All new FF FAQ

Table of contents:

1. GETTING STARTED
- What is Fanforce?
- What is a Fanforce chapter?
- What is an official chapter?
- How do I become a Fanforce member?
- What are Fanforce Regions?
- Who are the Fanforce staff?
- Can I get banned from Fanforce?
- How do we get our own board?
- What else do I need to know about Fanforce?

2. FANFORCE STAFF
- Who are the Fanforce staff?
- Who/what are the Global Support Administrators?
- Who/what are the Regional Support Adminsitrators?
- Who/what are the City Representatives?
- I want to be a mod! Can you make me one, please?

3. OFFICIAL CHAPTERS
- How do we become an official chapter?
- Why should we become an official chapter?
- Will our official chapter status ever be revoked?

4. EVENTS AND MEETINGS
- What sort of events does Fanforce sanction?
- How do I suggest and event or meeting in my area?
- Does Fanforce encourage meetins with other Star Wars fanclubs?
- Are there any types of meetings that Fanforce prohibits?
- How do I get my meeting posted on the FF Main page?

5. BOARD CUSTOMIZATION
- How do I get my board's banner changed?
- How do I get my board's colour scheme changed?
- How do I get my chapter's icon uploaded?
- How do I get my board's edit time changed?
- How do I get my board's auto-prune turned off?
- How do I get my board's header link changed?

6. TECHNICAL BOARD QUESTIONS
- I can't stay logged on. What do I do?
- How do I change my colours?
- How do I use the emoticons?
- How do I use HTML on these boards?
- What are the official terms of service?
- Who do I got to if I have a problem?

 

1. GETTING STARTED

WHAT IS FANFORCE?

AS the name suggests, Fanforce is a 'force of fans', all dedicated to fully enjoying the Star Wars experience. It is a global network of fans meeting up with the other fans in their area. It is a place devoted to fun, friendship and everything Star Wars.

If there is a convention or any other Star Wars event in your area, we'd like you to do it as fanforce chapter.

WHAT IS A FANFORCE CHAPTER?

A Fanforce chapter is essentially an area (whether it be a city, state or country) that has its own board on Fanforce.

There are two types of chapters: official and unofficial.

Both official chapters and unofficial chapters are recognised by Fanforce although we do try and encourage chapters to become official.

WHAT IS AN "OFFICIAL" CHAPTER?

An official chapter is a chapter that has had three meetings, with at least three people in attendance, posted on the Fanforce main page. They receive all sorts of perks and priveleges that unofficial chapters are not entitled to.

HOW DO I BECOME A FANFORCE MEMBER?

Each chapter has different requirements to become a member, just as they have different definitions on what a member is.

The easiest way, however, is to go here and sign up on our message board. Then go to the region you are located in, find the chapter you are closest to and start posting, going to meet-ups and generally having fun.

WHAT ARE FANFORCE REGIONS?

Due to the large amount of chapters we have worldwide, the Fanforce staff have found it necessary to separate the care of chapters into different regions.

A country can be split into several different regions (as in the case of the USA) or conversely a region can cover several different countries (such as Oceania).

WHO ARE THE FANFORCE STAFF?

That will be covered in the next section if you would care to read on.

CAN I BE "BANNED" FROM FANFORCE?

Yes. Although we open our doors to the general public, the site and its facilities are still privately owned by TFN (theforce.net). If you fail to adhere to the Terms of Service, located here or otherwise cause trouble for the existing members, we reserve the right to remove you from our facilities.

HOW DO WE GET OUR OWN BOARD?

Start topics in FF Communications and your local regional discussion forum. If you can get three completly seperate people to post their interest, a member of the Fanforce staff will create the board for you.

WHAT ELSE DO I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FANFORCE?

Nothing, if all you are looking for is the basics on getting started with us. If you have more indepth questions, or if you would like to learn more, please read the rest of the FAQ which should answer all of your queries.

 

THE FANFORCE STAFF

WHO ARE THE FANFORCE STAFF?

The Fanforce staff are divided into three groups of people.

There are the Global Support Administrators, the Regional Support Administrators and the Chapter Representatives.

Each of these groups has a vital role within the fanforce structure. Each of these roles is very different from the other two.

They are essentially different 'levels' of command. As you go from Global Support to City Representative, the are you have to look over is smaller and more specific.

WHO/WHAT ARE THE GLOBAL SUPPORT ADMINISTRATORS?

