink hit on the head with a rolled up newspaper and makes sadface*

One last thing, of course, is that in a post, biting sarcasm and obscure humor (so long as it is somewhat relevant and appropriate) is quite allowed.  Gildedlink was doing nothing wrong in that respect.  But that, of course, that is for another time.  We hope you’ve enjoyed this thorough tutorial on what makes keytags special and important to everyone.  On behalf of the Wave-Zero family, welcome to Wave-Zero and have fun!

Everything explained here?  I hope so.  If you’re still confused about something, drop a line to gildedlink and he’ll make sure it’s either clarified in the video or clarified to you in particular.  Now that you have an idea of how we use keytags, the keytag for the rules post is “intro-wtwz”.  The rules are only a large paragraph long and they’re invaluable to you.  Once again, welcome to WZ!