H E L P G U I D E
Overview
The Index Page
-Where can I see the most recent posts to a board?
-Can I see a list of all members registered for a board?
-Can I see who is online?
-What is a "Guest" ?
-What is this private messages thing?
Registering
-Where is my password?
-What are the benefits of registering?
-What is this profile thing?
-What is a signature?
Logging In
-How do I log in to my account?
-How long will I stay logged in for?
Forums
-How do I post a message?
-How do I read a message?
--How do I reply to a message?
---What's this "quote" button?
--What does "Send Topic To Friend" do?
--What is this notify button?
--What's this "print" button I see when reading posts?
-How do I know when a new post has been made?
-What are moderators?
Search
-Where is the search page at?
Admin
-How do I access the admin functions?
-What are categories?
-What are boards?
-How do I create a board?
-How do I customize the colors for my board?
-What is a moderator?
-How do I add a moderator?
-Can I customize the news on the index page?
-How do I remove a post or thread from my board?
-How can I view the members who are registered on my board?
-Can I delete members?
-How do I ban someone?
-Can I choose which words are censored on my board?
-Can I email everyone who is registered on my board?
Overview
Welcome to the user's guide for our new message forum software. From here you should find the answer to most of the questions you may have.
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The Index Page
The index page is the page that lists all of your message boards. It also provides access to all of the important areas of your board. It is usually the best place to start. Your index page is located at http://USERNAME.proboards.com/. Replace USERNAME with your ProBoards.com username.
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Where can I see the most recent posts to a board?
On the index page, scroll down to the very bottom. You will see a link that says "Recent Posts." Click on this link and you will be shown the last 10 posts made.
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Can I see a list of all members registered for a board?
Yes. If you are registered and logged in, click on "Member List" at the bottom of the index page. You will be able to see a full list of all the members there.
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Can I see who is online?
Yes. At the bottom of the index page you will see the number of Guests and which registered users are currently logged into the board.
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What is a "Guest" ?
A guest is someone who is accessing the boards but is not logged into an account. Some boards may require you to register to post while others may not. For boards where registration is required, guest accounts will only be able to read but not post messages.
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What is this private messages thing?
Integrated with the message boards is a private messaging system. If you are a registered member you can send and receive private messages from other members.
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Registering
Registering is the process of creating an account for a message board. Some boards may require that you register in order to make posts on them. You are considered a guest if you are not logged into a board.
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Where is my password?
When you register, you must enter a valid email address. You will then be emailed your password for your account, which will be randomly generated. You can then login to the board and change your password to something else on the profile page.
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What are the benefits of registering?
There are many benefits to registering. By registering, all posts you make will automatically have your name filled in. You will be able to see which posts are new (there will be a marker next to posts that says "NEW"). You can get email notification of replies to your posts. You can send private messages to other members. Also, no one will be able to post using your name (you can "secure" it so that no one else has it!). There are many more reasons to register, but there are just too many to list. We strongly encourage you to register for any board you are active on.
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What is this profile thing?
Every registered member has a profile. In your profile you can choose how your name is displayed, change your password, set your email address, change how the time is displayed on the forum, set your own time zone, create a signature, and much more.
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What is a signature?
A signature is something that will be displayed at the bottom of every post you make. You can change your signature on the profile page.
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Logging In
Once you have registered for an account and you want to access it, you will need to login to your account.
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How do I log in to my account?
At the top of your board you will find a graphic that says "login" on it. Click on this graphic. On the next page you will be presented with a form where you can enter your username and password to login. Please remember your username and password is case sensitive.
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How long will I stay logged in for?
By default, you will be logged in for 350 minutes (almost 7 hours). There is a checkbox on the login page that will set a permanent cookie allowing you to stay logged in longer than this. All you need to do is check the box when you are logging in on the login page.
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Forums
Your forums are the pages where people can post and respond to messages. Questions specific to your boards are answered below.
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How do I post a message?
On the page that lists all of the posts on a board, you will see an icon in the top right that says "new thread." By clicking this icon you can post a new message on the board.
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How do I read a message?
To read a message, you need to click on the subject of the message. If you are having trouble finding the posts for a board, start at the index page, then select the message board you want to view. On that page you should see a list of all the posts on the board. If there are no posts, none will be displayed.
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How do I reply to a message?
To reply to a message, click the "reply" button at the top of the page the post is on. This will take you to a form that you can use to reply to that post.
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What's this "quote" button?
If you would like to quote a person's previous message when replying to them, click the "quote" button. This will bring up the screen to post a reply, and it will automatically include a copy of the message you are replying to.
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What does "Send Topic To Friend" do?
If you would like to email a friend of yours about a discussion that is going on, you can easily do so. Simply click the "send topic to friend" link at the top of the page, enter your friend's email address, and they will be emailed a link to page you were reading.
