Hello my fellow House-loving Fanpoppers!

Recently, fanpop has undergone some mini make-overs, with the introduction of new features such as IM and the jawaban section. And fanpop has become a much bigger site, attracting new users and perhaps confusing some of us old-timers! So I thought I would put together a guide to help all Fanpoppers come to grips with everything that goes on in our little fanpop world, specifically focusing on the House MD Spot, because we are one of the biggest, most active spots on fanpop (Muhahahahahaha!)
So, here are some key things on fanpop that I think every Fanpopper should at least consider while they are participating in crazy House fandom. For this guide, I have collected artikel from all over Fanpop, written oleh fanpop users just like anda and me, that are intended to help explain certain features, practices and other aspects of fanpop in order help all Fanpopper and make fanpop a better place. Hopefully, this guide will provide anda with a quick, user-friendly reference for issues on Fanpop.


~The Basics

I recommend membaca an artikel written oleh harold called link. This artikel explores basic fanpop functions like how to find a spot/fan club, how to fan other users, how to "favourite" things and so on. harold also provides link to other artikel in his User Guide, including his saran on how to make a spot, how to format your text and how to post links. These artikel are great reads for new Fanpoppers who are unfamiliar with how fanpop works. I highly recommend that new House MD Spot fan check out harold's fantastic User Guide articles.


~Medals

Ok, lets get this out of the way quick. For new fans, the medal system is an ever-interesting topic of discussion. Basically, medali are rewards for your efforts in contributing to a spot. No one knows exactly how anda get a medal in a spot. All we know is that the lebih content anda add, the lebih likely anda are to get a medal. BUT WAIT! Before anda run off and post masses of crap, anda must read an artikel written oleh germany123 called link. This artikel will answer all your pertanyaan about medals. In addition, there are other issues relating to rating, crediting and repeat content that need to be considered when posting content to a spot, which I will talk about later in this guide. But germany123's artikel is an excellent place to start if anda have any pertanyaan atau concerns about fanpop medals.


~Crediting

Image crediting is a very tricky issue, especially as it is not compulsory on Fanpop. Basically, image crediting is acknowledging the owner of the image that anda are posting. Confused? Don't worry, so is everyone else. There are no set rules for image crediting (despite what some people, including me, will have anda believe!), but an artikel oleh astroasis called link provides some information that many fanpop users follow. While I personally do not agree with all the information provided, other people follow all these guidelines without a problem. At this risk of looking like I'm pimping my own work, I have also written an artikel about image crediting called link, in which I talk about how I image credit and the reasons why it is important to credit images. If anda have any pertanyaan about image crediting I suggest that anda read both of those articles. The reality is that there is not agreed upong right way to credit images, but there are definitly some wrong ways (i.e. claiming other people's work as your own).


~Ratings

For those of anda who know me, anda will know that I am a ratings nut! Rating content is important for a number of reasons, but I believe the most important reason is that ratings give anda an indication as to whether the content anda are posting is appreciated oleh users atau hated oleh users. For example, if I post an image that gets rated '1' star, I can assume that people think it is crap, therefore, I could be lebih mindful to not post similar gambar in the future. Conversely, if my content gets rated '4' stars, I know that people like it and would probably like it if I diposting similar content. I suggest membaca another one of harold's User Guide artikel called link, as well as an artikel oleh Cammie called link. Now, from my perspective, image crediting, keywording, titling and repeated content are also very, very important to the rating process, however that is just my opinion and many other people do not rate based on those other aspects of the image. It is up to the individual user how they chose to rate. The important thing is that anda rate, and can explain why anda rated the content a certain way.


~Keywords & Titles

Lets ignore my pet peeve of people putting "<3" in titles for the moment, and just focus on why keywording and descriptive titles are important. There are a number of artikel on this suject, so here are 3 great ones:

link oleh cliff

link also oleh cliff

And my personal favourite,
link oleh heeeresjoyce.

