Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33617
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33617
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

### Structure your answer properly

This is something that is relevant across all sites. You should be used to markdown and know at least the basics:

- Using headings
- Paragraphs and soft linebreaks
- lists
  1. numbered
  2. and unnumbered

Put your most relevant points in the start and make them bold so that people will know at a first glance whether they share your opinion or not. Don't post a wall of text without any highlights and breaks. If you prefer not to use bold text and headings that is okay on most sites as long as you use paragraphs.

### Know what you are talking about

If you don't know what you are talking about people will see through your _lies_ quite fast. There are many experts and using false data or drawing false conclusions will be detected quite fast. This is especially true on very specialised sites, such as for example StackOverflow, but you will also find experts about any topic that you are talking about on sites like WorldBuilding.

### Get to the point fast

Most sites prefer to get to the point as fast as possible and not beat around the bush. There are differences though. For example on WorldBuilding many people love to read stories. If you phrase your answer in a in-universe or in-character style you can basically talk as long as you want. On technical sites like StackOverflow people don't have the time to read through long texts. Writing is probably somewhere in between as people spend a bit more time on _reading_ in general and normally don't have a problem that needs to be fixed _now_.

### Adhere to traditional styles

On RPG you can find that many people reference guides and rules in a specific style, by mentioning the book name and page number and then using the citation markdown with added emphasis on the names of an ability/ rule/ ... and the important words on which they focus later.

### Know the most important problems

On RPG, especially when talking about D&D, there is always the option to say "the DM decides". It's a non-sensical answer if you have spent time on the site as it's _always_ applicable - the gamemaster can always change anything. That is not the kind of answers people are looking for. They want rules. Rulings can be made by anyone. Answers only referencing the option to make a ruling as the DM will get downvoted. But answers who explain _why_ they would rule a certain way can get highly upvoted, as that is important information.

### Adhere to standards about your tags

On WorldBuilding you should keep in mind that the square-cube law is not your friend when designing big creatures. The bigger, the more muscles and more dense bones are required, making the weight a bigger problem, which is why animals are capped at certain points in size. You know this rough rule if you spend some time looking through creature-design questions. It's an easy way to answer, but most of the time people expect more, as it's basically the same as "The DM can decide" on RPG. You have to discuss the ramifications of this usual problem. But it's nearly always a part that _needs_ to be discussed, so you should spend some time explaining it.

### Know the resources

SFF has a lot of story-identification questions and they have a long list of questions that you should try to answer as best as you can if you want to ask such a question. That also means that these are important things to keep in mind when answering. Furthermore you have to discuss every matching and mis-matching point in your answer. So knowing the standard things that are discussed makes it easier to compile a _standard answer_ for story-identification questions.

### Use pictures where appropriate

On WorldBuilding people love pictures. Especially sketches. If you have useful pictures you can easily get a highly voted answer. It's not always applicable, but on a theoretical and creative site like WorldBuilding it's far easier to use sketches to your advantage to illustrate your ideas, than on a technical site like StackOverflow where you need actual code or a site like Writing where you need citations or citation markdown for example phrases.

### Know the site - and go through a trial and error phase with each one

Every site, and often every tag, has individual properties that you have to get used to. It takes some time and you will make mistakes. As long as you format your answer properly and know what you are talking about you should be fine on most sites, but getting to know the site and tags is important for high quality answers that are well-received across the wider community.

### Adhere to the criteria and put them at the end together with other resources

As of writing this I have:

- ~8k rep on WorldBuilding
- An answer with 89 upvotes on WorldBuilding about [How would it make sense that spellbooks or grimoires teach only one spell?](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/91717/how-would-it-make-sense-that-spellbooks-or-grimoires-teach-only-one-spell/91721#91721)
- ~2.6k rep on Writing
- An answer with 32 upvotes on Writing about [Is it a bad idea to have multiple bad endings and only one good ending?](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/33140/is-it-a-bad-idea-to-have-multiple-bad-endings-and-only-one-good-ending/33142#33142)
- Other high-rep sites are RPG (with ~3k rep) and SFF (with ~2k rep)
- A total of ~17k rep across the network

Original score: 83