Welcome to the new “How-to” thread for the current forums, or as Eva calls it… “Nude Tech Support”. There are quite a few new features in these forums, some new ways to do old things, and some things that have to be learned all over again. I’ll start with some basic tutorials, with pictures as needed, covering things like posting pictures, adding avatars, attaching files to messages and forum posts, etc. I will get email when this thread gets new posts, so any questions will get answered pretty quickly. However, sometimes the answer is going to be “I don’t know, let me check into it” or “Send a PM to zovall, maybe he can answer that for you”. While I have worked with this style of software as a moderator and user before, some things have to be added manually by zovall. If I refer your question to him it will usually be something that isn’t yet possible. Furthermore, I don’t work for IHB or the company that wrote this software; I’m just trying to help people get used to things again, so don’t feel ignored by IHB if I don’t respond as quickly as you would like.
 
Feel free to post questions on any topic not covered in those post titles or anything else about the forums that you don’t quite understand.
 
 
 
Your Control Panel
 
 
One of the nicer features of these forums is the control panel. It allows you to add a little flavor to your profile, customize what you see in the forums, add links to your email/IM/website, and provides access to your “private” messages. I’m going to give a brief explanation of each of the settings, with pictures as needed.
 
 
Your Account Statistics
 
This section shows the current email address you have registered with IHB (not visible to other members), the date you joined, when you last visited, and your posting stats in the forums and/or blog. This information, except your email address, also appears as part of your profile. Unless you are adding entries to the blog, those fields are going to be empty.
 
 
Personal Settings
 
This area contains most of the custom choices users can make.
 
 
Edit Profile
 
URL: Add in your own, or your favorite, website to the URL and it will show up as a “www” button on your profile.
Birthday: Don’t worry ladies, you can just select the month and day and keep the year secret.
Location, Occupation, Interests: Put in whatever you want or nothing at all.
AOL, ICQ, Yahoo, and MSN: Supposedly, you can put in your user name and anyone can then click on the link to chat with you via the selected client (in a new window/tab) but after the Great Transexual Disaster of ‘97 I haven’t had an IM account, so I can’t test it.
Bio: You can put anything you want in here, except image tags. I strongly caution you to consider what information you make public about yourself, as the world will be reading it.
 
Edit Signature
 
At this time, regular members do not have signatures available to them. This may change in the future, but judging by the couple of moderators using them, you aren’t missing anything.
 
Edit Avatar & Edit Photo
 
Covered in this post
 
Email Settings
 
This is where you can change the email address that IHB has for you, as well as set email permissions and the defaults that appear when you send PMs or post to the forums. You only need to put in your password if you are changing your email address. “Smart Notifications” means that you will only get one email notifying you of a reply, regardless of how many follow from that point, until you visit the thread again.
 
Username and Password
 
I hate this option, but forewarned is forearmed, so: You now have the option to change your user name AND your screen name. Tired of being “#1Idiot” on the boards? Just choose a new screen name. Just be aware, your screen name might be taken by someone else and you CANNOT get it back while it is occupied. Also, it is common courtesy to announce the change to the rest of the users in a post, and leave a “formerly known as” line in your profile to avoid confusion.
 
Edit Preferences
 
Tired of seeing the blinking, twisting, rolling avatars on the boards? Turn them off here. Same for signatures. If you want to block ALL PM’s from being sent to you, uncheck the box.
 
Localization Settings
 
Need to change your time zone? Would you like to see the time in a European format? This is where you can make those changes.
 
Utilities
 
View Subscriptions
 
When you click on a thread, in the upper right hand corner there is a link to “Subscribe to this thread”, which will notify you of any replies to the thread. When you do click on that link in the thread, it changes to an unsubscribe option. This section shows any threads to which you have subscribed, and if you have any, allows you to unsubscribe from them en masse or individually.
 
Manage Ignore List
 
Use this to collapse any posts by another member. Once ignored, you will only see a line of text letting you know that there is a post by that person and give you the option to read it or un-ignore the person altogether. This section lists the people you are ignoring and allows you to remove them from that list.
 
