Using the site: A tutorial for newbies

Basic tutorial for new members


Hello new people! http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...ileys/welc.gif

I thought I would put together some information for new members that may have a little trouble getting used to LitNet. Since I have no way of guessing information stored in somebody's brain, I am writing this based on the assumption that you just got on the internet this morning and have no knowledge about using a forum. So, some parts will probably seem pretty basic to most of you, but oh well! :D If you have a question that isn't answered here, feel free to post a reply and ask.

To answer a post, click on the "post reply" button. It will be found in two spots: On top of the page of replies, or just underneath the last post of a thread. When you click on it, it opens up a window for you to write your response.
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5.../postreply.jpg


To start a new topic of discussion, (new thread) click on the new thread button.
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5.../newthread.jpg


Navigating:
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...navigating.jpg


Private Messages:
To send a private message, click on the avatar of the person you want to send it to.

Avatar:
An avatar is a small picture that can go under your user name. You can use one here, keeping in mind that this picture cannot be bigger than 100x100 pixels and must not be larger than 19.5 kb in size. You can make your own, or download one from a website such as this one; All Avatars. If you don't find any you like you can do a search on google for "free avatars".

User Control Panel:
User CP is where you go when you want to upload an avatar from your machine, personalize your profile, add a signature and customize a few other preferences.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...Picture300.jpg



Adding a picture to your post:
If the picture is fairly small (under 100 kb) in size you can attach it to your post. When making your reply look towards the bottom of the page and you will see a section with some different additional options. Click on "manage attachments" and you can attach a picture to your post. When your reply is complete, the image will not display directly in the post, but it will be available for viewing. If you would like a picture to display directly in your post, you will find a tutorial about that here.



Quoting:
So, you want to quote another member in your reply. In the lower right hand corner of their post you will see a little button labelled "quote". Clicking on that button will open up a reply window for you with that person's words enclosed with the forum code needed to quote somebody. Oh, but wait. You decide you want to quote two seperate people in your reply? Not a problem, to do that you use some very easy forum code.

Multiple quotes:
To do this all you need is a little bbcode. What that means is if I want to have just a quote, I enclose what I want to say with the following code MINUS the " marks.

"["quote]to be or not to be[/quote"]"

This tells the forum to put to be or not to be in a quote box.

Quote:

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to be or not to be

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If I want to quote somebody specific I use their name in the first instance of code and also use the = symbol.

"["quote=kathycf]I have a sock monkey[/quote"]" and I end the quote in the same way, with a /

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kathycf

I have a sock monkey

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Code is always surrounded by brackets "[" and the ending part always has a slash "/" . Remember not to use any spaces in your code, and to omit the quotation mark and that should work for you just fine.

"["quote=Mary Jones]Hi, I am Mary Jones[/quote"]"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mary Jones

Hi, I am Mary Jones

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Forum Rules

Forum Staff

Why isn't my favorite author listed here with their own discussion forum?
Here is why!


Literature Network Blogs
How to qualify for and start your own blog.
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****Posting Images: --> a how to
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:thumbs_up

This is great Kathy, thank you so much for this :)

Maybe sometime in the future we can compile a specific FAQ that is alphabetised for even easier reference.

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One little 'tip' I want to add here that I myself only realised about a month ago: when you're composing your blog entry or forum post, in the top right corner of the grey message compose area, there are little grey up

http://www.online-literature.com/for...r/resize_0.gif

and

http://www.online-literature.com/for...r/resize_1.gif

down directional keys. By clicking those you can decrease or increase the box where you compose your post...for those of you who get a little wordy or just want it easier on the eyes, they are very handy :D

Hi everybody, glad the thread is going over well. I was going to make it in alphabetical order, but most of the time, my brain isn't very orderly...:p

(just noticed those keys for changing the post box size myself when I was typing the initial post in this thread. I have to have large text size enabled in my browser to see stuff here and the boxes were looking mighty small as I tend to compose wordy replies). :lol:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...ycf/arrows.jpg


*edit* A couple of little things occured to me just now.

1.) If you need to add additional information to a post, or want to correct something you can click on the edit button. As you look at your posted reply, you will see two buttons in the lower right corner; "edit" and "quote" and of course on other people's posts you will only see the quote button. (unless you are forum staff...;) )

2.) This forum was started several years ago, and there are a lot of posts here. Sometimes you may find an interesting topic, and you will want to respond to a specific poster.

There is nothing wrong with that, but you should be aware that sometimes these posts were made several months or even years ago, and the person you want to reply to may have moved on from the forum. Here is a way to see when a particular post was made:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5.../post_date.jpg

Ok thought Id through my hat in the ring and say a couple of things about smilies because I do occasionally get asked and truth to tell I occasionally need reminding myself.

So Smilies you might know them as emoticons but around here we tend to call them smilies, and we tend to use the images rather than codes like -_- and :S.

So there are a number of smilies built into the forum:
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m...lieguide_1.jpg
SO for eg I have had an :idea: and I feel :sick: to day.

