What Is An "Original Post" (OP)?

In the simplest terms, an OP, or Topic Thread, is a report of someone's actions, an issue, or of an event, which has not been previously reported, and which interests or affects significant segments of the Forum audience.

An OP might be defined as:

a report of recent events.
material reported in a credible, verifiable newspaper, magazine, the news media, etc.
matter, or issues that are newsworthy.
sufficiently interesting to the general forum audience to warrant posting.

News, then, has a timely value, and it must be interesting to be of worth to the general forum audience. It must, also, have been previously unposted. Once posted it is no longer news, but history.

How does a poster evaluate an event for its newsworthiness? Perhaps the best answer is the poster's concerns him/herself, and their writing with the events and people in which the forum readers are interested. The more people who are interested, and the more intense their interest becomes, the greater news value of the event, or the person in the OP.

The OP is a gatekeeper of information for the forum readers. Therefore, it is required that OP's include three factors in their posting: Authenticity and Accuracy, Good Taste, and Mass Appeal.

AUTHENTICITY AND ACCURACY -- No ethical poster would fabricate a story, or make readers believe that something happened when it did not. Additionally, posters obtain their facts and information from the most credible sources available, and post links, thus increasing authenticity and accuracy. Posters ensure that their posts are meaningful, and in agreement with reality. Errors in fact, mistakes, might be made by the inexperienced poster, but they must be eliminated by careful editing and fact checking. Accuracy is an unrelenting requirement, not only because the reputation of the poster and forum are at stake, but because the reader demands the right to believe what he reads.

GOOD TASTE -- Good posters display courtesy, good taste and respect towards, and on behalf of their forum audience through their writing. The poster's copy should avoid unnecessarry vulgarities and obscenities. The poster's reporting should be neither callous, nor hardened or obnoxious. Professional posters don't confuse complete, objective posting with caustic or gory accounts of news events.

MASS APPEAL -- One of the basic facets of posts are that they be of worth to significant segments of the forum audience. Mass Appeal is comprised of 12 elements:

01. IMMEDIACY -- Timeliness, as discussed above is an indispensable part of the post. Without timeliness, the posted news story is a historical record.

02. PROXIMITY -- This is where lurking in the forum pays off. Before one just uses the shotgun efect and throws a story out in a post, they should know what interests the majority of forum readers.
Events may occur close to our forum readers in both the physical and psychological sense. The most important person in the world is the individual forum reader. Post something about what they think or do, and their attention is guaranteed.
If the post has an international interest, it should also have a local angle as well. Find it. Write about it. Tie it in with the news service story and post it.

03. CONSEQUENCE -- The more people affected by a posted news event the greater consequence it has for the forum readership. The poster's job is to discover, and report how readers will be affected, and now long they will be affected.

04. PROMINENCE -- When *SwordOfScotland has a back ache, it has little news value. Let something happen to a stellar golfer the night before he's to start in the Master's Tournament in Augusta, and it's newsworthy. The place and time of a posted news event may, also, raise it to prominence.

05. SUSPENSE -- Congressional considerations of pay raises, a politition disappearing off of the radar, a new SCOTUS nomination, a major legal battle, or a pending nuclear test are all suspenseful posts, if they haven't been posted to dead horse status.

06. ODDITY -- Forum readers are interested in people, animals, polticians, laws, and things which don't fit the norm. Be wary of the danger in this element, though. You must have good taste not to engage in the bizarre for its own sake, or merely for shock value. Never ridicule people on the basis of gender, sexual preferences, religious beliefs, economic status, physical handicaps, etc. Never depend entirely on oddity to fill your post.

07. SEX --Sex is a touchy topic, but it has a strong attraction for forum readers. A post about an article on the first British woman to see combat in Afghanistan would be strengthened by the sex (gender)element. A post about a story of a major sexual harrassment case would be strengthened by the sex (gender)element if the winner is a man. The mix of gender and oddity form strong sex elements for posts. Any discussion of venereal disease, AIDS, single parenthood, rape, fraternization, and the whole issue of women in combat is based on the elements of sex, or gender.

08. CONFLICT -- Sports fall into this category, as do wars and gang fights. But, conflict also spreads into other areas of life such as people opposing rate hikes in their telephone bills, or arguments about whether smoking should be banned from public areas.

09. EMOTION -- When 9/11 happened the emotion was tragedy, then anger. When the first man stepped on the moon the emotion was elation. When peace came at the end of World War Il the emotion was jubilation. When a family dies in a house fire and a father watches in tragic helplessness the emotions are sorrow and empathy. People are interested, and want to somehow share, in the drama of life.

10. PROGRESS -- Progress fascinates people. Forum readers often want to see what new technologies are doing to improve everyday life. Take advantage of these advancements and write about them. Take the time to explain how these advancements improve the quality of life. Progress can also be achievements in nuclear arms reductions, civil rights, the economy, foreign relations, etc.

11. BREVITY --Brevity keeps the readers' attention. Text walls get skipped over. Get to the point as quickly as you are able. 'Nuff said!

12. DISCUSSABILITY --Posts about, or that contain online petitions, requests for help with homework, copy/paste text, or that just issue blank statements are undebateable, and are of little interest to to most seasoned forum readers. Most just die with little, or no replies. A poster must take into consideration that the whole point in posting a new Topic Thread is to discuss, and debate its' merits. It is extremely helpful that before a poster ask others' opinions on a Thread Topic, if they first state their own position.

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Disclaimer

The above Journal Editorial is a written opinion by:

*SwordOfScotland Club Founder