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Author Topic: Forums Use 101 - How to do things here  (Read 15518 times)

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Offline aevojoey

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Forums Use 101 - How to do things here
« on: September 22, 2014, 03:34:19 PM »
This will be a work in progress and hopefully help people. Anyone with anything to add, please do.

I am starting this to answer this question.
6. How do I insert quotes properly?
At the top of each post is a "Quote" link. (if it is one of your posts, there will also be "Modify" and "Remove" links, more on that later)
Clicking the "Quote" link will start a new post with that post quoted in it.
(Anything that is quoted in the originating post will not be in your new post.)
If you are already editing a post, if you scroll down, all the previous posts will have a "Insert Quote" link.
This will add that post quoted into your post where your cursor is.

The first line of the quote will be the source line while the last line will be the close quote
Code: [Select]
[quote author=ncquolopow link=topic=3478.msg30091#msg30091 date=1411409081]
....
[/quote]

You can chop down the text into manageable portions by copying the start and end lines around it.
Code: [Select]
[quote author=ncquolopow link=topic=3478.msg30091#msg30091 date=1411409081]
question a
[/quote]
your response

[quote author=ncquolopow link=topic=3478.msg30091#msg30091 date=1411409081]
question b
[/quote]
your response

[quote author=ncquolopow link=topic=3478.msg30091#msg30091 date=1411409081]
question c
[/quote]
your response

Using quotes can make your posts much clearer and much more helpful.



Line dividers are done with the "Horizontal Rule" button at the top (second line, third from right)
or with
Code: [Select]
[hr]



The "Toggle View" button (second row, last button) is very helpful when trying to edit your posts to make them look the way you intended.
It shows you the underlying code of your post so you can find problems easier.
(And is makes the background darker so it saves my eyes a bit when writing in low light)



Use code blocks to show code exactly as you want it to show so the forum does not rewrite it
Code: [Select]
[code]
...
[/c ode] <-- space added so the forum doesn't use it to close the code block


« Last Edit: September 22, 2014, 04:12:39 PM by aevojoey »
Fixing the game is a better game than actually playing it.
Get the Current Version <|> Discuss the Game <|> Report a bug

Offline aevojoey

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Forums Use 101.1 - Creating and maintaining your own thread
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2014, 03:34:38 PM »
Before you create a new thread, check if there is not already a similar thread started by someone else.

Read the titles of all the threads on the first page of the forum group you want to post in.
If the last thread on that page is less than a month old read the second page of threads also.
Read the first and last page in a thread to get the idea of the threads.

Usually if a thread has gone more than 3 months without a post to it, it is probably dead. 6 months or more and it is dead.
Try not to grave dig a thread more than a year old unless you started it or have relevant information for it that would be out of place in a new thread.

« Last Edit: September 22, 2014, 06:28:23 PM by aevojoey »
Fixing the game is a better game than actually playing it.
Get the Current Version <|> Discuss the Game <|> Report a bug

Offline aevojoey

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Forums Use 101.2 - The first row of buttons at the top of the editor
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2014, 03:34:56 PM »
The first row is just some basic formatting of the text:

The first group is fairly self explanatory:
"Bold", "Italicized", "Underline", "Strikethrough"
Bold, Italicized, Underline, Strikethrough
Code: [Select]
[b]Bold[/b], [i]Italicized[/i], [u]Underline[/u], [s]Strikethrough[/s]



"Preformatted text" is a little different.
Text in a <pre> element is displayed in a fixed-width font (usually Courier), and it preserves both spaces and line breaks.
Text in a <pre> element is displayed in a fixed-width font (usually Courier), and it preserves both spaces and line breaks.
Code: [Select]
[pre]Text in a <pre> element is displayed in a fixed-width font (usually Courier), and it preserves both spaces and line breaks.[/pre]


Text alignments, also self explanatory:
"Left Align"
"Centered"
"Right Align"
Code: [Select]
[left]"Left Align"[/left]
[center]"Centered"[/center]
[right]"Right Align"[/right]



"Font Face", "Font Size" and "Font Color" allow you to change the look of your text.
I am not going to get into all of them but there are a few common pointers for them.