The Global Support Administrators are the highest link in the Fanforce chain of command. They have the rank of 'administrator' on our message boards. This allows them to do things such as create new board colour schemes, change board banners and other such things that the other members of the Fanforce staff are unable to do.

They are also there to solve disputes that cannot be resolved at either the city or regional level. Thankfully this is rare and they do not often have to step in in this capacity.

The current Global Support Administrators are Shara82, Mara_Jade_Fan and Obi Anne. To contact any one of them, click on the link to their usernames, and then the 'send private message' link.

WHO/WHAT ARE THE REGIONAL SUPPORT ADMINISTRATORS?

The regional support administrators are the people who are appointed to take care of their particular region. They, like the Global Support Administrators, are appointed by the current Fanforce staff, if the need arises.

They are the moderators of their region as well as performing a number of other duties. These include posting meetings on the main page, helping out the Chapter Represtatives when needed, solving problems not able to be handled at the city level, encouraging growth in their region and anything else that may come up.

Essentially they are there to support and encourage their region in any way possible.

There is a minimum age of 21 for any new RSA appointed. There are cuurently two members of the FF staff who are under 21, although they have been "grandfathered" in from when this rule did not exist.

The current list of Regional Support Administrators are:

USA RSAs

• strawbary (Manager) - Northeast


• Minacia Brightstar (Manager) - Southeast


• Nabooty_Call (Moderator) - MidSouth


• Mara_Jade_Fan (Administrator) - Pacific

Canada RSAs

• YoungJediNiagara (Manager) - English-speaking


• Uilmuteiz (Moderator) - French-speaking

Europe RSAs

• timbolton (Manager) - United Kingdom


• Obi Anne (Administrator) - Nordic Countries


• Morgaine (Moderator) - German-speaking Countries

Australia and Pacific RSAs

• Shara_82 (Manager) - Australia & New Zealand

Latin America RSAs

• Spike_Spiegel (Manager)


WHO/WHAT ARE T

 

OFFICIAL CHAPTERS.

WhAT IS AN OFFICIAL CHAPTER?

As stated in an earlier part of the FAQ, an official chapter is as follows:

An official chapter is a chapter that has had three meetings, with at least three people in attendance, postd on the Fanforce main page. They receive all sorts of perks and priveleges that unofficial chapters are not entitled to.

HOW DO WE BECOME AN OFFICIAL CHAPTER?

Once you have your own board on Fanforce and three people posting regularly, all you need to do is plan and execute three meetings with at least three people in attendance per meeting. Get someone to notify your Regional Support Administrator of the details of these meetings before they occur, who will in turn post the details on the main page.

At the conclusion of the third meet you will become an official Fanforce chapter.

WHY SHOULD WE BECOME AN OFFICIAL FANFORCE CHAPTER?

As an official chapter, you will receive many "perks" and other benefits that are not given to unofficial chapters. A full list of these are:

- The ability to customise your forum's banner
- the ability to customise your forum's colour scheme
- You are able to elect and have a CR promoted
- You are allowed to have your board's header changed by a manager at will. This includes both links and forum announcements
- You are allowed to have the auto-prune feature turned off in your forum
- You are allowed to have your own customised chapter icon uploaded
- You can choose an official chapter name and have it listed next to your chapter's link on the listing for your region
- You can have the editing time in your forum changed

So as you can see, there are a lot of reasons for becoming an official chapter instead of remaining an unofficial one.

WILL OUR OFFICIAL STATUS EVER BE REVOKED?

Not if you continue to use Fanforce's facilities on a regular basis.

If the forum has not been used by people from your area for an extended period of time, your regional support administrator will post a warning in the forum telling you that if no one begins to use it, it will be pruned. If no one responds to this warning, after two weeks the forum will be deleted.

So as long as you continue to use your forum to plan meets and talk with the fans in your area, you will not have to worry about losing your official chapter status.

 

EVENTS AND MEETINGS

WHAT SORT OF EVENTS DO FANFORCE SANCTION?

Anything Star Wars related, for one thing. If there's something related to Star Wars in your area we want Fanforce to be there spreading the word of fandom. Whether it be conventions, movie screenings, exhibitions, star appearances, you name it, we encourage it.

We also like to see non-Star Wars related gatherings, provided they're related to the fans. So if you wanted to get together to show off your costumes, go out to dinner or just hang out at someone's house, we'd love to see that too.

