This is the forum help guide and it has been created to assist those of you who are unfamiliar with forums and their operation. Where images can be inserted into the text we have done so.

The main forum menu is where you will be able to find the majority of controls and information that you require. This is shown in the image below.

The top bar (green) shows the main forum menu, while the lower bar (grey) shows the user menu. The links are as follows...

• Categories - this takes you to the forum board categories.
• My Profile - this takes you to your profile information.
• Show Latest Posts - this lists all posts added since your last visit to the site.
• Rules - this takes you to a list of our rules for using the forum. Please read them.
• Help - this brings you to the page you are now reading

The lower menu bar links are as follows...

• Show Latest Posts - this lists all posts added since your last visit to the site.
• My Profile - this takes you to your profile information.
• Logout - allows you to log out of the site.
• Announcements - this is where we will place any important updates or information about the forums.
• Advanced Search - this allows you to conduct a search for information based on a number of selectable elements.

We always recommend that one of the first things a member should do is complete their profile. This can only be done if a member is logged in.

My Profile

The first screen shown is a summary of the information already in your profile. You will see a menu block to the left of the screen, directly below your user name. This is split into two sections - Personal Info and Forum Settings

Personal Info provides three links...

• Summary - this is the default page that is shown when 'My Profile' is selected.
• Edit Your Details - this is where you update your email address and password.
• My Avatar - this is where you select a small picture to appear in your profile and posts.

The first two are self explanatory but here is some information about My Avatar. If you look at the image of the menu above you can see a faint image at the left of the grey box. This is the avatar that is shown as a default. To replace this you take the My Avatar option option from the My Profile menu option. You will see a display of avatars available on the system or you can upload an avatar of your own. Your avatar must not exceed 250px wide by 250px high with a file size less than 2Mb. Create your avatar on your PC and then use the 'browse' option to select your chosen avatar on your PC and then click on the upload button. It's as simple as that.

Forum Settings provides five links...

• Look and Layout - this is where you set some of your forum preferences.
• My profile Info - this is where you can add or amend further information you may wish to share about yourself.
• My Posts - this shows links to all the posts you have submitted on the forums.
• My Subscribes - this shows all posts you have subscribed to in order to be kept up to date.
• My Favourites - this shows all topics that you have added to your favourites.

All of these are self explanatory on the relevant screens.

Forum Categories

The image below shows the bottom of one of the forum categories.

Each line is known as a 'thread' and may contain numerous replies. We can see from the image that the thread titled 'Noise' was started by the user called Kez, has one reply but has been viewed 2,048 times. To see this thread you click on the title. To see the last post you click on the grey icon with the diagonal arrow on the right.

You can also see a green icon marked 'New Thread'. To start a new post thread in this forum board just click that icon. You also have the opportunity mark the forum as read. this means that all unread posts will be shown as read when you next visit this category. Those posts will also be removed from the 'Latest Posts' mentioned earlier.

There is also a list of any moderators for each forum category. You may click on a moderator's name to see their profile.

Posting a thread

Let us look at a typical post. By clicking on the thread title 'Noise' we get the following screen display...

Depending on your membership status you may not see all of these icons. Some of them are restricted to moderators only.

Above the actual post we have four main icons...

• New Thread - to create a new thread in this category.
• Reply Topic - to add your reply to this particular post.
• Subscribe - to add this post to your list of subscribed posts
• Favourite - to add this topic to your list of favourites

To the left we have the posters public profile information. To the right we have the main body of the post. At the top right we have a small dropdown link. All of the items have been covered previously with the exception of 'pdf'. This enables you to convert the post to a pdf format and print it out.

At the bottom of the post we can see a link - Report to moderator - which allows users to bring a post to the moderators' attention. A form will be opened allowing the objector to inform the moderators of why they have reported the post.

Please note that all posts have the poster's IP address recorded. This allows us to trace and ban users who abuse the system.

There are a range of further icons below the main body of the post...

• Quick Reply - allows a simple response to be typed. There is no access to smileys, quote, or BB code.
• Reply - allows reply to be given using all editing options available.
• Quote - this includes the post as a quote inside your reply.
• Delete - Moderators Only - allows post to be deleted.
• Move - Moderators Only - allows post to be moved.
• Merge - Moderators Only - allows post to be merged with another thread.
• Edit - allows poster and moderators to edit post.
• Sticky - Moderators Only - allows post to remain at the top of a category.
• Locked - Moderators Only - allows the thread to locked from further posting.