Mop
Temporal Navigator
Well, it's been a long time coming, and somewhat delayed, but I think that in the end you'll all agree that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was well worth it.
We were hoping to have these new message boards online by Monday, but we ran into some snags, and we wanted to make it work as well as possible before going live, so I thank you all for your patience and understanding.
And in exchange for your patience and understanding, we have given you not only new message boards, but also have succeeded into saving all the old messages AND all your old user accounts! But we had to reset all your passwords because they're encrypted. So before you can post, you need a new password. To get that new password, go to our " forgot your password " form and fill it out with the appropriate username and e-mail address. If you can't remember the e-mail address associated to your account, or it doesn't exist anymore, then the only option remaining to us is to delete the account so that you may recreate it. This will be handled in a case by case basis and you'll have to e-mail me at [email protected] in order to get this done.
Anyway, enjoy. Play around in the test forum to see what new things you can do. Appreciate the lack of bugs and increase in speed.
Here are some pointers on how to take full advantage of the new message board's features:
<font color="red">To Edit your Display preferences... [/COLOR]
- First... make sure you're logged in.
- Click on "My Home" at the top of the screen.
- Scroll to the bottom and click on "Edit" next to "Display Preferences..."
LANGUAGE SELECTION:
Here you can choose a language to use... other than English... if you desire. Note this won't translate actual posts... as they were most likely written in English.... but it will translate all navagational text, links, error messages and instructions on the forum software end of things.
STYLESHEET (SKIN):
The next, and most dramatic way to change your viewing experience is to try different stylesheets. Stylesheets are pre-set layouts (or skins) for the overall design and colors of the site.
But there are several to choose from. Including 3 with Large Fonts for those who hate to strain their eyes.
Try selecting a different stylesheet and then scroll to the bottom and click submit. Keep changing them until you find what you most prefer. "Infopop", "desert" and "the blues" are pretty mild and 'clean'. "Black and Blue" and "wild" are a bit more dramatic... but choose whatever one best matches your personality and mood.
TIME:
Here's where you can choose your time offset from our server time. The current server time will be shown. If you are in a different time zone than our server you can enter a positive or negative number for time offset here. This will make your post times, and message times appear accurately.
LIST CATEGORIES OR FORUMS:
You can choose to have the "Main Index" give a listing of categories...rather than the list of forums if you wish.
WHERE TO GO AFTER LOGIN:
You can choose if you wish to view the "My Home Page" or the "Main Index" page after you login.
DEFAULT AGED THREAD TO BE DISPLAYED:
Overwhelmed by the number of posts? You can choose to have only more recent threads and posts displayed. Not that if an old thread gets a reply... it will become "recent" again.
DEFAULT SORT ORDER:
You can choose to list the posts several ways... by date, subject, poster etc... with the newest on the top... or newest on the bottom.
DEFAULT DISPLAY MODE (FLAT OR THREADED):
This is the most powerful way to change the overall function of the forums. There are two choices here. "Flat" mode will show you each post... in one long list. You can scroll down and read all posts in a thread on one screen. "Threaded" mode will function like traditional message boards. Each post will be listed by subject, and you can click on each subject to view that single message.
DEFAULT VIEW:
If you are viewing in "Threaded" mode... then "Collapsed Threads" will show you a list of each main thread subject. You'll need to click into there to view replies. "Expanded Threads" will show you the main Thread subject, with each reply indented underneath it.
TOTAL PARENT POSTS TO SHOW PER PAGE / TOTAL NUMBER OF POSTS:
When viewing the list of posts... this is how many parent threads or how many posts (in flat mode) that will be shown. You might like this number lower if you're on a slow connection, if you're on a fast connection, you might prefer a longer list.
DEFAULT PREVIEW POST:
Change this setting here and you can post without proofing. Note you can still manually override this by checking the box when making a post.
TEXT AREA COLUMNS / ROWS:
Think the size of the box that you type in is too small when you start composing a message? Adjust these numbers... and the box will get bigger or smaller.
VIEW USERS PICTURES PROFILE/POSTS:
You can turn off the face pics that appear in user profiles or next to each post here. You may prefer this to speed things up if you are on a slow connection.
VIEW USERS SIGNATURES:
You can turn off users signatures if you wish.
<font color="red">WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED: [/COLOR]
Very important. When you are finished adjusting settings, be sure to scroll to the very bottom and click the "submit" button. Changes won't take effect until you do this.
The best way to determine what works best for you is to play with the settings and see what you like.