HOW DO I GET PEOPLE TO GO TO AN EVENT IN MY AREA?

The best way would be to go to your local chapter's board and post a new thread in regards to it. (Make sure there isn't already one there on the subject, though). Get people involved, get your City Representative's help in planning it, and most of all, have fun.

If you have an event in your area that you think people would enjoy but your chapter does not seem particularly interested in going to, or you don't have a local chapter, send an e-mail to fanforce@theforce.net where it will then be seen and posted by a member of our friendly Fanforce staff.

DOES FANFORCE ENCOURAGE MEETINGS WITH OTHER FANCLUBS?

Absolutely! Fanforce is for all the fans. If another fanclub is having an event in your area, follow the steps outlined above and let everyone know about it!

ARE THERE ANY TYPES OF EVENTS THAT FANFORCE PROHIBIT?

There hasn't been any so far. We do, however, prfer that you plan tings that people of all ages are able attend. Exclusive and over 21 events such as bar crawls are allowed, but we do stringly encourage that you plan something all the members of your chapter can go to.

That's not to say you can't plan things for adults, but please keep in mind the younger members of your chapter as well.

HOW DO I GET MY MEETING POSTED ON THE FANFORCE MAIN PAGE?

The easiest way is to go through your City Representative who will be familiar with the whole process and will arrange to have it posted for you.

If it has fallen to you to post it, however, or you do not yet have a City Representatve, simply send your RSA the details of the meeting, either through private message or sending an e-mail to fanforce@theforce.net and they will post it for you.

 

BOARD CUSTOMIZATION

Note: all of these customization options are open only to official chapters

HOW DO I GET MY BOARD'S BANNER CHANGED?

The first thing you need to do, obviously, is have a banner made for your chapter. Often a banner competition is a fun way to see the talents of some of the artists in your forum, and get the best banner possible. If you want it to be made by one specific person, however, that's all right too.

The dimensions of the banner are as follows:

Main banner image - 764 x 110
Main Background image - any x 110
Curve image - 69 x 67
Side Bar image - 32 x 465

After you have created these images, you need somewhere to host them. Often the best idea is on the chapter's website (if it has one that allows remote linking) or on the webspace that your ISP gives you when you sign up.

Once you have this done, run your graphics by your Regional Support Administrator with the link to where they are hosted, and they will arrange to get it uploaded for you.

HOW DO I GET MY BOARD'S COLOUR SCHEME CHANGED?

The first thing to do is to decide on your colour scheme. The easiest way for everyone involved is simply to edit this style sheet to find a colour scheme that your chapter approves of:

<style type="text/css">
<!--
.MainTable {
background-color: white;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: normal;font-size: 8pt;color: black;text-decoration: none;
}
.MainMenuRowAlt {
background-color: transparent;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: bold;font-size: 8pt;color: gold;text-decoration: none;
}
.MainMenuRow {
background-color: #3b7a28;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: normal;font-size: 8pt;color: #ADA2BE;text-decoration: none;
}
.MainMenuLink {
background-color: transparent;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: bold;font-size: 8pt;color: #fff7df;text-decoration: underline;
}
.BoardColumn {
background-color: #ba2e00;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: bold;font-size: 10pt;color: #fff7df;text-decoration: none;
}
.BoardColumnLink {
background-color: transparent;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: bold;font-size: 10pt;color: #FBEBBF;text-decoration: underline;
}
.BoardRowA {
background-color: #d1d5c2;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: normal;font-size: 10pt;color: #132237;text-decoration: none;
}
.BoardRowALink {
background-color: transparent;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: normal;font-size: 10pt;color: firebrick;text-decoration: underline;
}
.BoardRowB {
background-color: #e9e7d6;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: normal;font-size: 10pt;color: #132237;text-decoration: none;
}
.BoardRowBLink {
background-color: transparent;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: bold;font-size: 8pt;color: firebrick;text-decoration: underline;
}
.SubjectLink {
background-color: transparent;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: bold;font-size: 10pt;color: #000000;text-decoration: underline;
}
a.SubjectLink {
background-color: transparent;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: bold;font-size: 10pt;color: #000000;text-decoration: underline;
}
a.SubjectLink:active {
background-color: transparent;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: bold;font-size: 10pt;color: #4170BE;text-decoration: underline;
}
a.SubjectLink:visited {
background-color: transparent;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: normal;font-size: 10pt;color: black;text-decoration: none;
}
.AuthorLink {
background-color: #000000;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: bold;font-size: 10pt;color: white;text-decoration: none;
}
.VersionText {
background-color: transparent;font-family: verdana,arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-weight: normal;font-size: 8pt;color: #white;text-de

 

TECHNICAL BOARD QUESTIONS

I CAN'T STAY LOGGED ON. WHAT DO I DO?

