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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 16, 2008 12:34:29 GMT 12
Hi all,
There are lots of features to these excellent free Proboards forums. I'm very experienced with them having run a successful NZ aviation forum for over three years using the same system, as well as a few other proboard forums for various things.
But some of you might not be so familiar with the best ways to set up your forum so it works well for you. Therefore the following posts are a few hints and tips...
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 16, 2008 12:44:51 GMT 12
Personal Messages
Sending a Personal Message (or PM)
You can send Personal Messages to other members. They're a bit like an email but if you don't have their email address, all you need to do is click on their user name.
You will be taken to their public profile. Click the link at the top which says 'Send Personal Message'.
You then get a form where you have to type a topic heading and a body of text. Then his Send and it fires off to that user's inbox. No-one else on the forum can access it, not even administrators, it's private.
Receiving a PM
You'll see at the top of any page on the right a message that says "Hey, your username, you have x messages, x are new."
If it says '1 is new' or any greater number, it means you have a new message in your inbox. You can click on that top-right statement as it's a link to your inbox. It will take you to your inbox and you'll see the new messages.
Email Notification
If you want to by notified by email that you've received a PM (Personal Message) from another member, follow these instructions:
Click on the link to go to your PM inbox.
Once in the inbox, look on the right of the grey bar. There's the word "Preferences". Click it.
In the next screen where it says Email Notifications there are two option boxes.
Choosing the first as Yes means when you receive a new PM from someone, an email will be sent to your email inbox to notify you.
Choosing the second option as Yes means if you haven't checked your emails but you browse into the forum and a PM is waiting, a box will pop up to alert you that it's there.
These are both handy functions found on all forums, but if they are dsiabled (as mine were) it's not easy to find where to switch them on.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 16, 2008 12:47:26 GMT 12
The Calendar
The forum has a calendar where I can add events to dates to remind people of upcoming happenings. You can access the calendar by clicking on Calendar at the top of any page in the blue-green bar below the forum photo.
And on the Homepage there's also this month's items displayed near the bottom as a reminder of happening during the current month. You can click on an item to see more info.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 16, 2008 12:52:35 GMT 12
The Forum Clock
This forum'c clock is set to New Zealand time as the default, as that is where I run it from. However you can adjust your own viewing of the clock wherever you are in the world by going to your profile (click on Profile on the top blue-green bar. Or alternatively click on your own username. That takes you to your public proifile that anyone can see.
Then click on Modify Your Profile, which only you can get into. Once in there you can change all manner of personal settings and you can set your personal clock to your local time. Rememebr you have to put your password in twice at the top of that page or when you click the Modify Profile button it won't work.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 16, 2008 12:56:50 GMT 12
Notifications of Replies to threads that you are subscribed to
Many of you will currently have this function disabled, as it seems to be defaulted to disabled. If you want to receive an email every time someone replies to a thread you're posting in, or watching, you have to Bookmark it.
So, look at a thread. On the top left of the grey bar above the first post is the word Bookmark. Click it, and it will send a tag to your bookmarks indicating you want notifications from this thread. You can do this while posting or simply while reading a post if you're a signed in member. (when you are writing a post you can tick Bookmark below the text form to do the same thing)
However you need to set this setting correctly:
Go to your public profile (simply click on your user name, or on Profile in the top bar).
In your profile you'll find just under the grey bar on the right the word Bookmarks. Click it.
In there you'll find a list of all the threads you have bookmarked. But in order to receive emails you have to switch the function on. So on the right of the top grey bar again there's the words Manage Bookmarks. Click.
This screen allows you to choose the type of notification you want from the thread - no notification, PM or email. Set it, and click the bottom grey button to update your preferences.
Done.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 16, 2008 12:58:41 GMT 12
If any other issues arise I'll add solutions here on this thread. If you have any questions, please ask in another thread. This one will be locked to keep it tidy.
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