General advice for Newbies.

Yep, that's right ... emoticons are you friend .

death-sticks: On a bigger resolution, obviously the amount of characters per sig line is more, but if it's too long (without a space i mean) people with lower screen resolution have to scroll, which is annoying.

And if you put spaces, it'll loop to the next line anyway .

 

Before you begin to post, read the Terms Of Service. There is very important information about what you should not do. Sometimes you can be referred to that link by one of the moderators because of your conduct towards other members or the system itself.

 

Uppers

 

Ok, here's a ? for you. I have not seen anywhere that says how to put a link into a post wihtout it looking like just the whole url address. For example, a link to another thread. See Jedi_Learner's post on the first page of this thread for an example, where he has given a link to "face help."

Thanks!!

EDIT: Or his post two above mine with the link to the Terms of Service...

 

We do that by using Markup Codes. (The link is in the black menu bar on top of the page, too.)

Example: Let's say, you want to post a link to The Official Site.
Here's the code you have to use: [link=http://www.starwars.com]The Official Site[/link]


And another link for you: Practice Markup Codes!

 

Thanks so far to all the people that have contributed to this topic.

You can send yourself a Private Message. This is useful for important links or information that you want stored into your account. I don't think Private Messages are deleted, are they Morgaine?

 

When I first joined, I was told they were deleted after six months. But I still have all of mine - the oldest are nearly two years old. So I guess they are indeed not deleted.

 

I wonder if they ever are...I have over 214 pages of Read PM's...and more than 230 Sent PM's, I think...in less than 8 months...I wonder if there is a limit?

Also...does anybody know why we can not find PM's from users?

It would make searching much easier.

 

As far as I know, there is no limit, but I'm not entirely sure.

Why don't we have a search feature for PMs? Well, it's never been coded.

A PM search is on our "wish list" of features we'd like to have (so is a "delete PM" option), but due to the zerosleep factor, it's unlikely that we'll get it anytime soon.

 

Morgaine, my friend, that is very good news on the idea front.


I have always wondered why these were not options.

 

Wow what a pratical idea. I think I'll hang around in this thread to offer some of my advice or question answering for any confused or lost NoOb's.

Or maybe I'll just annoy and curse you people with my vain senseless rambling which is really a attempt at making a decently long post. [face_shocked]

. . . . . To no avail.

<[-]> Saber (Forum hopping cuz of boredom)

 

Bribe all people in colors just to be on the safe side.

Think before you post.

Give your post a once over.

¤Night

 

The Moderators and most members don't like the use of bad language here, like swearing which can upset some people. If you are going to do it, then cover up your letters with * at all times.

"Bribe all people in colors just to be on the safe side."

 

Thank you, Morgaine, that is a great help!

 

Advice:

Find a serious board and spam it with ridiculous topics and useless images. People swear at you and it's entertaining.

 

Jedi_Learner: ?I don't think Private Messages are deleted, are they Morgaine??

Just to add to Morgaine?s answer, this is actually a little known fact, but if an ?unread PM? remains ?unread? for approximately two month?s time after it is sent, it is automatically deleted and no record of it remains.

scuiggefest, that doesn?t sound like very good advice.

 

Hey, I didn't know that. Did you test that, Dan? I'd get so annoyed at the "1 New"...


And scuiggefest gives great advice for anyone who wants to get banned...

 

?Did you test that, Dan? I'd get so annoyed at the "1 New"...?

Yes, ma?am. True story: I actually travelled around the JC for two months with ?1 New? PM. Then, exactly two months after it was sent (to the hour btw), it disappeared both from my account and the sender?s account too. [face_shocked]

Also back when I was first organizing FF Vancouver last August, I PMed a number of locals, who had posted on our board in the last six months, asking if they were interested in being part of a new FF Chapter that was forming. For many of these locals, their last login date was months before (but I figured I?d better try anyways). I remember at the time, approximately half of these PMs were opened. When I went back a month ago to view the unread ones, I discovered that they were no longer there. While the one with the latest ?date read? was just short of two month?s time.

---

Okay, time for some advice. As many of you know, there is no preview feature for [b]PMs[/b] like there is for posts. [face_sad]Thus, one incorrect [i]markup code[/i] can mess up the entire [b]PM[/b]: something that has happened to almost everyone of us at one point in time. [face_sad]

A way to get around this, and some of you may already do this, is to pretend that you?re posting in a thread, to preview the text of the [b]PM[/b] there, make the necessary corrections, and then ?[i]copy & paste[/i]? the text to the [b]PM[/b] box. Although you can technically use any thread, I always use [b][color=red]jasman?s[/b][/color] [link=http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=5092339&page=12]Practice Markup Codes![/link], because if I accidentally press the ?[i]Post[/i]? button instead of the ?[i]Preview[/i]? button, I can quickly delete it, few will notice and even less will care. [face_wink]

 

Never ask to become a Moderator or a important person with a title or nice colours. The people in charge of that might come to you one day if you have shown yourself to be capable and you like to post here.

 

Don't make the same mistakes I made as a newbie, which include:

-Borderline flaming (eg: Anybody who doesn't like Kyp Durron doesn't know what they're talking about!)

-Making tons of threads about a common topic (eg: Kyp Durron: Like him or hate him, What is Kyp's favorite breakfast?, Kyp vs. Luke, If Kyp were a fruit, what would he be?)

-Not knowing that random threads should go in a place called Your Jedi Council Community

-Not knowing that there was a drop-down menu in the upper and lower right corners, which could help you navigate, until my second month around the boards.

-Thinking that there was only one board, Literature, until about a month in.

Oh, and it also helps if you know what a few of our acronyms and slang are around here. You'll probably come across ones such as these:

IMHO = In my humble opinion

IMO = In my opinion

PPOR = Post proof or retract

IIRC = If I recall correctly

teh = misspelling of "the" which usually means "very." As in - "That movie was teh suck."

Hmmmmm, that's all the advice I can squeeze out now. Oh, and if you're a fanfic person, go to Writer's Resource if you're new and become another writer's apprentice. It'll really help you get into the swing of things.

Jae Angel

 

This deserves a second rising. Anyone else have any advice before this topic sinks to the bottom?

 

Actually this is a good thread. I never noticed the pull down tabs at the bottom and top of the right hand side of the screen. They don't stick out at all. I never would have noticed if it wasn't for NarundiJedi's post. Many thanks.

 

Thanks Captain_Sarcasm. One piece of advice is to remember that the rules of conduct here also apply to your private messages. Moderators can check them to find out.

 

Here?s another useful tidbit: whenever you?re thinking of posting a thread, it?s always a good idea to go through the thread index for that forum (like this one) to see if a similar thread has already been posted. This little step will save you any embarrassment caused by having your thread locked because it is redundant.