This page was created for newbies and such to messageboards who needed a little help getting started. Here you will find answers to a lot of FAQs about message board useage.
Registering
This one shouldn't be too hard to figure out. There will be a button that says "register", and you click it. You fill out the information that they ask for, and come up with a screen name. If you don't want people instant messaging you on AIM/MSN/Yahoo/whatever, then don't use your screen name on that as your name on the messageboard. If you don't want people emailing or instant messaging you, there's usually an option to disable people from viewing that information. Or there may be an option to leave it blank. You should get a confirmation email from the messageboard if it says you need one to be able to register. If you don't, you may want to email the administrator of the board and ask them to manually register you.
Posting
After you've registered and logged in, you'll probably want to post (assuming that you didn't sign up just to lurk there...if you did, shame on you). You click on the area of the message board you want to post at (ie. General Discussion) and there should be a button that says "Post New Topic" or something to that effect. You click that, and there should be a blank box and a blank bar above that. The bar is where the topic of the post goes, so type whatever you want the title of the post to be in there (ie. Hey! I'm new here.). The bigger box is where the actual post will go. So type there whatever crap you want to post. Once you're done, there should be a button that says "Submit" or "Submit New Post" or something to that effect. Click that, and whatever you wrote will post.
Replying To A Post
This isn't that different from posting a new topic. You click the post you want to reply to, and you scroll down to the bottom of the page. There should be a button entitled "Reply". Click that, and your screen should look much like it did when you posted a new topic. Except, if a bar is given to post a title of the post in (some messageboards have this, some don't) do not fill in a title. You won't need one, because this is just a reply. Then you fill out whatever crap you want to post, and click submit.
Quoting Someone's Post
Some people make the mistake of copying whatever someone else wrote, and putting this between a quote tag while posting. While you CAN do this, it makes your job a lot harder. What you should do is find the post you want to quote, and click the "quote" button that's either located above or below the post, depending on what board you use. This button will either say "quote", or it will show four silver dashes (these are supposed to look like quote marks...they don't). That will take you to a page that you can post in. The tag with the quote in it will either be located in the box that you post in, or in a seperate box below it. If it's in the box below it, then don't touch it. Just write whatever you want to write in the box above and click submit. If it's in the box that you post in, be sure to write whatever you want to write BELOW THE QUOTE TAG and don't mess with anything in the quote tag. Then click submit.
Posting a Picture
This is probably the most frequently asked question ever on messageboards. The process is done differently whether the picture is uploaded onto a website or not. If the picture is already uploaded onto a website, you right click on the picture and click "properties". You then copy the URL of the picture (the web address it's located at. ie. www.webpage.com/photo). You then post this between the tag [img]url of the image goes here[/url] and hit submit. The same thing goes for posting a picture in a signature. If the picture is not online (if it's just saved onto your computer) then you'll have to upload it first. You register at a photo uploading site (my favorite is www.photobucket.com) and hit the "browse" button. There, you go into the folder you saved the picture under, and double click on the picture file. Then you hit the "Upload" button. If you're on photobucket, a URL (web address) for the photo will be given under the photo when it's uploaded. You then place this address between the [img]url goes of the image goes here[/img] tag.
Changing the Color of Your Font
The different color tags of different messageboards vary a lot. But there should be a button that says "Color" or something to that effect when you go to post something. As an example, a color tag could be [font color=blue]text goes here[/color]. You can change the color of the font by replacing "blue" with some other color. The important thing to remember is to CLOSE THE TAG. That means adding the [/color] part to the end of whatever you type, although what that part says could vary. But if you don't do that, the color tag won't work. It's the same idea with changing the size of your font, and the style of it.
Posting a Link
This tag also varies a lot. But one tag that always works is the [url]web address of wherever you're linking to goes here[/url] tag. This will automatically link to the page you want, but you won't be able to make the link say anything else. This varies so much between different boards that you kind of have to figure it out for yourself.
Things to Remember
Here are some tips to make your use of the messageboard a happy one:
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Helpful Links
Great picture uploading site.
-Use proper Grammar. This means capitalization, punctuation, and no shorthand (ie. u r 2 kewel). It looks stupid and it's hard to read.
-Don't go looking for fights. Don't post intentionally rude topics, or pick a fight with someone else. This is the internet, it's not worth it.
-Long, obnoxious signatures waste bandwidth and time. Try to keep your signature to 250 characters or less, and only add one or two pictures if the messageboard allows it. A lot of people use dial-up internet, and huge signatures take a long time to load. And nobody ever really reads them, anyway. Keep it short and simple.
-Don't spam. This means don't post tons of topics that have nothing to do with anything. They're pointless and they just take up space. Making posts about how you just ate a bowl of ramen isn't really important enough to post, unless that ramen was infested with termites or something.
-Most importantly: have fun! :D
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The dictionary...grammar is your friend.
