Using
the Victory Life Center/Victory Today Radio Discussion Board
| Introduction | User Accounts |
Logging In | Profile Settings |
Posting Messages | Private Messages
| Searching |
| Watching Topics | Polls |
More Help |
Discussion Board Introduction
A Discussion Board is an Internet program that allows individuals to interact
with each other through the posting of messages on the Internet. Once a message
is posted, others can post a reply to the message. It is a great tool to help to
share ideas and for individuals to connect with each other.
The following information will help Discussion Board newbies to learn how to use the VLC/VTR Discussion Board.
Postings in the Discussion Board are organized into three subdivisions:
Forum - A forum is a container for topics. Forums often have a general subject that the topics within are about.
Topic - A topic is a collection of posts. The posts are organized in chronological order. The idea of a topic is that there is a single post that contains the topic of discussion. The rest of the posts in the topic are replies to this first post and to other replies. Topics are sort of like conversations, allowing many people to state their opinions about an idea, or debate an issue.
Post - A post is a piece of information submitted by a single user. It may be a new post, which starts a new topic, or a reply to an existing post. Posts are typically a sentence, paragraph, or a few paragraphs.
Navigating through posts in the Forum is based on the idea of
posts, topics and forums. Generally, a user will start at the Forum
Index.The Forum
Index shows a list of forums. If you click on one of the forums, you
will be shown the View Forum page, which is a listing of the
topics in the Forum. They are sorted in
chronological order by the most recent post in each topic. If you click on a
topic, you will be shown the View Topic page, which is a
listing of the posts in that topic. The posts in a topic are
organized chronologically, with the oldest post first.
When a user is logged in, his/her username will be shown with each post he/she makes. Each user may also have some custom settings which allow them to control the look and feel of the board as they use it.
Register link.
You will be taken to the Registration Agreement Terms page. Click on the
appropriate link. You will then be taken to the registration page. Enter the
username you want (others will see it), a good e-mail address (otherwise your
registration will not be activated), and a password. You will also be required
to enter the confirmation code. After registering you will receive an e-mail with activation instructions. Follow the activation directions.
If you are under 18 you will receive an e-mail with special instructions.
Be sure an update your Profile once you are registered. Click on the
Profile
link.
Logging
In
In order to post messages you
must log in. To log in, you must click
Log
in.
Enter your user name and password, and click Login. So you do not have to log-in every time you to the Discussion Board, check 'Log me on automatically each visit:'
To Log out of the board, click
Log
Out [Username]. There should
be no reason why you need to Log out unless you are encountering some kind of
a problem.
If you forget your password, go to the Login Page. Click 'I forgot my password'.
You will be taken to a form to enter your username and email address. A
new password will be created, and sent in an email to you. When you receive
the email, you need to click the new password activation link. The new
password activation link exists so that if someone else enters your
information into the Forgotten Password form, your current
password will remain intact. After you have activated your new password,
you may log in with it. You may change your password to what you like in
your profile.
Profile Settings
To edit your profile, click the small
Profile
link
at the top of any page.
You must be logged in to edit your profile. To make changes to your profile, change the values on the form and click Submit at the bottom of the page.
Username - Your username on the board, the name you use to log in.
Email - The email address your account is registered to. All emails from the board to you will go to this email address. You may change the email address if you like. If you change your email address then you will need to activate your changed email address. You will be sent an email (to the new address) with an activation link.
Password - The password you use to log in. If you change your email address or password, you must enter your current password. If you are changing your password you will need to enter the new password twice to verify it.
Fields in the Profile Information:
Always show my Email Address - If Yes a link to email you will appear in your profile. If set to No, the link will not appear.
Hide your online status - If Yes you will not be visible to normal users in the Who is Online? list at the bottom of the Discussion Board Index.
Always notify me of replies - If Yes then the Notify me when a reply is posted checkbox on the posting form will be checked by default. You may still uncheck it each time you post.
Notify on new Private Messages - If Yes an email will be sent to your registered email address each time you receive a private message.
Pop up window on new Private Messages - If Yes you will see a pop up window notifying you of new Private Messages you receive while browsing the forums.
Always attach my signature - If Yes then the Attach signature checkbox on the posting form will be checked by default. You may still uncheck it each time you post.
Always allow BBCode - If Yes then the Disable BBCode in this post checkbox on the posting form will be unchecked by default. You may still check it each time you post.
Always enable Smilies - If Yes then the Disable Smilies in this post checkbox on the posting form will be unchecked by default. You may still check it each time you post.
Board Language - Selects the language of board messages/text. Any text from other users or administrators is unaffected.
Board Style - Selects the style that the board. This setting will not work.
Date Format
The Discussion Board allows you to specify the
date format that you see on the board. This is done by allowing you to
specify the format.
The date string is a series of letters and punctuation. Each letter will be replaced with a part of the current date and time, and the punctuation is used to organize this information in a way that makes sense to you.
