To be able to enjoy all of the features available to the community, you will need to sign up for a member account. Registration is easy and only takes a moment to complete.

To sign up, click the " " link at the top of any page. You can then provide your email address and password to complete the registration process.

There may be an easier way to register without filling out the registration form. If it is enabled, you will see a Google sign-in button on the registration page of the main site. If you use that service, you can register with your existing Google account, and you will be returned to the site once you authorize it.

You may be registered and logged straight in, or you may have to verify your email address by clicking a link in an email that we will send you. If this is the case, a screen will appear with further instructions. You will receive a confirmation of your membership as an email.

Logging In

Once you have signed up for an account, you can log in by pressing the "Sign In" button at the top of any page.

From here, you should enter your username or email address, and the password you used when you registered. If you tick the "Remember Me" box you will not have to sign in when you visit the community in future. This ability can be very useful, but should not be used if other people have access to your computer or if you are using a public computer.

When you are ready, click Sign In.
Once logged in, you should be taken back to whatever page you were previously viewing.

If you sign in on the main site, you may also see a Google sign-in button as an additional log in option. If it is available and you would prefer to use it, click the button and follow the on-screen instructions.

Forgotten your password

If you have forgotten your password, you can click the "I've forgotten my password" link on the sign in page below the password box. This will take you to a page where you can enter your username or email address, and we will then email you a link that lets you set a new password.

Logging Out

To log out click the "Sign Out" link at the top of the screen from any page.

You can access your settings from any page by selecting your name at the top of the screen and then selecting "My Settings".

There are several tabs on the side of the page, which allow you to configure and update different board settings:

Profile Settings

From the Profile Settings area of your UserCP, you can configure various aspects of your profile, including:

• Profile Picture: this is the photo used to identify you throughout the community. You change it with the "Change photo" link on your own profile page, not from My Settings.
• Allow Comments: If checked, other forum members can leave comments on your profile.
• Friends
• Edit your "About Me" information
• Change your Member Title (moderators only)
• Update your Birthday
• Add profile information, such as interests
• Share contact information such as AIM usernames.

Email & Password

The Email & Password area allows you to update the password or email address associated with your account.

Display Name

The Display Name page allows you to change the name that is shown to members throughout the community. The board administrator limits the number of times you can change your display name, so make changes wisely.

Signature

The signature page allows you to modify the custom signature that is shown below all of your posts.

Ignore

The "ignore" tab allows you to configure your Ignore settings - you can choose to hide individual member's posts, signatures, status updates, or other aspects of a member that you wish to hide.

Manage Attachments

This page will display all attachments that you have uploaded to the forum. If you are running close to your global attachment limit, you can delete attachments from this area.

Notification Options

The Notification Options page allows you to configure how you should be notified of certain events, such as a reply to a topic, a private message, or a new topic. You can configure how you would like to receive these notifications as well - as inline notifications on the site, by email, or both.

Your Notifications

This tab will display the most recent notifications that you have recieved.

Viewing The Board Index

When visiting the board, you will be presented with a list of categories and forums in those categories. This page is called the Board Index, and it lists all of the forums.

Forums are split into categories. You can choose to hide any category by pressing the "-" button on the right-hand side above the list of forums, and the "+" button to make them visible again. If hidden, such categories, and the forums inside them, will be collapsed and no longer shown to you when visiting the board index.

When viewing the forums, there are icons shown next to them which indicate the status of a forum, and if it has unread posts or not.

T his indicates that there are posts which you have not read contained inside this forum, or one of it's sub forums.

This indicates that all of the posts contained in this forum and it's sub forums have been read.

The Topic List

Within each forum there are a list of topics. Just like forums, each topic has an marker to indicate the type of topic it is:

A regular topic with unread posts.

This is a topic which you have participated in, with no new replies since you last read it.

This indicates that you have previously replied in this topic, and there are new replies since you last read or replied to the topic.

Special Types of Topics

This icon indicates an "Announcement" - Announements are not regular topics, because members cannot reply to them. They are simply important news or information which should be read.

This icon indicates a hot topic which has many members participating and replying.