Private Messages
 
A word of caution, ‘private’ means that other regular members can’t read it. But PM’s can be read by the site operators, so if it is really sensitive information, stick with regular email. PM’s are best used as a replacement for the “whispers” of the old forums.
 
Bulletin Board
 
If the moderators or admins wish to send a message out to a select group or specific members, they can use the bulletin board. This isn’t like a PM as you can’t save it, edit it, or reply to it.
 
Compose New Message
 
Sending a private message is almost identical to replying to a thread post. Since I have already covered most of the features in this thread I am going to focus on the differences between a forum post and a PM.
 
Let’s Begin with a list of things you cannot do in a PM.
You can’t post pictures into the PM itself, but you can still send them as an attachment. However, attachments will not be saved on the server forever; they get deleted from the message at some point after you read it and this happens automatically.
You can’t embed any video.
The character limit is 6,000 rather than the 10,000 in a forum post.
 
To start writing a PM, you can either click on the “PM” button under the member’s name, or click on the “Private Messages” link at the top of the page and select “Compose New Message” from the menu on the left. If you clicked on the PM button, you will see the persons name in the “Recipient” field. If you clicked “Compose”, just begin typing in the members name and an autocomplete prompt will populate a list for you to choose from. You can add other names to the CC list, if you wish. Both fields have a magnifying glass next to them. If you click on it, you can search for member names if you suffer from CRS like me.
 
You MUST put something in the subject line. You can not save a draft or send a PM without a subject.
 
Once you have finished formating your message and checked the spelling, you have two options available to you: Save a copy in your sent email box and hide the CC’s from the addressee. This is perfect for telling off that jerk that just won’t quit flirting with you and letting all your girlfriends read along without the jerk any the wiser, leading you and your friends to a feeling of true superiority and confident in your place in society. Or something.
 
One last difference between posts and PM’s: No editing. So when you hit that send button, there is NO way to go back and edit ‘Snowflake’ into ‘Cuddles’. So I strongly recommend that you preview before you send, capice?
 
 
Inbox, Sent, Custom Folders, and Trash
 
You can add new folders, move old PM’s to the trashcan for later deletion or to other folders as you see fit. If you elect to save copies of sent PM’s, they will stay in your Sent folder until you delete them.
 
Edit Message Folders
 
This is where you can rename or create new folders for your private messages. Be very careful when changing folder names, as leaving a name blank will delete that folder and all of it’s messages.
 
Buddy List
 
This acts like a quick address list, simply clicking on a name in your buddy list starts a PM to them.
 
Blocked List
 
Any name you add to this list will be blocked from sending you any PM. This works well when you are getting harrassed and have not yet gotten the attention of a moderator.
 
Extras
 
Notepad
 
So far, this is the only “Extra”. It is a nifty little feature though. It simply retains what ever you type into it, until you change it. The “Notepad Size” refers to the length of the visible form, not the number of characters allowed. Just hit update when you are done adding to it and you should see anything in it whenever you come back.
 

Posting pictures
 
First, let’s take a look at what you see when you hit the “Post Reply” button. If you are using the “Blue” Theme, you will see something like this:

 
Clicking on the <img> button will put two tags into the text entry field, looking something like this:

 
The hard part is learning what goes in there. Here’s how you get that information from a picture on the internet:
 
First, get it’s actual web address (not the page it appears on, but it’s actual spot on the web) by copying it from the “properties” information:

 
Then copy

 
and paste that in between the two tags from above:

 
and you get this…

 
 
 
Now, if your picture is on your computer, not the internet, you can add it as an attachment (must be 200kb or smaller) by clicking the “Browse” next to the attachment box:

 
This will result in a link and a thumbnail like the one you at the bottom of this post.
 
If you are confused or you aren’t getting your pictures to post, make sure what you have pasted in between the Image tags ends in .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, or .png. If it ends in .htm or .html, you have a web page address and not a picture file address.

Posting Video
 
 
This seems easy, but too many people are used to just cutting and pasting the “embed” link from the favorite video. That won’t work here. Google and other flash-based video sites are off the list, too.
 
