Forum functions/How to...

Want to have something other than your username display for your account on the forum? This is possible by changing your display name. A display name is a mask that displays in the online list, as well as in your profile on the forum. Unlike the username when you registered on the forum, your display name can contain spaces, capital letters, and special characters as desired.

To change the display name of your forum account, click on the Profile button found in the top menu bar to access your account profile. Once you are on your profile page, click on the button for Edit Profile. You'll then be taken to the Edit Profile & Settings page; once here, click on the Personal tab. When the Personal tab loads, you'll see the first option on the page for Display Name. Type in the name that you want your account to display as in the box provided and then click the Save Personal Settings button found toward the bottom of the page. When this is completed, you will notice that your profile will be updated to show the name that you updated with, as well as see it displayed in the mini-profile next to all of the posts that you make on the forum.

It is important to note that when you change your display name, the username that you originally registered with for your account will still be the name that you will use to log in to the forum. You will not be able to log in to the forum using your display name.

One way to get a member's attention is to tag them in a post. If the member has the notification setting 'when someone tags you' checked they will receive a notification that they were tagged. Tags can also be used as a simple way to identify a specific member you are talking about or to create a link to a member's profile.

Tagging works by placing an @ before the person's username.

Important things to remember.

A new line, space or special character must be before the @ or the system will assume it's an email address and will not create the tag.

NO SPACE between the @ and the username.

A username must be used, however after being posted the members Display Name will be shown.

Tagging a display name will not work. The system will attempt to find a username matching what was typed.

A new line, space or special character will end a tag. Any name containing these is not a username.

Usernames are always entirely lowercase alpha-numeric characters. Examples: admin harry steve37

Multiple tags must be separated by a new line, space or special character or they will not render properly.

Since usernames cannot contain commas or apostrophes, adding these in your post immediately after tagging a username will not negatively affect the end result.

The member's username is used because it cannot be changed. It is a constant identifier and ensures the tag will remain accurate over time. However after the post is created the display name with proper styling will be shown. This is because people identify member's by their display name. If a member is tagged and they change their display name all tags will update to reflect their new name. A post won't become outdated and readers will know who was specifically being talked about.

After tagging someone and submitting your post, the tag becomes a display name and is clickable. This will take you to the member's profile.

Tagging is actually a lot easier than I had written here earlier. In the reply box, just click the icon that is the @ symbol with the little blue guy. Start typing a members name, (user or display, it doesn't matter) a list will drop down as you're typing, just click the member that you want to tag and @ and their username will be inputted for you. When you post they will be tagged as their display name

Occasionally, when reading through an interesting thread you'll find a specific post you'd like to respond to; this is when you'll use the quote feature. When viewing the post that you would like to respond directly to, click the Quote button that will appear in the top-right hand corner of the post. Click this quote button and when that is done, you'll be taken to the posting page with a quote automatically provided in the message area for you.



The quoted message will appear in a table in the message area. you can can click into the quote box on the posting page to make edits to the quote, such as removing unnecessary lines so that you can respond to a specific part of the member's post directly. Once the quote is to your liking, click below the bottom line of the text box so that your typing cursor will appear outside of the quote box. From there, you can begin typing the rest of your response.



While holding down the Alt key you can click on the content area of a post to select it. Clicking on multiple posts like this and then clicking a Quote button will let you multi-quote. The quoted messages will all show up in the message area. You can reply by typing a message after each one. This way multiple quotes with multiple replies will show up in the same post.

Alternatively, you can click the cog next to a post and click 'select post' do this with all but the last post you want to quote and just press the quote button on the last post.

To change your forum theme you go to profile > edit profile > settings. There is an option in ther eto change your forum theme. There's a few to choose from.
There are also a variety of other settings you can change there.

Go to profile > edit profile > personal. At the bottom you will find a drop down box to choose which console you play on. Once picked this will display in your mini profile nextto all your posts.

To do this you need to upload your chosen image to an image hosting site, like you would with the official forum. Copy the link and post it directly into the signature box.
But make sure you ad [ IMG ] at the front and [ /IMG] at the end but with NO spaces.

To have your signature in the center position, just add [ CENTER ]to the beginning and [ /CENTER ] to the end of your image url, with NO spaces.
Credit to Role Mario for that tip.