Forum Help Guide

When there are new replies in a thread you've already visited, you should see a 'New' icon next to the thread title in the forum folder, like this:

The site can also send you an email when someone replies to a thread you've posted on. You can control this in your My Forum page, and at the bottom of the form where you type your message on the forum page:

To help you jump to the right spot, this 'view first unread post' link should appear at the top of multi-page threads you've visted where there are new posts to see [we'll be improving this function if we can]:

When you start a thread or add a new message, you'll have the following formatting buttons at your disposal:

• (1) Bold, italics, underline, bullets, lists, undo, redo, cut, copy, paste: Just like Word
  
  
• (2) Smilies: Click a smiley from the pulldown menu to insert it in the message. Hover over each smiley in the menu to see its description and its text equivalent.
  
  
• (3) Links: Highlight the text you want to turn into a link, click the button, and when the popup appears, paste in the website address you want to link to. There's also an 'undo link' button to return a link to plain text.
  
  
• (4) Image/movie insertion (the square tree icon): You can insert the following into your forum post: an image from another website; an image that you've already uploaded to your gallery on this site; or an image from your computer. More details below if you need them.
  
  
• (5) Spellcheck (the ABC icon): this underlines any suspect spelling. Click on an underlined word for suggestions
  
  
• (6) Quote: Click this to insert any posts you have selected for insertion (there is a quote button under each post)
  
  
• Options: You can use a simpler editor by choosing 'basic editor' under 'Forum Editor' on your My Forum page.
  
  
• Exceptions: The new form requires Javascript - users with Javascript disabled will see a plain (but functioning) message box. It's also currently incompatible with Safari, so Safari users will see a plain message box. Mac users can successfully use Firefox or Opera - and they can still use the bb-code (eg [b] and :-) ) to post.

You can insert the following into your forum post: an image from another website; an image that you've already uploaded to your gallery on this site; or an image from your computer. Click the square 'insert image/movie' tree icon, then choose one of the these tabs from the popup:

• From an external site (eg a photo sharing website). Put the web address (url) of the image into the form and submit it. You can also add a YouTube or Google video like this (movies do not appear until the post is submitted).
• Your Gallery If you have already uploaded images to your gallery space on our website, this tab lets you browse through them and click them to insert them into your forum post.
• Your computer This works by uploading the image(s) to your gallery and showing it in your forum post in one fell swoop. If you don't have a gallery album you are invited to create one from within the forum popup.

If you show a gallery image in a forum post then delete the image from your gallery, it will show as an 'image not found' in your forum posts.

You can do it on a resizing website, or on your computer.

One popular resizing website is www.shrinkpictures.com

Resizing images on your computer depends a bit on which verson of Windows you are using. If it's Windows XP, you can right-click an image in the thumbnail view, to resize it. Here are some instructions. Saving it as medium-size this way should usually be within 250Kb.

If you don't have Windows XP or Vista, this free Microsoft download gives you the right-click-to-resize option.

This suggests an easy way to do it in Windows Vista, using the export for email function

On a Mac, if you use iPhoto and don't have Photoshop, the file> export function is good. You could also download the free iResize application

Press this to copy a post: Press this to paste it as a quote: Here's how it looks:

• You can quote another member's post in your own message by clicking the quote button underneath it.
  
• It works like this (see screenshots on the right):
  • Click the quote button under a post you want to quote
  • A popup explains that to paste the quote into your message, you need to press the quote button on the message form. This popup has a 'don't show me this again' tickbox.
  
  
  More detail:
  
• You can select multiple posts to quote before pasting them together. The quote button turns red under messages that have been selected for quoting, and you can deselect a message by pressing its quote button (now 'unquote') again.
• Quotes from one thread can be pasted into another thread. A 'see' link by the quoted text takes readers back to the original post, whether it is in the same thread or not.
• Your unpasted quotes remain available until they are pasted or until the end of your session, whichever is sooner
• You can manually edit the quoted post once it's in your message form, eg if you don't want to quote the whole message
  
  
• If you have problems, please see the Troubleshooting section of this page

• You can edit your forum messages for 20 minutes after you post them, or until you post another message, whichever is sooner, using a temporary 'edit message' button (1).
• If you have posted something disastrous that you need to delete afterwards, please ask admin.

• You can add and change a small image (avatar) that appears under your name in your forum posts. Just click the current image in your Member box (1) (the one with your name in at the top left of every page) and you'll be asked to upload one. You can also do it by going to your My Profile page and clicking 'Change your face'. If only life was that simple...