So, how do you get a YouTube clip into your post? Begin with clicking the <youtube> button:

 
You will get a popup asking you for the “youtube” string. Be careful, YouTube has been adding stuff to it’s strings in the URL. Here is a typical “embed” link from YouTube:
 
{object width=“425” height=“355”></param></param><embed src=“http://www.youtube.com/v/K5pZlBgXBu0&hl=en&rel=0” type=“application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=“transparent” width=“425” height=“355”></embed></object}
 
That… is a mess. How are you supposed to find the “string” in all that code? There is an easy way… cut and paste it from the URL. Here’s a sample:
 
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5pZlBgXBu0&feature=related”
 
The part you want is after the ‘v=‘ and before the ‘&feature;‘, in this case K5pZlBgXBu0. When you paste that into the pop-up, you get:

 
And when you hit “Submit”, you get:

Adding Avatars and Photos to your Public Profile
 
 
Before we go any further, let me explain some basics. Avatars are the pictures under your name in the Forum posts, photos are on your public profile; obviously your avatar is going to be seen more frequently if you post of the forums. There are three types of image files that you can use for avatars and photos on these forums, .jpg or .png or .gif, but only the gif format can handle ‘animation’. If you come upon something on the internet that you want to use as an avatar or photo, it has to be one of those three formats.
 
 
So, now that you have found an image you want to use and you saved that image to your own computer, here is how you add it to your profile:
 
At the top of the page, click on ‘Your Control Panel’:

 
Now, select the one you want to change, photo or avatar:

 
And then click on ‘Browse’:


 
If your file is too big, you will get an error that looks something like this:

 
If you run into the size limits, either height and width or the number of kilobytes, you will need to resize the file. Resizing pictures is simple enough and most computers come with some picture program that can do it. Resizing animated .gif files takes a program that can handle animation or else you end up losing everything but the first frame, so don’t try to resize them unless you know how. You can always send it to me in a PM and I can resize it and send it back.
 
If everything went right, you should get a message that says “Avatar has updated” (or Photo). If you don’t see it at first, refresh the page. If you make any changes to either of them in the future, make sure to refresh the page to force the browser to update as well.
 
 
Well, I hope that helps. If you have any questions or if I didn’t make something clear enough, let me know.
 

How post a reply or new topic
 
 
Ok, Most of this is pretty self-explanatory, but there are quite a few new features so I’m going to cover everything you see when you hit the “Post Reply” button.
 
 

 
Let’s begin with the two radio buttons labeled “Guided” and “Normal”.

Normal is set by default, so that when you click the ‘<b>‘ button, you are going to get:

leaving you to type in the bold text between the two tags.
 
By selecting ‘Guided’, you are going to get a pop-up that will ask for the text you want in bold letters. The result is identical, so choose whichever makes you happy. I prefer to type the tags myself because I think it’s faster and I can nest the tags to fit my intentions.
 
“Nesting?“ Okay, so you probably know what <b> <i> <u> <img> and <quote> do by themselves. Nesting is placing one set of tags inside another, like so:

Which gives you…

He said

She said

He said

She said

But it can be combined any number of ways…

Let’s see how those came out…
Oh my gawd Becky, look at her butt, it’s huge
 
 
(Ummm…seriously, clicking on the pic below is not safe for those at work…but the girl is smokin’ hawt.)

 
 
Okay, moving on
 
The code button is what I use to show you the actual tags and how they are being used. The ‘@‘ button brings up a prompt asking for an email address that acts as a link, and the <a> brings up a prompt asking you for the link and then what you want to call the link. As you can see from the above example, you can manual edit the name of the link to add an image tag to make a clickable picture. I’m going to go into more detail in using the @ and <a> buttons in another thread. The ‘close tags’ button seems to have no effect since zovall isn’t allowing any HTML in the thread posts.
 
 
So, say you sipping a martini after a long bike ride and a hot bath, you’ve typed out a longish post and you want to add some color to your words. Simply highlight your text and make your choices from the drop downs:

The software will automatically add the correct tags to your post. Smileys are self-explanatory, but once you have memorized your favorites, you can simply type them in and the software will make the changes.
 