This indicates that a topic has been locked, and can no longer be replied to.

To add a new topic, press the " Start new Topic" button. This may not be available for all forums.

To enter a any topic, click on its name.

Sorting Options

To customize the way topics are displayed, you can use the sorting options found at the top of the forum.

• Show type - this allows you to only display certain types of topics such as polls or topics that you have posted in.
• Sort by - this allows you to change the way topics are ordered. By default topics are ordered with the topics that have most recently had replies first, but you can choose to sort by other factors such as the number of replies or alphabetically.
• Sort direction - this allows you to set which way you want to sort for the setting above. For example if you set "Sort by" to be "Replies", choosing "A-Z" for this setting will show the topics that have no replies first, whereas choosing "Z-A" will show the topics with the most replies first.
• Time frame - this allows you to limit the topics that are shown to only topics that have been made within a certain amount of time.

There may be more than one page of topics, if this is the case, you will see an option to "Load More Topics" at the bottom of the list of topics. There will also be page numbers to the left of this button.

Viewing Posts

To the side of each post there will be information about the user.

To view a user's profile information at a glance, simply hover your mouse over their username. Their profile card will display, showing you various profile information without having to leave the topic. From their profile card, you can send them a message quickly, without having to leave the topic. If you wish to view their full profile page, simply click on their user name.

On their member card, you can also click on several options to view that user's content.

Below this there are several more buttons: the icon adds the user as a friend, allows you to read their blog, and will take you to their gallery.

Below their username you will see their photo, member title and pips or group image.

Reputation

If enabled, you will see a like counter and a Like This link in the bottom right corner below each post. Click Like This to like the post; if you change your mind, click Unlike This to take your like back. You cannot like your own posts. Every like a post receives adds a reputation point to its author, shown under their photo beside each of their posts.

Replying

To add a post to the topic, simply scroll to the bottom of the page, and start typing in the reply box.

To quote another post in your reply, you can either click the Quote button beneath a post, or use the multiquote feature. Multiquote is used when you want to quote more than one post in your reply. Select the Multiquote button underneath the posts you want to quote, and you will notice that the button will change color. At the bottom of the page, you will notice an informational box appear with the total number of posts you have added to multiquote. You can multiquote from different pages in a topic, or even different topics in the forum. When you are ready to post a reply with the posts you have quoted, simply click the "Reply to quoted post(s)" button.

Post Options

Next to the reply and multiquote buttons you will also see an " Edit" button on your own posts. You can use it to change a post you have already made, and there is no time limit on editing. Deleting posts is a moderator action - if you need one of your posts removed, use the Report link on it to ask a moderator.

Some topic may have polls attached to them. If you can vote in the poll, you will see the questions and the options for voting. Once you have selected your options, press Submit to add your vote. Once voted, you will see the results and a icon besides the options you voted for.

To see the results of the poll without casting a real vote, press View Results (Null Vote). Note that this forfeits your vote in that poll for good. If the poll is a public poll, you can see who voted for which option by pressing the "View" link next to any option.

Notifications

You may want to subscribe to your favorite forums or topics so that when a new topic or reply is added you will be notified.

To subscribe to a topic or forum, go to that area and click the Follow button. A small box appears where you can choose whether to receive notifications and whether to follow anonymously. To the right of this button, it shows how many other people are watching the topic.

Following something yourself always notifies you instantly. For the topics and galleries you follow automatically (see below), how often you are notified is set in your account settings, where you can choose one of these options:

• Instantly: You will be notified instantly when a reply is made, via the method specified in your notification preferences.
• Only When Not Online: This option will send out a notification if a reply has been posted and you're not active on the board.
• Daily: This option will send out a daily digest of updates.
• Weekly: This option will send out a weekly digest of updates.

If you wish to automatically subscribe to every topic you reply to, you can configure this from your control panel. Simply select the "Auto follow topics I reply to" option.

You can remove a subscription from your settings, or by going back to the area you are subscribed to and pressing the " Unfollow this Topic" button (on a forum it reads "Unfollow this Forum").

The Post Editor
The post editor is a rich text editor: you see how the post will look while you are writing it, like a live preview.

