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If you have posted a question and it appears to have been removed or if your user has been disabled or you've been banned it is probably because you failed to follow the rules you agreed to upon sign up. Please review the rules again and the following FAQ:
Forum Information
To view the list of forums, click on
Main Index. From there, click on any forum name and there will be a list of posts. You can expand a discussion or thread by clicking on the circle with the plus in the middle or by clicking the "Expand All Threads" buttons. To sort the list of postings, click on any title name such as "Subject" or "Author".
Once you are inside the section, use the scroll bar on the right side of your screen to scroll down and look at all of the postings. To read a posting, click the subject of the post to view it. When you have finished reading it, you can exit by clicking the "Back" button in your web browser, at the top left hand side of the browser window. This will take you to the previous screen. You can also click "Main Index" at the top of the page to return to the main index. If you wish to go directly to another section without returning to the main index, scroll to the bottom of the screen until you see the button labeled "Jump to Forum". To the left of that is a listing of all the different forums. Click that box and select the forum you want to jump to. Then click on "Jump to Forum" to go there directly.
Login
If you wish to post question to the forum, you must log in. Click "Log In" on the top right corner of the screen. If this is your first time on the forum, click "Register" Follow the instructions on the Sign Up page. If you are logged in and you still cannot post, close the browser, open a new one and login again.
Registering
You may select anything you want for your username when you register. Remember that the user name will be viewed by the public so choose wisely. These cannot be changed once you are registered. Be sure to read the rules before registering. You will then be sent an email with a special link to validate your registration. If you have already signed up but still have not received a validation e-mail, click here to have the validation e-mail resent. Once you have validated your email address you can then feel free to post your questions. NO advertising posts please. Some email programs may send your validation email from topweddingquestions.com into your spam or junk folder. Please check that folder if the validation email is not received.
If you have already registered, just type in your username and password on the Login page, and click "Log In".
You will note as you fill in the Sign Up form that it asks you for your E-mail address. That is only used by the forums software itself, for instance to send you the e-mail used to validate you, as mentioned above. It will also be used if you choose to Subscribe to one or more of the forums (see below), which means that it will send you e-mails once a day if there is new activity, with a summary of the newly posted messages. Although other users can view information about registered users they will never be shown your real e-mail address.
Posting a message to the website is reserved for registered members/users of the discussion forums. If you have not yet registered, or do not choose to do so, you may visit the website and read any of the information and discussion posted here, but may not be able to post or add input to particular threads. For information on how to register click here.
Before you post your question please search the site to see if your issue has already been answered. Be sure to follow the rules to have your question posts and answered. If you wish to be able to post messages, you must be logged in as well as being a registered member. Log In to the website. Once you have logged in, you can post a message in any of the listed forums. Click on the forum name you wish to post a message in and click "Post New" in the upper right hand corner of the forum section next to "Expand All Threads".
Enter the subject of the message. Please try to make your subjects as descriptive as possible (and short as possible) in order to help others who are later browsing the site to know whether your post might be of interest to them and to help the experts to understand your issue. Please be brief and use the spell check.
After entering the subject, click your cursor into the empty text box in the middle of the screen. Now you can type your message.
Important: The following describes the Advanced Editor, which only works if you are using Internet Explorer version 5.5 or higher. If you aren't using that, the Basic Editor will be displayed. It is somewhat similar, but using markup (bold, underline, etc.) is a bit more complex.
At the top of the text editing box, there is a toolbar with a number of buttons which can help you format your message with markup tags:
- "B" - will make any word or words appear in bold print
- "U" - will make any word or words appear in underlined
- "I" - will make any word or words appear in italics
- For other ones, put your cursor over them and hold it still for a second. A little popup help message will appear saying what it does. Most of the tools will probably be familiar from your word processor or e-mail program.
In order for these effects to appear in your message, you must click them before and after the word or words you want to change. Alternatively, select some text by dragging the mouse through it so that it gets highlighted, and click the tool. You will see the effect in the editor (e.g. bolded text actually looks bold).
E-mail addresses and web addresses (links to other websites, URLs) that you add in the text will automatically be deleted by the admin.
In the Basic Editor, the buttons for markup are displayed at the bottom of the editing area. They have to be checked before and after what you want to be affected by them, and are displayed as HTML-like codes within your text. (For instance, a bolded word will look like "[b]word[/b]".) To get an e-mail address or URL to be marked as a hyperlink, you need to use the "email" or "url" buttons, before and after the address.
Signature
You may also choose to add your personal signature to the end of your message. Remember that you are posting to a public forum so choose your signature wisely. To do so, simply click the checkbox next to "Append signature to post". (You set up the signature in the EDIT PROFILE area.)
If you would like an e-mail notification of any replies that I or other users enter to your message, click the checkbox next to "Send e-mail notification on reply". Both of these checkboxes default to being checked.
If you decide you do not want one or either of these features, click the checkbox again, so that the check mark disappears. A check mark in the box means that feature will be used. An empty box means it will not.
PLEASE check the spelling in your message. Before posting click "Check Spelling". In the window that comes up, words that it thinks are mis-spelled are underlined. Clicking on them brings up a window of suggested changes. Be sure that you have used proper punctuation and grammar. No ALL CAPS allowed. Any posts not using the correct format, or having been answered before, will be deleted.
If you want to see exactly how your message will appear before posting it, you can view it by clicking "Preview Post".