 
Okay, now for the things below the text entry field:
The spellcheck is pretty self-explanatory, but I suggest you wait until after you have finished your post… and, it’s still a little confused
 

 
The character counter only updates after key strokes, so if you cut and paste some wall of text, at least hit the spacebar afterwards to get an accurate count.
 
Checking either of the boxes turns those features on and unchecking them turns them off. If you love emails from zovall, check the “notify” option. If you hate smileys, uncheck the box… and then get some counseling
 
Attachments, as far as I know, are only limited by size and number of attachements (3), not file type. So you can use them to add a pic from your own computer, upload a text file, etc. I am sure that there is some limits to it, aside from the 200kb size restriction, but I haven’t run into them yet. Be very careful though, scan anything you download from the site, and scan anything you upload to the site. Crashing IHB because you were to cheap to buy AV protection will result in hundreds of boils infecting your nether regions.
 
 
Ok, so you have added all your pics, changed your text colors, made things bold and underlined them for effect, and provided links to your favorite Chinese restaurant. It’s time to check and make sure you didn’t screw anything up.

This will run your post through the software and provide you will a chance to check it out before you hit the ‘submit’ button. If like what you see, click submit and relax. If you don’t you can edit it in the text box and preview it again, and again, and again.
 
Finally… what if you wasted your youth experimential with various botanical substances that seriously imparied your short-term memory and you forgot what was in that last post? Well, hit this button:

 
and you will be rewarded with a reverse-chronological view of the thread posts:

 
As you can see, looking back a few posts to stay on topic is easier than ever with that button. I’m going to end this post here, but feel free to post questions or ask for clarification.

How to create links for web addresses and email
 
 
Creating a simple web link for these forums can be done in 4 easy steps. I’ll show how to create one, then show how it can be edited.
 
Step One: Click on the <a> button to get the script prompt:

 
 
Step Two: Paste in the web link:

 
 
Step Three: Add the the text for your link.

(while you could just repaste the link itself, why not make it a description or just snarky comment )
 
 
Step Four: Hit the Preview Button to verify that it worked before you publish the post and realize you goofed.

 
 
For those of you with a slightly more creative (meaning nothing better to do) side, you can edit the link once it’s been created. We start with the basic link from above:

That small change turns JFGI into Just ... Google It! and as long as you make sure not to accidentally delete any of the “ [ or ] “, you shouldn’t have a problem.
 
 
Now, my final example is using an image as a link:

 
 
And just like that, a clickable link to
 
 
Email links
 
 
The process is identical to a web link, but using an email address instead of a web page.

 
 
Example One:
Example Two:
 
 
WARNING: Sometime these links end up pasted at the bottom of the text box, so if yours is missing, look down there.

.

*raises hand*

presses THANKS button….

Trooper - 11 April 2008 02:31 PM

presses THANKS button….

test

Nude, this is a post I just put up elsewhere…..I’m copying and pasting it here so I can refer back to your instructions easily.

Hope Now’s numbers add up to little

http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/10/real_estate/Hope_Now_Feb_stats/index.htm?postversion=200804101

Nude, how do I get this to linkify ?  I tried placing this url in the “attachments”, didn’t work….I know, I know…. I’m a knucklehead with this stuff !

I did check the new Nude Tech Support 2.0, but it didn’t appear that this is properly spelled out yet. Thx.

See above Trooper.
 
 
As I had to edit this post…enjoy some eye candy:

Nude:

I got my avatar in, but can’t change the description “Living with Parents”.

Where do you do that?

irvinefsbo

irvinefsbo - 03 May 2008 12:00 PM

Nude:

I got my avatar in, but can’t change the description “Living with Parents”.

Where do you do that?

irvinefsbo

That’s your rank on the forum boards. You can find a complete explanation here.

Hi Nude,

Why can’t I change my avatar? It reverts back to a low resolution version of my old avatar.

It is below 50K and it is not greater than 100x100.

thx

Stuff It - 05 May 2008 09:33 AM

Hi Nude,

Why can’t I change my avatar? It reverts back to a low resolution version of my old avatar.

It is below 50K and it is not greater than 100x100.

thx

Try refreshing your page. They look identical to me.