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What is this notify button?
If you would like to be notified by email of new posts to a thread, click the "notify" button at the top of the page and you will receive an email any time a new post is made to that thread.
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What's this "print" button I see when reading posts?
If you ever want to print a thread out, simply click this button and you will be presented with a printer-friendly page that you can print out.
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How do I know when a new post has been made?
First, you must be a registered user and logged in. On the index page, a folder icon that has a blue dot on it will be displayed if a board has posts you haven't read on it. On the individual boards, a "NEW" icon will be placed next to threads you have not read yet.
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What are moderators?
Moderators are people who have control over a message forum. They have the ability to delete posts/threads, view the IP addresses of posters, lock topics (make it so no one can reply), unlock topics (if they were locked), and modify any and all postings on the board (no matter who they are posted by).
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Search
Using the search function, you can easily find what you're looking for. When you search you can choose to search for members or posts. You can select which boards to search, how many results to display, and what time frame to search (by default it is the last 7 days).
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Where is the search page at?
At the top of every page you will see an icon with a magnafying glass next to it that says "search." Click on this link and you will be at the search page.
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Admin
If you are the owner of an account at ProBoards.com, you are the administrator of your board. On your board, you will always login as user admin and your password will be the same as your ProBoards.com password. You have special options available to you when it comes to maintaining and updating your forums.
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How do I access the admin functions?
First, you will need to login to your board. Your username is "admin" and the password you should use is the same one as your ProBoards.com account. After logging in, you will see a button at the top appear on the menu that says "admin" on it. Many of the admin functions are available by clicking on that button. Some functions that are not in that area are the options to remove threads and posts, view IP addresses, and a couple other things. Read below for more details.
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What are "categories"?
You can group the boards you create into different categories. By default, you have just one category and it is called "General."
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What are boards?
Boards are the forums where people can post and reply to eachother in. You can view your existing boards by going to the admin page and clicking on "Edit Boards (reorder/create/remove)" on the left menu.
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How do I create a board?
On the admin page, click on "Edit Boards (reorder/create/remove)." Scroll down and you will see "Create New Board" near the bottom. Enter an ID for the board (just 1 word describing it, it doesn't matter what you put), the name of the board, a short description, and who the moderators will be. You should separate moderators using commas, and no spaces.
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How do I customize the colors for my board?
On the admin page, click on "Modify Board Settings." You will then be presented with a page where you can make updates and modifications to your message boards.
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What is a moderator?
Moderators are people who have control over a message forum. They have the ability to delete posts/threads, view the IP addresses of posters, lock topics (make it so no one can reply), unlock topics (if they were locked), and modify any and all postings on the board (no matter who they are posted by).
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How do I add a moderator?
On the admin page, click on "Edit Boards (reorder/create/remove)." Scroll down to the board you want to add a moderator to. There will be a box that is for adding moderator names. Simply add the username of the person you want to make a moderator into that form field. Let's say you wanted "admin" and "bob" to be moderators. You would put in the form field "admin,bob" (no space between them).
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Can I customize the news on the index page?
Yes, you can. On the admin page, click on "Edit News." You can enter your news in the textarea that is provided.
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How do I remove a post or thread from my board?
If you need to remove a post or a thread, you need to go to your board, click on the thread, and inside you will see "delete" button next each post. If you want to remove just a post, click the delete button next to the post. If you want to remove the entire thread, scroll to the bottom of the thread and you will see a link that says "remove thread." Click on that to remove the entire thread.
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How can I view the members who are registered on my board?
On the admin page, click on "View/Delete Members." You will then be presented with a list of members. Click on any of the usernames to view their account profile. If you want to modify a member's profile, click the "Modify" button at the top.
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Can I delete members?
Yes. On the admin page, click on "View/Delete Members." Next, check the box next to the username(s) you want to remove. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the submit button, and their account(s) will be removed. You can also remove an individual account by viewing it, clicking "Modify" at the top of their profile, and then scroll to the bottom and choose "Delete."
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How do I ban someone?
On the admin page, click on "Ban Members." You can then enter email addresses or IP addresses to ban. If you are banning an IP address, we suggest you take the first three numbers in the IP address and add a * as the last number. For example, if you were banning 127.0.0.1 you would type in 127.0.0.*
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Can I choose which words are censored on my board?
Yes. On the admin page, click on "Set censored words." You will then be presented with a form that shows all censored words. You can choose how a word is censored. You type in the format "damn=shucks" in the form, and "damn" will turn into "shucks" any time it comes up in a post.
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Can I email everyone who is registered on my board?
Yes. On the admin page, click on "E-Mail Your Members" and you will be presented with a form you can use to email all registered members of your board.