The default string for this field is "D M d, Y g:i a" This will display your date in the form Sat Apr 09, 2002 4:09 am. All of the punctuation and spacing remains intact, and each letter is replaced with part of the date/time.
D is the first three letters of the day of the week. M is the first three letters of the month name. d is the numerical date, with leading zeroes. Y is the year, four-digit format. gis the hour, 12-hour format without leading zeroes. i is the minutes, with leading zeroes. ais am/pm, in lowercase letters.
Time Zones
To have the board time show correctly, please select your time zone.
The time in the Discussion Board does not work with Daylight Savings Time, so if
you have Daylight Savings Time, add 1 to your GMT modifier. So if you are in
GMT-5 and have DST, you will need to set your time zone to GMT-4.
Pacific Time is -8.
Go to the Announcements Topic to learn more about Time Zones.
Avatars
Avatars are small pictures that display next to your username when you post a message. Each user may choose his/her own avatar. If
you would like an avatar of your photo, e-mail the image to the
webmaster.
Gallery Avatars - You may choose your avatar from a gallery of avatars. The gallery is a collection of avatars stored on the server that the board is running on. To select an avatar from the gallery, click Show Gallery. You may use the dropdown list at the top of the gallery to navigate between categories of avatars. To choose an avatar, check the radio button underneath it and click Select Avatar.
Remotely Linked Avatars -This feature is disabled.
Uploaded Avatars - This feature is
disabled.
Posting Messages
There are two primary ways to create a post. In the
View Forum
and View Topic pages, you may click New Topic.
This will take you to the posting form, and, when you have posted, will create a
new topic with your post as the first one in the topic. In the View
Topic page, you may also click Reply. This
will take you to the posting form, and, when you have posted, it will add your
post to the topic you replied to. To reply to a specific post, you may also
click the Quote button in the upper right corner of
that post.
Posting Form
When you post a new topic or post a reply, you are taken to the posting
form, where to enter your post.
Subject - The subject of your post. If this is a new post, the subject is required, and it will be the name of the topic. If the post is replying to another post, the subject is not required, but may be added, and will be shown at the top of the post.
Message Body - The Message body is a large text area where the body of your post is input. Plain text is the only thing allowed in this text area, but special formatting, links, smilies (emoticons), images, etc. may be added through the use of Smilies, and BBCode.
Smilies - Smilies (also called emoticons) can be added to posts.
BBCode - BBCode allows you to add special formatting to your posts.
Signature - You may add a signature to your post. To do this, check the box next to Attach Signature. You may add or change your signature by going into your profile.
Reply Notification - When you post, you may be interested in knowing when that topic is replied to. If so, you may check Notify me when a reply is posted. For more information, see Watching Topics.
Here is a list of sample BBCode and its output:
[b]Bolded Text[/b]: Bolded
Text
[i]Italicized Text[/i]:
Italicized Text
[u]Underlined Text[/u]:
Underlined Text
[color=red]Red Text[/color] or [color=#FF0000]Red
Text[/color]: Red Text
[size=24]Bigger Text[/size]:
Bigger Text
[quote]This cheese is delicious[/quote]:
[quote="The Cheese Man"]This cheese is delicious.[/quote]:
[code]if ($cheese == "tasty") { return true; }[/code]:
[list][*]Cheddar Cheese[*]Limburger Cheese[*]Cottage Cheese[/list]:
[list=1][*]Cheddar Cheese[*]Limburger Cheese[*]Cottage Cheese[/list]:
[list=a][*]Cheddar Cheese[*]Limburger Cheese[*]Cottage Cheese[/list]:
Smilies/Emoticons
Smilies/Emoticons are small images that appear in posts.
These are small
images of faces, and are often used to show emotion. There
is a grid of the smilies, any of which may be clicked to insert the
appropriate character sequence at the current text insertion point.
To quote all of someone's post, look at the top right corner of their post and click Quote. This will take you to the posting form, and will allow you to reply to the post. It will also automatically add the appropriate BBCode to your post to quote the post you are replying to.
The proper syntax to quote a post is:
[quote="<name to quote>"]<text to quote>[/quote]
<name to quote> is the source of your quote, and <text to quote> is what you are quoting. So to quote the user Cheese Man saying "Power the behold of cheese."
[quote="Cheese Man"]Power the behold of cheese[/quote]
To delete a post, click Edit and check
Delete this Post. Click Submit to finish
deleting the post. You may not delete a post if it has been replied to (i.e.
it is not the last post in the topic).
Private Messages
Private messages allow users on a board to contact each other out of the public
eye. Private messages can be described as a cross between email, instant
messaging, and the Forum posting.
To use private messaging, you must be logged in to the board. Look at the
top of any page, and click
or
. This will take you to your private messaging center.
The posting form is identical to the normal posting form with a few exceptions:
Username - The username of the person you want to receive the message. If you are replying to a PM, or clicked the PM link in someone's profile, this field will be automatically filled for you.
