Tips to new members in no particular order

1. USER REGISTRATION - Registration is now required to post in the forum as well as to view posts on any state, province or local board.

2. QUESTIONS & THINGS NOT WORKING RIGHT - Post in the Forum Problems & Questions Board in this category or send a PM to GM.

3. LINK TEXT APPEARANCE - When making links, the default is no underline. The resulting blue text of a link
is not contrasty enough IMHO for the link to be readily recognized as a link. The solution may be seen here.

4. BOARD WELCOME THREAD - If your requested board/sub-board is added, you can post a welcome msg topic to explain the intended purpose of the board, which can be stickied at the top of the thread list and locked so that replies don't build up there like Burger King wrappers against a chain link fence. You can edit this welcome post as you see fit to keep it up to date. Just request the sticky and locking. If you abandon this post, say, due to just not caring any more, another member could be substituted as its caretaker.

5. GUIDELINES - See forums guidelines in the Guidelines Thread. Propose and suggest there.

6. BIG TYPE IN POSTS - Many members who like a big font for whatever reason are using it in their posts. An alternative is to hit [Ctrl +] in your browser.

For those who prefer to post in a font that's different from the default one, it's easy to adjust your personal settings such that all of your posts are preformatted to the fonts, color(s) or other things that you may prefer. Just click on your profile, select "settings" and scroll down to a text box headed up "Default BBCode" and enter the code you want for your posts. It's probably easiest to open a posting window, select bbcode, type something and then format it however you want to, delete the text and copy that code into the profile settings text box.


7. QUOTING - Overuse of this is irritating. If you are responding to, say, a single sentence or paragraph, after the quote appears, if possible, edit it down to just that sentence or paragraph; no need to republish an entire post, especially if a big photo is in it. If the photo is needed but it's huge, you can reduce the size of the photo. You can also reduce a font or change the color.

If you are replying to just the previous post, readers should assume that a reply is to the previous post unless otherwise marked. However, with unlimited editing and the ability to delete posts at any time, there is still a reason to quote a small portion of the previous post in case it goes missing.