Getting the Most out of the New Forum

[Billy Kingsley]

As I mentioned last night in my response to the sticky thread Gregg started, I find this forum to be much better then PhP, which the forum had been on, and, as I delve into it more, I realize the style and features in the new Model Cars Magazine forum out perform and outclass EVERY other board I post on...including the ones that I personally own and or operate! (That's about 30 that I visit at least once a month)

I thought I'd whip up some tips and hints to help people better make use of all this new board has to offer.

Segment One: Post making additions

1) We have all new emoticons, or smileys. They are different from the PhP forum and several of them move.

2) You now have the ability to put in a small description of your thread when you start it. This is optional but it may help people decided if they wish to view your thread or not.

3) Insertable objects: All the insertibles from the old board remain, but several have been added on top of that! Here are some new features :

• You can now center text.
  
• You can now right align text. I don't know why you'd want or need to but you can.
  

• You can use the Spoiler feature, which works great if talking about the most recent race or anything else that some folks may not want to see right away.

  (Hint: Highlight the black box)
  

• You can insert acronyms, although I can't comprehend why someone would use code to type out "Laugh Out Load" to make it appear as LOL, instead of just typing LOL. But, you could do it if you wanted to!
  
• There are now 19 different fonts to use!
  
• And 40 different colors!
  
• And, as you can tell, you now have the capability to add lists to your posts!
  
• There is also a spell checker but it needs to be downloaded to your hard drive, something I’m not fond of.
  
  4) You can now add post icons to your post. They are smiley faces and the like that appear on the actual board, not just in the message.
  
  5) The attachment system looks totally different, but I don't need to use that because I have a Fotki account, so I can't give any help or ideas with that. Sorry.
  
  Section 2: Your Profile
  If you've clicked on anyone's name since the board moved, you can see that the profile sections looks totally different.
  
  6) You now have the ability to post a personal photo. This is separate from your avatar, and must be hosted on your computer. It must also be pretty small, I use the thumbnail size version from Fotki. People see this when they view your profile and they also see this when the pull down the small box at your name with each post (I'll get to that later on)
  
  7) Info: Underneath your photo you have the option of showing various personal info or whatever you want to be seen. You can post a personal comment, a link to your website (HINT: If you have more then one website, put the link in your personal comment space), your real name, your status on the board, and your age. Your interests appear there too, and the new feature of what scale you build. It has only room for one, though. Underneath that is your board statistics, listing when you joined, how many times your profile has been viewed, your last activity on the board, your local time (which is set to California time automatically, I've not tried to change it yet but I'm sure you can set it to your local time), how many posts you've made and the average of how many you post per day. Below that is your messenger information. It has space for AOL, Yahoo, ICQ and MSN messengers. At the very bottom of that column in the left is the "send message" tag, which you use to send a "PM". Many of these things are optional, although not all.
  
  8) Threads. In the middle of your profile screen is a showing of the threads you've started, by default. It shows 4 but I don't think they are my most recent 4 in that one is over a year old and I know I've started more threads then that!
  
  You can, however, click through the various tabs at the top of the thread section and see other things. You can see:
  
  • All posts you've made
    
  • A gallery of images you've uploaded to the board itself (NOT images you have linked to on a remote host like Fotki)
    
  • Your own personal blog
    
  • Comments people can leave for you to see
    
  • Your friends list (More on this later)
    
  • and "My Content", which you can use to edit some of the things I've just described.
    
    9) Friends and visitors. On the far right hand side of your screen, you can see the most recent people who have visited your profile. This updates when someone clicks on it, unlike most things that need a refresh to be seen. I don't know how many it holds, because only 2 people have looked at my profile on the new forum!
    
    Underneath that, you can see comments people leave for you.
    
    Below that, you see a list of friends.
    
    All the above in this section can be toggled by clicking the "My Controls" at the very top right of any page on the message board.
    
    That leads me into Segment Three: Additional features
    
    10) When you read someone's post, you can move your mouse or cursor over to the person's name at the top of the their post. A small shadowbox appears with an arrow at the right. Click that. It gives you several options.
    
    From there, you can:
    
    • Look at their profile
      
    • Add them as a friend
      
    • send them a private message
      
    • find the topics they have started
      
    • find the most recent posts they have made.
      

    11) Additionally, in your Control Panel, if there is someone you don't like or has cheated you on a deal or whatever the case may be, you can block them...meaning, you don't see their posts on the message board until you choose to un-block them. You can also stop people from sending you Private Messages if you wish. You CANNOT, however, block administrators or moderators.

    12) When looking at a post, at the very top right there is an "Options" button. If you click on that you can:

    [*]Subscribe to the topic (so it is very easy to find later)

    [*]email the topic

    [*]print the topic

    [*]download the topic to your computer

    [*]And do some stuff I'm not sure on yet: Subscribe to the forum

    [*]Switch to Outline+

    [*]Switch to Linear+

    The terms "Topic", "Thread" and "Post" are all interchangeable, by the way.

    I hope that helps you better understand, enjoy, and utilize all the features this new board has to offer. It's new now but in time I'm sure you'll find the features to far exceed the ones that the old PhP forum had.

    Thanks!

    Billy

[cruz]

Wow!!!!! Very informative, thank you..........

[Gregg]

Couldn't have said it better myself, thanks, Billy!

[PatRedmond]

Oh yeah, this place now has TONS of customizable stuff !!

[bsoder]

Let me say this looks great and is a definate "upgrade"...very helpful info Billy..one thing, I found and I posted it here in a seperate topic,is when I clicked on the to enlarge photo nothing happened..apparently my POP-UP blocker was the problem and by "allowing" pop ups on this site the function now works..now if I could find the allow Brian to type better function

[Jairus]

We aim to please, don't we Gregg?

[Zoom Zoom]

Nice features.

I've even fired up the "ignore user" feature for one lucky individual

[Jairus]

Me?

(Oh.... I guess you cannot read this if you did....)