Forum PSA: How To Be a Good Member

Hello! Welcome to my little forum PSA

I decided that since this forum has gotten filled with a lot more people that don't really know how to properly post, it would be a good idea to make this little thread to help them out! Maybe some experienced users may also find this useful

ANY < OR > ARE NOT MEANT TO BE USED, THEY'RE THERE TO INDICATE THAT IT CAN BE FILLED IN!

1. Posting utilities

---

1.1 Use proper tags
Have you wondered how people insert images into their post? Have you not found a way to add a YouTube player onto a topic? Are you driven mad by not being able to do tag examples because they always mess up the post? Well fear no more!
Nearly every forum nowadays has tags. What are tags? Tags are markers in a post that indicate certain things a forum has to do. For instance:

[B]This text is bold![/B]
Turns into...

This text is bold!

This forum has a lot of them. These are the ones you should know!

[B]<text>[/B] - Bold text
[I]<text>[/I] - Italian text
[U]<text>[/U] - Underlined text
[S]<text>[/S] - Strikethrough
[COLOR="xxxxxx"]<text>[/COLOR] - Text color
(The "xxxxxx" can be replaced with any hexidecimal color code)
[SUP]<text>[/SUP] - Higher text, like squared
[SUB]<text>[/SUB] - Lower text, like in H2O
[HR] - Horizontal rule, like seen under the paragraph name
[FONT FACE="<font>"][/FONT] - Changes the font. Available fonts: Arial, Comic Sans MS, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS and Verdana.
[FONT SIZE="<number>"][/FONT] - Changes the font size. Ranges from 1 (8pt) to 7 (36pt).

Here come the most important ones!

[IMG]<imagelink>[/IMG] - This is how you insert an image
[VIDEO]<videolink>[/VIDEO] - This is how you insert a video
@username - Tags a user. Someone's username can be found on their profile!
[SPOILER]<text>[/SPOILER] - Hide text, images or pretty much anything from plain sight - very useful for, well, spoilers!
[CODE][./CODE] - (Without the period) Insert text that will just be treated as normal text, so you can show tags
1.2 Scale images
I've seen this happen countless times, people either having an image a million pixels wide or so small that even an ant has a hard time seeing it. So what do you do if you want it bigger? Or what if you want an image that fits all ratios?

Earlier on, we saw the IMG tags, here it comes again:

[IMG]<imagelink>[/IMG]
Well, this tag is a bit of a lie. This is the simplified version! This is what it turns into once you post it:

[IMG SRC="<imagelink>" STYLE="WIDTH:100%;"]
That got confusing all of a sudden... But don't worry! It's very easy to understand.

IMG SRC="<imagelink>" means "The source of this image is at <imagelink>"
STYLE="WIDTH:100%;" means "The width of this image is 100% of the original width", AKA it's the source image.

To scale an image, all you have to do is this:

[IMG SRC="<imagelink>" WIDTH="<number>px"]
! IT'S RECOMMENDED YOUR WIDTH IS AT LEAST 200PX !

1.3 Switching modes
A really straight-forward one, if you type any code in your preview and want to know what it looks like, just switch between these two tabs and everything will render:



1.4 Improvised multiquotes
Since ProBoards don't have the ability to multiquote, it's time to improvise! How?
Step 1: Open the same topic in a new tab.
Step 2: Quote one of the posts that you want to be part of your multiquote.
Step 3: Quote the second person of your multiquote, and click the BBCode tab, as seen above.
Step 4: Copy the code that's in there and paste it underneath the code in your first tab
Step 5: Back on your second tab, hit the back arrow and do the same for any other posts.
Step 6: Once you've gathered all your quotes, go into the BBCode tab to make sure everything is neatly organized.


2. Posting in general

---

2.1 Necessity of posts
Now that you know the basics, it's important to know what to post. Don't just go out and spam every thread! Make sure your post contributes to the topic of conversation (Lounge is an exclusion).