Each toolbar button is explained below, from left to right:

• - This will turn off all formatting tools currently in use.
• - This will show the HTML source of the post and allow you to enter the post in HTML. Note that we filter posts and some HTML may not be allowed or saved.
• Fonts - This menu allows you to set what font your post is displayed in.
• Sizes - This menu allows you to set what size the text in your post is.
• - This menu allows you to set the color of the text in your post.
• - This will redo the last undone change.
• - This will undo the last change made.
• - This will make the text bold.
• - This will make the text italic .
• - This will make the text underlined.
• - This will make the text striked out.
• - This will start a bullet-point list.
• - This will start a numbered list.
• - This menu will allow you to insert an emoticon into your post.
• - This will insert a link.
• - This will insert an image.
• - This will insert a quote.
• - This opens your media library, so you can insert your own attachments, blog entries, gallery albums and gallery images into the post.
• - This will indent the post. This icon can also be used to create multi-level lists.
• - This will make the text aligned to the left.
• - This will make the text aligned to the right.
• - This will make the text aligned in the center.

Polls
Depending on where in the at community you are posting your message at, you may have the option to add a poll that other members can vote in. If so, you will see a " Poll Manager" button on the topic page once the topic exists - it is shown to the member who started the topic and to moderators. Click on this to configure the poll.

You can optionally enter a title for the poll in the "Poll Title" box. You may then also be able to set it as a public poll by checking the "Make votes public?" box. In public polls, all members will be able to see who voted for which option.

You can then add your questions by typing the first question into the Question box. You must then choose if you want this question to be multi-choice (allowing users to select an arbitrary number of answers) or single-choice (users will only be able to select one answer). To make the question multi-choice, check the "Allow multiple choice?" box, otherwise, leave it blank.

Then enter the possible answers for the questions into the boxes below. To add more answers, press the " Add Another Choice" button, or to remove an answer, click the icon. You can add up to 20 choices per question; the "Add Another Choice" link disappears once you reach the limit.

To add additional questions, press the " Add Another Question" button. You can add up to 5 questions; the "Add Another Question" link disappears once you reach the limit.

To remove a question, press the " Remove Question" button, or to cancel adding a poll, press the "Cancel" link next to the submit button, or the X in the top corner of the poll window.



Attachments
Depending on where in the community you are posting your message at, you may be able to upload attachments to your message.

You can attach several files at once. To begin, press the button and pick the files on your computer that you want to attach; hold Ctrl (on Windows) or Command (on Mac) to select more than one. Uploading starts as soon as you confirm the selection.

If there are any errors uploading a file, you will receive an error message, otherwise, you will see the attachment appear.


Managing Attachments
Regardless of which uploader you use, once the files are uploaded you will see them on your screen. By default, all attachments are added to the bottom of your message, however, you can add any attachment to a particular section of your post by pressing the "Add to Post" link.

If you wish to remove an attachment and have it not appear in your post, simply press the "Delete" link.

To ensure quality interactions and combat spam, our messenger tool is currently exclusive to active and valuable community members. Please engage with our site and community to unlock this feature.

The personal messenger can be used to have private conversations with other members. To access it, select your username while logged in from the top corner of any page, and then press "Messenger".


Managing conversations

Change which conversations you are viewing
By default, all conversations are shown, but you can change the view to only display conversations you started, or conversations that others have started. To change this, select the appropriate option from the dropdown underneath the conversation list and then press Update.

Deleting conversations
To delete a whole conversation, select the checkbox beside the conversation, then select "Delete" from the dropdown at the bottom and then press Go.

Deleting always takes the conversation out of your list and stops you replying to it. If nobody else is left taking part - which is the case for any conversation between just two people - it is also locked for everyone else: they can still read it, but nobody can post a new reply.

If other participants are still taking part, they can carry on with the conversation without you and can still see your earlier replies.

Managing notifications
The current notification setting is not shown in the conversation list. When you open a conversation, the participants box beside it has a "Turn Notification" link showing ON or OFF, which switches notifications for that conversation.



