Site Navigation and Options

[Moe]

Well done, if you're here it means you've figured out the general theme of the board is Orange Links! You're doing okay! ;D

Look at this as a manual for the site, a detailed overview of what you can do with the board.

[Moe]

GENERAL POINTS

This thread contains a series of details to help new members around the site, although it's possible that more experienced members may find something they didn't know. (It's possible!) Each post within this thread will cover a part of the site, although some smaller topics will be included within the post for a larger topic.

Generally speaking, text in the orange colour that pervades the site provides links to other parts of the site. The links are generally quite literal. If you click on someone's name, you'll normally go the profile summary for that person, for instance.

Most pages within this site do not automatically update, even when you change from one page to another. Extensive use of the refresh button is absolutely essential if you want to keep up-to-date with the site while you’re online.

This board is provided free, but the downside is the adverts which pervade the site. There is an option for individuals to pay a monthly fee to get rid of the adverts, but the adverts don’t have to be too much of a nuisance. There’s probably not much can be done about the banner ads, but some people have trouble from the pop-up ads. Generally these should be pop-under ads which appear behind your browser window. As they most use the same browser window themselves, you shouldn’t find hundreds of these waiting to be deleted when you close down your browser.

However, occasionally one may come to the front instead. DO NOT DELETE IT. The next one may do the same and you’ll have to keep deleting it. Try minimising it or bringing your own browser in front. This should cause the ads to stay out of the way most of the time, limiting the nuisance factor.

[Moe]

HOMEPAGE (Plus FAQ’s and CALENDAR)

When you first login you see the homepage. The banner at the top of the homepage is maintained through most pages on the site. It shows you how many messages you have (Instant Messages, see below) and how many new messages you have. The orange text provides a link to your Instant Message page.

The banner also contains a toolbar, with the following icons:

home: brings you back to the homepage

help: gives access to a series of FAQ's

search: access to a search page, giving you various ways of searching the site for members, keywords, etc

members: access to a list of registered members

calendar: access to a calendar, which can show forthcoming events. Only admins can update the calendar, so let us know if you want anything added

profile: Gives you access to your profile (see below)

notification: marking a topic for notification means you’ll get an email whenever someone replies to the topic.

logout: Unsurprisingly this logs you out of the system. Please do this when you leave, as it’s useful to everyone to know who’s actually around. If you don’t logout, you still show up as being online.




The next feature of relevance on the homepage is the list of boards. Clicking on the name of a particular board will take you to the list of topics on that board. The order of topics is based on when they were last posted to. The topic containing the most recent post on that board is listed at the top.

Staying on the homepage for the moment though, at the right hand side of the description of each board you can see a column headed Last Post. This column shows when the most recent post was made on each board and who by, which provides a quick aid to finding out where there may be an active conversation in place.

At the bottom of the homepage are a few more links. You can get a short list of the Latest Messages (10 messages), another access to Instant Messages and there is also a reference to the most recent post on the entire forum. There is also an indication of who is online at present. However, if someone leaves without logging out, their name may remain in the online list for quite some time, so this isn’t totally reliable.

[Moe]

INSTANT MESSAGES

Instant messages provide a direct means of sending a message to just one other person, or a group of other people. These messages do not appear on the boards, so this provides a means of private communication. Another (perhaps bigger) advantage is that it is easier to ensure that a particular person gets a message if you are not on the board at the same time.

There are several ways of getting to the Instant Message facility. At the top of every page on the site is a count of how many messages you have stored (e.g. “You have 34 messages, 3 are new”). “New messages” are ones you haven’t read yet, so if you have any, please go to instant messages to check them.

Part of the note at the top of the screen is highlighted and provides a quick way into the Instant Messages screen. If you want to send an Instant Message to a particular person, you can also click on that person’s name in any screen where you can find that name highlighted. This will take you to a summary of their profile and towards the bottom of the summary page is an option to send an IM to that person.

On the main IM page, you will see a list of stored Instant Messages, latest at the top. There are several icons across the top of the list. Most of these are obvious, but the Outbox should be mentioned. The list you see first in Instant Messages contains those messages you have received, but you can also see the messages you’ve sent in the Outbox.

