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 risposte 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 articoli from all over Fanpop, written da fanpop users just like te 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 te with a quick, user-friendly reference for issues on Fanpop.


~The Basics

I recommend Leggere an articolo written da harold called link. This articolo 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 links to other articoli in his User Guide, including his consigli on how to make a spot, how to format your text and how to post links. These articoli 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, medaglie are rewards for your efforts in contributing to a spot. No one knows exactly how te get a medal in a spot. All we know is that the più content te add, the più likely te are to get a medal. BUT WAIT! Before te run off and post masses of crap, te must read an articolo written da germany123 called link. This articolo will answer all your domande 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 articolo is an excellent place to start if te have any domande o 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 te 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 te believe!), but an articolo da 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 articolo 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 te have any domande about image crediting I suggest that te 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 te who know me, te 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 te an indication as to whether the content te are posting is appreciated da users o hated da 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 più mindful to not post similar immagini in the future. Conversely, if my content gets rated '4' stars, I know that people like it and would probably like it if I postato similar content. I suggest Leggere another one of harold's User Guide articoli called link, as well as an articolo da 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 te rate, and can explain why te 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 articoli on this suject, so here are 3 great ones:

link da cliff

link also da cliff

And my personal favourite,
link da heeeresjoyce.

I encourage te to take special note to an important point in heeeresjoyce's articolo about bulk uploads and keywords. If te are posting multiple immagini with say different members of the cast of 'House MD', please do not use all of their names as parole chiavi unless they are all in every single image. Using "Wilson", "Chase", "Foreman" and "Cuddy" as a parole chiavi for a bulk carica of which only one picture of each character renders your parole chiavi pretty much useless. parole chiavi are there to help other people find the immagini when using the cerca function. For example, if someone were to searcd for a picture Chase, using my precedente example, pictures of Wilson, Foreman and Cuddy would also appear because the way in which the parole chiavi have been used. parole chiavi are also important for people searching for content to avoid posting repeated images. If te have used your parole chiavi to effectively describe the image, people will be able to cerca for those immagini to avoid posting them again. If te have not dato good parole chiavi (or any at all!), then it is much più 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 cerca function to cerca for content BEFORE te post it. Please read germany123's articolo called link This articolo tells te all te need to know about searching and avoiding repeated videos, picks, links and images.
Unfortunately, if people have not used their parole chiavi effectively, the cerca function is not useful to finding the content. Thus, posting reapeated content is a mistake that anyone can make. So, if someone leaves a commento telling te that te have postato repeated content, please be aware that 99% of the time, the people leaving these commenti are being very polite and simply informing te 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 postato here. So if someone does inform te that your content is repeated content, please do not get angry about it. Ideally, if someone does inform te that the content te have postato has already been posted, te 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 cerca for. So if te post a repeat pick, people will tell te so, and sometimes less than politely (although that is very naughty! People need to at least try to be polite about it). più than likely, your pick will be reported and removed. Don't be upset da this, but use it as a lesson to remember to cerca before te post.












~Questions/Answers

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

link da papa

link da Cinders

And,
link da harold.

Please, please, please note that the Questions/Answers section is for asking domande 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 domande like "Who is your favourite character?" o "Who loves Huddy?!?!?!?!?!" are NOT supposed to be asked in the Questions/Answers section. Such domande will only produce OPINION-BASED answers. So, I beg you, read those 3 articoli and think carefully about where te post a question.


~Reporting

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




So that is my little guide to point people in the right direction if there is something about fanpop o 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 articoli that I have recommend that I do not agree with, but we all have different perspectives on things. So even if te don't agree with the ideas in the articles, sometimes the commenti that other people make on the articoli will be of some benefit to you, so I suggest that te not only read the articles, but also read the commenti 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 da joining fan club 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 commento with any thoughts te have on these issues, especially if te feel as though there is something that I have not covered in this guide.