Basic Forum Functions

[motub]

Here's how to do all kinds of ordinary things on the forums:

• See how many posts you have: click above any of your own posts.
  
• See where another member is from, and/or how many posts they have, and/or what they do or like, etc.: click above any post of the person you'd like to know about... but if they have not put such information in their profile, you won't get to find out
  
• email a member: click above any of that member's posts to get their email address (if they have entered one in their profile).
  
• email a moderator or the administrator: either click on above a post by said moderator, or better yet, go to the thread list of the forum they moderate and click on the link underneath the forum name where it says "moderated by": this will open up a email composition window already addressed.
  
• edit one of your own posts (you should always check your post when the thread reloads after you submit a reply-- you may often realize that you left something out, or your code is not displaying properly): click above your post that you want to edit. You can edit as many times as you like, but be aware that the line "[This message has been edited by (your usernick) (date edited).]" will be added each time you click the 'submit' button (during the reload of the thread)... so if you don't want to see it 600 times under your post, don't forget to delete the visible ones while you're editing, then you'll only have it one time (unavoidable-- which is a good thing). As it happens, I've had to edit this very post about 10 times, but you'd never know that, would you ?
  
• See how someone did something (made blinking text, made colored text, made big, blinking colored text, embedded a sound, etc.) or to re-use a graphic someone used in a post: click above the post that has the cool thing-- you won't be able to change anything, since you don't know the user's password, but you can see the HTML code, UBB code, or any links to graphics and copy and paste them into your own post, and then make any changes you might want or need to.
  
  But actually, please don't edit this post, even to view (that means you too, Jord)-- it contains iso8859-1 characters that will be converted to HTML on reload and I don't want that (whole lines will become unreadable, which isn't the point)-- unless you want to replace them yourself .
  
• Insert a personal graphic that's currently on your HDD: first upload the graphic to your ftp server. (If you have a homepage-- even if there's nothing on it-- you have an ftp server. Go to your ISP's FAQ to find out how to upload-- it will be in the part about how to create your homepage. Make sure to note the address {URL} of your homepage.) Once you have uploaded the picture (don't forget that most servers need their files in the old DOS format of 8 letter name.three letter extension-- no long filenames), in your post you want to put the following code: [img]address (URL) of your homepage (NOT the ftp address!)/name of the picture file.extension[/img]. When you submit the post, do wait and make sure the picture loads correctly!
  
  Embedding a sound works similarly in terms of uploading and linking to your own homepage, but must be done using HTML code, not UBB, and you'll have to look that up yourself .
  
• Insert a graphic from somewhere else on the Internet: As you may have noticed, I've used graphics from the MURC forums site itself (the "See Profile", "Email User", "Edit This Post" icons from the thread list screen, and the "very evil green grin" from the Reply To This Topic screen); you could also do so, or perhaps you've seen a picture on some other site you want to post (no smut, please! ). To do so, go to that picture and right-click on it (if you're using your mouse left handed, then left-click... basically, click with the other button)-- you will get a context menu which should include an option to copy the location of the image. Do so. Then in your post, put the image tags [img] [/img] as before, but between them paste the link to the picture file you just copied. Make sure there's no space between the UBB tags and the link, and you should be fine.
  
• Use the standard UBB emoticons: Yes, this list is in the UBB faq, but that isn't much help when you're in the 'Reply To Topic' Screen, so here it is again (memorize it ):
  
  To get , type :)
  To get , type :D
  To get , type &#59;)
  To get , type :(
  To get , type :o
  
  You'll have to edit posts to see where people get the other emoticons that you might see (they aren't UBB, they're links to graphics, using the [ img] [/img] image tags).

Do be sure to read the UBB faq (faq link at the top of most pages, after profile and register and preferences), and UBB Code Explained found at the bottom of the "Reply To Topic" and "Edit This Post" screens.

Also be aware that some simple HTML is often useful in filling gaps that UBB leaves (for instance, UBB can bold and italicize words, but not <u>underline</u> them-- to underline, you must use the HTML tags &#60;u&#62; &#60;/u&#62;. You may, of course, italicize, bold, and <u>underline the same text items</u>.

HTML has also been known to succeed where UBB fails... if your picture won't load using the UBB [img] [/img] image tags, try using the HTML tag &#60;A HREF="URL/filename.extension"(without the quotation marks, of course)&#62; &#60;/A&#62; instead.

Good luck, and happy posting!

-----------------
Holly


[This message has been edited by motub (edited 17 April 2000).]

[Jorden]

Thanks Holly

You might want to send me that whole story by email, so I can see how you did that?

Jord.