In any message forum where you're starting a thread, use an informative subject line. If your question is titled simply "question", that may get responses from the fanatics who'll read every thread or are just curious, but if you want people who might know something about the topic or at least are interested in it to respond, saying what the topic is helps. Similarly for a story titled "story", or "Have you heard of this?", or anything else that might work as the opening phrase of a conversation or a paragraph but is not so effective at introducing it when all you see listed is the subject line. Think newspaper headline.
DumCoach has a pretty good identifier box on the left side of your posts, that, among other things, lists the age bracket of players you're coaching. It pre-answers a question that comes up in many threads, and you should look there if you want to know it. Knowing that readers are looking there, you should keep your own up to date (it's in your profile) for what you're coaching. (I don't know if that info is fixed at the time of the post, which would be best for archive purposes, or changes in your existing posts as your profile chages, which could be confusing in old posts. Maybe a moderator could answer that.) If you're coaching more than one age bracket at a time, you're on your own.
ASCII art -- diagrams made by typing regular keyboard characters -- can be quick & handy, but frequently comes out screwy if you're doing it in the default proportional font. Change the font face to Courier like this or change to Teletype like this by selecting the "Tt" box, and your characters will line up the way you want; you may want to adjust font size too. Preview to make sure.
DumCoach has a good post on terminology, but there are a lot of other terminology traps posters fall into that can lead to confusion...
League: This is an organiz'n of teams for them to play against each other, so it should be used only in that sense. Same with conference or (more rarely) union. Unfortunately there are many names of organiz'ns which sometimes are equivalent to league or conference, and sometimes not: club, organization, program, association; so I can't help there. But at least don't use "league" or "conference" when it's not in the above sense.
To cover an offensive line player: Unfortunately the NFL introduced a new meaning to this one, i.e. lined up on the line to the outside of that player, making that player not be an end. The established meanings of "cover" had been for an opponent to guard that player as a receiver and/or to play over that OL on the line. There are simple ways to say a line player is lined up to the outside of another (There, I just said it.) or to say a player is not an end (not on the end of the line -- just said that, too), so why not avoid that confusion by not using "cover" in the NFL officials' announcement sense?
Direct or indirect snap: There are people who use the term differently from the way you mean it. (Some say "direct" to mean "thrown"; others mean "to a different position from the usual".) If you write "thrown" or "handed" (or "hand-to-hand" or "under center" or "UC" or "under snapper"), it's unambiguous. Many times people use "direct" or "directly" when it's superfluous: "We can snap directly to Joe" doesn't add any meaning if the reader already knows where Jones lines up and therefore whether the ball has to be thrown or handed to him by the snapper; and what would it mean to say the ball was being snapped indirectly to Joe? If "thrown" implies too long or hard a pass, "tossed" works too.
PW: It could mean PeeWee or Pop Warner, so better spell it out.
Some major irony here....
Bob, you might want to capitilize the beginning of your heading (tips for better posting) if your going to in fact give tips for better posting.
I've found your posts to be the hardest to understand out of just about everyone. That said i rarely have trouble understanding what people are trying to say. It's all about context. If someone types PW, and you cant determine whether their talking about an age group of football or an entire national football program, well then i imagine you didn't read the sentence that preceeded the PW.
I've noticed often times you like to try & find something that can POSSSIBLY be meant another way. Everyone understands what the poster (test Bob, am I talking about a poster that hangs on the wall, or someone that posts on this message board?) is talking about, yet you try to find something that can be interpreted differently.
9.9 times outta 10 i'm able to figure out what everyone is talking about. I don't see this as an issue.
It's all about having fun. But losing aint fun!
It is coming down to the wire, but I think we have the post of the year here.
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Some major irony here....
Bob, you might want to capitilize the beginning of your heading (tips for better posting) if your going to in fact give tips for better posting.
I've found your posts to be the hardest to understand out of just about everyone. That said i rarely have trouble understanding what people are trying to say. It's all about context. If someone types PW, and you cant determine whether their talking about an age group of football or an entire national football program, well then i imagine you didn't read the sentence that preceeded the PW.
