There is a general tutorial on how to use this forum under the Help tab in your top menu bar.  For our special features, there are instructions listed below:

Changing Fourum Colour

At the very top left of every page is a drop down box and seven colour swatches. Use either of those to choose your favourite colour for the fourum. It will use that colour every time you visit.

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Personalizing Your Account

If you want to alter your Avatar, Signature, Custom Title, etc:

Click on Profile in the top Menu:



Click on Forum Profile Information under the Modify Profile Menu:



and you have access to your Avatar, Signature and Custom Title, along with other info.

Click on Account Related Settings:



to adjust the name that is displayed, password, email address, etc.

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Look and Layout Preferences





To turn off avatars and signatures, turn quick reply on, and a few other options.

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Topic Notifications

To adjust whether you automatically get notified of replies via email:

Under Profile, select Notifications and Email



Uncheck "Turn notification on when you post or reply to a topic."

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Adding buddies

Very simple; just go to their profile, and click where it says, "Add to buddy list".

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Approving buddies

This seems to be where the confusion is, and it's not surprising, because unless you see what the mouseover text is on the button, it's not at all clear.  But to approve someone who has sent you a buddy request, just go to Edit Buddies in your profile menu, and hit this button for the unapproved buddy in question:

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Posting Images

to turn a link into an image on here, you can use the IMG code on your Photobucket, Flickr, or other image service, or just put the regular link in between IMG code boxes when you post.  On the post form, the third button on the second row says, "Insert Image".  If you press that button, it will place this code on the post form:


just put the picture link in between the 2 img boxes like so:


and it should show up as an image, like this:

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Posting Flash

You do it much like the img code;  click the "insert flash" button on the post form (second button on the middle row), and it'll place this code:


The numbers control the width and height of the flash object, so you can adjust them as you see fit.  Then just drop the url link in the middle like you would for a pic:


and you should get:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/7NuTSshwQus&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/7NuTSshwQus&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;</a>

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Posting YouTube

Again, this is much like the image and flash posting.  Push the YouTube button (first button on the middle row), and it drops in this code:


And again, place the link between the two youtube boxes:


and you've got it:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn481KcjvMo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn481KcjvMo</a>

Or if you prefer you can just insert the video name:


<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn481KcjvMo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn481KcjvMo</a>