Because smilies count as images the minimum setting of the "10 charcter rule" generally doesnt allow you to just post smilies with no words, there is also a restriction to 10 smilie( and imgs per post) this includes the ones in your siggy.

The other main source of smilies youl see around here are from smilie hosting sites such as http://www.websmileys.com/ http://www.cosgan.de/smilie.php?wahl...etlang=english http://www.smileyville.net/index.php etc.

usually these come already surrounded with [img][/img] tags and all you have to do is copy and paste.
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m...lieguide_2.jpg
The other usual way is to treat them like normal img and keep them in your photobucket or similar account.

Anyway hello welcome enjoy and Happy smilies peoplehttp://www.websmileys.com/sm/happy/044.gif

Thank you Night!

I am glad you mentioned the smiley sites that offer img code for people and also keeping them in an online album such as photobucket. If a site offers you img code, then you don't need to use img code here as well, just copying and pasting the original code is fine.


Another thing to mention is hotlinking. I explain this in detail in the "posting images" tutorial. Basically, when a site offers you image code, they are telling you it is ok to link their image back to you. But when you take a picture that is hosted on somebody else's website and use img tags to post it here, that is called hotlinking. Hotlinking is like stealing, you are taking somebody's bandwidth that they pay for and using it for yourself.

That is why using a free image host like photobucket is a good idea. :) You upload a picture you like, post it so others can enjoy it and you don't steal bandwidth from somebody else. It is a win win situation! :D

While it would not be appropriate for me to copy and post this entire list of FAQs it is informative about forums in general. There are a few things that are not relevant to the Literature Network forums, but I think overall there are some good answers here. Please note: these FAQs were written for the forums that they are posted in. Once again, while they provide a lot of good information about forums generally, you should address specific concerns of questions regarding THIS forum to people HERE. :)

FAQs


FAQs



*edit*

I have been remiss in neglecting our very own forum specific FAQ section. This is also a valuable resource.

Litnet FAQ

How to subscribe http://www.online-literature.com/for.../subscribe.gif to a particular forum to get notification of new posts to it:

For example, to subscribe to the George Orwell Forum:
http://www.online-literature.com/for...play.php?f=166

From the above link, click on the "Forum Tools http://www.online-literature.com/for.../menu_open.gif" pull down menu near the upper right hand corner of screen.

Select "Subscribe to This Forum"

Select which option you would like for notification.

That gives you two ways of keeping track of a particular forum. Via email you get a notification and a link to the forum and/or when you do log on to the site you can go into your "User Control Panel" (upper left corner of screen), click on "List Subscriptions" (left-side menu) and that shows you all the forums you're keeping track of.

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The same procedure goes for any specific thread you want to subscribe to, say for example this thread "1984 and 2007":
http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=22768

Click "Thread Tools http://www.online-literature.com/for.../menu_open.gif" then same steps as above.

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*hugs drama*

I have noticed a couple of people have mentioned they are trying to send PMs to others and can't. Here is the private message option in the user control panel.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h56/kathycf/PMs.jpg

So, here you can see the different options. This is mine, and I have enabled PMs and also a pop-up notifier when I get a new one. I like that because other wise I wouldn't think to check and might miss a PM, or not notice it until a few days go by.

You can limit PMs received to just buddy list members and mods. If you send a PM to someone who isn't on your buddy list they will not be able to reply. I have been here just about a year, and I don't have anybody on my buddy list, so I get messages from anybody. This isn't a problem because if someone harrasses you via PM, you can forward their message to a moderator and they will be dealt with.

Remember to periodically clean out your inbox and sent messages, so you can receive new ones. You can also download and save your PMs by going to the lower right hand corner of your inbox (or sent box) and you will see and option to "Download all Private Messages as:
XML | CSV | Text." I download mine as text files.

Images (animations, video, pictures, digital scans, website graphics, website designs, website layouts etc. etc.) are under the domain of "intellectual property" thus protected by copyright laws unless the owner has given permission for copying/distribution/re-use etc., the same as written material. At least giving credit where it is due is always a good thing, if you are going to use someone else's work. (citing your source)

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Buddy and Ignore List:

See the Forum FAQ.

--> If you add someone to your Ignore list:
you still see their name in forum topics but their post or topic content doesn't show, their post is there but it says "This message is hidden because xXXXx is on your ignore list."

--> If you send someone you have ignored a PM:
they still get it and can read it and it says nothing to them about you having them on ignore.

--> If someone you have ignored sends you a PM:
it still shows in your Inbox, but the subject doesn't show, it says "xXXXx is on your ignore list" but there is a link to "View Message".