I've noticed often times you like to try & find something that can POSSSIBLY be meant another way. Everyone understands what the poster (test Bob, am I talking about a poster that hangs on the wall, or someone that posts on this message board?) is talking about, yet you try to find something that can be interpreted differently.
9.9 times outta 10 i'm able to figure out what everyone is talking about. I don't see this as an issue.
Since we are giving out advice, i am going to chime in.
Pokes Jake Gotcha! 😛
"One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity." - Albert Schweitzer
Since we are giving out advice, i am going to chime in.
Pokes Jake Gotcha! 😛
🙂
Dude, i'm always making mistakes. I type on my phone & always get messed up. But w/ a little common sense, pretty easy to figure out what i'm talking about.
It's all about having fun. But losing aint fun!
I'm all for better posts, but there's no way I'm going to tip anybody for them.
Michael can not receive PM's, emails or respond to Posts. He passed away in September 2018. To honor his contributions we are leaving his account active. R.I.P - Dumcoach Staff.
organiz'n
My favorite part is that in the midst of all that, writing out the whole word would have been too much.
Michael can not receive PM's, emails or respond to Posts. He passed away in September 2018. To honor his contributions we are leaving his account active. R.I.P - Dumcoach Staff.
Everyone should be able to post whatever they want! If you can't figure it out just ask. We need less rules & more content.
"Champions behave like champions before they're champions: they have a winning standard of performance before they are winners"Bill Walsh
terminology traps
What kind of front would you run those against?
Michael can not receive PM's, emails or respond to Posts. He passed away in September 2018. To honor his contributions we are leaving his account active. R.I.P - Dumcoach Staff.
wrong arm the terminology traps!
"Champions behave like champions before they're champions: they have a winning standard of performance before they are winners"Bill Walsh
Everyone should be able to post whatever they want! If you can't figure it out just ask. We need less rules & more content.
Kinda like Zone blocking. 8)
Everyone should be able to post whatever they want! If you can't figure it out just ask. We need less rules & more content.
"One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity." - Albert Schweitzer
I've found your posts to be the hardest to understand out of just about everyone. That said i rarely have trouble understanding what people are trying to say. It's all about context. If someone types PW, and you cant determine whether their talking about an age group of football or an entire national football program, well then i imagine you didn't read the sentence that preceeded the PW.
I rarely have trouble too, but trying to change rarely to never. I wouldn't've brought up the "PW" bit if it never happened. Most of the time context tells you what it means, and most of the rest of the time what it probably means, but "probably" means you guess wrong some of the time, and sometimes it can be about 50:50. Suppose you write here, "I'm thinking of switching to PW and would like to know what changes to expect." Could just as easily be someone changing age brackets as changing nat'l organiz'ns.
Other times you see a term and don't know what it means right away, but figure it out by reading further. But why should there be a lag? Try to write in such a way that the reader knows the meaning as early as possible.
As you can tell by my own writing, I'm all for abbrs. generally. It's just that sometimes they're mistakable, so avoid those.
As you can tell by my own writing
Only those who read it.
Michael can not receive PM's, emails or respond to Posts. He passed away in September 2018. To honor his contributions we are leaving his account active. R.I.P - Dumcoach Staff.
I rarely have trouble too, but trying to change rarely to never. I wouldn't've brought up the "PW" bit if it never happened. Most of the time context tells you what it means, and most of the rest of the time what it probably means, but "probably" means you guess wrong some of the time, and sometimes it can be about 50:50. Suppose you write here, "I'm thinking of switching to PW and would like to know what changes to expect." Could just as easily be someone changing age brackets as changing nat'l organiz'ns.
Other times you see a term and don't know what it means right away, but figure it out by reading further. But why should there be a lag? Try to write in such a way that the reader knows the meaning as early as possible.
As you can tell by my own writing, I'm all for abbrs. generally. It's just that sometimes they're mistakable, so avoid those.
I always try to use the most accepted terminology. As for abbreviations, i just don't see it as an issue. I didn't know what anyone was talking about when i first got here. But i stuck arou nd and figured out a the abbreviations and a lot of new terminilogy, and i'm glad i did.
If it's very rare that you cant understand it, and it saves everyone a bunch of time, i don't see why we would want to change it.
It's all about having fun. But losing aint fun!
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