How to Post


Kat

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Posting Instructions - New Topic and replying

  1. Click either New Topic or Add Reply button on available in upper right side or at the bottom of a post
  2. Fill in topic title and a short description
  3. Type your post in large text box area. Highlight over text and click formatting buttons to create bold, italic, etc.
  4. Clicking emoticons will insert smilies into your post
  5. To link to a website, type normal text, click the globe with chain (link icon) and fill in the full url in the pop-up box
  6. Click Preview Post button proofread before sending by clicking Post Topic button.

Note: It is a best practice to highlight the entire textbox and clicking control-C to copy text before sending, just in case your internet connection is interrupted during transmission. Saving your own posts into text files is also a good idea.

Articles are moderated so they do not go up immediately.

Posting in the Articles forum

All new articles submitted to the Articles forum are now going through a screening process. We are doing this for three reasons:

1. Sometimes items are submitted that really belong in another forum.

2. As OL grows, we found we needed to have a place to present more polished work.

3. The articles in the Articles forum appear on the new front page.

There are no restrictions on anything else other than our posting guidelines. You can make posts to article threads in the Articles forum (and everywhere elsewhere), and open new threads everywhere but the Articles forum.

Michael

----------------------------------------

IPB's More Detailed Explanation on how to post on the forum

There are three different posting screens available. The new topic button, visible in forums and in topics allows you to add a new topic to that particular forum. The new poll button (if the admin has enabled it) will also be viewable in topics and forums allowing you to create a new poll in the forum. When viewing a topic, there will be an add reply button, allowing you to add a new reply onto that particular topic.

Posting new topics and replying

When making a post, you will most likely have the option to use IBF code when posting. This will allow you to add various types of formatting to your messages. For more information on this, click the 'BB Code Help' link under the emoticon box to launch the help window.

On the left of the text entry box, there is the clickable emoticons box - you can click on these to add them to the content of your message (these are sometimes known as 'smilies').

There are three options available when making a post or a reply. 'Enable emoticons?' if this is unchecked, then any text that would normally be converted into an emoticon will not be. 'Enable signature?' allows you to choose whether or not you would like your signature to appear on that individual post. 'Enable email notification of replies?' ticking this box will mean that you will receive e-mail updates to the topic, see the 'Email Notification of new messages' help topic for more information on this.

You also have the option to choose a post icon for the topic/post when creating one. This icon will appear next to the topic name on the topic listing in that forum, or will appear next to the date/time of the message if making a reply to a topic.

If the admin has enabled it, you will also see a file attachments option, this will allow you to attach a file to be uploaded when making a post. Click the browse button to select a file from your computer to be uploaded. If you upload an image file, it may be shown in the content of the post, all other file types will be linked to.

Poll Options

If you have chosen to post a new poll, there will be an extra two option boxes at the top of the help screen. The first input box will allow you to enter the question that you are asking in the poll. The text field underneath is where you will input the choices for the poll. Simply enter a different option on each line. The maximum number of choices is set by the board admin, and this figure is displayed on the left.

Quoting Posts

Displayed below each post in a topic, there is a 'Quote' button. Pressing this button will allow you to reply to a topic, and have the text from a particular reply quoted in your own reply. When you choose to do this, an extra text field will appear below the main text input box to allow you to edit the content of the post being quoted. We recommend that you keep only the part of the quote that is relevant to your response. If the quote does not appear in a quotation box, check to be sure that are properly used.

[quote] quote tags [/quote]

Editing Posts

Above any posts that you have made, you may see an 'Edit' button. Pressing this will allow you to edit the post that you had previously made.

When editing you may see an option to 'Add the 'Edit by' line in this post?'. If you tick this then it will show up in the posts that it has been edited and the time at which it was edited. If this option does not appear, then the edit by line will always be added to the post.

If you are unable to see the edit button displayed on each post that you have made, then the administrator may have prevented you from editing posts, or the time limit for editing may have expired.

Fast Reply

Where it has been enabled, there will be a fast reply button on each topic. Clicking this will open up a posting box on the topic view screen, cutting down on the time required to load the main posting screen. Click the fast reply button to expand the reply box and type the post inside of there. Although the fast reply box is not expanded by default, you can choose the option to have it expanded by default, from the board settings section of your control panel. Pressing the 'More Options' button will take you to the normal posting screen.

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  • 1 month later...

Disappearing Posts

There have been times when a post is submitted and, after a long delay, you are taken to "page not found" and when you hit the back button to recover the post, it is gone. It is extremely frustrating to have your posts eaten by cyberspace, especially when you have put a lot of thought into your writing. Of course, it is a good idea to save your writing in Word or Notepad first, but in reality, unless it is an article, most people post directly to the board. I know I do.

Things like this happen when the internet connection or the server is running slow and there seems to be a delay in posting or a timing out...and it almost always happens after spending a good deal of time writing. We have reported this to our provider and they have made some type of server adjustment. So if this happens to you please let us know so we can ask Invision to take another look.

Best Practice: Copy the contents of your post

Before you submit a post, copy the contents of your post (Ctrl-C). You can sometimes do this while you are waiting for the post to go up. You can either play it safe and open a blank Word or Notepad document to paste it into or just copy and paste (Ctrl-V) it into a new post if the original gets lost in cyberspace. If you wait until after the post goes up ok before saving the Word or Notepad file, you can just delete it without saving if you don't want the new file on your hard drive.

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  • 4 years later...

