Why can't we use the old board? I don't like this one!

Sorry - the old board runs on software that we can't use on this new web server. This board is actually a better system - it has more features like:


• It allows you to post photos on the board.
• It allows for all replies to posts to be seen on one page and reduces 'clicking'.
• It will email you when someone replies to your posts.
• It will let you do some limited formatting of your posts.
• It works better.
• Once you understand this board, you'll be able to use many more online - think of it as a 'learning experience'.

Why do we have this complicated registration via password email?

This forum has several features that can send you emails, e.g. reply notifications, password requests and board subscriptions. The forum will require you to specify a valid email address and only send the required password to that address to verify its validity. This is necessary since otherwise a lot of people would type in bogus or broken addresses and try to use the email features anyway, which would result in hundreds of bounced emails/error messages for the forum administrator. Besides, this registration process serves as a double opt-in scheme, which prevents the forum from being abused for email-spamming other people.

I don't like my password, can I change it?

Yes!
1. Login with the password the board assigned to you.
2. Once you're logged in, click on the 'Options' link at the top of the board.
3. You will see a page with your personal information displayed in text boxes - including your password (displayed as *********).
4. Delete the ***** and type in your preferred password.
5. Go to the next box (Verify Password) and delete the ***** and re-enter your password.
6. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click the button 'change'.
That's it! You have changed your password!

Yes! You can add your name, your homepage link (be sure to type this as http://www.mypage.com), your birds' names and species, and various other things. Experiment!

I lost my password, can you send it to me?

Yes. You can request your password on the login page. It will be sent to your registered email address.

Why doesn't logging in work?

Your browser must have cookies enabled. mwForum stores your user ID and password via cookies on your computer, so that you only have to type them in once.

I don't know ANYTHING about cookies! Help!

Here's a link to help on enabling cookies in your web browser: http://www.google.com/cookies.html.

Do I have to use the logout feature?

No, but when you close your web browser, the board will automatically log you out. This means that you will have to log back in when you return to the OAS Forum.

I don't want you to log me out - can I stay logged in?

We use the auto logout for several reasons, most technical, but there is a benefit for you. Logging out allows the board to determine what posts you have read and which are new to you. This means that when you return, the board will show you which posts you haven't read already. It's a real time-saver!

How do I make a new post?

1. Go to the board page and click '[Post Topic]'
2. Fill in a 'subject'. (You can't make a post without a subject!)
3. Type in your post.
4. Click the 'Post' button at the bottom of the screen.
That's it!

How do I add a link to my post?

Adding a link to a web page or a photo is easy. All you need to do is type in the link with the FULL URL inside of your post. (See above for how to post)
For example, to put a link to the OAS homepage, you would type:

http://www.okbirds.com

That's it. You don't need any fancy html tags. Don't forget the 'http://'. This is required.

To link to an image, you would type:

http://www.pandion.com/suess/img/thefour-s.jpg

How do I add a photo to my post?

This is a two step process:

Step One: Make your post (See above for how to post).

Step Two: Edit your post

1. Click the '[Edit]' button.
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page until you see the 'Attachment' Title.
3. Click the 'Browse' button and locate the photo that you want to add to your post. (Please note that files cannot be any larger than 150K or you will get an error message.)
4. Click 'Upload'.
That's it!

How do I add smileys to my post?

The following emoticons are displayed as images:
• Type: :-) and the board will display:  
• Type: ;-) and the board will display:  
• Type: :-( and the board will display:  
• Type: :-o and the board will display:  

How do I bold or italicize type?

You change your type's look by using little 'tags' to modify it:

Type: [b]text[/b]	and you get bold text
Type: [i]text[/i]	and you get italic text
Type: [tt]text[/tt]	and you get fixed-width text
Type: [b][i]text[/i][/b]	and you get bold & italic text

How do I delete my post?

1. Go to your post and click '[Edit]'
2. Go to the 'Delete Post' section and click the 'Delete' button.
3. Answer the question 'Do you really want to delete post...?'.
4. Click 'Delete' button again.
That's it!

