Ch 3: Using Elite Bulletin Board
Last Updated: 11/8/07Section 3.1 - Registering & logging into Elite Bulletin Board
In order to do pretty much anything on the Elite Bulletin Board will require a membership, that is done for a few reasons. It allows admins & moderators to better control users, it allows everyone to better know everyone and most importantly non-registered users are ones who tend to spam boards.
Registering on Elite Bulletin Board
-Click on the register link on the top-right part of the page.
-Fill out all the required fields.
-if a board has a terms of service listed, you MUST agree to the rules in order to register.
-if a board requires you to be a certain age, you must be the age required to join and agree that you are old enough to join.
-if CAPTCHA is enabled, you'll see a image that has random letters/numbers, you MUST enter the code exactly as you see it. GTA88 should be GTA88 not gta88. If you cannot see the image, contact the admin for further help.
Some boards may require a user activation in order to finalize the registration process, so be sure to enter a valid email address. You'll recieve an email that will have a link to activate your account. After that you may login.
Loggin onto Elite Bulletin Board
-Click on the Login link on the top-right part of the page.
-Enter in your puser & password in the correct fields.
If you forgot your password, click on forgot my password, from there you enter in your username and email address, if both info matches, you'll get an email that will have your new password, after logging in correctly, you may change the new password. refer to section 3.6 on how to change your password.
Section 3.2 - Posting on Elite Bulletin Board
Posting on Elite Bulletin Board will require that you are both a member and logged in. To know about logging in & registering, refer to section 3.1
assuming your logged in, find the board that your topic will fit and click on either New Topic or New Poll or Reply if your replying to a topic. be aware that polls can be disabled on some boards, but here are steps in posting:
posting a new topic
-Click on New Topic
-Enter in the Subject of the topic
-above the form you'll notice the posting rules, these are the rules the admin has set for that board.
-if bbcode is set to On, you'll find that on the first row on the form, click on the button and the tag for that bbcode will appear in the messagebox, enter the info between the start and end tag(ex:[b]bold text[/b])
-if smiles is set to on, you'll find those on the left side of the messagebox, like the bbcode, click on them and they will appear in the messagebox. When clicking on the More Smiles link, you have to mouseover the smile and write in the code yourself.
-if your allowed to do it you'll see an option to set your topic as important, which will keep on top of other posts on that board. Othwise you will just see a checkbox to ask if they want to recieve emails about new posts and to block bbcode /smiles. chcecking the box will email you once a user has replied to that topic. Checking the disable BBCode will prevent any BBcode from working on your topic/reply. Checking disable Smiles will prevent smiles from working on your topic/post
-Hit Post Topic and you'll be directed to that topic.
posting a new poll
NOTE: the steps below are the same as this so I'll just list on how to add the poll options.
-Type in the question for the poll.
-Then enter up to 10 options for this poll, place each option in it's own textbox.
posting a reply
You may reply to a topic two ways, by hitting the reply button or by using the instant reply form on the topic page. The step below will work for both methods.
-Same as above clicking on the bbcode or smile the code for those will automatically appear in the messagebox(unles you click on the more smiles link) -type in your message and hit reply and you'll be sent to your reply.
Now to clearify what bbcode and smiles are, let me explain it: bbcode is a way to subsitute regular html as some html/js tags are harmful if used wrong. Some boards may disable bbcodes, to know looks at the top where it says Board Rules, now bbcodes can be set to on but one bbcode [img] can be disabled. That's done as some people dont want the ability of images to appear on the topics.
Smiles are a way to express your emotions, and yes another word for smiles are emoticons, it's the same thing. Again like above, smiles can be disabled if the admin don't want smiles on a certain board.
attaching a file
if you have permission, to upload a file click on Manage Attachments. There you can upload and manage the uploaded file. Currently you only allowed to upload one file per topic/post.
Section 3.3 - Private Messages
Private Messaging is a way to have a one on one conversation with a person without having others barge in on the conversation. To post a PM is simple:
-Click on Launch PM link found on the top-right part of the page.
-From here you can see what new and old messages you have on your inbox.
NOTE: be sure to not go over the quota set by the admin, doing so will block any new messages. If the quota is set to 0, that means the admin has disabled the PM service, contact them about that issue.
-Click on New Topic
-Type in the user you wish to post the message to
-Type in the subject of the message
-just like posting a topic you can add bbcode and smiles to the post.
-Type in your message and hit Send PM
Now if a user placed you in their banlist, you'll get an error message and the PM will not get sent.
Blacklisting a user
This feature is to keep people you don't want to talk to from posting to you. Depending on the reason for blacklisting, you should contact the admin so that they can do something about that user or users.
-In the PM section click on View Banlist.
-Click on Ban a User.
-Enter in the user you wish to ban and hit Ban User.
You may also ban a user while your reading one of their pm's, just hit the ban this user link next to their name.
Section 3.4 - Group Users
This feature allows members to join groups to gain power such as becomming a moderator or admin or anything else.
Joining a Group
-Click on the Profile Link.
-Click on Manage Group Membership.
-Here you'll see all the groups available, some groups will be marked as closed, ones that are open will have a link to join a group. this is where you unjoin a group as well.
-after clicking on that link, you will placed in the pendinglist where the admin can review your membership. The admin will notify you if you were accepted or not.
To find out how to use the moderator or admin functions read the Admin chapter of this manual.
Section 3.5 - Searching
The search feature is a very useful tool for finding the topic your looking for fast.
You have two ways to search on Elite Bulletin Board: Instant & Advanced.
-Instant Search allows you to find what you want quickly without having to go to the search page. This is prefered for quick on the fly searching.
-Advanced Search allows you to get a more spicific search, this method is prefered for more focued searching.
Advanced Search
-Click on the Advanced Search Link.
-Enter in either a keyword or author.
-If you want to better find a topic, select the board the topic would most likely be in.
-then select if your looking for a topic or post. -hit search and if anything comes up then click on that topic, otherwise try again.
Searching for a User's post can be done on the search page itself or by clicking on one of the search links on the user's profile page.
Section 3.6 - Profile Settings
In the profile page, you have several options to modify your personal settings.
-Edit Personal Profile - Here is where you can edit the optional items as well change the style and language and more. In order to edit anything, you must enter your password to verify that it is indeed you making the changes.
-Edit Signature - This is where you can add/modify your signature. You can enter up to 255 chaacters.
-Manage Group Membership - This is where you manage your group memebrship as well as join others, refer to section 3.4 for more info.
-Manage Attachments - This is where you manage your attachments.
-Avatar Settings - This is where you can add an avatar to your profile, you may either link to one or use one provided by the admin, if using one from another source be sure it meets the requirements listed.
An avatar is an icon that is to match your personality, its small in size though some are large with flashing animation to it. It's not required to have one but if you want one you may.
-Subscription Settings - This is where you can manage the topics you wish to recieve emails about. you can delete topics you don't want to know about by clicking on delete next to the topic.
-Update Email - This is where you can update your current email address.
-Change password - This is where you can change your password if you so desire.