To access a particular message in the Inbox or Outbox, click on its subject title. As always on this site, you get what you click. If you click on a person’s name, you’ll see their profile summary.

You can also delete stored messages by checking the box in the right hand column for each message you wish to delete and then clicking the delete button at the top of that column.

[Moe]

POSTING

Once you’ve replied to a thread (via the reply button or by using the quote button on an existing post), you will see a formidable array of icons around the reply screen. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE THEM! So don’t be scared.

If you type a message into the reply box and scroll down and hit “send” your message will be sent to the thread. So it’s easy.

The icons are there to enhance your message. You can change font, use different type sizes, different colours, bold, italics, strikethrough and a host of other effects. You can also add pictures to a post, although that’s slightly more tricky. You can also use a fairly wide range of supplied emoticons, although some sites do have even more.

(In the rest of this section, I’ve used squiggly brackets {} where the system uses square brackets []. I’m trying to explain aspects of the formatting system and if I use the correct brackets, my message will simply get formatted and you won’t be able to see them!)

If you run your cursor across the various icons, short text items come up telling what they do. There is a small trap here though, which is the same for most of the icons. If you select bold type for instance, the following sequence is added to your message:

{b}TEXT{/b}

This format is followed for most of the available options (not the smileys though). The particular item in the brackets is dependent on which icon you selected, so “b” for bold, “font” for changing the font of your message. Some of these pairs of tags also include a specific reference in the opening tag, like “font=Verdana” for example.

The text you want to be affected by a particular formatting effect must be located between the pair of tags. So

This text is {b}important{/b} and this isn’t.

Only the word “important” would be shown bold. This may require a little cut and paste to get right, especially if you are trying to format text you’ve already typed.

You can also put more than one pair of tags around a piece of text. It doesn’t matter which order you close them in. For instance,

{b}{i}bold and italic{/b}{/i}

{i}{b}bold and italic{/b} italic only{/i}

And so on. The icons will supply the right tags for you, but you need to get the right bit of text between the tags. One other point. An opening tag consists of a pair of square brackets and a reference (such as “b”) inside, the closing tag (which must be supplied) contains the same things, but with a “/” before the reference, e.g. “/b”. Be careful not to break up the tags.

The quote facility works in a very similar way. Quoted text is enclosed in {quote} tags. You can edit the text inside, for instance to remove bits of the original message which are not relevant to your reply. But try and keep the tags intact and remember that your reply should go AFTER the final quote tag!

If you are trying things out, remember there is a Preview button beside the Send button. Have a look at your message first if you’re not sure. When you do use preview, your original text is displayed below the preview so it’s easy to get back to your text and correct errors.

[Moe]

PROFILE

If you select the profile icon on the toolbar at the top of the page, you can make alterations to the profile stored on this site. You can add quite a lot of information to your profile or change what you’ve already added.

Options available include:




changing your password for entry to the site

changing your screen name (think at least twice before doing that!)

changing the stored email address

recording your gender – most people won’t need to change it!

recording your birthdate – optional, some sites would advise under 18’s not to do this

recording where you live (just roughly, not your whole address!)

your website title, if you have a website, and its URL

An avatar, either from the supplied selection, or one from elsewhere on the net if you specify the complete URL (see separate thread about adding a picture)

Personal text, to go under the avatar

You can hide your email address, so other members can’t see it. Privacy is recommended!

You can select the format you want to see the time and date from a variety on offer

You can select a time offset. This board by default is using a time zone somewhere in The USA. +6 in the time offset box will adjust to UK times. If you’re somewhere else and can’t work it out just experiment until you find the right number.

signature. This is the text that goes at the bottom of your posts.



Note: if you change information that is shown on posts, e.g. signature, avatar, personal text, gender (?!), this information will be amended on all your existing posts. This site doesn’t record the information on each post, it just imports it from your profile.

[angel1969]

Moe said:

PROFILE



An avatar, either from the supplied selection, or one from elsewhere on the net if you specify the complete URL (see separate thread about adding a picture)

help where do i find this thread?