Newbie FAQ

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My first few weeks on Forumosa I was a bit lost and confused. This was my first Internet forum. FAQs are good, but I remember that what I could have used

  1. would have been some kind of a “Quick Tour of Forumosa”. A brief overview that would cover the most important areas such as “What’s Flickr, Wiki?”, “Why a Women’s forum?”, “Squeal? Ignore? What does it all mean?” “Why join a group?” “Overview of forums” etc. to give a more complete picture at the start. All these answers exist, but not in one place. And it’s not so much about answers, as it is about giving a complete picture.

  2. I would also give more attention to IRL groups. Encouraging people to join and even start their own groups. Those who are naturally social won’t have a problem, but a lot of people aren’t and the way this is set up now doesn’t make it easy for them.

  3. And then, as others have mentioned already, a “Newbie in Taiwan” page would be great. Stickies in Living in Taiwan are ok, but a lot of them are messy. I realize this would be a major task, so for now it’s just a wish.

If you agree that it’s needed, I would gladly work on points 1 and 2.

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IRL groups? What are those?

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Sorry :blush: = In real life

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How to post with quotes from multiple posts? I cannot figure it out, so maybe I’m not alone. PLEASE? :notworthy:

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Dragonbones, you’ve covered many questions, some pretty good ones as far as newbies are concerned. :bravo: I was supposed to help too. :blush: Been busy and distracted. I will help, I promise.

bobepine

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Q: How do I quote an earlier post in mine?

A: One way is to go to the earlier post, and hit the Quote button there. This will open a reply window, the top of which will contain the entire material from the earlier post in a quotation format. Type your reply below this, and hit Submit (or you may wish to preview first). Note that if the earlier post is long, it’s better to delete the parts that you’re not responding to, and add an ellipsis (…) to indicate the omission.

Q: How do I get quotes to show up in nice, neat quote boxes?

A: You can use the above-mentioned method of hitting the Quote button within an earlier post. If you are instead copying and pasting quoted material, first paste it into your post. Then select (highlight) the quoted material, and click the Quote button below your Subject line window. This should bracket the quoted material with [quote] and [/quote]. Alternately you can type these yourself.

Q: If I copy and paste material, then how do I get the poster’s name to show up at the beginning of a quote?

A: Instead of beginning with [quote], begin with [quote=“username”] (and insert the person’s actual username between the quotes).

Q: How can I quote from more than one post?

A: Just follow the manual copy-and-paste method above; you will need to open a second window or word processor to collect the quotes in, however.

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Q: How can show people how to use the special commands without activating them ?

A: Click “Disable BBCode in this post” below your post, then you can write things like [quote=“some idiot”]Blah blah blah[/quote] without it making an actual quote.

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Q: Yes, but what if I wanted to use special codes and still show raw code in the same post ?

A: If you surround some text with tags it will show the contents as raw code like this:

[quote="some idiot"]Blah blah blah[/quote]

without the tags you will see this:

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Excellent, thanks! Obviously my inclusion of the (*) to show [quote] was a workaround. I’ll go re-do it now. :notworthy:

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[quote=“Dragonbones”]Q: How do I quote an earlier post in mine?

A: One way is to go to the earlier post, and hit the Quote button there. This will open a reply window, the top of which will contain the entire material from the earlier post in a quotation format. Type your reply below this, and hit Submit (or you may wish to preview first). Note that if the earlier post is long, it’s better to delete the parts that you’re not responding to, and add an ellipsis (…) to indicate the omission.

Q: How do I get quotes to show up in nice, neat quote boxes?

A: You can use the above-mentioned method of hitting the Quote button within an earlier post. If you are instead copying and pasting quoted material, first paste it into your post. Then select (highlight) the quoted material, and click the Quote button below your Subject line window. This should bracket the quoted material with [quote*] and [/quote*]
(minus the *). Alternately you can type these yourself (without *).

Q: If I copy and paste material, then how do I get the poster’s name to show up at the beginning of a quote?

A: Instead of beginning with [quote*] (without ), begin with [quote=“username”] (sans *) and inserting the person’s username between the quotes.

Q: How can I quote from more than one post?

A: Just follow the manual copy-and-paste method above; you will need to open a second window or word processor to collect the quotes in, however.[/quote]

Thanks mate! :bravo: :bravo: Very clear explanation! Even I can do it now.

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I think the difference between the “Always notify me of replies” in the profile, the “Notify me when a reply is posted” below one’s post, and the “Watch” function need to be clarified. Who wants a stab at this one?

Q: How do I find a thread to which I contributed?

A: Click OWN in the upper right corner of the screen. This brings up a Topic list of all the threads you’ve contributed to, with the most recently active topic at the top.

Q: Can I limit a keyword-based search to my OWN posts or threads to which I’ve contributed, e.g., search for posts containing the word “Taiwan” but only among my own posts or only those in threads I’ve joined?