Why can't I post?

Two possible reasons:
• You aren't logged in. Click the 'Login' button.
• You aren't a registered user. Register by going to the User Registration page.

Why do I get an error when I try to add a picture?

You need to check if your file size is too big. We've set a limit of 150K (150,000 bytes) for individual images. This should be a big enough limit for most photos if you compress your images. If you need help on re-sizing or compressing images, visit: DePauw University Image Tutorial.

Why can't I add more than one picture to a post?

No, that's how the board software works. And frankly, it's to keep people from uploading a huge number of photos and using up all the disk space. If you have an entire photo album that you would like to show everyone, post a link to your online photo album instead of attaching a photo. (See info about adding a link to posts above.)

Why did you put together such a complicated list of questions?

Because we knew you'd ask and we had nothing more exciting to do on a Sunday afternoon....

Forum - The forum is the whole installation, and usually contains multiple boards. You should always enter the forum through the link http://www.okbirds.com/cgi-mod/forums/forum.pl (not forum_show.pl) to let the forum know when you start a new session. Otherwise the forum won't know when to mark posts as new or old.

Board - A board contains topics, which in turn contain the posts. Boards can be private, so that they are only visible to admins and members. Boards can be semi-anonymous, which means that poster names will be shown to admins only. Boards can be read-only, so that they only allow posts by admins and members, or reply-only, which means that only admins and members can start new topics, but everybody can reply. Another option for boards is approval moderation. If this option is activated, new posts will be invisible to normal users until an admin approves them. Users can subscribe to a board, which means they will get all new posts in that board in one daily email.

Topic - A topic, otherwise known as thread, contains all the posts on a specific subtopic, that should be named in the topic's subject. Boards have expiration values that determine after how many days their topics will expire or get locked after their last post has been made. An important topic can be set to 'protected', so that it never expires. Admins can also manually lock topics, so that no new messages can be added to them.

Post - A post is a single public message by a user. It can be either a base post, which starts a new topic, or a reply to an existing topic. Posts can be edited and deleted.

User - A user is anyone who registers an account in the forum. Everyone needs to register to write in the forum, anonymous posting is not possible. Users can be granted membership status to selected boards, enabling them to see private boards and post in read-only boards.

Forum Administrator - A forum admin can control and edit everything in the forum. A forum can have multiple forum admins.

Board Administrator - A board admin is what most other forum applications call the board moderator. A board admin's powers are limited to the boards he is admin of. A board admin can edit, delete and approve posts by normal users, mark topics as protected or locked, delete topics and add and remove board members. A board can have multiple board admins.

Score Moderation - If the score moderation system is active for a board, every post in that board has a score. Users with votes can moderate a post up or down, adding or subtracting a point to/of the post's score. All users can set a score threshold in their options. If a post's score is lower than that threshold, the post will be invisible to the user (except for a small hidden-post indicator). Using the 'Reveal' button on the hidden-post indicator, users can temporarily reveal all hidden posts on that page. Forum admins can set the default number of daily votes new users get, change this value for individual users, and set the starting score individual user's posts get.

Icons

	Yellow icons indicate new posts respectively topics or boards with new posts. In this forum, 'new' means a post has been added since your last visit. Even if you have just read it, it is still a new post, and will only be counted as old on your next visit to the forum.
	Checkmarked icons indicate that the post respectively all posts in a topic or board have been read. Posts are counted as read once their topic has been on screen. Since new/old and unread/read are independent concepts in this forum, posts can be new and read as well as old and unread at the same time.
	Icons with dotted outlines indicate topics/posts that are invisible to other users, because they are waiting for approval by an admin.
	The lock icon indicates the topic has been locked for some reason and no new posts (except by admins) are allowed.

File Attachments - Posts can contain file attachments, which can be uploaded and deleted via the post edit page. Attached web-compatible images can be displayed inline at the end of the post, if the 'Embed' option is selected in the attachment form.