New forums, New options, Now we're looking around bewildered

[Jorden]

Okay, in the coming days I will be filtering some of the new forum options in here, and what you can do with them

First off we start with the email notification and the thread subscription.
To kill email notification for any thread you have participated in, go to User CP above every page, then choose Edit Options and look for something saying Use 'Email Notification' by default?. Set this one to No

That will kill off the email notification for any thread you've been in. SteveC might love this function, but we're not all SteveC's, are we

To unsubscribe from all threads you've participated in, and you don't want to see who has emailed in after you, use this link: http://forums.murc.ws//member2.php?a...type=allthread

You can find this link in all the emails send to you as well

More to come fore sure in the coming days

Jord.

[Jorden]

f.a.q.

Another way to look through the functions of the new forums is to check out the FAQs regularly

Jord.

[Jorden]

User CP -> Edit Options

Ofcourse most of what you find in these options is explained there, but I want to bet most of you haven't gone there yet

Invisible Mode? - I wonder if you can post then... someone who wants to test this and PM me?
Enable Private Messaging? - Usefull, and as Frankfurt told me, why use IRC or ICQ when we have this?
Send you an email when you receive a Private Message? - I can't get this one disabled. Someone check into this?
Pop up a box when you receive a Private Message? - works in Mozilla and Netscape as well !! PM me about other browser please
Default Posts per Thread: - I set it to 40, but I've seen other PHP forums where you can have 100 threads per page. Not to nag
Time offset: - Please set this time offset to your own time, because otherwise we'll be hearing that the server is off by 4 hours or whatever all the time !!

Avatar:
Avatars are small graphical images that you may choose in your profile. They are displayed below your username on all posts that you make. You can select the image that best describes yourself from your profile options.

If you have more than 0 posts, you may also specify your own custom avatar.
- They seem to work okay

Jord.

[Jorden]

Calendar

Some of you have found the Calendar already. How do you see when you have your own birthday, and how does the new Board know about that?

Go back to User CP and this time Edit Profile. Scroll down until you come across the Birthdate option. Fill it in and voila, you can find your birthday in the Calendar

Jord.

[Jorden]

Membernames

Want to look up how many member names you got? That's not possible, but you can check on any member name you have in your possession

Click members above and then go for the Advanced Search ... Just type in the nick you want to search for, and press submit.

This is also the search tool for anyone that isn't a moderator, thus not showing on the main fori page. From here you can Private Message someone, email him/her, or put him/her to your buddy list.

I'm not sure yet what advantages there are to the buddy list, so that's for the future

Jord.

[Jorden]

Seperate forum options

If found out that you don't need to go to the whole first forum page everytime. Ofcourse, making a link to every forum you frequent is an option. It's also optional to subscribe to threads, but here's another option you can follow.
You can seperate the forums by clicking on their general group name, being Hardware, Software and MURC Life.

Here's what you'll see then, and you can bookmark them easily





I do wonder though: Shouldn't Matrox Gaming these days be in MURC Software?

Jord.

[Jorden]

Cumbersome, but it works

The keys in the reply boxes are a little cumbersome.
Have you tried to type a piece of text yet, then resize it, then color it, then give it a different font, and then tried to italicize it?

He're goes a lesson...

I want to type MURC in Size 4, color of something pink, font Century, so what do I do? I open up the box SIZE and choose Huge and then type MURC, giving me: MURC

Now I need to CUT OUT the MURC text and put it in the color box chosing my color, then put it back here with the size options. I'll copy it for this time
MURC

Now I need to cut out all of that code and put it in the font box:
MURC

And to Itilacize it? I could copy the whole jimjam to put it through the Italicize box, but no way. It took me look enough already to do this, so I'll add the html codes myself

MURC

Pfew... This is no fun, if you can't choose size, font and color at the same time

Jord.

[Jorden]

More on User CP -> Edit options

Invisible Mode? - Can you post while using it? Yes, you can. It's just that your name won't show up on the list of people on the forums. It still shows up in the Buddy List though.

Automatically login when you return to the site? (uses cookies) - Usefull. No more need for your browser to keep your login name and password stored, it's now all done with cookies. Ofcourse, if you set cookies off in your browser, you will have to login every time you get here. Same goes if you set this option to No.

Send you an email when you receive a Private Message? - I finally got it disabled. I needed to logout and login again. If you have trouble with it, try that solution

Show user's signatures in their posts? - Yeeeehaaaa, finally we're being able to get rid of the long sigs some people have. Or with the new vBulletin Board, the pictures. Set this option to no, if you don't want to see other people's sigs!

Show user's avatar in their posts? - short on bandwidth, browsing with your new Nokia Communicator II? Set this feature to No and you won't see all the spinning and moving (and probably annoying) avatars that everyone is using.

Show image attachments and [img] code in Posts? - Setting this one to No, will show a hyperlink instead of the picture. Very usefull when you're down on bandwidth.

Use vBCode quick links on your message input screens? - Setting this option to No will rid you of all the cumbersome boxes and options to click, giving you a clean answerbox, where you have to fill in all the html codes yourself, just as in the old days

Jord.

[Jorden]

Avatars? What are they again and how do I add one?

An avatar is a small picture, with a maximumn size of 50x50 pixels, or a maximum filesize of 19kb (20000 bytes).
This avatar can be a moving gif file, or a static jpg file.

How do you upload one to be shown on the forums?

There are two possible ways. One is where you use webspace of your own, and upload the avatar to, then link it in the "enter an URL of your avatar:" box.

The other way is easier. Just make a picture 50x50 pixels, save it to anywhere on your harddrive and use the "You can upload an avatar from your computer:" box. This avatar is then stored on the forums computer.

Hope this clears it up a little

More ofcourse in the F.A.Q.

Jord.

[Jorden]

Editing an avatar!

I got a question from Dillitante how to make your own avatar.

I'll try to guide him through it.

First off you would need a static .gif or .jpg or moving .gif file.
I'll start off with the static .jpg or .gif file.

<Paint Shop Pro</u>
If you have an edition of PSP on your PC, you can edit any static (non-moving) picture into an avatar you want to use.

Start up PSP and click File, Open and go to where you have your favorite picture.
When it opens in the main screen, make sure you click the picture so it's the first open window.

Choose the following selection:
Image -> Resize, and just bring down the size until both amounts are at 50 pixels or below 50 pixels.

Save this new file through File->Save As... and title, then check if the picture is under 20,000 bytes (about 19k). If it isn't, go back to PSP and resize it to below 50x50 pixels. I have found that most static pictures work best at 47hx49v pixels.
<hr>
A moving picture?
That's easy as well. If you have one of the latest PSP's you should be equiped with an Animation Shop as well.

Open AnSh and load the moving .gif file through File->Open
Your .gif should be visible in the screen now as a couple of seemingly the same pictures next to eachother. These are called frames, but are of no interest to you for now.

Go to Animation and then to Resize Animation. Resize the animation until it's around 50x50 pixels, with either number being within the 50.

Save your new avatar as a .gif file again, following all the rules that AnSh gives you through saving it.

Check again if the size is under 20,000 bytes, if not, return to AnSh to edit it again.
<hr>
Now you have your almost own avatar
And you want the rest to see it.

Just follow the rules above to upload your avatar to the MURC's server, or upload it to your own site and link from it there.

If you have any questions, please ask

Jord.