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Forum Guide

Users hierarchy

Viewing can be done by both by guest users and registered users. However, you need to be a registered user in order to post or view the images on the Forum.

  • Guest users. If you are lazy, or don't want to register for some reason, you can easily view the forum without registering. But having said that, you cannot post messages or view images posted to the forum if you are not a member.
  • Registered users. WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND all users to register. whether you visit this forum often or not. Why? You can have your own identity. Edit your posted messages. Post pictures. See pictures. Create new topics. Create your own avatar. And you'll be a full-fledged member of a lively and interesting community.

User info is displayed on a separate page. Click on the word "member" beneath the registered user's name, and you'll get info about that user.

User's login

Users must have cookies enabled in their browser. Cookie passwords are saved in encrypted format. Log in on the Forum page of TGCaps (if you're already a member of TGComics. you can use the same login).

User's registration (Sign Up)

To register, go the TGComics Premium Member Signup Page and fill in the form. You will then be a member of BOTH the TGComics and TGCaps Forums. You'll also be able to buy Premium Comics on TGComics.com.

Necessary fields are:

  • EMAIL: Your email must be also unique (no two users can have the same email). Email is checked by simple regular expression for avoiding "stupid" emails. If you have problems registering your email, please report to admin. There are some "exotic" emails that can not be validated with this function (but it's a rare thing).
  • USERNAME: your username must be unique - if a user with the identical login already exists, you won't be able to register under that name. Login must contain only only A-Z letters, numbers, or an underscore "_". Spaces are no longer allowed (but may exist in older usernames that were created before this change)! You can pick a name with length from 4 to 16 symbols.
  • CHOOSE A PASSWORD: your password for must contain only A-Z letters, numbers, or an underscore "_" (no spaces!). You can create passwords from 4 to 16 symbols.
  • CONFIRM YOUR PASSWORD: this must be the same symbol combination as the "PASSWORD". This is just for checking - making sure you've entered your password correctly or not.

New topics and replies

The "New Topic" form is placed at the bottom of each topics listing page. You need to type the topic's title ("New Topic") and body ("Message"). If you don't fill in "Message", it will be identical to the topic's title. Guest users CANNOT create New Topics!

The "New Post" form is located at the bottom of each thread's page.

Anti-spam protection has been enabled, which mean you can make posts and topics ONLY ONCE in a defined period of time. That time is 1 minute. In other words, you can't make more than one post per minute.

Text breaks (newlines+carriage returns) are automatically converted to "physical" breaks.

Email notifications

Every registered user who makes a post can subscribe to it. Notifications are sent to user's email when someone replies to the topic. Registered users can also subscribe to notifications even if they are not topic authors. Users can also unsubscribe from notifications. For that, go to the desired topic and find the "Unsubscribe" link (instead of notifications checkbox) and just click on it.

Automatic links highlighting

If you are a registered user and are using links like http://tgcomics.com (beginning with "http://", "https://", "ftp://", "www" or "mailto:"), they will automatically be converted to "real" links. If, however, you've checked the "Disable" box, links WILL NOT automatically be highlighted (see BB-codes below).

BB Codes

This forum does not use HTML in topics or posts. Posts contain only "BB-codes" - special HTML-code replacements, that "emulate" HTML code. Since HTML is not supported in our board, BB-codes are good alternatives when posting a new message or topic. The JavaScript text editor for Internet Explorer and Mozilla makes for easy creation of special coding.

Currently, the forum supports following codes:

  • [url=SOMEURL]SOMETEXT[/url] where SOMEURL is a URL like http://tgcomics.com, and SOMETEXT is alternate text for the URL. DON'T USE QUOTATION MARKS OR APOSTROPHES INSIDE THIS TAG. In a post, these tags are replaced like the following: <a href='SOMEURL'>SOMETEXT</a>.
  • [imgs(left|right)]http://www.someserver.com/images/image.gif[/img] where http://www.someserver.com/images/image.gif is the exact URL for an image file (.JPG or .GIF). Alternatively, you can use "left" and "right" tags (without trailing space!) followed exact after "imgs". They place an image left or right on the page, in the same way HTML does. Usually, only the [imgs] tag is used, but in systems like "forum news" you can also use left/right aligned. This tag is replaced with: <img src='http://www.someserver.com/images/image.gif' border='0' align='left OR right OR nothing' alt=''>. (Example: [imgsleft]http://www.someserver.com/images/image.gif[/img]) Note: because of hack protection, you can include images only from http:// servers, also as with only extensions like .gif or .jpg. All posted images are shrunken to the width of 150 pixels, so they cannot break the look of the thread.
  • [b]Bold[/b] where "Bold" is the text you want to markup as in a "bold" style. Example: [b]Attention[/b] produces Attention.
  • [i]Italic[/i] where "Italic" is the text you want to markup as in an "italic" style. Example: [i]I apologize[/i] produces I apologize.
  • [u]Underlined[/u] where "Underlined" is the text you want to markup as in an "underlined" style. Example: [u]Don't write me an email[/u] produces Don't write me an email.

Note that the case of BB codes doesn't matter. You can type "[URL]" or "[uRL]" or whatever. Only opening and closing tags ([urL]...[/uRL]) are important, also tags CAN NOT CONTAIN SPACES!

