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.::oDrew -> The Member Control Panel (9/1/2008 18:20:13)
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The Member Control Panel - A Guide
Knowing how to use your Member Control Panel properly is an important skill that will assuredly provide you with a more enjoyable experience on the forums. It encompasses many crucial features of the forum, including your Member Profile, Forum Preferences, and your Inbox/Address Book. In this guide, I will be walking you through the various options, settings, and procedures you will encounter while using these features.
Table of Contents
I. My Profile
--Ia. My Preferences
II. My Forums
III. My Inbox
--IIIa. My Address Book
Appendix: Other Resources
I. My Profile
IMPORTANT NOTE: Each and every time you change ANYTHING on this page, you MUST click "Apply" for the changes to take effect. If you simply navigate away from the page, your changes will NOT be saved.
To access your Control Panel, simply click the "Profile" button near the top of the page (next to "Help," "Members," "Search," etc.). This will bring you to the "Edit Profile" page. From here, there are several options and perferences you can set.
The first section is labeled "Actions." Here we have three options:
- "View My Profile"
Clicking this link will display your profile as it appears to other members.
- "Change Password"
Fairly self-explanatory. A box will pop up, with fields for "Old Password," "New Password," And "Re-Type New Password."
- "Delete All Forum Cookies"
Use with caution! Clicking this button will delete all of the images and information about the forums your computer has saved. This means that the next time you visit the forums, your computer must re-download every image. Also, you will have to re-log in, so be absolutely sure you remember your password before doing so!
Anyway, I would only use this button if you're having problems with loading and/or using the forum for some reason.
- Forum Login
Simply displays your current username.
- First Name/Last Name
Sets your first and last name as displayed on your profile.
- E-mail
Allows you to set the e-mail address you would like to use with your forums account. You can decide whether or not to allow other users to see your address and send you e-mail. The forum administrators will always be able to send you e-mails, no matter what.
- Birthday
Set your date of birth as it appears on your profile. If you'd like, you can choose to hide this information.
- Homepage
Your "Homepage" can basically be any website. I would not recommend setting your homepage to your social networking page, such as MySpace or Facebook. Remember, anyone can use the forums, and you might not want all of these people viewing your personal pages.
- From
Your hometown, home state, home country, whatever you'd like.
- ICQ/Yahoo/AOL/MSN
If you'd like, you can enter your IM screennames for other members to contact you.
- Signature
Set your personal signature. For more information on signatures, please check out the Detailed Sig Guide. By the way, the "PGD Code" button does not work, do not worry about it.
- My Avatar
Set your personal Avatar. Select "Click to choose avatar," and click the one you like. You can also choose not to display an avatar.
- AQ/DF/MQ User Account/Character ID
Simply fill in the IDs of your Characters from any of the games. You can select whether or not to display this information. Once you fill in the Character ID, the User Account name will be filled in automatically. NOTE: Your MQ ID will be visible on your profile, but there is currently no MQ icon below your posts.
- Clan Name
Enter the name of the Clan you belong to. Please note, entering anything besides simply the name of your clan may result in a warning for advertising.
- Where did you first hear about AQ/What do you like best...
Simply fill in your answers to the questions. As always, you can choose to hide this section.
- Forum Color Style
Choose which color scheme, or "skin," you would like the forum to display.
- Link Safety Reminder
Selecting "Yes" will cause a warning to pop up whenever you click a link on the forums that directs you to an outside page. If you select "No," you will never see a warning - so be very careful when you decide to click a link.
Ia. The "My Preferences" Section
- Viewing Preference
"Flat Style" is the default style.
"Simplified Flat Style" will hide all user signatures and avatars, which allows the forum to load faster.
- Posting Preference
"After posting editing a message, redirect me to..."
Selecting "the message I posted" will automatically redirect you to whatever you just posted or edited. You should select this option if you like to view what you said directly after posting it.
Selecting "the forum which the message resides in" will automatically redirect you to whatever forum that thread is in, that is, you will be returned to the list of threads. You should select this if you do not wish to view your message after you have posted it.
- Private Message
Enable Private Message System? - Unchecking this box means you will be unable to send or receive private messages ("PMs"). I would recommend leaving this checked unless you have some reason for disabling your PMs, such as an extended absence from the forums.
E-mail notification of new Private Message? - If you check this box, you will recieve an e-mail each time you receieve a new private message. The e-mail will be sent to the address you set in your profile.
Pop-up notification of new Private Message? - If you check this box, a message box will pop up alerting you of every new private message you receieve. I would recommend using at least one of these two options.
Always save PM to sent folder - If you check this box, a copy of every private message you send will be saved to your "Sent" folder. I would recommend leaving this box checked, because sent messages do not take up any space in your private message storage (that is, you can keep as many sent messages as you want).