Thank you!
Raul Burriel/Mop
The Administrator
We were hoping to have these new message boards online by Monday, but we ran into some snags, and we wanted to make it work as well as possible before going live, so I thank you all for your patience and understanding.
And in exchange for your patience and understanding, we have given you not only new message boards, but also have succeeded into saving all the old messages AND all your old user accounts! But we had to reset all your passwords because they're encrypted. So before you can post, you need a new password. To get that new password, go to our " forgot your password " form and fill it out with the appropriate username and e-mail address. If you can't remember the e-mail address associated to your account, or it doesn't exist anymore, then the only option remaining to us is to delete the account so that you may recreate it. This will be handled in a case by case basis and you'll have to e-mail me at [email protected] in order to get this done.
Anyway, enjoy. Play around in the test forum to see what new things you can do. Appreciate the lack of bugs and increase in speed.
Here are some pointers on how to take full advantage of the new message board's features:
<font color="red">To Edit your Display preferences... [/COLOR]
- First... make sure you're logged in.
- Click on "My Home" at the top of the screen.
- Scroll to the bottom and click on "Edit" next to "Display Preferences..."
LANGUAGE SELECTION:
Here you can choose a language to use... other than English... if you desire. Note this won't translate actual posts... as they were most likely written in English.... but it will translate all navagational text, links, error messages and instructions on the forum software end of things.
STYLESHEET (SKIN):
The next, and most dramatic way to change your viewing experience is to try different stylesheets. Stylesheets are pre-set layouts (or skins) for the overall design and colors of the site.
But there are several to choose from. Including 3 with Large Fonts for those who hate to strain their eyes.
Try selecting a different stylesheet and then scroll to the bottom and click submit. Keep changing them until you find what you most prefer. "Infopop", "desert" and "the blues" are pretty mild and 'clean'. "Black and Blue" and "wild" are a bit more dramatic... but choose whatever one best matches your personality and mood.
TIME:
Here's where you can choose your time offset from our server time. The current server time will be shown. If you are in a different time zone than our server you can enter a positive or negative number for time offset here. This will make your post times, and message times appear accurately.
LIST CATEGORIES OR FORUMS:
You can choose to have the "Main Index" give a listing of categories...rather than the list of forums if you wish.
WHERE TO GO AFTER LOGIN:
You can choose if you wish to view the "My Home Page" or the "Main Index" page after you login.
DEFAULT AGED THREAD TO BE DISPLAYED:
Overwhelmed by the number of posts? You can choose to have only more recent threads and posts displayed. Not that if an old thread gets a reply... it will become "recent" again.
DEFAULT SORT ORDER:
You can choose to list the posts several ways... by date, subject, poster etc... with the newest on the top... or newest on the bottom.
DEFAULT DISPLAY MODE (FLAT OR THREADED):
This is the most powerful way to change the overall function of the forums. There are two choices here. "Flat" mode will show you each post... in one long list. You can scroll down and read all posts in a thread on one screen. "Threaded" mode will function like traditional message boards. Each post will be listed by subject, and you can click on each subject to view that single message.
DEFAULT VIEW:
If you are viewing in "Threaded" mode... then "Collapsed Threads" will show you a list of each main thread subject. You'll need to click into there to view replies. "Expanded Threads" will show you the main Thread subject, with each reply indented underneath it.
TOTAL PARENT POSTS TO SHOW PER PAGE / TOTAL NUMBER OF POSTS:
When viewing the list of posts... this is how many parent threads or how many posts (in flat mode) that will be shown. You might like this number lower if you're on a slow connection, if you're on a fast connection, you might prefer a longer list.
DEFAULT PREVIEW POST:
Change this setting here and you can post without proofing. Note you can still manually override this by checking the box when making a post.
TEXT AREA COLUMNS / ROWS:
Think the size of the box that you type in is too small when you start composing a message? Adjust these numbers... and the box will get bigger or smaller.
VIEW USERS PICTURES PROFILE/POSTS:
You can turn off the face pics that appear in user profiles or next to each post here. You may prefer this to speed things up if you are on a slow connection.
VIEW USERS SIGNATURES:
You can turn off users signatures if you wish.
<font color="red">WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED: [/COLOR]
Very important. When you are finished adjusting settings, be sure to scroll to the very bottom and click the "submit" button. Changes won't take effect until you do this.
The best way to determine what works best for you is to play with the settings and see what you like.
Thank you!
Raul Burriel/Mop
The Administrator