It is not necessary to know exactly what you need to type for the corresponding (closing) tag. Each template message form contains JavaScript buttons that will insert these tags into your post.

Both guest and registered users can use BB-codes, but you can also DISABLE BB-code in your post, checking "Disable" flag. Usually this is not necessary, because BB-codes allow posts to be more organized and help create good-looking messages. But if you need to post something without BB-codes, it is possible. To avoid BB-codes, you can also put spaces inside them.

It is possible to combine tags with each other, i.e., to make "bold+italic" or "bold link". But be careful with opening and closing tags correctly. Example:


'This General Public License [b]does not permit[/b] incorporating your program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General Public License instead of this License.

Return to [url=http://www.fsf.org/home.html]GNU's home page[/url].

FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to gnu AT gnu.org. Other ways to [b][url=http://www.fsf.org/home.html#ContactInfo]contact the FSF[/url][/b].

Comments on these web pages to webmasters AT gnu.org.

[b][u]Copyright notice above[/u][/b].

[i]Free Software Foundation, Inc[/i]., [i][u]59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA[/u][/i]'


produces:


'This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General Public License instead of this License.

Return to GNUs home page.

FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to gnu AT gnu.org. Other ways to contact the FSF.

Comments on these web pages to webmasters AT gnu.org.

Copyright notice above.

Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA'


If you need to post 100% "tagged" URL, it is better to do it with tags, since automatic replacements don't work in some cases. i.e., the following example will not work: [b]http://tgcomics.com[/b]. It is only "bolded", but not "highlighted". For bolding url links, use [url] tag.

Note: you can use tags also for multi-line text. Example:

[b]Text1

Text2[/b]

(text contains two paragraphs) produces:

Text1

Text2


Quoting messages

Topic posters can quote other messages. There is no "quote" BB-code included, as on some bulletin boards. Instead of it, you can use "italic" style to separate quotes. For easy use, there is a "quote" link on every post made. To make a quote, select some text and press this link. The selected text automatically will be inserted into the reply box at the bottom of the page.

This feature is based on JavaScript code and works only in the newest versions of most browser. Older browsers users may experience some troubles with it.

Locking topics

Topic authors can lock their topics. In order to do this, the topic author needs to be logged in. At the bottom of the topic's page he must see small "lock topic" link. Clicking on it, topic becomes closed.

Nobody except topic author or an administrator can lock the topic. If topic was locked by admin, the topic author CANNOT unlock the topic.

Editing messages

Registered users (and only registered) can edit THEIR messages, but only if they are cookie-logged and only if the time of the message has not expired. For this, just click on "Edit" on each post (you will only see the message if it is your message, otherwise, you won't). When editing a message, "automatic highlights" are replaced with "real" BB-codes, so there is no need to delete them once again. Also, "real" HTML tags are replaced back to codes. Via editing, a user can add new BB-codes, links, etc. - as in any new post or topic. User can edit only his POST, not topic's title, even if he is the author of the topic. After a message is edited by user, info about that is displayed near each post.

There is no way to delete your message, if you are topic's author. Only the admin can do this.

In some cases, after administrator has edited user's message, for user, there is no way to edit it once again.

Editing preferences

For editing user preferences, you need to log in and go to the "preferences" on the top menu. You can make changes to your account, (except your login, that cannot be changed). If you don't want to change your password, leave the password field and go next to the fields you want to edit. You don't need to write your password once more, because are already logged in. When done, just press the submission button below.

This action works exactly like registration: you need to type grammatically correct data. Thus, you cannot change your email to the one of someone who already registered (incl. admin's email ;) ). Updating preferences, you don't need to enter password, if you don't want to change it. Just leave these fields blank.

Two exceptions:

  • Show email public?: this option allows (or not) other users to view your email in user info. It does not affect emailing notifications etc.
  • Sort topics by: this option switches sorting filter. On topics and last discussions pages, you can view topic names sorted by new topics or new posts. This is another pointwhy you should register: logging into the forums, you can quickly view what's new. This option is saved on all pages. Guest users will need to click on "sort" every time.

Changing user password

Login, go to the TGComics Edit Profile page. Type new password 2 times in "password" fields. Your password will be updated to the new one.

Retrieving forgotten password

Go to the bottom of the TGComics Login Page and enter the email address you have registered with your TGC membership. Your password will be emailed to you.

Forums search panel

You can quickly search forums for keywords. The Search panel is placed under the "Search" link in menu. You can search text in topics and posts, in topics only, in poster names, in specified forums, by all words, any words or the whole phrase. Newest messages are shown first.

Search phrase length can't be more than 100 chars. Minimum length of any word is 3 symbols. The more search parameters you specify, the longer time and more specific content will be returned in the results.

Search within specified forums is also available. You can either search in all forums or choose a forum you want to search in.

The search algorithm tries to perform a search on a comprehended words. By fragment, we mean here a fragment of a whole word from the beginning. For example if you search for a word "fox", it will be found in the sentence "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.", also as the word "jump" will be found. But the word "foxy" will not be found, also as "row" won't be found. Searching by whole phrase, the script will find "fox jumps over", but won't find "fox dog" - use "Words or fragments" criteria for finding many words in the text at the same time.