Vanilla Newbs' How-To

Jalapeno

This is a set of advice on how to do things in theFB* platform that might seem strange or just plum different from the phpBB and vBulletin fora you may be more used to.

(* This place is 'The Fretboard', or 'theFB' for short, 'The Forum' or 't'Forum' is just sooo passé darlings !)

First off - there aren't Threads here, we're more civilised, they are called Discussions.  Also we don't Post, we Comment.

Latest Comment

Just press on the Discussion name - this will take you to your last unread entry in the discussion.

Alert user

You can use @<insert user name> in your Comment to flag something to somebody - this will appear in their Notifications (the globe thingy under your user name on the home page).

Quotes

Use the quotation mark button on a Comment to quote something - if you want to quote more than one comment, no problem - press the same button on each comment you want to quote and they'll all get bunged into your response.

Want to quote some other source (a cut'n'paste from Wikipedia say).  Right hold on to your hats ....  

1. Enter Show Source mode in the wyswig editor (the <> button).

2. type in <blockquote>

3. Paste your text 

4. Type in </blockquote>

5. Exit Show Source Mode (press the <> button again)

Default font

Is Tahoma, in case you get lost in your War & Peace multi-font opus Comment (well it is on mine - work it out before you start mucking about with different fonts)

Adding Videos

1. Enter Show Source mode in the wyswig editor (the <> button).

2. Paste your video URL

3. Exit Show Source Mode (press the <> button again)

"Subscribe"

Well you don't !   Bookmark a Discussion by pressing the Star symbol in the list of Discussions.  You can adjust how your bookmarked discussions are notified in your profile.  You can also press the Star symbol inside the Discussion.  Once pressed it turns gold as opposed to white.

Copy & Paste

Your keyboard short-cut keys will work, but certainly on Windows mouse-right-click (select Paste) doesn't.  For Windows use Ctrl-C to copy, Ctrl-X to cut, and Ctrl-V to paste.

Posting photos

Two ways of doing it:

• Use the "Insert Image" button on the right side of the toolbar, paste the direct link to the image and submit
• Paste the direct link to the image directly into the comment box

The 2nd option will require for the page to be refreshed/reloaded for the image to appear.

For ImageShack photos you can't use the link that appears under the photo.
It is the url of the page containing the photo, not of the photo itself.

The link you need is either obtained by:

• Right clicking the photo and copying the "Direct Link".
• Right clicking the full-size photo an choosing "Copy Image Address" (or the equivalent in your browser).

Line Breaks

If for some reason your comment ends up having to many empty lines...

• Go to edit mode by clicking the gear image that appears when you hover your mouse over the comment and then choosing "Edit"
• Switch to "Show Source" (the "< >" button on the right side of the toolbar)
• Remove some of the "<br>" tags (line breaks code in HTML) where you don't want empty lines to be (more often than not, removing 1 line-break is enough)

Switch back to "Show Rich Text" mode before you save the comment, just to make sure you haven't messed it up.
 If you have, click "Cancel" (bottom left of the comment) and try again, you'll get the hang of it soon enough.

Moving a "Discussion" to another "Category"

If you started a discussion in the wrong Category you can easily move it to the right one:

• Edit the opening comment by clicking the "gear" button on the right and choosing "Edit".
• Select another category from the drop-down list.
• Save

I just clicked 'hide' on the XYZ section, how do I unhide it ?

Click "all categories" and there will be an option to unhide.

Help I'm stuck in Quotation hell

Use the left indent button to get out of it.

this one ....

Just tell me here what else and I will add it .........

horse

I can't work out how to create a new discussion. I've got a NGD I'd like to share!

TTony

Select the category in which you want to start the discussion from the list on the LHS of the page.

So, Gear, Guitars.

Then click on the big purple button that says "new discussion" at the top of the list of categories and off you go ...

 

Sporky

Or click the new discussion from anywhere, and there's a dropdown box to choose where it should go.

ddlooping

horse said:

I can't work out how to create a new discussion. I've got a NGD I'd like to share!

•  Click on the "New Discussion" button
• Choose which category you want it to appear in, using the "Category" drop-down menu

That's it.

TTony

1 question, 3 replies.

We're going to really win in the customer satisfaction surveys ...

thumpingrug

Doesn't matter anymore.  Found it.  

ddlooping

thumpingrug said:

How does one subscribe to a thread

Click the little "Bookmark" star at the top, on the right of the discussion title.

Jalapeno

Select the Star in the list of Discussions - that bookmarks it - you then adjust notifications accordingly in your profile

horse

Thanks guys. Funny that I didn't spot that big purple button. I think my brain subconsciously assumed it was a heading for the links below, so didn't take in what it actually said.

ddlooping

Buttons should have rounded corners, heading should have straight corners.

gusman2x

Is there any way to see "new posts" on the mobile site? The main site is too clunky for mobile.

ddlooping

@Jalapeno

Posting photos

Two ways of doing it:

• Use the "Insert Image" button on the right side of the toolbar, paste the direct link to the image and submit
• Paste the direct link to the image directly into the comment box

The 2nd option will require for the page to be refreshed/reloaded for the image to appear.

For ImageShack photos you can't use the link that appears under the photo.
It is the url of the page containing the photo, not of the photo itself.

The link you need is either obtained by:

• Right clicking the photo and copying the "Direct Link".
• Right clicking the full-size photo an choosing "Copy Image Address" (or the equivalent in your browser).

ddlooping

Line Breaks

If for some reason your comment ends up having to many empty lines...

• Go to edit mode by clicking the gear image that appears when you hover your mouse over the comment and then choosing "Edit"
• Switch to "Show Source" (the "< >" button on the right side of the toolbar)
• Remove some of the "<br>" tags (line breaks code in HTML) where you don't want empty lines to be (more often than not, removing 1 line-break is enough)

Switch back to "Show Rich Text" mode before you save the comment, just to make sure you haven't messed it up.
 If you have, click "Cancel" (bottom left of the comment) and try again, you'll get the hang of it soon enough.

Jalapeno

gusman2x said:

Is there any way to see "new posts" on the mobile site? The main site is too clunky for mobile.

Click on <Recent Discussions>

Jalapeno

All DDLooping's notes added

ddlooping

Jalapeno said:

gusman2x said:

Is there any way to see "new posts" on the mobile site? The main site is too clunky for mobile.

Click on <Recent Discussions>

I can't see a "Recent Discussions" link on the mobile version of the site. :-S

not_the_dj

ddlooping said:

Jalapeno said:

gusman2x said:

Is there any way to see "new posts" on the mobile site? The main site is too clunky for mobile.

Click on <Recent Discussions>

I can't see a "Recent Discussions" link on the mobile version of the site. :-S

Me neither.

I'm actually uisng the full site on my mobile. It's not too bad

not_the_dj

ddlooping said:

Jalapeno said:

gusman2x said:

Is there any way to see "new posts" on the mobile site? The main site is too clunky for mobile.

Click on <Recent Discussions>

I can't see a "Recent Discussions" link on the mobile version of the site. :-S

Me neither.

I'm actually uisng the full site on my mobile. It's not too bad

Jalapeno

Not sure how to help here as I haven't used mobile to access - help people !!!!!!!!!

bertie

so what do the blue/highlighted threads indicate ?