Nuklear Power Forum for "dummies"

[Red Fighter 1073]

i remember there being this kind of a thread a long while back, so i thought it should be made again.

also, if ANY person has any questions about ANYTHING about this forum, ask in this thread and someone will answer your question.

if any experienced users in this forum have anything else to add, please feel free to do so.

Rules
anyway, as you can tell, this thread is to help out the new users in the nuklear power forums. first and foremost, if you havent already done so, read the rules ..if you read the different threads in the Rules forum and follow them, you will have a 99% chance of not being banned.

here are some really major points about the different rules threads:
-dont EVER think of flaming(insulting) someone. you will immediately get banned(flaming is explained more in the bottom)
-keep the spam to a minimum(spam is explained more in the bottom)
- always black out spoilers(how to black out spoilers is explained more in the bottom)
-dont post multiple times in a row. if you have to double post because you reached the word limit, then double posting is ok.

Flaming is when you insult someone. the noun form of this word is "flame". once again, i will say that flaming is not at all allowed in this forum. if you flame someone, YOU WILL GET BANNED.

Spam is considered something that is very unecessary. These included posts in the forum that is completely off topic. for example:

person 1: talk about video games.

person 2: i like donuts.

Person two spammed. spammy comments MIGHT be overlooked if they arent the whole post. there is no guarantee on this statement though.

User CP
the "user CP" can be found in the top left corner of main forum page. in this place, you can send private messages(PM) to other forum users.

also, you can create/edit your avatar which is basically a picture that shows up when you post. you can decide whether you want one or not. it doesnt matter. just remember the pictures that you use for your avatar have to be 100 x 100 pixels. for your avatar, you can either use a URL that is a direct link to the image or you can take a picture from your computer and put it as your avatar. you can also put a profile picture which is basically the same kind of thing as your avatar but it doesnt show up when you post. it only shows up when someone/you look at your profile.

you can make a signature which is basically some words you feel like mentioning. your signature cant be more than 500 characters(letters) and it will show up when you post.

you can edit your profile which has information that i think is completely optional. you can make a custom user title which is basically some words that show up under your avatar. most people write some stuff about their avatar in the custom user title. you can put a few facts in your "biography". you can put your birthdate as well. in the main page, if you had put your birthdate in your profile, there will be a section in the main page which will show your birthday and other people's. if you put the year you were born it will show how old you have turned.

you can also do stuff concerning "subscribed threads". unfortuneately i dont know how to this.

also, you can do other stuff under the "miscellaneous" category. i dont know about this one either..

when you look at the top middle of your User CP, you might eventually see reputation points and comments. (this will be explained on the bottom.)

Trying to post
posting is basically writing stuff in a certain thread(topic). although, that is a very vague definition. in order to post, you have to go to rectangular box at the bottom of a page where you can write what you want. i think there is a limit to how much you can write, but it is a big limit. at the top of yellow box, there are buttons like "B", "I", "U", and "the text box". the B allows you to make words that you have written become bold. The I makes your text become italizised. The U makes your text become underlined. the text box thingy allows you to quote someone. when you quote someone, in the first part which says "[quote]" you can add the person who said this quote. you can do this by changing the "[quote]" into "[quote=(person's name goes here)] on the bottom, it says "post quick reply" and "go advanced". when you click on "post quick reply" it puts your text on to the thread. the "go advanced" thing allows you to change the font, size, and color and other stuff. you can add smileys which include the light warrior figures.

Viewing a post
when you see a post, you can do some stuff with it. if you made that post, then you can edit it. you will find yourself doing this many times because we arent perfect and we arent allowed to post multiple times in a row. on the very top of the post, it shows the time that the person made this post. it shows what number post in the thread it is. the weighing scale allows you to add negative or positive points that either increase or decrease their reputation points(reputation points are explained more below) the red triangular symbol with an exclamation point allows you to report the post. you might find yourself doing this because the person wrote bad stuff(they might have insulted someone). dont click on this because the person swore once or twice. unless the person swears constantly in his/her post, the moderators are kind of ok with swearing. in the top part of the middle of the box, it shows your avatar. next to your avatar, it shows your user name. the user name is clickable. if you click on the user name, then it will bring you to their profile. underneath your user name, it will show your custom user title, which is "level 1" if you havent made a custom user title for yourself.

Reputation
you can decide whether or not you want to skip this part because the reputation part of the forum really isnt that big of a deal. on the right side of your post, it will show one/multiple green boxes. these boxes kind of represent how much reputation points you have. you start out with one green box. when you get 100 reputation points, then you get two green boxes. when you get another hundred you keep getting more and more green boxes. this is where the weighing scale thing comes in. the way someone gets or loses reputation points is by someone else clicking the weighing scale and clicking on the dot which shows they either disapprove or approve of the post. they can also write comments about the reason they made the reputation increase or decrease. when you look at your own post and click on the weighing scale, it will show how many reputation points you have. you cant add reputation points to yourself. in the User CP main page it shows the 5 most recent reputations that you have received. there is more to reputation in this thread .

Forum Abbrieviations
here are some commonly used nuklear power forum abbrieviations.
Nuklear Power Forum = NPF
Red mage = RM
Black Mage = BM
White Mage = WM
Light Warriors = LW
Black Belt = BB (thx elflad)
Private Message = PM (thx MasterofMagic

i have to go now, so i cant write any more stuff, although there is obviously more. if the other users could help me out and post some other helpful hints, that would be great. if any person has any questions about the forum, please ask.