To any OL member:

I attempted to post a new topic which I have saved to an e-mail as back up, but I am getting a pinkish rectangle above the post when I go to send it which says:

You must make a post, or words to that effect with a yellow exclamation point icon (?)...

clueless as to how to fix it.

Adam

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Posting Instructions - New Topic and replying

  1. Click either New Topic or Add Reply button on available in upper right side or at the bottom of a post
  2. Fill in topic title and a short description
  3. Type your post in large text box area. Highlight over text and click formatting buttons to create bold, italic, etc.
  4. Clicking emoticons will insert smilies into your post
  5. To link to a website, type normal text, click the globe with chain (link icon) and fill in the full url in the pop-up box
  6. Click Preview Post button proofread before sending by clicking Post Topic button.

Note: It is a best practice to highlight the entire textbox and clicking control-C to copy text before sending, just in case your internet connection is interrupted during transmission. Saving your own posts into text files is also a good idea.

Articles are moderated so they do not go up immediately.

Posting in the Articles forum

All new articles submitted to the Articles forum are now going through a screening process. We are doing this for three reasons:

1. Sometimes items are submitted that really belong in another forum.

2. As OL grows, we found we needed to have a place to present more polished work.

3. The articles in the Articles forum appear on the new front page.

There are no restrictions on anything else other than our posting guidelines. You can make posts to article threads in the Articles forum (and everywhere elsewhere), and open new threads everywhere but the Articles forum.

Michael

----------------------------------------

IPB's More Detailed Explanation on how to post on the forum

There are three different posting screens available. The new topic button, visible in forums and in topics allows you to add a new topic to that particular forum. The new poll button (if the admin has enabled it) will also be viewable in topics and forums allowing you to create a new poll in the forum. When viewing a topic, there will be an add reply button, allowing you to add a new reply onto that particular topic.

Posting new topics and replying

When making a post, you will most likely have the option to use IBF code when posting. This will allow you to add various types of formatting to your messages. For more information on this, click the 'BB Code Help' link under the emoticon box to launch the help window.

On the left of the text entry box, there is the clickable emoticons box - you can click on these to add them to the content of your message (these are sometimes known as 'smilies').

There are three options available when making a post or a reply. 'Enable emoticons?' if this is unchecked, then any text that would normally be converted into an emoticon will not be. 'Enable signature?' allows you to choose whether or not you would like your signature to appear on that individual post. 'Enable email notification of replies?' ticking this box will mean that you will receive e-mail updates to the topic, see the 'Email Notification of new messages' help topic for more information on this.

You also have the option to choose a post icon for the topic/post when creating one. This icon will appear next to the topic name on the topic listing in that forum, or will appear next to the date/time of the message if making a reply to a topic.

If the admin has enabled it, you will also see a file attachments option, this will allow you to attach a file to be uploaded when making a post. Click the browse button to select a file from your computer to be uploaded. If you upload an image file, it may be shown in the content of the post, all other file types will be linked to.

Poll Options

If you have chosen to post a new poll, there will be an extra two option boxes at the top of the help screen. The first input box will allow you to enter the question that you are asking in the poll. The text field underneath is where you will input the choices for the poll. Simply enter a different option on each line. The maximum number of choices is set by the board admin, and this figure is displayed on the left.

Quoting Posts

Displayed below each post in a topic, there is a 'Quote' button. Pressing this button will allow you to reply to a topic, and have the text from a particular reply quoted in your own reply. When you choose to do this, an extra text field will appear below the main text input box to allow you to edit the content of the post being quoted. We recommend that you keep only the part of the quote that is relevant to your response. If the quote does not appear in a quotation box, check to be sure that are properly used.

[quote] quote tags [/quote]

Editing Posts

Above any posts that you have made, you may see an 'Edit' button. Pressing this will allow you to edit the post that you had previously made.

When editing you may see an option to 'Add the 'Edit by' line in this post?'. If you tick this then it will show up in the posts that it has been edited and the time at which it was edited. If this option does not appear, then the edit by line will always be added to the post.

If you are unable to see the edit button displayed on each post that you have made, then the administrator may have prevented you from editing posts, or the time limit for editing may have expired.

Fast Reply

Where it has been enabled, there will be a fast reply button on each topic. Clicking this will open up a posting box on the topic view screen, cutting down on the time required to load the main posting screen. Click the fast reply button to expand the reply box and type the post inside of there. Although the fast reply box is not expanded by default, you can choose the option to have it expanded by default, from the board settings section of your control panel. Pressing the 'More Options' button will take you to the normal posting screen.

But . . . isn't it clear that Phil's way is better?

JR

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Jeff:

LOL

Of course.

It is as clear as his ability to completely transform his re-appearance with no explanation, or apology, for his immature exit.

He is a perfect paradigm for Peikovian Objectivism, like an intellectual three card Monte game, all he needs is a shill.

Adam

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Adam,

I looked at the settings and other technical stuff and there is no reason I can think of from this end for the problem you mentioned.

Try clearing your cookies and see if that helps.

Anyway, there is a new update to the program that has been released. I'm stalling about updating because they always mess-up stuff everyone uses, but I am going to have to bite the bullet before too long. Security issues take priority and, although I can complain about usability with IPB (especially their grubbiness on saving bandwidth by limiting searches--which is horrible for a forum of ideas), they are top-notch with respect to security.

Later, once my IM business kicks in hard enough, I will migrate everything to a more expensive platform where I can control stuff better. Then life will be all roses and honey.

Michael

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Michael:

OK - thanks for being so prompt in investigating it, I think it is something simple that I am doing improperly.

Adam

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