I encourage anda to take special note to an important point in heeeresjoyce's artikel about bulk uploads and keywords. If anda are posting multiple gambar with say different members of the cast of 'House MD', please do not use all of their names as kata kunci unless they are all in every single image. Using "Wilson", "Chase", "Foreman" and "Cuddy" as a kata kunci for a bulk upload of which only one picture of each character renders your kata kunci pretty much useless. kata kunci are there to help other people find the gambar when using the cari function. For example, if someone were to searcd for a picture Chase, using my sebelumnya example, pictures of Wilson, Foreman and Cuddy would also appear because the way in which the kata kunci have been used. kata kunci are also important for people searching for content to avoid posting repeated images. If anda have used your kata kunci to effectively describe the image, people will be able to cari for those gambar to avoid posting them again. If anda have not diberikan good kata kunci (or any at all!), then it is much lebih likely that people will mistakenly add repeated content.


~Repeated Content & Searching

Repeated content is a HUGE problem in this spot, mainly because it is so big. Firstly, please use the cari function to cari for content BEFORE anda post it. Please read germany123's artikel called link This artikel tells anda all anda need to know about searching and avoiding repeated videos, picks, link and images.
Unfortunately, if people have not used their kata kunci effectively, the cari function is not useful to finding the content. Thus, posting reapeated content is a mistake that anyone can make. So, if someone leaves a komentar telling anda that anda have diposting repeated content, please be aware that 99% of the time, the people leaving these komentar are being very polite and simply informing anda of your mistake. Please do not be offended. We all know that this is a very large spot and we cannot expect everyone to be familiar with all the content diposting here. So if someone does inform anda that your content is repeated content, please do not get angry about it. Ideally, if someone does inform anda that the content anda have diposting has already been posted, anda should remove it. This is because repeated content clutters up the spot and is also pointless. There is no point in everyone posting the same image of Wilson 300 times, no matter how cute he is. When in comes to picks, it is very, VERY easy to serch for them, so there is not exucse for a repeat pick. People usually get a little angrier about repeat picks because they are so easy to cari for. So if anda post a repeat pick, people will tell anda so, and sometimes less than politely (although that is very naughty! People need to at least try to be polite about it). lebih than likely, your pick will be reported and removed. Don't be upset oleh this, but use it as a lesson to remember to cari before anda post.












~Questions/Answers

I have decided to include this section because oh my god people are driving me nuts with it. Here are 3 artikel to help anda understand the purpose of the jawaban section:

link oleh papa

link oleh Cinders

And,
link oleh harold.

Please, please, please note that the Questions/Answers section is for asking pertanyaan that will have a factual answer. link is a good question, because even though there may be some different was to argue and justify the answer, ultimately there will be a difinitive answer available. However, asking pertanyaan like "Who is your favourite character?" atau "Who loves Huddy?!?!?!?!?!" are NOT supposed to be asked in the Questions/Answers section. Such pertanyaan will only produce OPINION-BASED answers. So, I beg you, read those 3 artikel and think carefully about where anda post a question.


~Reporting

Just a small aside, please also read an artikel on reporting called link oleh harold. It provides an excellent guide for when to laporan content atau when to just rate it. I think this could be very important as sometimes people over-react (particularly when it comes to shipping...) and laporan people who have done nothing wrong except express an alternative point of view. So I definitely encourage anda to read this article.




So that is my little guide to point people in the right direction if there is something about fanpop atau the House MD Spot that is confusing them. I have tried to present a few different points of view, as there are definitely some aspects of some of the artikel that I have recommend that I do not agree with, but we all have different perspectives on things. So even if anda don't agree with the ideas in the articles, sometimes the komentar that other people make on the artikel will be of some benefit to you, so I suggest that anda not only read the articles, but also read the komentar that other users leave on the articles.

Of course, all of this stuff applies to all spots on Fanpop. I had just noticed a few issues creeping in lately because during the House MD off-season, fan often look for ways to fuel there House addiction oleh joining fan klub like Fanpop, so repeated content and other general missunderstanding increase in occurance.

I hope that this guide points someone in the right direction, and as always, feel free to komentar with any thoughts anda have on these issues, especially if anda feel as though there is something that I have not covered in this guide.