Posting Tips

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Anne

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Here is a list of "good posting" tips to help you make a statement in your posts!
If you are not familiar with this type of forums, please read the forum basics thread first.

Each appears as a different post, to make it easier to read. This is a closed thread so you can't reply here.

If you have any questions - please start another thread in this forum or email me:

[email protected]



[Edited by Anne on 12-16-2000 at 02:32 AM]
 
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Anne

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Divide your post into paragraphs, using the "Enter" key on your keyboard. Try to make each paragraph no mo more than several lines long and then insert an empty line at the end of the paragraph. This would make your posts so much easier to read!

Use the "enter" key only at the end of a paragraph. Don't worry about the length of the lines in the post and don't try to make them shorter by inserting "enter" breaks. The software takes care of that.

Also, avoid using all capital letters in your posts. This makes them hard to read and is considered "SHOUTING".



[Edited by Anne on 12-16-2000 at 01:55 AM]
 
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Anne

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Smilies are little icons that you can put into a post. When you post, you will see two lines of smilies above the post form. These are the basic smilies that you can add to
your post and they are called "post icons".

If your post is the beginning of a new thread, the icon you choose will appear alongside the thread in the forum's main page.

Now, let's have a look at some of the smilies currently supported at thecatsite's forums:

big grin

blue blob

cat (there are other cats as well)

confused

cool

eek!

rotate

frown

mad

roll eyes (sarcastic)

smile

smash

wink

You can see them all at the smilies page. Whenever you post, you can find some of the smilies to the left of the posting box. You can click on the link where it says "Get More" to see the full list.

You can't see all of the smilies as "post icons", but you can use all of them in the body of your posts.


How?
- Read on...
 
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Anne

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Integrating smilies into your posts is really easy. In the box to the left of your post editor, there is a list of 15 smilies. Simply click on one to have it in your post. It will show as a special code while you edit the post and as the smilie in the final result.

Click on the "Get More" link to get a complete list of all smilies in a separate page. You can then click on any smilie you want to have it intergrated into your post.
 
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Another way to add significance to your post is by using something called VB code. If you know any HTML code, this will look very familiar. If you don't - you can learn this
in no time.

The basic principle in VB code is to write special instructions in square brackets. These instructions are called code tags and the look something like this:

[code tag] your text [/code tag].

You will notice that we always have a pair of tags. The first indicates that here we want a special effect to begin. The second indicates that here we want to stop using
that special effect. The ending tag is always the slash sign followed by the same word as the opening tag.

Now, here's the trick - The tags will not be presented as such in your posts. Rather, they would affect any text that you put between the tags!

So basically, you're doing something like this:

[make my text bold tag]This is a great forum![/make my text bold tag].

And you get this result:

This is a great forum!

Computers like shorter instructions, so instead of typing in "make my text bold tag" all you need to do is type the letter "b" within the square brackets and then close the tag with "/b" in sqaure brackets.

Here are some simple VB codes. I use the regular round brackets instead of square brackets to show you the code syntax. If I use the square brackets, you won't be able to see them because they will be interpreted as VB codes.

(u)underline(/u)

(b)bold(/b)

(i)italics(/i)

Just remember not to overdo this. It's okay to emphasize one word or sentence, but not the whole post!
 
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When you want to show some interesting web page, all you need to do is write down the web address, or URL of the page. It would look something like that:

http://www.thecatsite.com

You don't have to put the http:// part. You can start with www and the software will automatically change it into the full URL.

Advanced tip!

If you learned how to use VB code properly, you can use it to make your links look nicer.

If you use this code, changing the tags so that they're in square brackets:

(url="http://www.my_domain.com")My Page(/url)

You will get the words "My Page" as an active link to your site.

For example, if I use this code (again, tags should be in square brackets) –

(url="http://www.thecatsite.com")The Site for Cat Lovers(/url)

This is what we get:

The Site for Cat Lovers

[Edited by Anne on 12-16-2000 at 02:05 AM]
 
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You can personalize all your posts with a signature. I add a link to a rescue group I work with and another site I own as my signature.

You need to go to the icon that says "profile" at the top of this page and in the profile form you will be asked to put in a signature.

You may have added a signature at the time you registered to the forums, but you can change your signature anytime.

Some people add a nice motto as their signature or you can add a link back to your homepage or to your favorite web site. VB code works in the signatures as well and you may want to take advantage of that. You can also work in a smiley!

Be creative with your signature and create a unique identity on the forums.
 
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On most forums, you can add pictures to your posts.

The VB code tag used is the IMG tag and like all Tags it comes in square brackets. For the examples set here I will use regular round brackets, but remember to change them into square ones.

In order to post a picture you need to have an image file stored somewhere on the web. This can be in your personal homepage or in one of the online photo albums sites.

Now, each file on the internet has its own URL (web address). You don't usually see it as the web page "calls" the image file from its URL and presents it as a picture. To find the URL for a specific image, simply right-click on it with your mouse and select "properties". You'll get several lines of data, one of them being the image's address or URL.

You can try it right now, by clicking on the site's logo image at the top of this page and selecting properties. You'll see that the image's URL is: https://statich.thecatsite.com/images/logo.gif
By the way, the extention is usually your best way of identifying image files. They almost always have either a .gif or a .jpg extention.

Now that you have the URL for a picture that is stored online, paste it into your post (select it on the properties tab and hit ctrl+c to copy and then ctrl+v to paste in your post). Now we're almost done...

Add the letters IMG in square brackets before the image's URL and then add /IMG in square brackets after the URL.

Your line should look like this:
<IMG>https://statich.thecatsite.com/images/logo.gif</IMG>

Now, if I write it properly in square brackets [ ], this is what we get:



VOILA!
 
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