Did You Know? Forum Tips and Tricks (New)

This is the new thread for the Survival Monkey tips and tricks section. We are currently using a xenForo forum, and it has a few features that are not common to other bulletin board systems. It is important to note that advanced users who have been familiarized with forums may not be comfortable with this new software initially. Members who are new to bulletin boards will also find this information very helpful. The official xenForo user guide can be downloaded here in .pdf format. It is not worded well, but it does cover a wide range of features. New users may find this useful.

I have broken this introduction into TWO categories. The first is Navigation, and the second is Conversations (or Messaging).

A note on messaging:

The most significant difference this forum contains is unique messaging, called "conversations". With most every other BBS, this is known as "private messaging", and these messages are read like a normal email. Here, on a xenForo powered forum we can instantly chat back and forth with up to five members at a time, much like a real-life conversation. You will receive a red alert in the top right navigation area whenever you have received a conversation invite. I will explain more on conversations after we go over navigation.

NAVIGATION:

There are two important areas you have to keep in mind: (1)top left navigation bar and (2)top right navigation bar.

On the top left navigation bar, the 'Forums' link is your best friend. Be certain to click this whenever you are in doubt.


You can click "What's New" under this menu to read any new forum posts since your last visit. You may also focus on reading only the threads you have chosen to watch by clicking on "Watched Threads". Here you may also search forums, find help, and look up the member list.

Also in the top left navigation menu you will find "Today's Posts". Click this link to view the last (5) days posts:


Clicking on "Forums" will bring you back to the main forum page:


On the top right navigation bar, we have everything needed to customize your own experience here at Survival Monkey:


Clicking on your name will grant you more than you ever asked for, but don't be afraid --it's surprisingly easy to navigate. This is my favorite place to update my status, too. You will also find alerts and can easily check any conversations from this top right navigation bar (by clicking on 'Inbox').

If you would like to find more features to help customize your experience, click on "preferences" under your user name menu in the top right navigation bar:


Here you will be brought to a preferences page where you can customize your browsing features:


CONVERSATIONS:

You may also choose to start a new conversation here in your browsing preferences, even though it is far easier to click the avatar of any user to do that.

You can click anywhere you see an avatar --I have clicked in Tacmotusn's avatar in the Shoutbox, for instance. Click "Start a Conversation" to effectively start a new messaging instance (also known as a private message). Remember, to get back to your list of conversations, simply use the top right navigation menu to access the "Alerts" option:

As you can see, by hovering my mouse over alerts, I get a drop down description of my alerts. If i simply CLICK the Alerts function, I will be taken to the alerts page in my control area:


You can also get here by clicking your name, then 'your alerts' in the top right navigation bar. Now, you can click "View Conversations" in the left menu to see all your conversations.
You can start a new conversation from this point if you want by clicking on the "start conversation" button in the upper right:



...And the rest is pretty much simple. You will find this system to be very useful, and even though it is not quite the same as traditional "PM" messaging, the conversations capability can be profound because it is streamlined and efficient. Let's remember to leave any conversations you no longer want to be a part of. It's pretty much the same thing as deleting your messages:


Once you click 'Leave Conversation', you will be given the options below:


You may accept future messages for this conversation, thus keeping you in the loop. You may also banish it forever if you choose. Important note -if you add another user to a conversation, they will be able to see the full history of this particular conversation. This means, they won't be in the dark, and will have full knowledge of all that has been talked about. Try it out, add somebody to a conversation and have fun!

_____________________________

TIPS AND TRICKS:
Did you know? You can also start a new conversation by hovering over "Inbox" in the top right navigation menu, then clicking on 'start a new conversation' at the bottom?

Image:



Well, tell us your favorite tip or trick!

 

Tips and Tricks:

By clicking 'Help' / 'BB Codes' in the top left navigation menu, a user can find a great deal of information about using BB codes in their text:


Also, to alter the size of an image in a post from FULL size to THUMB, all that is required is to remove the "=full" part of the code. This may be a bit advanced for some, but there it is.

For basic users, there are buttons at the bottom of every post you make. You can upload files and images, and with each upload you have more buttons to insert them as a thumbnail or full size image.


Best part of all: You can delete your attached images/files at any time! The option is next to every file you have uploaded.

You can also change the image in your post from FULL to THUMB by selecting it in edit mode, then scrolling down to the image in your upload list and choosing either "thumbnail" or "full image". It will automatically update the image in your post. Try it out. You can also do this to change an image. You could also delete the image in edit mode and uploading a new image.

 

Tips and Tricks:

EDITING POSTS

You can edit your posts at any time. If you click 'edit' at the bottom of a post you recently made, you will receive this popup:


(click on this image to view large size)

Here you can edit the post on basic format (BB Code) if you choose, or at the bottom of this you can choose 'MORE OPTIONS', bringing you to the standard editing (full) options:



From here, it's as simple as the first time you posted! You may also delete any images/files you have uploaded in your post from this point.

 

@Brokor, Thank you for this extremely useful thread.
I'm sure it will be a big help to old and new members alike

 

"Sticky" time.

 

I'd like to welcome others to help contribute to this thread. Things you've found, etc.

 

Did you just drag these out of the shoutbox?

 

You can set your home page in the browser. With Firefox, click on tools, options, general.

 

The RSS feeds have issues and we are working (slowly) to repair them.

 

RSS feeds are now functional.

 

Yep, they disappeared again. Will continue to investigate.

Also, let's keep this thread for 'how to do _______ on the new forums' and find the other trouble shooting threads for problem reports.

 

View attachment 9486

Ghrit

 

Yup, that's where the URL was asked for when I started the thread. As a reply, it works fine. Hm.

 

Oh, new thread?

 

Yessir.