Tips and Tricks of the Portal

News for this website will be posted here. Mostly Technical.
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Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby Deathworks » Sat Jun 14, 2008 2:28 pm

Hi!

This thread is planned to be a place to share useful tidbits of information about the Portal and its features. After all, such a site does not come with a big manual but rather with small helps here and there and other things that are not as obvious.

While some of the information may seem obscure, the intention of this thread is not to find ways to hack the Portal or anything. If you know a way to make your texts in the forum more beautiful, that is alright. But if you wish to explore how to read the PM of other people, please do not even bother looking here.

Another important aspect is that people have varying knowledge about such sites. Therefore, if you post any information and your post contains several items, please try to put some easily visible markers so that people can easily identify where a section they do not need to re-read ends, and a new, maybe more interesting section starts.

So, I will start with some of the things I noticed or things that some users have had trouble with in the past:

The difference between the Sentbox and the Outbox

When you check your private messages, you will notice that there are 4 sections:
Inbox
Sentbox
Outbox
Savebox


Inbox is quite obvious and similar to e-mail hosts and the savebox also has the obvious function of storing messages you wish to store, but why is there both a sentbox and an outbox?

The answer is quite simple and it can be useful to know at times:

When you send a private message, it will first be stored in your outbox.

Once the recipient of that message reads it for the first time, your copy of the message is moved from the outbox to the sentbox.

In other words, you can see whether a message has been read by checking whether it is in the sentbox or outbox, which can be useful if you have a friend who seldom visits the Portal, for instance.

Searching for a Member's Forum Posts

This is a rather useful shortcut which is probably becoming a bit evasive due to the two profile/pseudo profiles users have.

When you look at the profile of a member (by clicking on their name or on the profile button below any of their forum posts), you will see that there are some statistics about their posts, in the section Total posts:

Just at the end of that information, there is a small link called Find all posts by XXX, "XXX" being the member name. By clicking on this link, you directly and without any typing start a search for all posts by that member on the forums, sorted as usual from the latest to the oldest.

This can be very useful if you encounter someone on the forums for the first time and are puzzled by something they say. You can use the function to see what they said in the past and then maybe better understand their thoughts or their habits of speech. Thus, it can help avoid misunderstandings.

On a more shady note, it also makes it rather easy to check whether people were recently active on the forums if you are wondering about people dodging humiliating discussions. I mention this, because it means that if you post on the forums, even if it is in a place no one would suspect, you leave an easily followable trace.

Basics: BBCode

This is not really an obscure feature per se, but it is something new members sometimes have problems with, which is why I think it should be explained a little bit in detail.

BBCode are special tags you use for formatting your posts in the forums and your PM. They used to work in the gallery's descriptions as well, but there have been some problems after the most recent changes.

A BBCode tag always consists of a command surrounded by square brackets, for instance [b]. Many come in pairs marking a certain space within a text. For instance, the beginning of this paragraph actually reads like this:
A [b]BBCode tag[/b] always consists of a command

The easiest tags are the ones for bold face, underlining, and italics, and when you below the subject box when you write or edit a post, you will find short cut buttons for them and others.

I have to admit that I never use the short cuts, so I would rather not delve into their working, but there is one very useful feature: if you hover over a shortcut button with your mouse, just above the text box, you will see what the actual tags look like.

The interesting tags are the more complex ones, [quote] and [url].

[quote] is actually a weird one as it has an important shortcut in addition to the buttons above.

If you look at a post, or more specifically, in its upper right corner, you will see a button called quote. When you push that button, two very important things happen:
1. You automatically reply to the post, so you do not need to press the reply button.
2. In the text box, the text of the original post will already be there, surrounded by [quote] tags, so if you have just that single text and want to quote it in a single block, you do not need to do any more.

Deathworks wrote:This here is a quote starting with [quote="Deathworks"], that is, the elaborate variant of the quote tag. Closing tag is the normal [/quote].


This here is a quote starting with the simple variant [quote]. Closing tag is the normal [/quote] here as well.


As you can see, non-contradictory tags can be combined.

The [url] tag similarly also has two variants for its opening tag.

The simple version would be just [url], which must be followed by the url you wish to link to, and after that the closing tag ([/url]).

http://aryion.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=18

As you can see, the link is displayed as the link address. The above line looks as follows in code:
http://aryion.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewforum&f=18

But there is also an elaborate variant, where you put the address into the opening tag like this:

General Forum

The above line reads as follows:
General Forum

As you can see, the address is in the opening tag, and the link is displayed as whatever is between the opening and the end tag.

Closing Comment

I think that should be enough for a short start. If you have any other information you think could be useful for users of the Portal, please feel free to share that information here in this thread.

Also, if you have additional information about something posted in the thread or wish to correct something, please do respond here so that everyone can benefit.

