Guide to the Forum

Ok so, I didn't see Rick nor Marcus make one of these either, so I copied and pasted it from me and my friend's website, which we made a while ago, I thought it would take to long to make a new one.

OK, I just made a decision... it's time to make that one guide to cover everything. Even seasoned forum members may learn something from this. Let's Go!

Guide to this guide

* Guide to the Staff
* Guide to BB Code
* ----Images
* ----Links
* Guide to Signatures and Avatars
* ----Signature Rules
* ----Adding a Signature
* ----Adding an Avatar
* ----Viewing Signatures and Avatars
* Guide to the Shoutbox
* Guide to the User CP
* ----Private Messages aka PMs
* Guide to Posting
* ----Editing, Deleting and Quoting
* ----Double Posting
* ----Closed Threads
* ----Reporting Posts
* ----Post Counts
* ----Seeing Post Counts
* ----Forum Specific Rules

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Guide to the Staff

Forum Admins:
RickRoll - Owner
imbroken - Co-Owner

Forum Moderators:
Vivi<3
CoolHacks
Sorrow

Game Masters:
Owner - blitzbleed , IGN: RickRoll
Co-owner - Marcus , IGN: Imbroken
GM/GFX - CK, IGN: Radiant (Restained)
GM - Timothy , IGN: Cryptic
GM - Circa , IGN: Circa
GM - Freeman, IGN: Freeman
GM - Kim, IGN: Sorrow

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Guide to BB Code

All BB Code is enclosed by brackets [] and have an opening tag []and a closing tag [/]. Listed below are the common BBCode tags used for marking up your text. To use these tags, simply remove the space in the opening tag (space inserted so you can see how the full code looks). You can also use more than one tag for a word, just make sure to close the tags in the reverse order you opened them.

Bold = [ b]Bold[/b]
Italic = [ i]Italic[/i]
Underline = [ u]Underline[/u]
Bold Italic = [ b][ i]Bold Italic[/i][/b]
Underlined Bold Italic = [ u][ b][ i]Underlined Bold Italic[/i][/b][/u]
Colored Text = [ Color="Red"]Colored Text[/color]. The full list of Colors is below. Simply put the Color name (as written, no spaces) in the quotes to use.

Fonts are available in 7 sizes and can be combined with the already listed forms of BB Code:
1 = [ size="1"]1[/size]
2 = [ size="2"]2[/size] - Default size
3 = [ size="3"]3[/size]
4 = [ size="4"]4[/size]
5 = [ size="5"]5[/size]
6 = [ size="6"]6[/size]
7 = [ size="7"]7[/size]

Images
First, before you can link an image to show in posts or in your signature area, you need to have it hosted somewhere. There are plenty of free hosting sites that allow you to upload an image and link it for use in a forum - Photobucket and Imageshack are two of the biggest. Unless you have permission, it's not polite to link an image from someone else's site though. Once your image is hosted, you need the URL (direct link address) to put in the BB Code.

= [ img]https://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s320/Silver_rai n15987/Naruto-1.jpg[/img]

You can use the same code to place images in posts and in signatures. Please make sure to follow the Signature Rules before creating or updating your sig.

Links
You can post links a few different ways.

The first is to simply type out the full URL, the forums will automatically create a link:
http://roadsidems.omgforum.net/

Second, you can enclose the link in tags if you want:
http://roadsidems.omgforum.net = [ url=http://roadsidems.omgforum.net]roadside ms[/url]

Third, you can create a link using a description:
Check out this awesome site! = [ url=http://roadsidems.omgforum.net]Check out this awesome site![/url]

Spoilers
The spoiler tag can be used to hide images and text behind a button so that they aren’t immediately visible. This way people won’t have to look at something unless they choose to be spoiled.

Spoiler:
This is how you create the spoiler tag to hide text and images.

= [ spoiler] This is how you create the spoiler tag to hide text and images.[ /spoiler]

The full reply screen also has a Word-like menubar with buttons for all available markup options. There is also a list of smilies that can be used in your posts. Click the "More" link to view the full list of smilies available.



