User Guide & FAQ

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Signing Up / Registering to the site

Firstly you will need to sign up to this site which is very easy. Just click ok the button top right of the page that says "Sign Up Now or Log In or Sign Up" then you will see this...

Fill in all your details that this page requires, from your email address (you will require a real email as you will need to confirm this at the next stage) to your time zone. Do not forget to read and agree to the "Terms of Service" by clicking on the tick box. Then click on "Sign Up".



This will then take you to a screen telling you that..."Your account is currently awaiting confirmation. Confirmation was sent to ....email@email.com" All you need to do to activate your account is to go to your email and click on the link in the email for this site.

 

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Logging In

To log in is easy. Just go to the top right and click on the button "Log In or Sign Up". Type in your user name or your email address into the top box then your password into the bottom box then click "Log In".

 

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What is an Avatar?


Avatars are small images that help to represent you on the forums and that appear next to every post you make and on your profile and profile card. Example of a profile card (you see this when you click on someones avatar in a post) is below. By default, the site does not have a personalized avatar picture upon registration, but there are exceptions. The situations are:


- Without a gender: this is a question mark.


- With a gender selected: you will get a default gender avatar; male or female icon.
- And of course, you could upload your own custom avatar.


The user does not have to think about resizing anything. In the avatar editor there's a preview of your uploaded avatar, you can move the mouse around here to refocus the square.

 

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Uploading Avatars


To upload an avatar go to the top of the page to your name and hover the mouse over it so you get a drop down box appear with a list of functions, click on Avatar.
A popup will appear, and you can upload your chosen picture to become your avatar from your computer. It is recommended that it is at least 200x200 pixels. Click on "Choose File" and select an image to use. Then click on "Okay" at the bottom.

 

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Trophies

Trophy point can be earned by carrying out certain actions like achieveing your first post. You can see your trophy points on your profile card or in your profile. The trophies you gain will vary from the example below but this will give you an idea of how it works.

Trophy point achievements can come with Trophy User titles. By default these go from New Member to Well-known Member.

 

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Profile Cards

A profile card is a small glimpse of a users profile and some of their details and looks like this when you click on their avatar on the forums;

 

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Alerts

Alerts are little notifications that you get in/on your alerts tab at the top right of the page. These will tell you everything from who just liked you post to telling you you have a new personal conversation. They look like this;

If you hover over the Alerts tab you will get a pop up like below, which will tell you your latests alerts.

You can click on each alert to gain more information or go to your alerts list by click on "Show All" at the bottom left of your alerts box. Also by going to Show All you can then go to "Alert Preferences" in which you can chose what you get alerts for.

 

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Likes

A "Like" is when you click the button "Like" on someones post. The "Like" button is found below each post on the forum itself (towards the right hand side). What is the point of the "Like"? It saves you the time of writing a reply such as: thanks, +1, I appreciate it, etc. You can click on "like", and it alerts the person who wrote the post that you liked it. The alert will be sent to the users alert notification screen mentioned in the post above.

The Like button on posts have nothing to do with facebook. Any registered user has the ability to Like a post.

 

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Starting a New Discussion(Thread)

Click on the forum that you want to post in. Read the descriptions on the forum list, and decide what forum your topic would make the most sense in. If you're unsure, just pick the area that makes the most sense to you. A staff member can move the topic to a more appropriate area easily.

Then at the top right there is a button titled "Post New Thread", just click on this and it will take you to this screen below. Just use this area as if you were composing an email to someone. Insert a title, (similar to how you'd insert a subject to an email), and then below that enter the main part of your message or question to the site.

Add in your title to your thread ie; "Hello I'm new". Then type into the box underneath. When you are done with your message and want to post it click on the "Create Thread" button just below. This will create a basic thread with no polls or pictures.

 

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Replying to a Post

At the bottom of the page there is a Post Reply Box where you can type into, add media and/or pictures, and go to more options if needed. Then click on the "Post Reply" button underneath. The post box will look like this but have your avatar at the side...

 

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Where is the quote button - How do I quote posts?

Unlike vbulletin, there is no set "Quote" button. To quote a post, just click on the "Reply" button found below that users post. It will take that users post, and it will insert it into the quick reply box at the bottom of the site. If you're looking to quote an additional post or posts, you can scroll back up, and click reply again. Your content will be added into the reply box at the bottom. This is essentially the way in which you'd multi-quote in a thread.

 

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Smilies

Smilies are small images that you can use in your post to help express an emotion. As of writing this post, smilies are located just above the :"post reply" button on posts. Clicking the text "smilies" will make the menu drop down with a listing of smilies. Click the smilies tab again to make the smilies box collapse until you need it again.

