Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- forum_community_guide [2023/02/18 16:27] – melon
+++ forum_community_guide [2025/02/02 02:55] (current) – [Managing Your Profile :-D] melon
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 Forums have four levels of organization:
-  * **Categories**: These are the overall themes that group the boards together. For example, the category "World Wide Web" contains boards related websites and life online!
+  * **Categories**: These are the overall themes that group the boards together. For example, the category "World Wild Web" contains boards related websites and life online!
   * **Boards**: These are like rooms, where you can find topics related to a specific subject.
   * **Topics**: These are the talking points or threads that anyone can create. For example, the topic "How did you come up with your username?" is a question that invites replies from other users.
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 ===== Creating topics :-) =====
-To create a topic, you need to go to the board where you want to topic and click the **New Topic** button. You will then be able to write a subject and a message for your topic and pick an icon for it. You can also use BBCode to format your text, add images, links, videos, and more. If you prefer to use a WYSIWYG editor; click the last icon on the editors icon list to switch to visual mode!
+To create a topic, you need to go to the board where you want the topic to be, and click the **New Topic** button. You will then be able to write a subject and a message for your topic and pick an icon for it. You can also use [[bbcode|BBCode]] to format your text, add images, links, videos, and more. If you prefer to use a WYSIWYG editor; click the last icon on the editors icon list to switch to visual mode!
 You can preview your topic before submitting it by clicking the **Preview** button.
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 ==== Keeping the forum usable for others :-[ ====
-Forums are early web technology and there are a few things to be mindful of.
+Forums are early web technology so its important to be mindful that this forum will not automatically format your images so that they load quickly like Discord will. Please resize your images so they are not too big before posting them on the forum! - You will also need to be able to host your own images to display on the forum! You can use image hosting services like imgbb or imgbox - however, these services are not recommended as they have previously burned people and deleted images.
-This forum will not automatically format your images so that they load quickly like Discord or Facebook will. Please resize your images so they are not too big before posting them on the forum! - You will also need to be able to host your own images to display on the forum! You can use an image hosting service like Imgur or your own site, which I recommend.
+==== Quotes :~O ====
+You can quote others using the quote, multi-quote or select quote features! Multi-Quote allows you to quote multiple people in a single post! If you select the text of someone else's message you can create a select post.
+**An important note:** If you are quoting a big post; its bad etiquette to include the entire post in your quote; please edit your quotes down to just a sentence or two ~ this avoids spamming up threads and the forums storage ^^ You can also use @ mentions to more generally respond to someone.
+==== Drafts :~) ====
+If your topic is incomplete or you'd like to wait a while before posting it, you can save it as a Draft, just click the **Save as Draft** button, this can be done on new topics or replies. You can access a list of drafts on your profile, you'll also see your drafts below the editor when making new posts! Your drafts are private and no one can see them but you, they will be saved forever until you post them or delete them.
+**Micro-Drafts** - In addition to full drafts, the forum also saves micro-drafts automatically - if you accidentally close the editor or leave a page as you're typing, you can return to it and your text should still be there waiting for you! These micro-drafts are saved in your browser and delete themselves after 24 hours or when you clear browser data.
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 ===== Replying to topics :-o =====
-To reply to a topic, you need to go to the topic where you want to reply and click the **Leave a Reply** button. You can also use the **Quote** buttons, or highlight text to quote it! At the bottom of the page you'll also find a dropdown that lets you **Quick Reply** without leaving the page.
+To reply to a topic, you need to go to the topic where you want to reply and click the **Leave a Reply** button. You can also use the **Quote** buttons, or __highlight text to quote it__! At the bottom of the page you'll also find a dropdown that lets you **Quick Reply** without leaving the page.
   * A reply can just be a sentence, or something much longer and formatted like a topic, that's up to you. Keep in mind that a forum is not a chatroom so you should put a bit of time into replies!
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 ===== Managing Your Profile :-D =====
-To edit your profile, you need to click the "Profile" tab on the top right corner of the page. You will then be able to change your avatar, signature, personal text, and more. You can also click the "Ultimate Profile" tab to add an About Me, Interests and even theme your profile with CSS!
+To edit your profile, you need to click the **Profile** icon on the top right corner of the page. You will then be able to change your avatar, signature, personal text, and more. You can also click the "About Me / Profile" tab to add an About Me, Interests and even theme your profile with [[forum_css|CSS]]!
 ==== Set default style for your posts ====
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 The forum has a gift system ; click **View Gifts** on anyone's profile, to view them. Gifts are a fun way to reward people for things they have done (E.g. someone might give you a gift if you write a particularly good response to their topic). You can also delete gifts you don't want on your own profile with the delete button (this is fine to do)
-**To give a gift:** You must be a full member (100+ posts) then click view gifts on someones profile, you'll find an upload a gift form which lets you upload any image that is 32x32px or less.
+**To give a gift:** You must be a full member (100+ posts) OR be a [[https://forum.melonland.net/index.php?topic=1201.0|forum donator]], then click view gifts on someones profile, you'll find an upload a gift form which lets you upload any image that is 32x32px or less.
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+===== Ignoring unwanted boards =====
+Sometimes there will be boards that do not interest you on the forum! If you find a board is uninteresting you can select the [[https://forum.melonland.net/index.php?action=profile;area=ignoreboards|Ignore Boards Options]] tab on your profile and select boards to ignore; this will hide most posts and topics from this board.
 ===== Pick a new forum theme =====
-The forum is in dark mode high-contrast by default, there is also a light mode low-contrast made by [[user:cinni|cinni]], you can switch to it by selecting "Look & Layout" on your profile page; then look for the Theme selection area at the top of the page.
+The forum is in dark mode high-contrast by default, there is also a light mode low-contrast made by [[user:cinni|cinni]], the newspaper (readability) theme, and a low power theme called MelonLand98 for older computers. You can switch themes using the quick icons on the bottom left; however you can also select a default theme by going to [[https://forum.melonland.net/index.php?action=profile;area=theme|Look & Layout]] on your profile page; then look for the Theme selection area at the top of the page.
 ===== Making the forum suit you :-} =====