Post by Rose on Feb 9, 2006 12:56:49 GMT
Hey, some people are less familiar than others with the way these boards work, so I'm gonna go over the basics on here. Some of it's pretty self-evident, some of it isn't, I'll just shove everything I can think of on here and hope for the best.
PMs/IMs/Messages
PMs = Private Messages
IMs = Instant Messages
Messages = er, Messages...
These are all different terms for the same thing.
If you look at the top right hand corner of your screen it should say 'Hey, Rose (or whatever your username is), you have 0 messages, 0 are new'. If you click on the '0 messages' it will take you to your inbox. If you have any messages, they will be there.
These are private messages that no one else can see.
They are listed in date order, with the most recent at the top. You click on it to read it.
To reply to a message - on the top right hand side of the message are three buttons: Reply, Quote, Delete.
Reply, funnily enough, is what you click to reply to the message. Quote will put that message into quote marks in a reply message, so you can quote them back at themselves in your reply (best to try that out to see what I mean) and Delete deletes the message from your inbox.
When writing a new message, or replying to one, there are three fields to fill in:
Subject:
To:
Add Message:
Subject is the name of your message, which is what shows up on the main page of their inbox.
To is who the message goes to - you have to put their username in here, if you're sending to more than one, separate them with commas - zoe,cryurchin for example.
Message is your message. There are a load of buttons, labelled Tags, for making your message bold or italic and so on. When you click on these it gives you the tags you need. These will appear in the form of <b></b> except with [ instead of < and ] instead of >. You need to put whatever you want to be Bold or Italic or whatever inbetween those two, thus: <b>this writing here will be bold</b>
You don't need to use the buttons, you can simply use <b> <i> <u> <s> and so on, once you've got the hand of them. There are lots of buttons for more complicated stuff, just fiddle around and you should get the hang of them.
There are also emoticons - click on them to put them into your message.
At the bottom there are a series of buttons: Send Personal Message, Preview, Spell Check, Reset.
Send will send it, Preview will show you how it will look to the recipient without actually sending it, so you can adjust anything as necessary, and reset clears the box so you can start again if you don't like what you've written.
Posting on the Boards:
There are 4 different boards (or 5 if you're a moderator). These have explanations of what they're all for underneath the title. Click on the title to go to the actual board. This will give you a list of threads, with the most recent at the top. Important messages will have been stickied, so they are always at the top even if they're not recent.
Click on a title to view the messages - it lists them in order, with the most recent at the bottom, with the name of who posted it on the left.
If you click reply it adds another message to the thread (Reply is at the bottom right). You add messages in the same way you write PMs, basically.
There is also a Quick Reply box, without all the buttons, at the bottom, which you can reply in without having to open a new page.
If you want to start a new thread, click 'New Thread' while you have the list of threads in front of you (top right). You can also make polls in this manner.
Profile:
Along the top, just underneath your Private Messages, are a set of buttons - Home Help Search Members Calendar Profile Logout. (Or similar.) These are pretty self explanatory. I recommend you click on Profile, then click on Modify Profile at the top, and there are a load of fields you can fill in. Here is where you can put an avatar up - a picture that displays next to your name whenever you post. You can either select a picture from the list, or provide a URL to your picture, if you've put it up on your webspace, or on www.imageshack.us or somewhere similar. The site will shrink it to the right size for you.
Signatures are little pieces of text displayed underneath every message you write. If you choose to have one, please keep it relatively short.
All of these options have little explanations on the right hand side, in case you are unsure what they do.
Click Modify Profile (at the bottom) when you're done.
Calendar:
You can add events to the calendar by clicking on 'Add Events' (top right). Everyone will be able to view these. Useful for adding events like trips to plays, people's birthdays, and so on.
--
I've probably missed lots, but that's all that springs to mind.
If you're wondering why it says Plebeian Scum under your name... there are set titles according to how many times you've posted on the boards. I've set them so they go:
Plebeian Scum
Bourgeoisie
Grand Vizier
Behemoth
Yahweh.
PMs/IMs/Messages
PMs = Private Messages
IMs = Instant Messages
Messages = er, Messages...
These are all different terms for the same thing.
If you look at the top right hand corner of your screen it should say 'Hey, Rose (or whatever your username is), you have 0 messages, 0 are new'. If you click on the '0 messages' it will take you to your inbox. If you have any messages, they will be there.
These are private messages that no one else can see.
They are listed in date order, with the most recent at the top. You click on it to read it.
To reply to a message - on the top right hand side of the message are three buttons: Reply, Quote, Delete.
Reply, funnily enough, is what you click to reply to the message. Quote will put that message into quote marks in a reply message, so you can quote them back at themselves in your reply (best to try that out to see what I mean) and Delete deletes the message from your inbox.
When writing a new message, or replying to one, there are three fields to fill in:
Subject:
To:
Add Message:
Subject is the name of your message, which is what shows up on the main page of their inbox.
To is who the message goes to - you have to put their username in here, if you're sending to more than one, separate them with commas - zoe,cryurchin for example.
Message is your message. There are a load of buttons, labelled Tags, for making your message bold or italic and so on. When you click on these it gives you the tags you need. These will appear in the form of <b></b> except with [ instead of < and ] instead of >. You need to put whatever you want to be Bold or Italic or whatever inbetween those two, thus: <b>this writing here will be bold</b>
You don't need to use the buttons, you can simply use <b> <i> <u> <s> and so on, once you've got the hand of them. There are lots of buttons for more complicated stuff, just fiddle around and you should get the hang of them.
There are also emoticons - click on them to put them into your message.
At the bottom there are a series of buttons: Send Personal Message, Preview, Spell Check, Reset.
Send will send it, Preview will show you how it will look to the recipient without actually sending it, so you can adjust anything as necessary, and reset clears the box so you can start again if you don't like what you've written.
Posting on the Boards:
There are 4 different boards (or 5 if you're a moderator). These have explanations of what they're all for underneath the title. Click on the title to go to the actual board. This will give you a list of threads, with the most recent at the top. Important messages will have been stickied, so they are always at the top even if they're not recent.
Click on a title to view the messages - it lists them in order, with the most recent at the bottom, with the name of who posted it on the left.
If you click reply it adds another message to the thread (Reply is at the bottom right). You add messages in the same way you write PMs, basically.
There is also a Quick Reply box, without all the buttons, at the bottom, which you can reply in without having to open a new page.
If you want to start a new thread, click 'New Thread' while you have the list of threads in front of you (top right). You can also make polls in this manner.
Profile:
Along the top, just underneath your Private Messages, are a set of buttons - Home Help Search Members Calendar Profile Logout. (Or similar.) These are pretty self explanatory. I recommend you click on Profile, then click on Modify Profile at the top, and there are a load of fields you can fill in. Here is where you can put an avatar up - a picture that displays next to your name whenever you post. You can either select a picture from the list, or provide a URL to your picture, if you've put it up on your webspace, or on www.imageshack.us or somewhere similar. The site will shrink it to the right size for you.
Signatures are little pieces of text displayed underneath every message you write. If you choose to have one, please keep it relatively short.
All of these options have little explanations on the right hand side, in case you are unsure what they do.
Click Modify Profile (at the bottom) when you're done.
Calendar:
You can add events to the calendar by clicking on 'Add Events' (top right). Everyone will be able to view these. Useful for adding events like trips to plays, people's birthdays, and so on.
--
I've probably missed lots, but that's all that springs to mind.
If you're wondering why it says Plebeian Scum under your name... there are set titles according to how many times you've posted on the boards. I've set them so they go:
Plebeian Scum
Bourgeoisie
Grand Vizier
Behemoth
Yahweh.