Forums 101 - posting, accounts, basics

[Janet H]

Welcome to CruisersForum.com. Please take a moment to read through this discussion if you are having trouble posting or have other basic questions about how our forum works. Here are some links to find more help about using the forum (if you don't find what you need in this discussion thread).

Forum Rules
Forum FAQs (frequently asked questions)
Our support forum where you can ask members for help with forum tech issues.
Our help desk - e-mail us for tech support, passwords, account issues, etc.

[Janet H]

Registration is free and open to everyone. While even unregistered viewers may read our board, only registered members who have logged on to the forum can post here.

To register:
1. Open your open your internet browser and go to this link: http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...?action=signup or open the forums home page and click on the "register" link.
2. Fill out your birth date and click proceed. You must be older than 13 to register.
3. Check the "I agree to the rules" button (if you agree)
4. Click the "register" button
5. A form will appear and you will need to fill out the info requested. Be sure that your e-mail address is filled out correctly. We do not sell or share your information.
6. After you have filled in required info. Click on "complete registration" at the bottom of page. If you have not filled out all info - you will be prompted go enter the requested info.
7. You will get an email asking you to verify your email address. Please make sure that any SPAM filters you have enabled do not prevent email from our site from coming through.

This completes the registration process.

[Janet H]

Our site has several distinct sections:

• Discussion forums for discussions on various topics
• Classifieds - for member sales
• Photo gallery - member submitted photos, an enormous collection of sailing, restoration and refit pictures.
• Member list - fully sortable by location, boat and other variables
• Event Calendar - international listings for events of interest to Cruisers

The most active section of our site is the discussion forums. This section is broken into several topic areas to make navigation a little easier and discussions are ongoing. If you have a question, please post it in the forums topic area that best suits your issue.

[Janet H]

Once you have registered you may login to post or search our data base for information about cruising.

You will see a log in box in the upper right hand corner. Enter your username and password (these are case sensitive) and then click the remember me box.

Our site exchanges little bits of data called cookies with your computer to keep you logged in at page changes. Many virus protection programs or your computers own safety settings (if set very high) may be deleting these cookies when you navigate away from a page and then you get logged off. You can try the following things:

• Set your system security settings to medium.
• Be sure that you have enabled cookie handling.
• Check you Virus protection software and firewall settings to be sure that cookie handling is not being blocked there - you can specifically allow cookie exchange with the site.

At the end of your visit, you can log out or just navigate away from our site. Our server will automatically sever your connection after a period of time.

If you have forgotten your password and cannot login, you may request a new one via the contact us link located at the bottom of each page. You do not need to be logged in to use this link.

[Janet H]

Questions or a new topic thread can be started in the section of the forum that best fits the topic you have in mind. Once you have posted your question you can edit that post for a brief period of time.

• Log into the forums.
• Click on the "forums" tab at the top of the page. You will see a list of subforum/topic areas.
• Click on the subforum that best suits your intended post. Once it opens you will see a list of threads already in that subforum. At the top of the list, over toward the left, you should see a "new thread" button.
• Click on the new thread button and follow the prompts.

Once you have crafted your post, click on the submit reply button below the text editor to submit your post to the board.

[Janet H]

To reply to an already existing thread:

• Log into our site.
• Open the thread you want to reply to.
• In the bottom right hand side of the post you want to respond to, click on the note pad looking thing (post quick reply). A text editor box should appear.
• Add your text and then hit post reply at the bottom of text box.

Or... you can hit "go advanced" and get a more complete text editor with formatting options and the ability to upload photos.

Once you have crafted your post, click on the submit reply button below the text editor to submit your post to the board.

[Janet H]

• Click reply and scroll down to bottom of text box.
• Click "go advanced" add text to message window and then scroll down.
• Click "Manage attachments" A separate window will pop up.
• Click "browse" Then select the file to be uploaded. Be sure that the photo is appropriately sized. 1600 x 1600 pixels (or smaller) and no more than 400 Kb. Forums software will automatically reduce the size, but smaller size photos will upload much faster. You may select several photos to upload at the same time by repeating the last step.
• Click "Upload" After pics have loaded close the pop-up window
• Click "submit reply" to mount the text of your message - photos will automatically appear at the bottom of your post.

How to embed an image stored on another site:
You can do this by using image tags. Upload the image to a service like imageshack and then copy the URL of the image and put that between [IMG] tags. That will work well, as long as the host site stays in business and doesn't disable your image for overuse of bandwidth etc.

You can also paste in the location of a photo stored here at Cruisers in the photo gallery.

To do this: Paste the url of the image into your post. Then add the following code on either side of the url (with no extra spaces):

[IMG]url here[/IMG]

The image will appear where the url was in your text.