Managing messages
To edit one of your messages in a conversation, press the " Edit" button underneath the post. The changes will be reflected to all participants in the conversation. Single messages cannot be deleted - the Delete button at the top of a conversation deletes the whole conversation.


Starting a new conversation
To start a new conversation, start by pressing the " Compose New" button. Enter the user's name into the "Recipient's Name" field. As you type, suggestions will appear below the box. When you see the member you are looking for, click on their name.

You may also be able to add other recipients into the "Other Recipients" box. Everyone you add takes part in one shared conversation; there is no option to send each of them a separate copy.

You should then type a message subject and the message body, just like you would for a new topic in the forums.

When you are done, you can press Send Message or Save (Send Later) to save the message for later.


Replying to a conversation
To reply to any conversation, press the " Add Reply" button when viewing it or press the " Reply" button underneath any existing message to quote it. Then type your message just like you would a post and press Send Message. You can also use the Fast Reply box at the bottom of each conversation to quickly reply to the conversation.


Adding participants to a conversation
You may be able to add more participants to a conversation. If so, you will see an " Invite Participants" box on the left-side when viewing a conversation.
Type a member's name into the box and click their name in the suggestions that appear; repeat for each member you want to add. When you are done, press Invite selected.


Reporting a message
If you wish to report to a moderator a message that someone has sent to you, you can press the " Report" button underneath the message.

Type in your report and then press Submit Report. This sends the reported message to the moderators - be aware that moderators can then open the whole conversation it belongs to.


Managing your messenger folders
By default there are three folders for messages:

• New, which stores all unread conversations.
• My Conversations, which contains all conversations you are participating in.
• Drafts, which stores unsent messages saved for later.

You can also add your own folders to make it easier to manage your messages.

Adding a new folder
To add a new folder, press the " Add" button beneath the list of folders.
Type the name of the folder you want to add, then press the "+" button.

Moving messages
To move a message from one folder to another, select the checkbox beside the conversation, then select the name of the folder you want to move the conversation to from the dropdown at the bottom and then press Go.

Renaming, Deleting or Emptying a folder
To rename, empty or delete a folder, press the " Edit" button beneath the list of folders.

To rename a folder, type the new name in the textbox currently containing the folder name, and then press the ">" button. You cannot rename default folders.

To empty a folder, press the icon beside the folder name.

To delete a folder, press the icon beside the folder name. Be careful as this will also empty the folder. You cannot delete default folders.

Member List
The member list contains a list of all members of the community. To access it, click the "Members" tab at the top of any page.

By default, all members are listed in alphabetical order. You can choose to only display members whose names begin with a certain letter by selecting that letter from the bar at the top. You can also choose to change the order of the results to display based on post count or join date by selecting the appropriate option from the bar below that.

Advanced Search
To search for a specific member, you can press the " More Search Options" button above the member list. This will reveal the Advanced Filter Options panel. Once you have entered the search criteria, press Apply Filters.

Profiles
You can access a member's profile by clicking their name anywhere in the community. From here you can see content the member has added, information about the member and contact the member.

User Information
To the side, you will see the user's profile picture if they have one. Below this you will see options to add the user as a friend, send the user a personal message and view content from the user. Underneath this, you will see the user's total reputation, if enabled, taking into account all positive and negative reputation given for all posts. Underneath this, you will see the user's statistics, including what group they are in, how long they have been a member and other basic details.

Status
The user's status displays in the profile upon clicking the Profile Feed tab. You can leave a profile comment here too and reply to their status or previous comments.

To update your own status, open the usermenu on the top right available on every page and you'll have an input box to enter one.

Content
In the middle of the profile, you can see what a user has specified in their "About Me" page. You can use the tabs above this to view content the user has contributed to the community. This section will, however, only show recent content - to view all content, use the appropriate links from the user information section of the profile.

Personal and Contact Information
Below the content box, you will see the member's personal information such as age and birthday.

Friends
Below the personal and contact information, you will see the user's friends. You can click on any of the usernames here to go view their profiles.

Rating
You may be able to like the user by clicking the thumbs-up icon near the top of their profile, next to their like count. If you cannot like the user, no icon is shown. You cannot like yourself. To take your like back, just click the icon again and it will be removed.

