Reading and Posting Messages
The MyCE staff
All Reading & Posting Messages Questions
- Posting New Messages
- Attachments and Images
- What are smilies?
- What are moderators and administrators?
Posting New Messages
On the entire community you can leave comments, user reviews, news tips, discussion etc. When posting these messages you may wish to include some formatting such as bold text, italic text and underlined text. On several pages ' clickable controls' are available in the Standard and Enhanced WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors. On this community we also use the system of 'BB codes', which is a special set of codes similar to HTML that can be used in posts to the board.
As a registered user you can leave replies on many pages. To reply you have a few options. You can click on the 'Post Reply' button and add a new post to the end of a discussion for example. Alternatively, you can sometimes leave a quick reply in a quick editor box listed below the posts in the thread.
If you want to post replies to multiple posts you can select them by clicking the multi quote button Multi quote. This button will change to indicate that you've selected it. Clicking post reply will then bring you to the full editor with all the posts quoted.
If you have registered and are logged in, you may be able to edit your posts, however this is time-limited. To edit your posts, click the Edit Message button by the particular post. Administrators and moderators may also edit your messages if they feel your post is against the community rules.
Creating and Participating in Polls
You may notice that some discussions on this community also include a section where you can vote on an issue or question. When you post a new discussion, you may also have the option to create a poll. This allows you to ask a question and specify a number of possible responses. Other members will then be able to vote for the response they wish, and the results of the voting will be displayed in the discussion.
To vote in a poll, simply select which option you want to vote for, and click the 'Vote!' button. Sometimes you can choose more than one option. You can see the current results for a poll before you vote by clicking the 'View Results' link. Voting in a poll is entirely optional. You may vote for any of the available options, or cast no vote at all. Generally, once you have voted in a poll, you will not be able to change your vote later, so place your vote carefully!
Attachments and Images
On some places, especially the forums, you can attach a file to your post. This needs to be done using the main 'New Post' or 'New Thread' page and not 'Quick Reply'. On this page, right to the message box, you will find a button labelled 'Manage Attachments'. Clicking this button will open a new window for uploading attachments. You can upload an attachment either from your computer or from another URL by using the appropriate box on this page. Alternatively you can click the Attachment Icon to open this page.
To upload a file from your computer, click the 'Browse' button and locate the file. To upload a file from another URL, enter the full URL for the file in the second box on this page. Once you have completed one of the boxes, click 'Upload'.
Once the upload is completed the file name will appear below the input boxes in this window. You can then close the window to return to the new post screen. In the attachment window you will find a list of the allowed file types and their maximum sizes. Files that are larger than these sizes will be rejected.
If you have uploaded an image as an attachment, you can click the arrow next to the 'Attachment Icon' and select it from the list. This will be inserted into your post and can be located where you want it displayed.
To include an image that is not uploaded as an attachment and is located on another website, you can do so by copying the full URL to the image, (not the page on which the image is located), and either pressing the 'Insert Image' icon or by typing [img] before the URL and [/img] after it, ensuring that you do not have any spaces before or after the URL of the image.
What are smilies?
Smilies are icons that can be used in your posts to express emotions or feelings. You might wish to use these to show that you are happy, sad, joking, or embarrassed. For example, if you are telling a joke or being sarcastic you may wish to add a wink instead of writing 'this is a joke'. The basic smilies are the same as what you would find on any instant messenger system.
Some smilies can be accessed from the 'New Post' or 'New Thread' pages. Clicking them will automatically insert them into your message. You can also type the character combinations for the smilies directly. A full list of the smilies and their character combinations used on this forum can be found in the editor window.
What are moderators and administrators?
Moderators oversee specific forums. They have the ability to edit and delete posts, move threads, and perform other actions. Becoming a moderator for a specific forum is usually rewarded to users who are particularly helpful and knowledgeable in the subject of the forum they are moderating.
Administrators are the people who have overall control of everything that happens on the board. They oversee the forum policy, what forums to create and how to organize them, what information to require from members and who to appoint as moderators.
You might want to check out the help center overview as well. There are more questions & answers there.