"Font Face" and "Font Color" are mostly straight forward.
Use them sparingly for the most part or your posts will quickly become annoying.

Using colors to separate things into groups is ok but try to keep them consistent.
When I do update posts I use multiple colors for emphasis.
Red for strong warnings, yellow for soft warnings, and green for what has been updated.
Always read the Red Warnings.

I sometimes use colors to denote matching sentiments in multiple lines. (Like in this post)


"Font Size" can be the hardest thing to use properly.
The forum code uses 2 styles for font size, em and pt.
"em" is a multiple of the base font size, while "pt" is strict pixel size.
10pt   12pt   15pt
0.8em   1.5em   2.5em
Code: [Select]
[size=10pt]10pt[/size]   [size=12pt]12pt[/size]   [size=15pt]15pt[/size]
[size=0.8em]0.8em[/size]   [size=1.5em]1.5em[/size]   [size=2.5em]2.5em[/size]

The forum can switch between using em or pt on its own if you copy and paste something that has been resized.
It can be quite annoying at times.


« Last Edit: September 22, 2014, 05:31:47 PM by aevojoey »
Fixing the game is a better game than actually playing it.
Get the Current Version <|> Discuss the Game <|> Report a bug

Offline aevojoey

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Forums Use 101.3 - The second row of buttons at the top of the editor
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2014, 03:35:38 PM »
The second row of buttons can be much more complicated to use.



"Insert Image", "Insert Hyperlink", "Insert Email", "Insert FTP link"
These can get you into trouble if you abuse them.



"Glow", "Shadow" and  "Marquee" are good for emphasis but don't over use them.

"Superscript" and "Subscript" are better used for scientific and mathematical posts or to subnote things.

"Teletype" is another font style.



I love tables, but I usually type them out myself in a text editor then copy/paste them into posts.
The "Insert Table" button only adds in the first line of the table.
From text tables in Old Polls and Traits Discussion to numerical tables like in Re: Crazy and PP's mod bug thread, Tables make organizing information much better.
While they lack the customizability of html tables, they can still be useful if you don't mind typing in large blocks.

Health|now|A - with|A - without|B - with|B - without
100%|1%|1%|2%|1%|1%
90%|2%|2%|4%|1%|2%
80%|3%|3%|6%|2%|3%
70%|4%|4%|8%|2%|4%
60%|5%|5%|10%|3%|5%
50%|6%|6%|12%|3%|6%
40%|7%|7%|14%|4%|7%
30%|8%|8%|16%|4%|8%
20%|9%|9%|18%|5%|9%
10%|10%|10%|20%|5%|10%

Code: [Select]

[table]
[tr][td]Health[/td][td]|[/td][td]now[/td][td]|[/td][td]A - with[/td][td]|[/td][td]A - without[/td][td]|[/td][td]B - with[/td][td]|[/td][td]B - without[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]100%[/td][td]|[/td][td]1%[/td][td]|[/td][td]1%[/td][td]|[/td][td]2%[/td][td]|[/td][td]1%[/td][td]|[/td][td]1%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]90%[/td][td]|[/td][td]2%[/td][td]|[/td][td]2%[/td][td]|[/td][td]4%[/td][td]|[/td][td]1%[/td][td]|[/td][td]2%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]80%[/td][td]|[/td][td]3%[/td][td]|[/td][td]3%[/td][td]|[/td][td]6%[/td][td]|[/td][td]2%[/td][td]|[/td][td]3%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]70%[/td][td]|[/td][td]4%[/td][td]|[/td][td]4%[/td][td]|[/td][td]8%[/td][td]|[/td][td]2%[/td][td]|[/td][td]4%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]60%[/td][td]|[/td][td]5%[/td][td]|[/td][td]5%[/td][td]|[/td][td]10%[/td][td]|[/td][td]3%[/td][td]|[/td][td]5%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]50%[/td][td]|[/td][td]6%[/td][td]|[/td][td]6%[/td][td]|[/td][td]12%[/td][td]|[/td][td]3%[/td][td]|[/td][td]6%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]40%[/td][td]|[/td][td]7%[/td][td]|[/td][td]7%[/td][td]|[/td][td]14%[/td][td]|[/td][td]4%[/td][td]|[/td][td]7%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]30%[/td][td]|[/td][td]8%[/td][td]|[/td][td]8%[/td][td]|[/td][td]16%[/td][td]|[/td][td]4%[/td][td]|[/td][td]8%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]20%[/td][td]|[/td][td]9%[/td][td]|[/td][td]9%[/td][td]|[/td][td]18%[/td][td]|[/td][td]5%[/td][td]|[/td][td]9%[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]10%[/td][td]|[/td][td]10%[/td][td]|[/td][td]10%[/td][td]|[/td][td]20%[/td][td]|[/td][td]5%[/td][td]|[/td][td]10%[/td][/tr]
[/table]