The search feature can be used to search all areas of the community quickly based on keywords you enter.

Quick Search
You can start a quick search by typing your keywords into the quick-search bar at the top of any page and pressing the "Search" button.

Advanced Options
If instead of typing your keywords into the quick-search bar, you click the "Advanced" link next to it, you will see some advanced options for searching.

The first option, "Find words" is where you can enter the keywords to search for.

The next option, "Find author" can be used to only find content from a specific user. As you begin typing ausername, you should see a dropdown with username suggestions that you can select from.

The next option, "Find by date" allows you to restrict the results to content added between particular dates. To select your date, click inside the date field - this will bring up a calendar. From here you can select any date and your option will be filled into the search form.

The next option, "Find in forum allows you to restrict your results to content within particular forums. You can select multiple options by holding the Ctrl key on your keyboard (or the cmd key if you use a Mac) and clicking on your options.

You can leave any of these options blank, however you must supply at least one search criteria when submitting the form. Once you have filled in the options that you require, press the Search Now button.

Results
Once you have submitted your search, a tabbed page of results will appear - you can change the selected tab to choose which area of the community you wish to search. For example, results under the "Forums" tab will bring up any topics and posts that contain your search keywords, while the "Members" tab will bring up any member accounts that match your search criteria.

You can change the order of the results using the options at the top of the results page - "Sort On" offers last updated time, title and, depending on the section, replies or views, while "Sort By" switches between ascending and descending.

Once you have found the result you are looking for, you can click on it to bring up the page, or, if you are searching through the forums, you can click on the preview icon to preview the search results without having to leave the search page.

If you need to contact a moderator, or simply wish to view the complete administration team, you can click the link 'The moderating team' found at the bottom of the main board page. This list will show you administrators and moderators.

Note that you can report content to all staff by pressing the " Report" button when viewing the content.

The gallery can be used to upload images you wish to share with the community. To access it, click the "Gallery" tab at the top of any page.

Gallery Home Page
The gallery has two areas: Member albums and global albums. If you have permission to create albums, these will be member albums. The administrator can create global albums. You may be able to upload directly into a global album. The homepage shows the global albums down the side, a random feature image and a list of recently updated member albums


Viewing Albums

Image Listing
You will see a tiled layout of images that the album contains. You can click on any thumbnail to see the full-size image.


Slide Shows
You may be able to see a slide show of all images in an album by pressing the "slideshow" link shown when viewing any image from that album. Click the slideshow link to enter slideshow mode.



Viewing Images

Information, ratings and options
To the side of the image, you will see more information about the image such as who uploaded it, when they uploaded it, how many views it has, and which album it belongs to.

Above the image information you will see a rating bar showing how many members liked and disliked the image. You may also be able to rate the image yourself by pressing the thumbs up or thumbs down button beside it.


To the side of the image you will see a photostrip of other images in the category or album, which you can use to quickly jump to those images. You can cycle through these images by clicking the < a > buttons to the left and right of the photostrip.



Embed Images
Each image has unique HTML and BBCode embed links for you to embed them on your website or within the forums. To display these, click on the "Options" drop down, and then click on "Share Links"
Comments
At the bottom of the image's page, you will see any existing comments on the image. You can add a comment by typing into the comment box at the bottom and pressing the " Add Comment" button, and you can quote an existing comment by pressing the "Quote" link underneath it.


Adding your Images

Clicking an upload link or button will take you to the media upload page. This is a two step process.
The first step is to select or create an album to upload the images into. Once the album has been set, you can upload images right away when the upload form reveals itself.
Each image you add gets its own box where you can set its title, tags and description, and pick one of them as the album cover. When you have added all the images you want, press the "Finish & Publish" button to publish them to the album.

The blog section of the community can be used to read other members' blogs, and to create a blog yourself. To access it, click the "Blogs" tab at the top of any page.

Blog Home Page
When you first go into the blogs, you will see a list of blogs. Pinned blogs are shown at the top of the list, followed by all other blogs. The default "Dashboard" tab lists the newest entries from all blogs; the other tabs list the blogs themselves.