It's explained in this topic baz:

"Forum Staff & Usergroups"
http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=19944

In addition to the quoting information that I put in the opening post of this thread, I thought this information would be extremely handy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Logos

Also..if you want to quote multiple/more than one person like I have done in this post, you click this icon

http://www.online-literature.com/for...iquote_off.gif

under their post. It will turn red like this:

http://www.online-literature.com/for...tiquote_on.gif

Then when you click reply the multiple posts will show in the text field and you can respond to them, in whole, or in part, just delete the text you don't want. That way it makes it clear who you have quoted :D

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Scher posted this info somewhere as wel, but I am too lazy to go hunt for it. :blush: Thank you Logos and Scher! :D

Click on "View" at the top of your browser screen (Internet Exp or FireFox), then select "Text Size" :) (works for any page on the `net you are viewing)

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When you get that big red bar warning you that your Private Messages are almost full? the way to deal with that is:

#1: Don't Panic! :)

A: If you want to first Save/Back Up your Private Messages?

When you are viewing your Inbox or Sent Items page, waaaay down at the bottom of the page on right hand side there are three links to Download all Private Messages as:

1. I usually download (d/l) mine as TXT (.txt) file, so that it opens up in Notepad, a simple and easy way to read/find/navigate them.

2. Or, you can d/l them as XML which opens them up as a web page, but it shows all the funky code, hard on the eyes.

3. Or, you can d/l them as CSV which opens them as a spread sheet, again funky on the eyes.

Once you have opened them in any of the above ways, you will see that both your Inbox and Sent items are there. (If you save them as a .txt file, you will see that the Sent Items show at the top. Scroll down the page and you will see that your

##############
Folder : Inbox
#############

items are there too.

Next all you have to do is Save that TXT, XML, or CSV file to where ever you happen to save stuff like that on your computer hard drive (your "My Documents" folder for example).

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Note: downloading your Private Messages in any of the above ways does *not* delete them from your Inbox or your Sent Items folders. You then have to manually delete them, see below.

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B: If you just want to delete all of your Private Messages?

This method is the same whether viewing your Inbox or Sent Items page. Click the very top little white box on right-hand column so that a green check mark shows in *all* of the boxes beside each PM, then at the bottom of the page on right-hand side, select "Delete" and click the "Go" button.

Now your PM limit bar will look similar to this:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57...itbargreen.jpg

Et voila! you can start PMing like crazy again and not worry that others will get a message that your PM box is full :lol:

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I had taken a bunch of screenshots about two weeks ago, meaning to write a few details about the user control panel and forgot. Must be getting old, my memory is shot....:blush: :p


These are the different options that you can set in your profile:

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...cf/user_cp.jpg



Here are a few things you can do by editing profile; change your user title, birthday, contact information and your homepage if you have one.


http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...il_options.jpg



You can keep track of any files you have attached to the site here...sorry the pic is a bit blurry.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...ile_attach.jpg



Your current profile pic. You can display a picture here (in addition to your avatar) it can be whatever you want, as long as it is in accordance with forum rules. If you need to resize a picture to fit the specifications to be uploaded, you can always use Irfanview, a free image editor. Tips on using Irfanview can be found here.


http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...rofile_pic.jpg



You can keep track of threads you are subscribed to here...currently I am not subscribed to any so this is blank for me.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5...bsciptions.jpg



If you want to subscribe to a thread, all you need to do is go to the thread you wish to subscribe to and click on thread tools on the right hand side of the page.

http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h5..._subscribe.jpg


There are a few more things regarding the user CP, but they can be covered another time. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tulysg1982

how can i set a picture in my post easily?

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Hello tulysg, here is a topic regarding how-to:
http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=17798

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bazarov

How to make a poll, and how to disable possibility of posting personal opinions about that question?

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Sorry, the forum software does not allow a member to create a New Thread with a Poll and not allow posts to it.

How to create a Poll:

1. Click on the http://www.online-literature.com/for.../newthread.gif icon.

2. Type in your title. [My example is "What is your favourite number?"]

3. Type in your introduction/description of the poll, and/or questions etc. for the post. [My example is "I'm just curious, I love numbers, I want to know which one your favourite is ?"]

4. Scroll down the page and click the "Yes, post a poll with this thread" box in the Post a Poll section.

5. Select how many options or choices you want on the poll. [For my example poll it would be '10'] The default you will see is 4, you can change that number to whatever number you want, to a MAX of 10.

6. Click http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a57...Threadicon.jpg button.

7. You are then taken to the Poll creating page. Fill in the poll question field. [Again my example, "What is your favourite number?".]

8. Make sure the number of poll options meets the number you wanted. ['10'] You can change it at this point if it is wrong or you changed your mind.

8. Fill in the poll option fields. [For mine they would be "Option 1: '1'", "Option 2: '2'", etc.]

9. You don't have to, but if you want, you can choose how many days your poll stays open. Type that number in the "Poll Timeout"--'Close Poll' field. [If you only want it open for a week say, type in the number '7'.]

10. "Miscellaneous Options":

You can choose whether people can vote for more than one option.

You can choose whether people can see [make it "Public"] the member's name beside each option of who voted for what; The below-linked Gender Poll is an example of a "Public" Poll where you can see who voted for what:
http://www.online-literature.com/for...lts&pollid=117

Click the white box in either of those categories if you want that part to be allowed for your poll.

11. Click the "Submit New Thread" button.

That's it :)

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