Is my post necessary?
Follow this quick guide to see if it is:

• 1. Subject
  Is your post related to the OP, or in any way contributing to the current discussion? If it's not: is there any other purpose in your post, e.g. changing the subject, adding new information, giving your opinion?
• 2. Attention
  Is your post there just to crave attention or spark controversy? Rethink the consequences of these posts. Don't just be rude towards others!
• 3. Current
  Are you posting in a thread that hasn't had activity in over a week? Rethink your post. Do you really have to necro this thread to spark a conversation again, or would it be better to start out a new topic? Use your head.
• 4. Spam
  As on most forums, spam in any board other than Lounge is not wanted and can lead to a ban. Please, only post useful posts and don't litter boards with meaningless text or images. Thanks!
• 5. Quoting
  Never, and with this I mean NEVER, quote a long OP. I've seen too many posts in my life that have just been a small message, but quoting the entire 150-sentence long OP, it's not even funny. Note - you don't NEED to quote the entire OP to reply to a part! Just delete any parts of it that aren't related to your posts, and snip large images out!

2.2 Spoilers
Earlier on I showed you how to make spoilers yourself, now use them whenever necessary! Nobody wants games spoiled or huge chunks of text on their screen.
Though ofcourse, don't use too many, which leads into my next part of spoilers: don't use too many! Why? I'll tell you, just open this spoiler.



! NOTE: Spoilers don't show up in the preview for some odd reason, so don't be worried about them not showing !

2.3 Language and profanity
Keep profanity at its minimum on this forum, as there are a lot of younger members on here. I know, I might not keep it as low as I should myself, but I'll start trying more
Also, English is the language of this site - don't use your own please! It's not that we hate other languages, but English is the most universal and your message will be conveyed to everyone.

2.4 Disturbing/unsettling/NSFW content
Don't post weird images, texts or videos on this forum! Mods will probably remove said content, the post or will ban you, depending on how bad it is. Some people can be very sensitive about these things, so try and keep this place as nice as possible!
What counts as this sort of content?

• Gore
  Anything with blood, dismemberment or anything of that kind is strictly forbidden, but this should come as natural.
• Unsettling
  These include:
• NSFW
  Nudity or rule 34 content, needs no futher explaining.

---

We've basically covered pretty much everything to becoming a good member, but there's still one thing missing.

3.1 Be helpful
Does somebody need support? Is there a problem in the Help and Support section that needs solving? Try and help! You aren't always able to do something about it, but you can always try to be as useful as possible. Don't ridicule people with less experience with solving problems. Updating a graphics card driver might be so obvious to some, but those with less experience probably don't even know their model. So please - respect other users!

3.2 Don't bully
Luckily, I haven't seen this problem anywhere on this forum, but you never know when it could happen. Bullying on the internet might seem so small and meaningless on a forum, but it can become extremely annoying overtime, if the user doesn't stop bothering the victim. Again, respect other users and let them be, don't pick on their age or origin: we're all humans.

3.3 Have fun!
Don't think this forum is a super strict place by any means, after all it's only a forum. Don't be salty when you come on here and ruin everyone's day, and if you're the average user, don't let your day be ruined by someone salty.

4. Miscellaneous

---

4.1 Spelling
Like me, you'll probably sometimes use a word that you either don't know how to spell, forgot how to spell or don't know the English translation for. Well no worries!
If you don't know how to spell it...
...type it into Google, and hope that it autocorrects you.
If you forgot how to spell it...
...do the same thing, but you'll probably have a higher chance of finding it.
If you don't know the translation...
...use Google Translate.

If all else fails...
...just use a different word, the English vocabulary is pretty broad

4.2 Tagging
Tagging users is very useful if you need attention, but don't abuse it! If you have a level that needs a rating, don't immediately tag all the judges! Let them find your post and rate it themselves instead of tagging everyone and risking a ban. If your post is ignored and sinks to the second page, you can always bump it and tag your favorite judge.

4.3 Notifications
Unless it's the goal of a user, don't spam their notifications. Apart from being annoying, it's also really hard to find actual notifications in a sea of 1,000 of them, especially for mods and judges who might have been tagged and missed it because of the spam.


I think this pretty much wraps up all you need to know about this forum, though I might update this thread in the future. Follow these rules, and enjoy your stay! Most of this is just common sense, so if you can't find this thread: use your brain!

Thanks for taking the time to read this!
-Supore