If you're having problems logging in and staying logged in, it's mostly likely the result of your web browser either not having cookie support turned on or it's not available by your browser. In some cases, your proxy server may not allow cookies to be sent to or from your machine. Also check to see if your computer's date/time is correct as dates too far in the past or future can cause browsers to instantly delete a cookie. You can test your browser for cookie support using the Cookie Test page. To view the current list of cookies on your machine for the boards.theforce.net domain, click here.

HOW DO I CHANGE MY COLOURS?

This is something restricted to VIPs and above, so unfortunately that is something you are unable to do.

HOW DO I USE THE EMOTICONS?

To use faces (aka: emoticons) in a new post. Insert any of the following codes anywhere within the message body.
= or [face_happy]
= or [face_sad]
= or [face_grin]
= or [face_love]
= or [face_mischief]
= or [face_cool]
= or [face_devil]
= or [face_silly]
= or [face_angry]
= or [face_laugh]
= or [face_wink]
= or [face_blush]
= or [face_cry]
? = ? or [face_confused]
= or [face_shocked]
= or [face_plain]

The following rules apply:

Each message can only have up to 5 occurences of each face.
You must put a space before each code or the face won't show up.

HOW DO I USE HTML ON THESE BOARDS?

HTML is not enabled on these boards. However you can use the markup codes to do a lot of the same things. As above, remove the spaces to get the codes working.

bold text[/b] will create bold text
[i]italicized text[/i] will create italicized text
[u]underlined text[/u] will create underlined text
[blockquote]block quoted text[/blockquote] will place text in a

block quote

[color=red[b]]red text[/color] will make red text
[/b]]yellow highlighted text will make yellow highlighted text
[/b]]FanForce.net will make a link to FanForce.net
[hr]will create an header rule

---

[ul[b][/b]][li[b][/b]]list item[/li][li[b][/b]]list item[/li][/ul] will create a un-ordered list:
[ul][li]list item[/li][li]list item[/li][/ul]
[ol[b][/b]][li[b][/b]]list item[/li][li[b][/b]]list item[/li][/ol] will create an ordered list:
[ol][li]list item[/li][li]list item[/li][/ol][image=http://web.address/image.gif[b][/b]] will create an image.
Example: [image=http://www.theforce.net/main/summer2002/tfn_fanforce.gif[b][/b]]
will create [image=http://www.theforce.net/main/summer2002/tfn_fanforce.gif].

[hl=mediumspringgreen]WHAT ARE THE OFFICIAL TERMS OF SERVICE?[/hl]

RULES OF CONDUCT


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User agrees not to post material that is knowingly false and/or defamatory, misleading, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, that otherwise violates any law, or that encourages conduct constituting a criminal offense. Also, as a general guideline, all users here should respect one another?s opinions and beliefs. User also agrees not to post spoilers regarding the upcoming Star Wars prequels in any forum outside of those specifically labelled as allowing spoilers (this

 

excellent!

 

Wonderful Work, Shara_82

 

That's an excellent job, Shara

 

oooooh Cookiee pages i never knew of...

¤Night

 

Night4554

 

Great job! You should have made this sticky so it stays on the first page.

 

Great work, Shara! Thanks for working so hard on this for us.

 

Rox: I thought about that, but then there was the question of what to do if I ever needed to do a version 3.0 or something.

 

Just wondering, but will this replace the current FAQ on FanForce.Net...?

 

Yes.

 

Cool. I was browsing through it last night after reading Shara's and noticed a few differences.

And I can't stress this enough, Shara: Great job

 

I'm currently working on an HTML version to go up on Fanforce.net, so it shouldn't take too long before that one is replaced too.

 

Excellent work Shara.

I thought sticky threads could be unstickafied.

 

nope, they can only be deleted.

¤Night

 

bump.

We are working on getting this added to the Main FF FAQ page.

 

bump

 

Up.

 

Up, yes, but still not on the main HTML FAQ?

A copy/paste of the plain text would be better than still having the old one there.