Receiving
There are three ways that one may be notified of a new private message.
Most obvious is the Private message link at the top of every page. It will
display
. You may click this link to take you to your
Inbox.
You may be informed of new PMs by an email sent to the email address your username is registered to. You may also be informed of a new PM by means of a small window that pops up while you are viewing the board. Email and pop-up notification will contain a link to your Inbox. Email and pop-up notification may be enabled/disabled in your Profile.
Sometimes you may be informed of a new PM, but when you go to your Inbox, there is no new message. This is not a bug, it simply means that the sender must have deleted the PM before you read it.
You may delete messages by selecting them and clicking Delete Marked. Alternatively, you may delete all messages by clicking Delete All. You may also sort/display messages by age by using the dropdown list box in the upper right corner.
The Outbox
When you send a PM, the message goes to your Outbox. It
remains in the Outbox until the recipient visits his/her Inbox, at which point
it is moved from your Outbox to their Inbox. While the message remains in
your Outbox you may edit or delete your post if you like. The message remains
in your control until it is received.
The Savebox
The Savebox is provided as a place to keep important PMs. Often it is used
to save valuable messages from the Inbox, and then you can use the
Delete All function to discard the rest.
You may save messages in your Inbox by selecting the messages (with the
checkboxes next to each message) and clicking Save Marked.
Searching
The Discussion Board has a search system that will allow you to find topics
you are interested in. To get to the search page, click the small
Search link at the top of any page.
Search for Keywords - You may search for words in the content of topics. Enter the words to search for into the text field.
If you select Search for any terms or use query as entered, then topic containing ANY of the words you entered will be displayed. You may use the AND, OR, and NOT operators to indicate which words you want to search for. Use AND to indicate that multiple words MUST be found. Use OR to indicate that a word is optional/alternate. Use NOT to indicate that a word should not be present in the topics displayed.
If you select Search for all terms, only topics containing all of the words in the query will be displayed. Selecting this option has effects comparable to using Search for any terms or use query as entered, with the AND operator between each term.
You may use the asterisk(*) wildcard character to broaden your search. The asterisk will match any number of characters. So *cheese* will match cheese, cheesewheel, wheelcheese, or wheelcheesewheel. Likewise cheese*fudge will match cheesefudge, cheeseyfudge, or cheese597fudge.
To increase the speed and decrease the overhead of the search utility, only words may be searched for. Phrases (such as "cheese wheel") may not be searched for, except by their component words. The minimum size for words is four characters, and the maximum size is twenty characters. Any non-alphanumeric character (e.g. white space and punctuation) is a word boundary.
Search for Author - You may search for posts by post author. Simply enter the author's username into this text field. You may use the asterisk(*) wildcard in author's names to broaden your search. Again, the asterisk will match any number of characters.
Forum - Select the Forum you wish to search in, or All available. To search multiple forums, search by Category.
Category - Select the category you wish to search in, or All available.
Display Results as Posts - Search results will be displayed as a list of the posts. Part of the post that matches the query will be displayed, and the search terms highlighted. For each post there is a ling
Display Results as Topics - Search results will be displayed as a list of Topic titles. For each topic there is a link to the Forum it is in, the topic itself, and the author of the topic.
Search Previous - This dropdown box will allow you to specify the maximum age of posts to display as results of the search. There are also radio buttons here that will allow you to search only the body of posts, or the subject (title) of the posts as well.
Sort by - This will allow you to specify how search results are organized. You may sort by Post Time, Post Subject, Topic Title, Author, or Forum. The sort may be in ascending or descending order alphabetically (or chronologically where appropriate)
Return first - When Display Results as is
set to Posts, this dropdown box will allow you to control how
much of the post is displayed in the search result.
Watching Topics
You may subscribe to topics in the Forum. When a topic you are
subscribed to is replied to, an email will be sent to the email address that
your username is registered to. The email will contain a link to the topic that
has been replied to. You will only receive one email per topic until the next
time you log in to the board.
Subscribing to Topics
To subscribe to a topic, look at the lower left corner of the Topic
View page. Click the small Watch this topic for
replies link.
Additionally, if you post or reply to a topic, you may check Notify me when a reply is posted to subscribe to a topic.
To unsubscribe from a topic, look at the lower left corner of the Topic View page. Click the small Stop watching this topic link.
Alternatively, you may look at your notification email. At the end of the
email (right above the signature) there is a link that will unsubscribe you
from the topic.
Polls
Polls are a special type of that allow Registered Users
to vote on an idea or issue. To vote on a specific Poll, click on the
Poll Title. Then click on the topic that states
Sticky: [ Poll ].
At that point you can vote on a poll and read the results of a poll.
More Information on
Discussion Board Use:
Go to the
FAQ link
on Discussion Board.
Still have problems?
E-mail the
webmaster.