Always request PM read receipt - If you check this box, you will receieve a notification when a private message you sent has been read by the receipient.
- Privacy Setting
Hide from online user list? - If you check this box, other users will not be able to tell if you are online.
- Speed Options
Don't Show Smiley Faces/Image/member's Avatar in posts - Checking any of these options will disable these images from being displayed on your screen, which will cause the forum to load faster.
- Save as Cookie
Save my login and password as Cookie? - If you check this box, you will automatically be logged in each time you visit the forums.
- Time Adjustment (in hour)
The "Current Server Time" will display the default time the forums are set to. Determine how many hours off this time is from your own time, and select this difference from the drop-down menu. For example, if the "Current Server Time" is 12:00 PM, and it is currently 11:00 AM where you live, set your time adjustment to -1.
- Forum Language
Currently, the only option available is English.
- Profile Update Info
This displays the date and time of your last profile update.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Each and every time you change ANYTHING on this page, you MUST click "Apply" for the changes to take effect. If you simply navigate away from the page, your changes will NOT be saved.
II. My Forums
- Subscribed Forums
This will display any of your Subscribed Forums that have new threads/posts. To subscribe to a forum, simply visit that forum or sub-forum and click the "Subscribe" button (just above the page number). Please note that you cannot subscribe to entire Categories, such as [Gaming Community], [Legends and Lore], or anything else with brackets ("[" "]") around its title.
- Recent Activities in Subscribed Threads
The AE Forums currently do not support single-thread subscription.
- Online Users
Displays the number of users currently online, and includes a link to the "Online Users" list.
- Private Message
Displays your current number of unread private messages and includes a link to your Inbox.
- Search
A convenient search box that you can use to search within the forums. Also includes a link to the Advanced Search page.
- Online Buddy List
Displays a list of all your currently online "Buddies," with a "PM" button next to their name that allows you to quickly send a private message to that user. To add a user to your buddy list, simply click the [img]http://forums2.battleon.com/f/image/address.gif[/img] button on their profile or below their posts.
- Latest Threads
Displays a list of the most recent posts from the "Artix Entertainment News and Announcements" section.
III. My Inbox
- Inbox
Displays a list of all the private messages you have received, who they are from, and the date and time they were sent. To read a private message, click on the title. Click on the name of the sender to view their profile.
- Sent
Displays a list of all the private messages you have sent that were saved to the "Sent" folder. Click on the title to read the message you send. Click on the name of the recipient to check the status of the message (unread/read).
- Add Folder
To add your own custom private message folder, type in the name of the folder you would like to create and click the button. Once you have created a folder, it will appear under "PM Folders," with the option to "Edit" (change the name) or "Delete" the folder.
- Online Buddy List
Essentially the same as the Buddy List on the "My Forums" page, but this list also allows you to send your "buddy" an e-mail (if they have this feature enabled).
- PM Status
The PM Status bar shows you how full your Inbox is by percentage. By default, you are allowed a maximum of 50 private messages in your Inbox. If your Inbox is full, you will be unable to receive any new messages.
- Using/organizing your Inbox
First of all, select the message you would like to modify by checking the box beside it. At the bottom of your Inbox are the options available for organizing your Private Messages: Move, Archive, or Delete. To move a private message to a folder you have created, select the message, select the folder from the "PM Folders:" drop-down menu, and click "Move." To delete a message, select the message, and click delete. If you select a message and click "Archive," a copy of the message will be saved on your computer; a box will pop up asking you where you would like to save the message.
To select all of the messages on one page, click the box next to the page numbers. To switch between different pages of your Inbox, simply click the page number you would like to display.
The "Search" button allows you to search through all of the private messages in your Inbox, custom folders, or Sent folder.
Clicking the "Send Private Message" button will bring up a blank private message. If you have selected a PM, the new private message will be addressed to the member who sent that PM.
If you're viewing a message, you can choose to "Reply" to send a message back to the sender, "Reply All" to send a message to everyone the message was sent to, "Delete" to delete the message, or "Move" to place the message into a different folder. Clicking "go back?" will return you to your inbox. You can also click the [img]http://forums2.battleon.com/f/image/address.gif[/img] button next to the sender's name to add them to your buddy list.
IIIa. My Address Book
This section displays a list of all the members you have added to your Address Book/Buddy List. Just like your Inbox, you can create folders and move/delete members from your Address Book. You can also view your "Block List," which displays all the members you have blocked. These members will be unable to send you private messages, and all of their posts are hidden from you.
If you select a member from your Address Book and click "Send Private Message," a blank private message to that person will be created.
There is no limit as to how many members you can add to your Address Book/Buddy List/Block List.
Appendix - Other Resources
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