How to use the Message Boards

[Brian]

Message boards can look quite complicated with all the buttons and different menus. With a bit of practice you will find it's quite easy to find your way around. If you are a bit confused then hopefully this thread should help you to use the controls and options.

Please remember that if you encounter a problem then just ask.

Scroll down to see Posting on the Bulletin Board.

The My Controls Section

The first thing you want to do is to create a profile so we know a little bit about you. Click the My Controls link, which is at the top right of all pages. The My Controls page contains all of your personal settings, including personal messages, profile info, signature info, and avatar settings. We'll go over all these in more detail later on. To start off with, let's edit your profile info. Click the corresponding link on the bottom left of the page.

Editing Your Profile

Here you can fill in your date of birth, messenger contacts, home page, location, and interests. Fill in any info you wish to give, then click Amend my profile. Remember that your e-mail address will not be shown to anyone in the interest of privacy.

You can look at anyone else's profile by simply clicking their user name.

Editing Your Signature

Directly under the profile link is a link to Edit Signature. A signature is text that appears at the bottom of each message you post. For example, my signature includes a link to the MVP program. Type in whatever you wish to use as a signature and click Update my signature.

Adding an Avatar

An avatar is a picture that appears next to your user name in posts. For example, my avatar is The MVP avatar. To upload an avatar, choose one of three options:

1) A pre-installed avatar. Simply click the one you want and choose Add this avatar to my profile.

2) A picture from another site. Enter the web address and press Add....

3) A picture on your hard drive. Click Browse or enter the picture name, and enter the picture dimensions. Please note that there is a maximum dimension for avatars, which is currently 64 ? 64 pixels. Avatars also have a maximum size of 10k.

You may also choose to remove your avatar by clicking the last option button, I don't wish to use an avatar (remove all current).

Now your profile is complete!

Personal Messages

You can PM any user by clicking the button next to one of their posts. A personal message travels to the other user instantly; the next time they log in they will see their new message. You can use this as an alternative to e-mail. To see if you have new messages, simply look at the top right of the screen; next to the My Controls link you will see a link that says x new messages. To write a new message, you can also click the link in your My Controls section that says Compose New Message.

Calendar

A final feature of the board is the calendar, which will have all special events and birthdays posted on it regularly. To access the calendar, click the Calendar link in the top right corner of the screen, slightly below the My Assistant link. To view more information for an event, click its link. You can also quickly check all upcoming events on the main page; just scroll to the bottom of the page and look for the icon

Posting on the Bulletin Board

To post in any forum which is available to you, simply click the forum link and then click New Topic.

To reply to an existing post, make sure you are currently reading that post and click Reply.

To quote another's post in your reply, click Quote.

To edit your own post (which you can do up to 15 minutes after you post), click Edit.

Online Users List

On the main page, scroll to the bottom of the page. You will find a list of all currently online users next to the icon along with their colour coding.