Post by tinystorm_45 on Aug 20, 2013 16:12:03 GMT -5
Here are a few tips on how to make the most of your member profile and use the forum tools to communicate and interact with other members.
Customizing your Profile
Q: How do I access my member profile?
A: There are several ways you can access your profile. You can click the Profile tab in the forum header, right underneath the banner. Alternatively, you can just click on your profile name wherever it appears highlighted – such as on forum posts or on the Members list (accessable through the forum header).
Q: How can I make changes to my profile?
A: On your View Profile page, different tabs display your profile summary, overall activity, members you are following, friends, groups, notifications, and gifts. In the top-right hand corner of all of these tabs, you will find the Edit Profile button. This will take you to the Edit Profile & Settings page from where you can make your choice.
Q: How do I set up or change my avatar?
A: Avatars are probably the most fun part of setting up your profile. Once you have clicked the Edit Your Profile button, go to Avatar to make changes.
Here you can either choose from our selection of themed avatars, upload your own, use a customizable ProBoards avatar, or a combination of a ProBoards avatar with your own background. We recommend our themed avatars or uploading your own. The default ProBoards avatars don't exactly match with our forum, but hey, it's your choice.
The choices under Choose how your avatar will display are pretty self-explanatory. Select one of the options, then click Upload/Link if you want to use an image from your own computer or a website. Besides, .jpg and .jpeg, .gif and .png files are also supported in case you want to upload a moving avatar. Click Pick One to choose one of our themed forum avatars from a list. We update them regularly, so check back often. You can change avatars as often as you want.
Be sure to click Save Avatar Changes once you're done.
Q: How do I change my personal information?
A: Personal info, such as display name, e-mail address, location, website links, signature, etc. can be changed in the Personal tab.
Here you can also write down any personal notes that only you can see.
When you're done making changes, don't forget to click the Save Personal Changes button at the bottom of the page.
Q: How do I change my forum displays and post settings?
A: Go to the Settings tab to view your options and make changes. Here you can choose whether you want to see the Participated button in the top-right corner of your main page (recommended), which, once clicked, shows you a small window with all of the recent forum participations.
You can also choose how to see other member's post (with avatars and signatures or without).
Additionally, the Settings tab offers three practical options that will make creating posts much easier:
1)Enable Drafts: Saves your settings periodically as you create a new post (highly recommended).
2)Posting Default: Sets your default post editor. Preview is recommended here.
3)Smilies Default: This setting automatically displays applicable plain text as smilies (recommended).
The Settings tab also gives you the option of selecting whether you want a group name displayed with your profile.
This option, however, only applies to you if you decide to join our team of forum moderators.
Lastly, you can set the display of your forum time stamps, depending on whether you want to use the American format of Month/Day/Year, .am and .pm times, or if you prefer the international format of Day/Month/Year and a 24 hour time display.
Once you've made your changes, always be sure to click Save Account Settings at the bottom of the page.
Q: I don't want everyone to see everything. Can I hide certain parts of my profile?
A: Absolutely. Go to the Privacy tab of your Edit Profile & Settings window.
Here you can choose who can see individual aspects of your profile, such as your online status, email address, gender, birthday, and forum activity.
You can also choose to selectively block members if this should become necessary (we hope it won't). Notice that you cannot block staff members (admin and mod's).
You're just gonna have to put up with us.
Be sure to Save Privacy Settings once you're done making changes.
Q: How can I stay up-to-date on everything that happens on the forums?
A: Check under your Notifications tab in Edit Profile & Settings. Here you can select which kinds of notifications you want to get (new threads, posts, responses, private messages, etc.), whether you want to notified on the forum or via email, and whether you want to receive forum emails sent to all members by staff (recommended).
As always, remember to save your changes.
Q: How can I stay in touch with fellow members and friends outside of the forum?
A: A good way to guarantee that people can find you outside of the forums is to fill out your Social tab under Edit Profile & Settings.
Here you can enter all of your social networking addresses from Facebook to Twitter and YouTube as well as any Instant Messenger handles that you would like to display.
For privacy reasons, we recommend that you set your profile as viewable to members only under your Privacy tab.
Q: What are some ways to communicate with individual members on the forum?
A: There are a number of ways to interact with other forum members. Clicking a member's highlighted name anywhere on the forum will open up their profile. On the top righ-hand side, you have the option to follow them (similar to "following" on social networking sites) and, likewise, they can follow you back. To send a direct private message (PM for short) to another member, moderator, or admin, simply click the Send Message button on the right. Our server ProBoards also provides the option of giving other members gifts such as ProBoards memberships and badges. On the board itself, you can click the "thumbs up" symbol in the upper right-hand corner of a post to "like" it.
Q: Does this forum have a chat option?
A: We do. It's called Shoutbox and is currently disabled. Upon member request and on special occasions, we can enable it for a group chat.
Most chats will be announced at least three days ahead of time on the calendar.