Registered Members may use the attachment feature of this forum, which gives you the ability to attach files to your posts. Attachments can be:

• jpeg, gif, or png images, which will be automatically thumbnailed at the end of your post and linked to the full size images you upload
• drawing and cad files
• longer or formatted text documents, PDFs, etc.

To attach a file to a new post, you first need to use the full "new post" or "post reply" screen. Click the or button, or click "Go Advanced" after typing a message in the quick reply box.

Now, below the message window, click the [Manage Attachments] button (1).



This will launch a new small window* where you can click a button to "browse" (2) and locate the file that you want to attach from your local hard drive. Once you select the file, click upload (3). After you have uploaded 1-6 images, you may click close (4), the manage attachments window will close, and you can then submit your new post or new reply complete with attachments.

After posting, file attachments will show up in the body of your message. To view the contents of the attachment (if it is not already displayed) simply click the filename link that appears next to the attachment icon .

Image attachments (jpg, gif, or png files) will show up automatically as thumbnails at the end of your post. To view the full size image, click on a thumbnail and the full size image will open in a new window.

*Note that certain popup blockers may require you to specifically allow the Manage Attachment new window to open when you click the manage attachments button.

For the most part, posts contain plain text, but on occasion, you may want to emphasize certain words or phrases by making them (for example) bold or italic.

HTML code is disabled, but you may use vB Code, a special set of forum tags, to produce the most common text-effects. vB code has the advantage that it is very simple to use, and is immune to malicious javascripts and page layout disruption.

Smilies should not be over-used, but when used appropriately allow you to use small icons to convey emotion. The [img] code allows you to add pictures that you have already posted to a website or other place online to your message. Images should be small enough to fit on-screen and not too large for others to download on slower connections. (you can also attach images directly to your message by using "Manage Attachments" instead which has the advantage that thumbnails are created automatically.) Links which begin with http:// will be automatically linked, but use of the [url] code allows you to enter text for links to external pages and sites, for example when the link is very long or non-descriptive.

For more information about vB code, click here.

Smilies are small graphical icons which you can insert into your messages to convey an emotion or feeling, such as a joke or embarrassment. For example, if you entered a sarcastic comment, rather than type 'that was a joke', you could simply insert the 'wink' smilie.

If you have used email or internet chat systems, you will probably be familiar with the concept of smilies already. Certain combinations of text characters are converted into smilies. For example,:) is converted into a smiling face. To understand smilie codes, tilt your head to the left and look at the text: you will see that :) represents two eyes and a smiling mouth.

For a list of the smilies currently used by this forum, click here.

On occasions, you may want to prevent the text in your message being converted into smilies. You will see a checkbox which you can select when you make a new post, which will allow you to 'Disable Smilies'.

If you post a new thread, or reply to an existing thread, you can choose to be notified by email when someone else replies to that thread. You can also choose to receive email notifications of new posts in a thread without posting in that thread, by clicking the 'Subscribe to this thread' link displayed in the thread page.

If you choose to stop receiving email notifications from a thread, you can turn off the option by either editing your post, or by unsubscribing from the thread here.

Only registered users may receive email notification, and they can set whether they want to receive email notification by default by editing their options.

Email notification is also referred to as 'Thread Subscription'.

These controls allow you to quickly and easily enter vBcode into your posts and messages. To use them, simply click the appropriate buttons or select items from the lists to enter vBcode.

There are three editor modes available: Basic, Standard and Enhanced mode. When using the Basic editor, there are no vBcode buttons to assist your editing. You must enter any vBcode markup manually in this editor.

When using Standard mode, highlight the text you wish to modify and press the appropriate button. This will place the proper vBcode tags around the selected text. Pressing a button while not having any selected text, will insert vBcode tags at your cursor. You may then enter your text between the tags.

When using the Enhanced mode, pressing a button will modify any highlighted text. This mode is a WYSIWYG mode, What You See Is What You Get, whereas your final post appears the same while being edited. Clicking a button while having no text selected will not have any effect.

To use the clickable smilies, simply click the smiley that you want to insert into your message, or click the Show All Smilies link (if available) to access the full list of smilies.

You may notice that some threads on this forum also include a section where you can vote on an issue or question. These threads are called 'polls' and this is how to create them:

Creating a new poll

When you post a new thread, you may have the option to also create a poll.

This function 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 thread.

An example poll might be:

What is your favorite color?

1. Red
2. Blue
3. Yellow
4. Green
5. Sky-blue pink with yellow spots

To create a poll when you post a new thread, simply click the 'Yes! post a poll' checkbox at the bottom of the page, and set the number of possible responses you want to include.

When you click the submit button, you will be taken to the poll creation page, where you can specify the question and the list of responses you want to include.

You may also want to specify a time limit for the poll, so that (for example) it only stays open for voting for a week.

Voting in and viewing a poll

To vote in a poll, simply select which option you want to vote for, and click the [Vote!] button. You may view 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!

The administrator may have enabled message icons for new threads, posts and private messages. Message icons allow you to specify a small icon to accompany your posting, which is used to convey the emotion or content of a post at a glance. If you do not see a list of message icons when you are composing your message or post, the administrator has disabled the option.

If you have registered and posted a message while logged in under your username, you will be able to edit and delete your posts as necessary, with the following limitations:

Your ability to edit your posts is time-limited to 7 days. After 7 days, you will not be able to edit or delete a post. The idea is that if you notice a typo or mistake, you are free to edit your post to correct it as you see fit. However, after a thread has started or gone in a specific direction, we don't want anyone to dramatically alter an early post in the thread making later posts seem out of context which would be unfair to later posters.

Because of abuse by some spammers, the delete button only appears after a member has 5 posts on the public forums.

Also you cannot delete the first post in a thread.

To edit or delete your posts, click the button by the post you want to edit.

If you make modifications after 1 day but no longer than 7 days after the post was initially created, a note will appear that the post has been edited, which notifies other users that you have altered your post.

Certain profanities and words which have been used in an abusive or offensive way are censored. If your posts contain any censored words, they will be blanked-out like this: ****. Please do not post offensive words using special characters to circumvent; attempting to bypass the filters and post offensive or profane words may result in the post being deleted or being banned.

The same words are censored for all users, and censoring is done by a computer simply searching and replacing words. It is in no way 'intelligent'.

Some names or websites have been blanked because of legal issues.

Also web sites or products which have spammed the forums are now permanently blanked out to prevent further spam from these companies or regarding those products from disrupting the forum.