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User’s Guide

The My Controls Section

The first thing you want to do is to create a profile so we know a little bit about you. Click the My Controls link, which is at the top right of all pages. The My Controls page contains all of your personal settings, including personal messages, profile info, signature info, and avatar settings. We'll go over all these in more detail later on. To start off with, let's edit your profile info. Click the corresponding link on the left of the page.

Editing Your Profile

Here you can fill in your date of birth, messenger contacts, home page, location, and interests. Fill in any info you wish to give, then click Amend my profile. Remember that your e-mail address will not be shown to anyone in the interest of privacy. There's also a special feature that isn't immediately evident! When you reach twenty-five posts, a new box will appear in this area called Custom Member Title. This will allow you to have a phrase underneath your user name which will appear by all posts. For now, your title is Junior Member. As you reach new levels, you will also get badges ( Pips) to denote your status. Here's the breakdown of how your title will change.

0-10 posts: Junior Member (0)
10-30 posts: Member (2)
30-50 posts: Senior Member (3)
50-100 posts: Advanced Member (5)
100+ posts: Elite Member (7-Star)

By the way, you can look at anyone else's profile by simply clicking their user name.

Editing Your Signature

Directly under the profile link is a link to Edit Signature. A signature is text that appears at the bottom of each message you post. For example, my signature includes a link to my website. Type in whatever you wish to use as a signature and click Update my signature.

Adding an Avatar
An avatar is a picture that appears next to your user name in posts. For example, my avatar is a custom macaroni and cheese box. To upload an avatar, choose one of three options:

1) A pre-installed avatar. Simply click the one you want and choose Add this avatar to my profile.
2) A picture from another site. Enter the web address and press Add....
3) A picture on your hard drive. Click Browse or enter the picture name, and enter the picture dimensions. Please note that there is a maximum dimension for avatars, which is currently 64 × 64 pixels. Avatars also have a maximum size of 10k.

You may also choose to remove your avatar by clicking the last option button, I don't wish to use an avatar (remove all current).
Now your profile is complete!

Personal Messages
You can PM any user by clicking the button next to one of their posts. A personal message travels to the other user instantly; the next time they log in they will see their new message. You can use this as an alternative to e-mail. To see if you have new messages, simply look at the top right of the screen; next to the My Controls link you will see a link that says x new messages. To write a new message, you can also click the link in your My Controls section that says Compose New Message.

Posting on the Bulletin Board
To post in any forum which is available to you, simply click the forum link and then click “New Topic”
To reply to an existing post, make sure you are currently reading that post and click “Add Reply”
To quote another's post in your reply, click “Quote”
To edit your own post click “Edit” (Note: you can only see the edit button on your own posts, no one elses)

Online Users List
On the main page, scroll to the bottom of the page. You will find a list of all currently online users next to the icon along with their colour coding.


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Hope this helps some of you.

How To Use A Forum Tutorial

1.) Registering you’re account: The very first thing you ought to do when you get on this forum is to create an account on this forum. This account will be the one you post with, you will receive Private Messages (PMs) on this account, it is basically you’re identity on this forum.

* a.) Username: As it says when you go to register, you need to use any name you wish as you’re username on this forum.
* b.) Password: A problem with many people is the fact that they use bad passwords. A good password should consist of at least 6 characters, and include 2 numbers. It should be easy to remember, for instance, some people memorize one password, and use the same password for everything, that way they can’t get confused by having multiple passwords. Some examples of bad passwords include but are not limited to you’re real name, and you’re username. Good passwords include any familiar number, IE School Identity number, your Social Security number, Bank account numbers, or any other secret number or word that normal people wouldn’t directly associate with you or know about.
* c.) Email address: This should be you’re main email address, and it should be a real email account. If you are here, you should already have access to an email address. If not, you can get one from any number of different places including Hotmail.com and Yahoo.com


2.) On the Forum There are many different terms for the different items on a Forum. For instance, The Forum is the entire website, and the Forum Index is the main page. A board, is a general category on the main Forum Index. Within a category there are what we call “threads”. These are individual topics created by different users of the forum. Threads can be about ANYTHING, but generally, try to create threads where they are supposed to be. Use your own judgment as to where to post you’re new thread, if you do put it in the wrong place, I’m sure somebody will kindly inform you and an admin will either delete or move it to it’s rightful spot. Posts are individual messages in a thread created by different people, and can also be called replies. Always try to keep to the topic at hand when you post. You’re next step should be to post in the welcome board and introduce yourself to the rest of the community.

3.) Jazzing it up When you post, there are a number of different things you can do to you’re post to make it look nicer, to emphasize something, etc. You can make things look bigger, you can change you’re text’s color, you can make things bold, italic, or underlined, you can change the font, add lists, and even :) smilies, or emoticons :calm: all these options can by typed in by hand if you know how to do it. If not, just press the buttons and the forum will help you out. Most of this you just have to learn on your own because it would take SO long for me to explain all of it, but if you spend enough time on the forum, you’ll eventually learn most of it. To give you an idea of how it’s done, here is the code for this paragraph:


4.) Forum Etiquette: On forums, people will get to know you through what you say and how you say it. The closest thing we have to body language online is emoticons, so you’re going to need to use them to say some things and for people to understand what you really mean. There are a few general rules about forums that if you’ve been on one for long you know why they are there. Many people get annoyed by new people asking questions that have already been asked and answered by somebody else.

* a.) Common Curtesy: First and foremost, just be nice to each other. Go easy on the sarcasm, and try not to insult at all. A little common curtesy will get you a long ways.
* b.) The Edit Button: Most people look down on people who double post, that is to say, post right after themselves. If you hit the “post reply” button, and later realize you forgot to say something, instead of making a new post, click on the edit button, and you will be able to edit what you said before.
* c.) Caps Lock: ANOTHER ANNOYANCE IS PEOPLE WHO TYPE IN ALL CAPS. MOST PEOPLE FROWN ON IT so don’t do it. If you don’t know where to find the caps lock key, it is generally below the Tab button, on the left side of the “a”, and above the left shift. If it is on, it shouldn’t be. Please be kind and press it to turn it off.
* d.) Forum Rules: The Forum Rules Are Right here. These generally include but are not limited to: No Profanity. This includes cussing and sexually explicit material and pictures.
* e.) Spam: This forum is equipped with a spam collection category. If the urge to spam persists, please proceed to the nearest spam thread and relieve the urge. There is nothing wrong with spam when it is in the right place, but people aren’t happy when spammers spam their own carefully designed thread. Spam can be described as the willful act of posting multiple occurrences or gobledeegook, balderdash, or nonsense on any otherwise normal thread. Please keep spam in the spam category, and nowhere else