Frequently Asked Questions Including HOW DO I START A THREAD? I CANT STAY LOGGED IN

[Randy Chase]

Stuff to help you out.

REGISTRATION

How to register. If you have not done so, just click on the button that says register above. You will be asked to agree to the rules and then fill out some information. Note, none of this information is used for any purpose other than for these forums. Not for advertising and it will never be shared with anyone else.

Pick a user name. You can use your first name, your real name, or make up something like HotSurferBabe76. It does not matter. I only limit the length (it messes things up) and it can't be offensive. If later on you want it changed, just ask me.

You also get to pick a password. Use something you can remember. Enter in some optional data like your birthdate and stuff about you. You do not need to enter this in, it's all voluntary!

Note on time zones. If you want the board to show the posts in the times where you live, you need to indicate that on your registration that you are in PST or whatever. It can also be changed later. Technically, it would be a -8 time zone offset. The server is hosted at Pacific Standard Time by the way.

Avatars and custom titles. At this point we do not allow them. If you don't know what an avatar is, do not worry about it.

[Randy Chase]

IMAGES

Any image on the internet can linked to. An example is this:
http://www.chases.org/pics/gatordeb.gif

I just typed in (or copy/paste) the address. You do not see the image, unless you click on it.

Another method is to use the image tags. If you click on IMG button above when you compose a reply, you can create a link to an image that is displayed. The image tags are [img] LINK! and then [/img]

This is the same image but using image tags



There is an option to attach an image where you upload it, but it's available right now on this forum. If you need an image loaded, you can email it to me.

[Randy Chase]

Titles

Right now we have the software set to this:

Junior Member- 0-29 posts
Member- 30-99 Posts
Senior Member 100-999 posts

There are levels beyond 1000, but we will wait until someone gets there. On one of my other forums, many people have over 20,000 posts.


Moderator- Handles administrative functions in a forum
Moderators can view IPs and close/edit/delete on their own forums.

Administrator- Handles administrative functions on the entire site. The admin can prune, move, close, delete, edit and more. The admin can also change user data.

[Randy Chase]

Email Notification and subcribing to a thread

This should be wisely used. There is a setting when you registered that enables you to be notified when ANY thread you have posted in gets another reply.

What this means is that when the board gets busy, you could wake up to hundreds of email notifications. How annoying!

You can turn this feature off! When you first registered, it was an option, but you very likely did not even know what it meant. If you are getting an email notification about every thread you have posted in, that can get annoying. Here is what to do:

Click on the user cp button at the top row of menu buttons. Click on edit options. You will see under Meesaging & Notification the option Use 'Email Notification' by Default. Click this to NO.

Now all future threads you post in will not be "subscribed."

How do you UNSUBSCRIBE from the threads you are already subscribed to? Back at the user cp menu, you will see a green bar with Private Messages; one with Subscribed Forums and a third one with Subscribed Threads.

Click on where it says View All Subscribed ThreadsOn the next screen on the right hand side, there is a blue menu selection that says Unsubscribe From All Threads

That will clear all of them. Now if you want, you can subscribe individually to a thread or forum.

If you want to know ANYTIME that someone replies to one thread or an entire forum, that is what you do. That can be handy if you are involved in a debate or something very interesting and you don't want to hit refresh and check for replies. Just subscribe to it and the forum will email you and notify you that someone replied!

[Randy Chase]

Smilies!

To find out more, just click on the menu button that says faq above. There is a ton of stuff.

To find out which smilies we allow/use and how to make them work, click here:
http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/misc...on=showsmilies

Basically to make a smilie appear, you type in a simple code that the software converts. For example, if you type in it will turn into a smilie face.

[Randy Chase]

View New Posts

To make your stay even easier, all you have to do when coming back to the site after being away is click on the View New Posts link at the top right of the main forum page.

It will search for all posts since you have last been here. A cool feature.

[Randy Chase]

Multiple users on one computer

The site makes your life easier with the use of a cookie. It knows when you last logged in, what you have not read, and remembers who you are so you should not have to log in everytime.

But if someone else logs in or registers with your computer, than their cookie replaces your's. Now you try to access the site and it think you are the other person.

What to do?

Go the main screen of the forums, bottom right it says LOG OUT. Click on it and then log back in with your name and password.

[Randy Chase]

Can't Stay Logged In?

You are logged in, but go to post or reply and the forum says you don't have permission because you are not logged in. You may find this happens on one computer, but not another.

The first thing to try is to log out. Go the main page of the forum at
http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/index.php?

At the bottom right is a link that says Log Out (user_name). If it does not say this... you are not LOGGED IN and must LOG IN first, which is a link at the upper right. If the system sees you as logged in, the upper right block will say Welcome...(user_name).

Once logged in, then log out. This will clear your cookies.

IF THAT FAILS... then you will need to manually delete the cookies on the computer.

If you use Internet Explorer (IE), then do this:

Go to TOOLS menu. Select INTERNET OPTIONS. Under GENERAL tab, click on DELETE COOKIES. This will delete ALL COOKIES and you may have to log in to other sites again. You may also want to delete all temporary files by clicking on the DELETE FILES button. This deletes your cache of files, though you should not have to.

If you do not want to delete all your cookies, then click SETTINGS instead. Click VIEW FILES. You should see a number of cookie files. Man... some of the sites you have been looking at! If you see any files with ELISETALK in them, delete them. Otherwise hit CONTRL-F in Windows and search for files with EliseTalk.

In Firefox (Mozilla).... do this-

Select TOOLS menu. Select OPTIONS. Select PRIVACY. Select VIEW COOKIES. Click REMOVE ALL COOKIES. Again, this will delete all cookies and you may have to re-log-in at certain sites. If you want to only delete EliseTalk cookies, search for any cookie with ELISETALK in it. Select those cookies and delete them. Click OK and again.

Go back to EliseTalk and log in again using your username and password.

On a MAC I have no idea... well I found this on the net-
# Open Safari
# Select Safari/Preferences
# Select the Security Tab
# Click the Show Cookies button
# Search for and select any cookie containing elisetalk in its title. You can select a series by holding down your shift key and clicking the first and last in a series or by holding your Apple key and clicking each cookie file.
# Click the Remove button
# Click Done
# Close the Security window

[Randy Chase]

How Do I start a Thread?

I get this question a lot.

First, consider searching to see if a thread already exists that has your answers. It would be better to reply to that thread than start a new one. Or read it and see if the answer is there.

OK.. so you want to start a new thread. What do you do?

If you are on the main forum page at http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/index.php?
You will notice there is no button to click to start a thread right? That is because people do not post in the main forum page. You have to be in a subforum. The forum is laid out using categories, so you need to first go to the appropriate category for your post.**

Once you are in a subforum... you will see a button. For example, in the main subforum, here-
http://www.elisetalk.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3

You can see a button at the upper left area above the titles of threads. It looks like-


Click on that to start your thread. Add a title, some pithy content. And stand back for the learned responses and flames.

** VERY often people put threads in the wrong categories. Often under the rationalization that this forum gets more traffic. But be aware that to me, the threads and categories also serve as a resource for information finding, and having threads in the wrong places... or filling up the main Lotus forum with all kinds of off topic/regional stuff... worsens the quality of Elisetalk.. so I will move those threads. SOMETIMES I will leave them as a courtesy for a day or two. But then I will move them. Do not get upset about this. It is not personal. I probably move hundreds of threads. I really hate doing it. So your help is appreciated!