"Insert Code" was explained on the first post.

The "Insert Quote" button is fairly useless, use the "Quote" and "Insert Quote" links as described in the first post.


"Insert Unordered List" and "Insert Ordered List"
For making lists (I really should use these more)
  • one
  • two
  • three

  • one
  • two
  • three

Code: [Select]
[list]
[li]one[/li]
[li]two[/li]
[li]three[/li]
[/list]

[list type=decimal]
[li]one[/li]
[li]two[/li]
[li]three[/li]
[/list]




"Horizontal Rule" and "Toggle View" were explained on the first post.

"Remove Formatting" strips almost all formatting code from your post.
This is useful when you have formatted it way too much to figure out how it got all messed up.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2014, 06:06:38 PM by aevojoey »
Fixing the game is a better game than actually playing it.
Get the Current Version <|> Discuss the Game <|> Report a bug

Offline aevojoey

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Forums Use 101.4 - The stuff at the bottom of the editor
« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2014, 04:14:31 PM »
"Notify me of replies." checkbox will send you an email when someone replies to your post.
"Lock this topic." checkbox is only available if you started the thread or you are a moderator.
"Return to this topic." checkbox Returns you to this topic instead of the forum home after you click save.
"Don't use smileys." checkbox will not show smileys in your post.



The Attachments section is only for small files or images.
Attached images will be shown as thumbnails at the bottom of your post and will show full size when clicked.
Anyone can download a file attached to your post.
If you have a save game that you need me or someone else to bug check for you, this is the best way to get it to me.



The "Save" and "Preview" buttons are self explanatory.



Below your post is the last few posts in that thread.
At the top of each is the "Insert Quote" link that is described in the first post.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2014, 06:18:07 PM by aevojoey »
Fixing the game is a better game than actually playing it.
Get the Current Version <|> Discuss the Game <|> Report a bug

Offline 0nymous

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Re: Forums Use 101 - How to do things here
« Reply #5 on: September 22, 2014, 06:28:29 PM »
No spoiler function at all?
I guess there's no way to split your walls of text into conveniently hide-able sub-sections.

Offline aevojoey

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Re: Forums Use 101 - How to do things here
« Reply #6 on: September 22, 2014, 06:52:37 PM »
No spoiler function at all?
I guess there's no way to split your walls of text into conveniently hide-able sub-sections.
Sorry, Spoilers are not available in the version of the forum software on this site.
Fixing the game is a better game than actually playing it.
Get the Current Version <|> Discuss the Game <|> Report a bug

Offline FlamBurger

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Re: Forums Use 101 - How to do things here
« Reply #7 on: October 08, 2014, 11:09:06 AM »
I figured as much...this place....
The whole region of Crossgate will be my playground....
Our playground....
The whole freaking world guys....
Crossgate Chronicles?? Yup it's that bad....
I'll still chug on! Plus, The Crazy Team is really doing a good job on this game.
https://mega.nz/#F!A55jWSpT!P-1Lw1-kNxiBfelAH24Kvg My Packs

Offline nao57

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Re: Forums Use 101 - How to do things here
« Reply #8 on: March 26, 2020, 07:30:33 PM »
You know one of the problems with this forum and ALL of the threads is that nobody specifies which game their post is about.


It would be more helpful if they put the game name its about in the subject line so people use LESS TIME trying to figure it out.