Once you are ready to post your message, click "Post Message". Please be sure you want to post since you will not have the ability to delete. All posts become the property of TopWeddingQuestions.com
Replying to a Message
Only experts should reply to messages on the forum. However, if you need to relpy to the expert who has answered your particular question, you may do so by clicking reply.
Watching a Thread
If there is a message that particularly interests you, and you want to know about replies to it, you can click the "Watch Thread" button above it when you are viewing it. If you do that, you will be sent an e-mail every time there is a new reply added to that thread (i.e. that subject).
EDIT PROFILE
Because you have logged in to the website and are able to post messages, you may create a profile for yourself, and for the way the website appears on your computer screen.
Click "EDIT PROFILE" on the top bar of the screen.
User Profile
Click "User Profile" within the EDIT PROFILE page, and this will take you to a screen where you can personalize your identity on the website. This is the information that other users of the website can access if they want to know more about you. What you disclose here is your choice. To see your profile, or the profile of others who post to the website, click their name where it appears next to their post, under 'Author', or as it is shown in the "Who's Online" screen.
- You may add or delete any information on your profile except the username.
- You may add in an e-mail address you would like to be displayed, or choose to have no 'Display Email address' displayed.
- If you want to change your password, type in your new password next to "Change Password", then type the same password again next to "Change Password (again)".
- You may create a signature here. Your "signature" will appear at the end of a post if you choose to add it. No html in signatures please.
- If you want, or don't want, others to know you are on the website, click either yes or no next to "Visible in Who's Online". (this IS NOT recommended as it turns off other options available to you while on line.
- If you want the checkbox for sending reply notifications to your posted messages to be checked automatically, select yes or no next to "Send reply notification checked by default".
- Below these choices, you may fill in more information about yourself. You may write in your real name (particularly if you didn't use it for your Username), your occupation, where you live, you interests, you ICQ number, AIM name, Yahoo identity, and/or an MSN identity
When you are finished, click "Make Profile Changes" at the bottom of the page. If you forget to do this, none of your changes will be recorded. If you decide, at any point, not to make any changes, you can exit this page by clicking the "Back" button in your browser.
Display Settings
This is where you can adjust the way the website appears to you when you log on. There are many changeable features on this page.
- Default Post Style - you can choose between Mark-Up and Plain Text. Mark-Up
will show all the mark-ups added to posts. Plain Text will not show mark-ups. Plain text is the suggested format here as it is much quicker, and presents a cleaner display.
- Default Post Display - 'Threaded' will display all the replies to a post automatically, while 'Flat' will only show that there are replies, without
displaying them.
- In flat view, when viewing thread - gives a couple of options for what happens when you view a thread (the original, or root, message with a given subject line, and all replies to it)
- Post writer/editor - Select either the Advanced Editor (the default) or the Basic Editor. Please note the message below this, pointing out that the Advanced Editor only works with Internet Explorer version 5.5 or higher. If you do not have that, select the Basic Editor. (Normally, the forum software automatically detects your web browser version and selects the editor for you, so changing this may not really be necessary.)
- After posting - gives some fairly obvious options as to what should happen after you post a message.
- Default Forum View - Options as to how the main screen of the forum appears. Collapsed means it only shows one entry for each thread (subject). Threaded means it shows all replies as well on the main forum screen.
The next five boxes let you choose how many posts, messages or search results are shown to you when you view a screen. "Textbox Width" and "Textbox Height" determine the size of the textbox you can write in when editing a message. (I suggest 10-15 for height and a max of 50 for width).
"Time Offset" lets you change the time displayed on the site to your own time zone. This includes the time shown at which messages are posted to the site. The currently configured time zone is Eastern Standard, which includes, for instance, Toronto, New York City, Baltimore, etc. You can adjust the time to display your own local time. To change the time, write in either a '+' or a '-' then the number of hours you wish to change (for example, -1 for Central, -3 for British Columbia in Canada or the west coast of the U.S.A., +5 For Eastern Europe, etc.). When you are done, click "Make Profile Changes" . If you want to exit the page anytime, or chose not to make changes, click "Back" or "Main Index" to leave.
PRIVATE MESSAGES
Private message are not in use on our forum.
SEARCH POSTS
This section allows you to search all posts on the website. Please use this feature before posting. You can do a search either by clicking "Search Posts" on the top bar of the website, or using the search box at the bottom of the screen. Every screen on the website has both options.
To use the search at the bottom of the screen, first choose whether you are searching for "All words", "Any words", or "Whole Phrase" from the pulldown box. Then type into the empty box the actually word(s) or phrase you are looking for. Click "Search".
If you click "Search Posts" at the top of the screen, it will take you to a screen where you can do a more specific search. The boxes help you specify your search:
- Search - specify which part of the website you want to search, either the whole site, or particular forums within the site
- Search String - enter the word, words or phrase that you are searching for here
- Type of Search - you can choose All words, Any words, or Whole Phrase
- Fields to Search - will look for your word, words or phrase within the subject and body of a post, just the subject, just the body, or by the username.
- Show Posts from the Last - lets you search for posts within a specific time frame
- Only Show Posts made by - lets you narrow your search to posts made only by one person
- Number of results per page - limits the number of results shown on each page
After you have filled in your requirements for your search, click "Search" at the bottom right corner of the page. If the search finds results, they will be displayed. Click the title under the subject to view them.
Forum Help
If you need additional technical help not found in this document, please choose the Contact button at the top of the page. If you have a question regarding a wedding, please post your question at one of the forums - do not contact the site administrator.
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