Helpful tips and hints of the forum.
Mail is open if you need extra guidance.
This guide was made mainly for beginners - if you have been around the internet for a while, you will know most of this guide. This was made due to the confusion over certain things on the other forum. If you wish for me to add anything to the guide, feel free to mail me or post here.
Mail is open if you need extra guidance.
This guide was made mainly for beginners - if you have been around the internet for a while, you will know most of this guide. This was made due to the confusion over certain things on the other forum. If you wish for me to add anything to the guide, feel free to mail me or post here.
Forum's Front Page
The front page shows numerous actions and links you can click on, all of which are pretty self-explanatory. However, resort to the below image for a general overlay of what each link means.
The links marked Serious, Games and other Silliness, Creations and Blogs are categories. Each category has a different set of topics that you can post in, and each topic depends on which category you are in.
When you reply on a thread, you can use text, pictures, or video to post. Below are some basic terminology you can use on the forums, followed by how to post pictures and videos with ease.
Terminology
I obviously won't post chatspeak, because we all know what BRB, LOL, and WTF mean. The following terms are less commonly known terms that are still useful in knowing.
AVI - (Audio Video Interleaved). It's a Microsoft multimedia video format that has bitmap compressed animation. This doesn't necessarily mean the audio/video will be of low quality, just that the file size will be smaller then other formats. AVI is just another way a video or audio is saved, similar to if you were to save a picture as a JPEG or GIF.
Bitmap and Bitmap formats - Bitmaps are graphics, or pictures, such as a sprite or an avatar or banner. Formats like .gif and .jpg are bitmap formats. .Gif and .Jpg are just two ways you can save a picture - they both use different methods of saving and compressing a picture. I tend to use PNG or GIF, as they keep a good resolution.
Note - .GIF's are usually animated pictures.
Protip - If someone asks you to look an image, and it's a GIF, be weary of looking at it. A favorite forum pastime is tricking people into looking at 'screamers' which are images that don't appear animated at first, and then have something scary suddenly pop up.
Cookie - These are foodstuffs that beecats thrive on. Keeping them in your house will guarantee a beecat visit. They are also information your computer stores, such as websites you've visited, so that your computer will remember them later on. This also includes passwords, which is why viruses that snatch cookies are fatal to your privacy. Your computer will ALWAYS store certain cookies, even if you have "store cookies" turned off.
FAQs - Frequently asked Questions. These pages often give answers to some commonly asked questions such as "Why can't I see images?" or "How do I receive my password?" or "Why is this raptor chewing on my leg?"
Flash - Animation software used to develop moving graphics or games.
IP Address - Internet Protocol. Usually a series of numbers unique to your computer, your IP address is how your computer is identified. Note - you can get IP BANNED, which means the website blocks your IP, thus blocking YOU from the website until otherwise unbanned. Usually IP bans are permanent.
Listserver - An e-mail list of e-mail addresses of friends with common interests. This also applies to chat groups or instant messaging - your List Server is your group.
How to post images.
When you go to post a new topic, you will notice a bar of commands you can use in your reply. These commands do different things, and are helpful with you want to embed or alter your font. You can easily post images with the toolbar, or do it manually, and I will show you both ways - first locate the icon that shows a photo of a tree. When located, click on it and a small pop up box should appear. Inside the box you are free to type, but if you type the wrong thing, your code won't work. Below are pictures of the icon and the pop up box, and what it's asking you to do.
You can type in the white box. What it's asking you for is the image URL or LOCATION. You cannot put just anything else in this box, otherwise your picture won't post, and you end up with a scrambled code that will look ugly and make you look shameful. ImageURL;
The image URL or LOCATION tells the computer where to go to look for your image. Copy and paste the location in the pop up box, and click OK. By the way, you get the image URL by right clicking on an image and selecting "View Image Info" or "View Image Properties".
When you copy and past the image URL into the white box and click ok, it will generate this code : [ url ] Image URL [ / url ]. This code, without spaces, is what you will use to post any images, animated or not. The image url, or LOCATION, goes in the middle of the code. You do NOT copy and past the URL of the website you got the image at. You'd much rather take the image location!
How to post videos
Just like image, you can easily post videos by the toolbar. Only two slots away from the image icon, the video icon has a picture of a piece of film with green inside. When you click it, another pop up similar to the one for images comes up, and has two links above the box : Youtube, and Dailymotion. These are popular video uploading sites, and thus you can quickly access them through these links.
Instead of entering a url or location, you will be entering the video's EMBED. You can find the embed code of a video below the video. On youtube, the embed is directed below the the video, in a small box. Click in the box, select all, and copy the embed code. Not only can you use the shortcut on the toolbar, you also use the code [youtube ] embed code [ / youtube ].
Additional information on embedding found here
These are the main basics you should know, if you want me to add anything else or have a suggestion, feel free to post.
Last edited by Rare on Thu Jun 10, 2010 3:09 pm; edited 1 time in total