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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby kitsun3chao » Sat Jun 14, 2008 2:37 pm

This thread needs to be closed and pinned :3
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby sampson » Sat Jun 14, 2008 2:53 pm

I agree with kitsun3chao but I don't think it should be closed. Some question may rise up about something that is unclear or not working


Pin it IMO.
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby chobitzrabbit » Sat Jun 14, 2008 3:42 pm

no way, dont close this. that made me understand some things a little more.
thanks deathworks, im not very computer savy and that was helpful.

btw, i dont actually know what u mean when u say it should be closed and pinned.. wtf?
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby sampson » Sat Jun 14, 2008 3:52 pm

Pinned= sticky= be at the top of the forum no matter what other new thread are coming out. if you go to the "General Vore Discussion" you will see that the first few thread are "sticky"= they are first.
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby chobitzrabbit » Sat Jun 14, 2008 4:16 pm

oh cool thanks. i know what the sticky thing is, but thats why i thought it was called sticky not pinned..? whatever.

and u know what, while im in this technical stuff thread i have a question that i have still not been able to figure out for the longest time, and it bugs me..

i want a freakin avatar! and i cant figure out how to do it!!
ive seen how theres like smilies that u can use, but i dont want those.
i want to put a cool thing i like that no ones got, u know?
and when i tried puttin a pic before, it said somethin like the pic was to big or somethin.. its buggin the hell outta me!
someone please help!
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby Eka » Sat Jun 14, 2008 6:55 pm

Sure. Sticky is perfectly fine.

Most comment question can be answered by reading the FAQ and checking around, but I suppose it is a little hard to gather everything
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Postby Deathworks » Sat Jun 14, 2008 7:21 pm

Hi!

I am glad this is appreciated. Closing the thread wouldn't do, though. I have barely touched upon a few basic aspects and I am sure there are many interesting things people know about the chat and the galleries which can be important.

Anyhow, on special demand:

Avatars

Just to be clear, this is about the forum avatar shown on the left of any forum posts. The chat system has something different, and that is beyond my knowledge.

In order to install an avatar, you have to select the Profile option from the menu bar starting with Forum FAQ. This will take you to your settings page, where, at the very bottom, you can change your avatar settings.

I assume that you are trying to upload a graphic for your avatar, so you would need the first option Upload Avatar from your machine:. Click on the button to the right of its text box (its a system button, so it is automatically localize, that is, in your native language) and you will be offered a window for selecting files. Use this to select the avatar you wish to upload. (I have to confess that I currently don't have a candidate at hand to try it out, but I think instructions within the procedure are sufficent to get done).

However, there are a few important limitations concerning the image (this is the information shown on the profile page):
Maximum height is 120 pixels
Maximum width is 120 pixels
Maximum size is 29 KB

Not a restriction mentioned, but a strong recommendation is using PNG, GIF or JPG.

Now, when you check a file at "my computer", you should be able to see whether the file size in KB is smaller than 29 KB.

If you are using Windows XP, hovering with the mouse over the file may even return you the height and width in the format "width x height".

If that is not the case, you can open it in any graphic viewer or manipulator and check the information on it.

Now, if the image is too big (larger than 120x120), you need to use a program, like IrfanView or GIMP to resize it - that is not zooming but resizing, please note the difference. Zoom only affects how it is currently displayed on the screen, but the image itself is not altered. Only resize does the latter.

How you can resize the image varies according to the program you are using. But the important thing you should look out for is that the aspect ratio is preserved. There should be either a check box with such a label, or a chain icon between the text boxes for width and height. The chain icon changes between closed and open when you click on it.

If you have aspect ratio preservation activated, whenever you change either the width or the height in the text box, the program will automatically calculate the other dimension so that squares remain squares and circles circles and so on (otherwise you may distort the image).

However, if you resize the image, you have to save it before you can use it. Please see the following instructions about how to do it.

If the image had the right size in pixels, but the file size in KB was too big, saving the image again as follows can also help:

Under file, you should find a heading "Save file as...".

This allows you to specify a new file name and new file type. Set the file type to one of the following three:

JPG if the image is a photo or you made the image smaller
GIF if the image is computer drawn with less than 256 colors
PNG if the image is computer drawn with more than 256 colors or if GIF is too large.

If GIF and PNG both result in files which are too large, use JPG as it results in the smallest files.

Note that there are important settings for JPG and PNG you can reach via options or some such during saving:

JPG: Usually a quality of about 70% should be sufficient. The lower the quality, the smaller the file.

PNG: Always choose maximum compression. Deactivate any options not needed; normal images without transparency do not need the gamma layer, for instance.

Well, this is just a general introduction, but I hope that it will help people figure out how to get their own avatar up and running.

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Re:

Postby chobitzrabbit » Sat Jun 14, 2008 7:49 pm

whoa.. 8O
you just blew my mind.. haha
im gonna hafta read this a couple more times, ha
an then try to work on this thing
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Postby 00k » Sun Jun 15, 2008 12:00 am

what would happen to a private message that was deleted without being viewed?
would it stay in outbox, go to sentbox or disappear?
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Postby Eka » Sun Jun 15, 2008 12:56 am

00k wrote:what would happen to a private message that was deleted without being viewed?
would it stay in outbox, go to sentbox or disappear?