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Guide to Signatures and Avatars

Signature Rules
We understand how signatures are a great way to express yourself, but some signatures have been getting out of hand. In order to make the forums more appealing for everyone in the community, we have decided to implement some new sig rules:

* You are only allowed a maximum of 1 image and 4 lines of text in your sig.
* The dimension of the image must not exceed 500w x 150h pixels.
* Image size should be kept under 100kb.


This should allow everyone enough space to be creative, yet at the same time keep things clean and tidy for others.

Some of these rules will be enforced automatically. Others will be enforced by the moderators. Repeat offenders will receive warnings, but moderators will be more lax until people have had enough time to transition.

Oh and we're still tweaking the settings, so if you see any problems with sigs not showing even when they are within our guidelines, let us know.


Adding a Signature:
Go to your User CP and under the Settings & Controls there are several options. Select Edit Signature. The text box that opens is exactly like the normal reply window. Any BB Code can be entered here, just as with usual posts, provided it follows the Signature Rules above. Please see the BB Code section above for information about hosting images.

Adding an Avatar:
An avatar is a small image below or next to your username that appears on all posts. Avatars are limited to 100x100 pixels and/or 19.5kb, whichever is smaller. To upload an avatar, go to your User CP, under Settings & Controls select Edit Avatar. You can choose to link an avatar from another site (please remember to ask permission before linking to someone else's site first) or upload the image from your computer.

Viewing Signatures and Avatars:
Signatures and Avatars are viewable by default for all visitors (with the exception noted above for signatures displaying only once per page). If you do not wish to view other people's signatures or avatars, you can turn them off in the User CP. Under Settings & Controls, select Edit Options and scroll down to Thread Display Options. Uncheck Show Signatures, Show Avatars and/or Show Images to have these items hidden when you read the forums. Unchecking Show Images means that you will not see any images in posts at all.

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Guide to the ChatBox

If you want to talk to others in the ChatBox, you will need to be registered to this site. The chatbox is autorefresh, unlike other forums, where you have to keep pushing the refresh button. Enjoy talking to others!

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Guide to the User CP


Above shows the Control Panel under User CP.

Private Messages aka PMs
PMs are messages sent between users through the forum (instead of using email or IMs, for example). You can send another use a PM by clicking their username in a post. This will open a box like the one in the image below, giving you several options.

You select "Send a private message" from here and the reply window will open up. If you want to send the same message to multiple people at once (maximum of 5 people) separate the user names with a ';' (semicolon). You can also send PMs from someone's profile page under Contact Info. The third option is through your User CP, under Private Message and select Send a Message. You will need to manually enter the usernames into the To field.

New PMs

If you get a PM, it will have a bolded number on your PM tag next to Unread. To read it, you can click on Private Messages to go to your inbox and read any new messages there. The forum only allows you to have 50 messages total in your mailbox, which includes sent and received messages.

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Guide to Posting

Editing, Deleting, Quoting

* To delete your own post, click the edit button at the bottom right of it, then press delete.
* To edit, click the edit button
* To quote someone else's post, click the button that says quote with the pad and quill on it.
* To multi-quote someone else's post, click the button that has the quote symbol and a plus sign on it (multi-quote is when you wish to reply to more than one person at a time and wish to quote more than one post).


Double Posting
If you do double-post, it isn't the end of the world as long as they're two separate thoughts or separated by a significant period of time (longer than 15 minutes). If you wish to respond to multiple posts though, you can also use the multi-quote button and/or edit your post.

Closed Threads
If a thread hits 20 pages in length (at the default settings of 10 posts per page), a mod or admin will close it, and usually make another of the same name. This is to prevent overly long threads from getting out of hand and taking up too many board resources.

Reporting Posts
Since the forum staff is (mostly) human, we can't get everything. However, you can help by reporting any questionable post by pressing on the 'Report this Post' button on the top right of the post that looks like a white triangle, outlined in red, with an explanation point in it.

Post Count
Post count increases in all threads and forums except Games, General Chit Chat, Introductions, and the RP OOC Forum. Posts do increase in the Art Forum and the Debate Forum.

Seeing Post Counts
Under Members List, click on the Posts column. You should see an arrow pointing downward next to the word posts now. The first member has the most, the last on the list has the least. Clicking posts again will reverse the list, showing the fewest posts first and the most posts last.


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