[Janet H]

There are two ways to communicate with other forums members outside of the normal posting area.

• Private messages that only the person you send it to can read and respond to.
  
• Profile Comments left on the member’s page (profile). Anyone can see profile comments and the recipient has the option to delete it from their page.

If you click on a members name next to a post and select “View Public Profile” it will take you to the member’s profile page. Click on the “Contact Info” tab and you have several options depending on what types of messages the member has chosen to accept.

If you select private message you will need to select a title, type in your message and press the “Submit Message” button at the bottom. You can add smilies and links, but you can not attach pictures to a private message.

If you select to send a profile comment, type in the message and press the “Post Message” button at the bottom.

[Janet H]

You can change various settings in your member account. To access your account, click "user CP" on the upper navbar.

From the left side menu in your user control panel, you can add a signature, upload an avatar (the picture beside a post), change your account information and your forum interface. After any change, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and click 'save'.

One of the features of our forum is the ability to receive e-mail updates of new posts to a thread you may be interested in. You can opt for no e-mail, instant e-mail, daily or weekly. If you have elected to receive e-mail, make sure you have a valid e-mail address listed in your account profile. your e-mail address will not be publicly viewable and we do not sell or share member information.

[Janet H]

As a service to our members, we maintain an event calendar and any member may add an event to this calendar - FREE! To access the calendar, click 'calendar' on the upper nav bar. You may edit your event as needed.

[Janet H]

Take a wander through our photo gallery - we have a huge collection of photos! Members may set up their own photo gallery or post pictures to existing sections of the gallery.

To set up a gallery:

Click the photos tab
> My stuff
> category admin
> add category

Fill out requested info and under parent category select members photos.

Uncheck the box that allows others to post to your gallery.

Then submit by hitting add category.

You now have an open category for your pictures. Use the upload link to add photos. Be careful to add them to your category and not some one else's.

This personal gallery is the one that is linked to in the drop down menu under your user name in the avatar block beside every post.

[Janet H]

The staff of Cruisers Forum consists of a team of moderators and administrators who are volunteers. Their job is to keep the forums running smoothly by assisting members and if needed, enforcing the rules of the forum. The moderators may warn, suspend or even ban a member who has continually violated the rules of the forums. These disciplinary actions are extremely rare and are done with a consensus of the moderator team. You can view a compete list of our site staff here.

The bottom of the portal page displays a list of members who are currently logged onto the forums. The moderator’s names are listed in bold. If you need assistance, feel free to contact any of the moderators. If you see a post that you find objectionable, use the “Report Post” option under the posters information on the left side of the screen. This option will generate an alert to all members of the moderator team.

The Cruisers staff would like your time on the forums to be a positive experience. Let us know how we can help.

[Janet H]

The Thanks button is a nice way to show agreement or appreciation for a good post.

Each time you click the thumbs up icon (located in each post), the author of the post receives a point. You have the opportunity to leave a comment as well, which the post author can read.

You can access your own thanks comments in your user cp (click on user cp on the upper nav bar) and the last 30 or so will be displayed in the center section of the page under "Latest Thanks received" You can also see stats about how many times you've been thanked.

[Janet H]

To upload or change an avatar:

An avatar is the little picture displayed below your user name in the profile box on the left side of every post. You may use a forums avatar or upload your own custom avatar. Avatars are limited in size to 80 x 80 pixels or 48 KB (whichever is smaller).

To choose a forum-standard avatar:
1. Click user CP (control panel) on upper blue tool bar.
2. Click edit avatar on left side menu.
3. Select the avatar you desire for the available pictures and click the selection dot below the picture.
4. Click save changes.

To upload a custom avatar: Choose a picture you like that is stored in your computer. Resize the picture to meet the size requirements above using a photo/image editor or camera software. Images that are too large will fail to load and you will receive and error message.

1. Click user CP (control panel) on upper blue tool bar.
2. Click edit avatar on left side menu.
3. Scroll down to the "Custom Avatar" box and click the "use Custom Avatar" button.
4. Click Browse button. A file menu screen will appear and you can choose the avatar file to be loaded. The file name should appear in the "upload an avatar from your computer box".
5. Click save changes.

[Janet H]

There are a couple of ways to search the forum. If you have a question we recommend that you search before posting. There's a fair chance that we have a several posts about your topic of interest.

The Forums search tool found on the upper blue nav bar is fairly easy to use and really quick. Our search tool searches for key words and you have a choice to search for threads or posts. Consider using the advanced search function to narrow down your choices. You must be logged into the forums to use the search tool.

Google search: We have an embedded google search available. Check out the drop down menu under search to find this tool.