Blogs may be local blogs, meaning that they are stored within the community, or they may be external blogs, which are links to blogs not stored within the community.

Blog List
For local blogs, you will see the title of the most recent entry along with a short excerpt from it, and details of the blog such as the title of the blog, to whom it belongs and the total number of comments, entries and views the blog has had. For external blogs, you will just see the title of the blog, to whom it belongs and the total number of views. To view any blog, you can click on the title of the blog. For hosted blogs, you may also click on the title of the most recent entry.


Following a blog
You are able to follow a blog and subscribe to be notified of updates to it by clicking on the follow blog button.
Statistics
Below the blog list, you can see statistics of the blogs, such as who is currently reading the blogs, the total number of blogs, the newest blog, etc.

You can also use the "Custom" tab above the list to filter the blogs and change how they are sorted.


Viewing Blogs
This only applies to local blogs. For external blogs, you will be taken to the blog when clicking on the blog name.

Entry List
In the center of the blog page, you will see a list of recent entries. You will see the title of the entry, who posted it and when, the entry itself and how many comments and views it has had.

You can click the entry title to see the full entry along with its comments, or press the comment count to be taken straight to the comments.



Content Blocks
In the right column of the blog, you will see blocks containing various content. Which blocks are shown depends on the blog owner's configuration. The available content blocks are:

• Calendar - This will show a small calendar, highlighting days for which entries are available. Click a highlighted day to see that day's entries, or the month name to see the whole month.
• Recent Entries - This will show a list of the most recent entries to the blog. You can click on any entry title to be taken to it.
• Recent Comments - This will show who most recently commented on the blog and which entry was commented on. You can click on a comment to be taken to it.

Comments
At the bottom of an entry's page, you will see any existing comments on the entry. Below the comments will be a textbox you can use to leave your own comment.

Creating and Managing Your Blog

Creating a Blog
You may be able to create your own blog within the community. To do so, click the "Blogs" tab at the top of the page and press the "Create a Blog" button (the same button is on the "Manage Blogs" page). Creating a blog takes three steps: first you must read and accept the terms by checking the box and pressing Continue ->.

You can then give your blog a name and description and choose if it will be a local or external blog, and press Continue -> again. The last step lets you set your blog's options - view permissions, guest access, comment settings and how entries are displayed (for an external blog, the URL to it). When you are ready, press Save.

You will now be taken to the "Manage Blogs" page, where your new blog is listed.

You may be able to create more than one blog, and you may not have all settings mentioned above available to you.

Managing your Blog
From the "Manage Blogs" page you can press the "Options" button beside a blog and choose "Manage Settings". The settings include:

• Blog name and description.
• Blog view permissions - "Public" means everyone who can see the blogs can see your blog, "Friends Only" means only your friends can see it, and "Private" means only you can see it.
• Your local blog settings - whether guests may view your blog and post comments, whether comments are disabled, whether you are notified of new comments, whether new entries default to Draft or Published, and whether comments need approving.
• Customize the look of your Blog - the number of entries and of comments shown per page, and the view mode of your blog (List, List per date or List per month).
• Your external blog settings - if you have an external blog, you can change the URL to it here.

Adding Entries
To add an entry, you can either choose "Post New Entry" from the "Options" button beside your blog on the "Manage Blogs" page, or press the " Add Entry" button from your blog.

You will need to enter a title for your entry. You can enter "tags" for your entry, which can be used to separate entries into categories if you frequently blog about multiple subjects.

If you have more than one blog, you choose which one the entry goes into before the form opens - from the "Add Entry" menu on the Blogs page, or with the "Post New Entry" option beside a blog on the "Manage Blogs" page.


You should the type your entry like any message. You may be able to add attachments to your entry.

At the very bottom of the page you can choose to submit your entry as a "Draft", meaning it will not be published right away, or, as "Published", which will mean it is immediately available for others to view.



Content Blocks
You can add content blocks from the "Options" menu on your own blog, which lists any of the blocks (Calendar, Recent Entries, Recent Comments) that are not currently shown.



To remove a content block, press the icon.