A: No, this function is not currently available. You can, however, limit the search to a specific forum, which may help. If you wish to be able to do a keyword search for your own posts in the future, however, you can add your name manually as a signature at the end of each post (rather than using the auto-generated signature line), and in the future, add your name to the list of keywords searched for.

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Q: What can I do when I see something posted that violates the rules?

A: One of the forumosa.com Moderators will be happy to look at the post for you. Do not post an accusatory response about how the rules have been violated. Simply click the SQUEAL link that is on the top right of each post. You will be given a chance to add a quick message to the Moderators about how the post is bad.

Q: How can I send a message to the author of a post, but not let everyone read what I write?

A: The SEND PM link at the bottom of each post will allow you to send a private message (PM) to that person. Your personal email address will not be sent to them; instead, they will be able to respond to you within the forumosa.com PM system. When you log in, you may see a link that says NO NEW PMs. When you have messages, that link will change to let you know how many PMs you have waiting. Just click on that link to go to your very own forumosa PM mailbox.

Q: Every time I see a post by Twocs (or some other poster), it really gets on my nerves. Do I really have to see that guy’s posts?

A: The IGNORE function is handy. If you don’t want to see the drivel that a poster puts out, click on the IGNORE function. You will see a blank message when the ignored poster makes a remark, sparing you from the agony of reading his psychobabble.

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Q: How can I tell if a poster has received my PM? And can I retract or edit a PM after it is sent?

A: Once you open your PMs page, you will see four icons at the top: Inbox Sentbox Outbox Savebox
PMs which you have submitted but which have not yet been received are in the Outbox. You can open and edit or delete these, as long as you finish doing so before the addressee opens the message. If the PM is already in the Sentbox, it has already been received and opened by the addressee.

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Q: What is this big white box at the bottom of the page, with emoticons below it?

A: This is a quick-post window; instead of clicking Post Reply to open a new window (and losing the ability to view other posts on the page), you can type your reply here.

Q: How can I see a list of all the members?

A: Go to http://forumosa.com/taiwan/memberlist.php, and use “select sort method” to view members by Joined Date, Name, Total Posts, etc.

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Q: Can I access forumosa.com on my 3G mobile phone or PDA?

A: The site is not currently adapted for mobile browsing. This is but one of the future plans for this site.

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Q: Why does it say “Ink Still Wet in Passport”, “Cai Niao” or other silly things below my name?

A: That is your current Forumosa rank, which will change as you continue posting. It’s just for fun. However, administrators also use this for special messages, such as to indicate the suspended or banned status of a user.

Q: Can I edit or choose my rank?

A: No.

Q: Can I send a PM to more than one person?

A: Not simultaneously, no. The Group PM function is not yet installed in this forum.

Q: Can I edit my posts after making them?

A: Yes, unless the thread has been locked or the post sent to the Temporary forum. However, if others have already responded to the post, please do not edit it in such a way as to render their responses meaningless.

Q: Why can’t I edit my post in the Temporary forum?

A: Some posts are sent there due to excessive silliness or lack of permanent value to the forum. In the past, some members have tried to then edit out the silliness etc. and argued that the posts should not have been Temp’d. Disabling the edit function reduces this administrative headache.

Q: Can I change my username?

A: Yes; simply send a PM to Maoman (Forumosa administrator)

Q: Can I have more than one username?

A: No; that is called Smurfing, and it is against the rules.

Q: Can I change my avatar?

A: Yes, but please don’t do that too often; your avatar makes it easier for other users to recognize you.

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Still relatively new and quite net savvy, but this thread has answered a lot if questions. Tash’s post on page 3 (i think) is closest to what i would like to see, definitions of commonly used words, like flaming, what stickies are, and that whole thing about wet ink being explained.

I was going to ask how to use the emoticons, but as I was typing realised that they are right next to the text screen :bravo: Having said that this is about my 20th post so maybe it needs clarifying…ormaybe I’m just dumb.

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Guys, these Q&As are great! Keep 'em coming! :bravo:

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I made a FAQ once. It should be still in the moderator forum somewhere, maybe someone can dig it out and send it to Dragonbones. It’s really old, most of it was about guanxi, but there might be something relevant. And I put some stuff in the wiki that might be useable.

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As for the format of the newbie post FAQ, I’d suggest that there be a fake post with rollovers for all the parts of the post. Then you can cover general questions like “What’s IGNORE”, “What’s PROFILE”, “What’s HISTORY”, “SEND PM”, “What’s WWW” while conserving space.

When Mr. n00b rolls over the avatar, information about how to choose a new avatar can pop up. Rolling over the name can let him know that it’s possible to change your name, or even how to choose a good name.

Q: How do I put an ad on forumosa.com?

A: That’s an excellent question. Sponsoring forumosa.com not only gives great exposure to your business venture, but also supports the best website on expat life in Taiwan. Just go to ads-on-forumosa for more information.