howto for user guidance ?

by **Phantom** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 7:11 pm

I'd like to see a "howto" type article, so any users can learn exactly how to use the softwares facilities i.e. are smilies available ? for emphasis on what's being typed, because it's easy for mis-understandings to be mis-construed and turn into "flamefests" - inintentionally, because even if the user/poster has a masters or PhD in English, and punctuates perfectly, it's too easy to take the wrong emphasis from words and smilies can easily clarify the "tense" of a given word or sentence.
I'd also like to see instructions/howto on how the markups used as I can see that it's not unsimilar to xhtml/xml, but I haven't used any of that for a very long time and am more recently with "bulletin board" type markup like that provided by software like phpBB and similar. For instance, how would I post a link or a picture ? does it have to be in between "pointy bracket" ? (like these <>), and do you need to use like and etc etc ?
And while I know that I've mentioned it elsewhere Jimmy, a little more info on how to use Gravatar (if it's available) would be excellent - or links to their onsite info ?
Ha! I can probably think up a few more "I wants", but I'll leave it there for now as I've got to go and repair my shed roof

by **Jimmy** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:45 pm

Yeah - there are a few plugins for this board that I want to investigate, hopefully I can add in stuff like simple image uploads, friendly editor, etc. If not then I'll do a proper user guide!

by **Jimmy** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 9:00 pm

You should now be able to use some BBCode on this forum, so you can do things like :

Code: Select all: [img]http://www.stillsmart.co.uk/picture.jpg[/img] [b]Bold text[/b] [i]Italic text[/b] [u]Underlined text[/u] [s]Strikethrough text[/s] [url]http://www.link.com[/url] [align=center]Centre text (or center if you're American)[/align] [color=red]Red text[/color]

Hopefully that'll help, let me know if you hit any problems!

by **Jimmy** » Tue Jun 17, 2008 9:18 pm

Oh, and I've also added a signatures option, if you edit your profile you can put one on!

by **Phantom** » Sat Jun 21, 2008 6:27 pm

I haven't tried any of your extra options yet, but my gravatar seems to be showing up now - possibly a "caching" thing ?? Dunno!

by **Jimmy** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 6:27 pm

Yeah, Gravatar seems to take about ten minutes to activate once you set it up.
I've added some buttons to the reply box so you can do fancy things a lot easier now - let me know if they're not working properly or they do anything unexpected!

by **quietman** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 6:38 pm

Jimmy
Is there an option for members to send each other private messages, as this isn't the most legal of hobies some things might be better said quietly lol.
A user guide would be helpful to me too
Great site btw Jimmy, and new members keep popping up too
Ragards, Q

by **Jimmy** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 12:47 am

There isn't at the moment, but I'll look into it - I did debate whether to use one of the standard message boards, but I liked this one as it linked into the main site and to be honest I just fancied trying it out and being a bit different. There are plugins for it so I will see if I can find one, thanks for the feedback!

by **quietman** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 1:33 am

Don't change the rest of the site Jimmy, I like it just fine. I only wondered if there was some icing for the cake.
Regards, Q

by **Jimmy** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 3:20 am

I've found a plugin to add PM capability - I'll try and test it this weekend. If everything goes a bit squiffy for a while at some point, bear with me!

by **Jimmy** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 4:45 am

OK - private messaging is GO! You can see the link to message someone under their name on each post, and you can see your messages in the header at the top. Plus I added a post count too while I was at it - now that's service for ya!
Let me know if anyone manages to break it, preferably with screen shots or error messages!