Kurgan the Lurker Posted November 4, 2006 Share Posted November 4, 2006 Posting a New Topic Now we get down to the meat?n?potatoes of the board, posting new topics, replies and basically being a part of the B&C community. So, how do you post a new topic? Pretty simple really, press the ?New Topic? button and follow the instructions below. Note that the ?New Topic? button appears in many places, for example at the top and bottom of any thread you are viewing or at the top of a forum index page. There are 2 simple rules to follow for posting a new topic. First you must have a title for the thread; second you must enter text, images or quotes in the message body. Topic Title: The title of your thread goes here. Make it descriptive so folks know what the thread is about. The title appears in red as a clickable link in the forum index. Topic Description: Provides space for further description or sub-titling of the thread where necessary. The description appears in grey directly below your thread title in the forum index. Message Box: This is where the body of your topic goes. You can also quote other users, post links or images to this area. Resizing the Message Box The size of the message box can be adjusted by clicking the + or ? boxes at the bottom of the box. Guided Mode: Guided Mode will help you with some of the fancy tricks you can use in the message box like italic or bold fonts, it can be turned on or off by using the Guided Mode Enabled/Guided Mode Off box at the bottom left of the message box. When in guided mode using functions such as quotes or bold text is simplified, simply click the tool you wish to use and enter the text you wish to be use with the tool. For example to make text bold simply click the B icon and enter the text you wish to appear as bold. Please note this option is only available if you are using the standard text editor rather than rich (set in your userCP under board settings). http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/images/guidemode.jpg The same methodology can be applied to the other functions of the message box. Check Post Length: Ensures your post is within the limits set by the board. Topic Options: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/images/topicoptions.jpg There are several options for how you interact with the Topic itself (whether it is one you have posted or one you are reading). These are found in the OPTIONS drop down menu in a topic (see picture above). Track This Topic: This will take you to your Forum Subscriptions Section. Email This Topic: This will take you to a field page to email a link of the topic to someone you know - http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/images/emailtopic.jpg Download This Topic: This will take you to where you can select three optios for printing/downloading. MS Word, HTML and "printer friendly". Subscribe to this Forum: As with Track This Topic this will take you to your Subscriptions page. The difference being you are subscribing to the entire forum section rather than just the topic. DISPLAY OPTIONS The Topic Options Display Mode menu also allows you to change how you view the Bolter and Chainsword forum. Standard: This is the default setting: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/images/standard.jpg Outline: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/images/outline.jpg Linear: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/images/linear.jpg Post Options Below the Message Box are 3 Post Options Enable Emoticons ? Emoticons are also called ?smilies? and are the small faces you can see at the left of the message box. Turning this option on or off will allow or disallow the use of emoticons in your post. We recommend you leave this option on as emoticons can be a useful tool for conveying tone and intent over the internet, something often troublesome with text alone. Enable Signature Allows you to attach your signature to your post or not. Please see our help section on Signatures for more information on signatures. Enable email notification of replies Allows you to enable or disable email notification from the board with regards to replies to your topic. Please see the B&C 101?s section on Email Notification for more information. Post Icons You can also choose a post icon for new topics you create. This is the image that will appear next to your topic title on the forum index page. Post New Topic button Clicking this button will post your new topic to the forum. We recommend you Preview your post before doing so though, see below for more information. Preview Post button Clicking this button will ?post? your new topic to the top of the Post New Topic page you?re viewing. This will allow you to check your post is formatted as you want it as well as giving you one last chance to check things like spelling, grammar, whether or not the links you?ve posted are the right Spam Control To help cut down on Spam and unnecessary bumping of posts we have imposed a 60 second limit on posting. This means if you attempt to reply to your own post within 60 seconds it will be auto merged into your first post. If someone else replies to your post and then you reply it will still be a new post rather than merged. Post count gains you no titles here so there is no need to bump, 1 word reply or reply to reply if you screw up or forget something. Say what you have to say and if you need to add to it, use the edit button if your post is still the most recent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurgan the Lurker Posted November 4, 2006 Author Share Posted November 4, 2006 BBCode BBCode is a function of the B&C that allows users to customise text, create lists, add images and links and so forth. For help with using BBCode please follow this link or click the 'BB Code Help' link below the smilies on the New Topic or Reply pages. This page will explain to you the BBCode you need to type in order to obtain certain effects. Note that in addition to manually using BBCode you can use the shortcut buttons at the top of the New Post or Reply pages. To use a text function simply type what you want into the text box then highlight it and click the function you wish to apply to the selected text. You can apply multiple effects by re-highlighting the text and choosing a further option. To add links or images to a post click the appropriate icon and enter the URL of the linki/image you wish to add to your post in the pop-up box that will appear. Note that for links you will be asked to 'Enter title of webpage' after you've entered the URL, please type in an apprpriate description of the page you are linking to. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/images/buttons.jpg You may also add email addresses to posts but we recommend that you do not do so as providing your email address in readily accessible public forums more often brings unwanted attention (such as spam email) than the information or responses you were after. Mousing over the various icons will tell you what they do. Add Reply The Add Reply button allows you to reply to a thread. Clicking Add Reply will load a new page with a variety of functions: Post Options Below the Message Box are 3 Post Options Enable Emoticons ? Emoticons are also called ?smilies? and are the small faces you can see at the left of the message box. Turning this option on or off will allow or disallow the use of emoticons in your post. We recommend you leave this option on as emoticons can be a useful tool for conveying tone and intent over the internet, something often troublesome with text alone. Enable Signature Allows you to attach your signature to your post or not. Please see our help section on Signatures for more information on signatures. Enable email notification of replies Allows you to enable or disable email notification from the board with regards to replies to your topic. Please see the B&C 101?s section on Email Notification for more information. Post Icons You can also choose a post icon for new topics you create. This is the image that will appear next to your topic title on the forum index page. Add Reply button Clicking this button will post your new topic to the forum. We recommend you Preview your post before doing so though, see below for more information. Preview Post button Clicking this button will ?post? your new topic to the top of the Post New Topic page you?re viewing. This will allow you to check your post is formatted as you want it as well as giving you one last chance to check things like spelling, grammar, whether or not the links you?ve posted are the right ones etc. Fast Reply The Fast Reply box simply opens a text box at the bottom of the current page, allowing you to add a response to the thread without having to load a reply page. The Fast Reply box is fully functional, that is you can link, post italic text and everything else you can do in a normal reply, however you are required to manually input the BBCode for such functions as the Fast Reply box offers no shortcuts for such things. http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/images/fastreply.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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