• A bit like a letterhead, you can add a short phrase and/or image to all your forum posts by creating a signature on your My Forum page. You can place images and format the text exactly as you would do in a forum post (see above).
• Tick 'Show signature on my forum posts' to, er, show the image on all your forum posts.
• Please keep signatures short.

Some of you are having trouble when you paste ticker tags into your signatures.

The quick fix: if your signature looks like a link when you've submitted it, select all the text in your signature form, and click the 'remove link' icon above the form (highlighted in the pic below): This stops it from trying to be a link.

When you press Update, it should bring the images in properly...

NB If your ticker tags say [image], (eg from Glitterfly), please change them to [img], or they won't work for now...

The best tickers for this forum... seem to be the mini-tickers from Lilypie.com (thanks for the tip, DawnG)

A bit more ticker information

Using the Settings panel of your My Forum page, you can change how the forum appears to you:

• Forum face control shows or hide other people's avatars
• Thread starting page
• Others' activity stats arranges posts counts, gallery counts etc horizontally, vertically, or hides them
• Forum smilies shows smilies as images or as text
• Forum images shows images that people have embedded into forum posts as images or as links to the image
• Forum editor lets you change the forum message box formatting buttons to a simpler set for speed
• Others' signatures shows or hides other people's signatures, or lets you see them without images

(1) This tickbox controls notifications for a single thread: (2) The Notifications section on your My Forum page lists your current notifications: (3) Change your notifications default in the Notifications section of your My Forum page:

The forum can send you an email alert when someone replies to a thread you have taken part in.

The site's default is to send you one email after the first reply, then no more until you have visited the thread .

• To control notifications for single threads, either:
  • When you post a message to a thread, tick or untick the box underneath the message box which says 'E-mail me when a response is made?' (see pic 1)
  • Or (if you are already receiving notifications for a thread): you can alternatively go to your My Forum page and remove the thread from your Notifications list. (pic 2)
    
    
• To change the site default: In the Forum Settings panel of your My Forum page, change the 'Response Notification' setting to 'Default to off' or 'Default to on' (pic 3)
  • NB This will not unsubscribe you from any threads; it just changes the manner of existing notifications and/or changes whether the 'notifications' box is pre-ticked when you add new messages.
  • You can still opt in to to notifications for individual threads without changing your default, by ticking the box under the thread message box when you add messages. (pic 1)

• To control what other users see when they click your name Go to your My Profile page (1) and tick or untick 'show' next to your real name, profile information etc (2)
  
  
• To control whether other members can send you messages on the site's internal private messaging system Tick or untick 'Message me' on your My Profile page (3)

Press this to ignore a member (via the forum): This is confirmed in your My Forum page, where you can manage your list of ignored members

• We're sure you'll never need this, but if you really don't like a particular forum member, you can hide their posts and any threads they start, from your view of the forum.
• Do this by clicking 'ignore member' under any of their forum posts; or by going to the 'Members I'm Ignoring' section of your My Forum page, and using the 'Add a member to your ignore list' button. You can also 'unignore' members from this page.

(1) Unread messages highlighted in your member box (2) Compose a message (3) Sent messages

• Private messaging is a way of contacting other members on the site without using email
  
  
• Send a message by clicking 'Message member' under any of their forum posts - or by going into your Inbox pages and pressing 'compose message' (2)
• You can message any member unless they have chosen not to accept messages. You can currently only send to one member at a time.
• If you type the recipient's forum name into the 'To' box, you'll need to click 'check nickname' before you can send.
  
  
• You'll see an Inbox link in your member box at the top-left of every page (1). This also shows the number of unread messages you have.
• There's also a new Inbox link in the menu above all your other member pages.
• Messages are grouped in conversations, a bit like forum threads.
• Delete a conversation using the tickbox and 'delete' button. There's currently no limit on the number of conversations you can keep.
  
  
• You can prevent other members messaging you by unticking 'Message me' on your My Profile page.
• You will receive an email alert whenever someone sends you a private message. This is a default setting and you can switch it off by going to 'Settings' when you are in your Inbox pages

I use Safari...

Sorry, Safari still does some things differently from other browsers, and only works with the basic version of our forum editor. As soon as they become compatible, we'll make the upgrade, but for now, Firefox is the best bet for Mac users.