 

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Reporting a Post

There may come a time when you feel the need to report a post to the staff for example; abuse, spam or trolling. To do this just click on the "Report" which is to be found at the bottom of the post in question. This will bring up a box like this one;

Then just fill in your reasons for reporting the post and click on "Report Post" button. The staff will recieve your report and handle the situation from there.

 

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Polls and how to create one

A poll is when you create a post that people can vote for their favorite option. To do this, create a new thread. As you scroll down to the bottom, you will see the option for creating a poll. Which looks like this;

Fill in the Questions and possible responses that you want people to choose from. If you need to add more choices then just click on the "Add Additional Response" button as many times as you need to. Pick the options you wish to include in your poll, and click the Create Thread button.

 

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Uploading Media Files Like You Tube

When you post in a thread you have the ability to upload media files from places such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook. To do this you will find an icon looking like a filmstrip. When you hover your mouse over it, it will say "media". All you have to do, is click that icon, and a new popup will appear. In that box, enter the URL into the space provided and click on "Embed".

Type the remainder of the message if needed, and click "post reply". Your media will show up when the page loads.

 

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Uploading a Picture to a Post

There are a few different ways of uploading a picture to a post. To upload a picture from the internet just click on the small icon of the "tree". This will bring up a pop up where you can insert your link to your image, then click on "Insert".


Or

To upload a picture from your computer click on "Upload a FIle" (This can be found at the bottom right hand side of the screen when you're creating a thread, or replying to a post) This brings up a pop up where you can click "Choose File" and browse your own computer for the picture you want. Once upladed you can choose the Thumbnail size or Full Image in the post. Then click "Post Reply." Note that the picture will be automatically resized to fit the post space if needed.

 

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Your Account Preferences

You will find all your account preferences just under your name in the top right. If you hover over your username this will appear;

As you can see from the picture you can edit everything from your avatar, to your privacy preferences here. All you need to do is to click on the section you want to go to. From there, a new page will open where you can edit your account options. This is similar to the control panel, or "usercp" found on some web forums.

 

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How do I subscribe to a thread without posting in it?

At the top right of each thread, there will be text that says :"watch thread". By clicking on this, you are essentially "subscribing" (term used on other forum software) -to the thread. After clicking, you have the option to watch the thread with or without. email alerts. You will still receive an "alert" on your account if others reply to the thread you're watching. If you no longer wish to receive alerts or emails on the thread, just click "Unwatch thread" -( which will be in place of "watch thread").

 

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Your Profile

To get to your profile, firstly click on your name at the top right to bring down your preferences. Click on your name, and this will take you to your profile page.

From here, you can see everything from who is following you to your status updates.

Similar to other social media sites, you can post a comment for users to see. Similar to a status on facebook, users can see this when clicking on your profile. This can be found at the center of your page. It will say - "update your status". Typing in that box will update the status. Tell users what you're doing, what's on your mind etc.

From here, you can also see your recent activity, recent posts, & your information. To view all the threads you've started, click on "recent posts", and scroll to the bottom. It has a link at the bottom saying: "Find All Threads By".

You can alter some of the information shown to users by going into your preferences. Info below.

 

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Your Preferences

To get to your preferences then just hover on your name in the top right and then click Preferences. From here you can change everything from your personal details to your alert preferences. Just click on the tab on the left to take you to that page of options. It is worth going throught them from top to bottom to ammend or check them on a regular basis.

Let's start at the top.

Your Account

Your Alerts ; This will show you your recent alert activity. You can get alerts for everythingfrom who is following you to who liked a post of yours.

Your News Feed ; This will show you what others are up to that you follow.

Likes Recieved ; This will show you all the likes you have recieved, from who and for what post.

Watched Threads ; This will list for you all your watched threads.

Personal Conversations: (these are similar to PM's or private messages on other sites)

View Conversations ; This will list all the personal conversations that you have been involved with.

Start a New Conversation ; Does what it says, it gives you the chance to start a new conversation.

Settings

Personal Details ; This is where you can edit everything from your gender to your home page. Just remember to click save at the bottom.

Contact Details ; From here you can ammend you email address associated to the account if needed and you can also add your identities like twitter to your profile, so people can contact you on a social network.

Privacy ; Here you can decide if people can see your online status or even who may see your profile.

Preferences ; This is where you can choose to view other peoples signatures or change the style you are viewing.

Alert Preferences ; Here you can ammed the alerts that you recieve. Everything from who likes your post to recieveing a new trophy.

People you Follow ; This will list everyone that you follow.

Facebook Integration ; Associating with Facebook makes it easier to share interesting things with your friends and import content from Facebook here.

Password ; You can change your password here.