They would disappear. The only time something moves to sent box and out box is when you sent something or when you mark it as save and manually saves the message.
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby Ka-Atis » Mon Jun 16, 2008 7:17 pm

Deathworks wrote:When you send a private message, it will first be stored in your outbox.

Once the recipient of that message reads it for the first time, your copy of the message is moved from the outbox to the sentbox.

In other words, you can see whether a message has been read by checking whether it is in the sentbox or outbox, which can be useful if you have a friend who seldom visits the Portal, for instance.

And you can edit the message as long as it is in the outbox.
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby Bannor » Thu Mar 19, 2009 1:19 pm

I have a question that might qualify as a "Tip and/or Trick". I notice that it's easy to get to a member's Profile page by clicking their name within a thread, or even the button that's in their Userpage. But I notice there's no button to get back from the Profile page to the Userpage. It may be my unfamiliarity, but I have a heck of a time getting to any Userpage except those that appear within the Main page. Is there an easy way (or button.. I like buttons!) that will get me to a Userpage? Thanks for any info on this! :)
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby Nerva » Thu Mar 19, 2009 1:42 pm

Couple things about the outbox, sentbox, and deleted private messages...

A message in the outbox can be edited or deleted until it's read by the recipient and moved to the sentbox, as Ka-Atis has pointed out. Useful to remember if you find yourself wanting to re-word a PM after sending it. There is no limit to the number of edits you can make, until the PM is read, but the number of edits you've made, as well as the time of the last edit, is stamped onto your PM by the system, to let the recipient know that it has been edited.

A PM deleted in the Outbox will show up in the recipient's inbox as a "Deleted PM" message. The recipient will recieve a notice that they recieved a deleted PM, but will be unable to read it. It is possible to reply to a deleted PM, but there is no way to know what was in the message that you're replying to (you can't reply with quote, as with standard PMs.)

UPDATE: With recent changes to the forum software, you can no longer reply directly to a deleted PM. Clicking on the deleted PM notice in your inbox will simply prompt you to delete the notice.

Deleted PMs anywhere else vanish entirely from the system.
Last edited by Nerva on Mon Apr 11, 2011 8:09 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby Bannor » Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:38 am

In regard to my comment two posts up about member profiles, I noticed that there is now a 'button' that goes right to it! I'm assuming this is new and not something I failed to notice all this time (that could be too though!). In any case, I want to thank the wonderful people (and furries and anthros) here at Eka's for adding that button! Yay! :-D
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby SirAwesome » Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:18 am

Hey, Bannor, how do I get custom text below an avatar. Like you, yours says, "---" How did you do that?
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby Ka-Atis » Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:41 am

I'm not Bannor but here's a reply nevertheless: Post 975 more posts and you get "---". Another 1000 posts and the "---" changes into "???". However, if you want a custom text other than that, there is this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12483
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby Bannor » Wed Feb 10, 2010 11:14 am

SirAwesome wrote:Hey, Bannor, how do I get custom text below an avatar. Like you, yours says, "---" How did you do that?

Trust me, if I had any say in it, I woulda come up with something more clever than "---" for my custom text. :lol: Ka-Atis gives an enlightening explanation.

Ka-Atis wrote:I'm not Bannor but here's a reply nevertheless: Post 975 more posts and you get "---". Another 1000 posts and the "---" changes into "???". However, if you want a custom text other than that, there is this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12483

Thanks for responding to that. I wasn't sure where the cut-offs were for each of the prestigious --- and ??? rankings. :silly:

I think I'll wander back to that thread and toss money at it. >.>
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby Cicatrix_Manet » Sat Feb 20, 2010 6:44 pm

In the original post, it didnt explain properly how to do the trick where you make the link integrated with a word or sentence. You know, where its blue and underlined but appears as something other than the URL. Can somebody please explain how it's done, it would be very helpful
I...uh...well I...what?...sorry...nevermind
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Re: Tips and Tricks of the Portal

Postby Nerva » Sat Feb 20, 2010 6:49 pm

Okay, here we go... this happens to be one of my specialties.

Start with a URL, like this.
Code: Select all
http://www.whatismyip.com/


Enclose it in URL-tags.
Code: Select all
[url]http://www.whatismyip.com/[/url]


Now you need to modify the first URL tag slightly, so that it holds the URL within its brackets.
Code: Select all
[url=http://www.whatismyip.com/][/url]


Now that the entire URL has been added to the first URL tag, you can enter whatever text you want between the tags!
Code: Select all
[url=http://www.whatismyip.com/]Click Here[/url]


The result will look like this in the finished post: Click Here to see your own IP.

Now keep in mind, while there's not a limit (to my knowledge, anyway) on how much text can be turned into a link, some characters will break your link, and you can't insert linebreaks, so no multi-paragraph links.
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