I know there are so many good posts out there that I will just never read because I cannot understand what the member is trying to say, all because
he/she doesn't know how to use AboveTopSecret's features.
So, read this and get your message across properly!!
Yes, all 18 points!
One of ATS's super-moderators, ZeddicusZulZorander, has put a
lot of work into the
ATS handbook
and I beg you to go and read that as well. What I've written in only meant to cover the posting basics. More accurate info can be found in the
Handbook. Go and read it!
1.
When posting a
Link to a web address, you can either click
this button,
or type the code in directly (which is much easier).
If you click the button and follow the instructions, and if you wanted to link to, say, Google, then you will see code like this:
[url=http://www.google.com]Google[/url], which will give you:
Google (note the changed colour
and boldened text. Whenever you see this it means it is a link).
So why not just type it out anyway?!
[url=(website address, remove rounded brackets)]Text you want displayed[/url]
Just remember, only
ever post the full address if it is short. Too often do members post a really really long address which warps the page
because the text boxes have to adjust for it. With this above method, the address is not visible, so it doesn't muck up the page.
2.
Getting
Images to show up on ATS is unlike most other forums - but it's still real easy.
Instead of codes such as
[img]Address to Image
[/img], you must have
[ats]Address to
Image
[/ats]. The reason the code was changed was because people were just linking straight to images from all over the web. You
can still use
[img][/img] tags, but the image will
NOT SHOW UP in the thread, rather, a hyperlink looking like
this:
, will be provided, and clicking on that will take you to the page that hosts
the image.
You
are not allowed to use the
[ats][/ats] tags just for images you found on another site. You can only use those tags
when you host the image yourself with a service such as ImageShack, or with your own ATS
Image Hosting Page.
It is also possible to resize images using that code. In the first tag,
[ats], make it say this:
[ats=100x100], and so the
image will now be 100 pixels high by 100 pixels wide. You can of course put any numbers there, but just make sure you keep the ratios accurate, or you
will end up with something like this:
- - - - -
GradyPhilpott (Senior Citizen) came up with a good way of keeping image dimensions proportional:
(X/W)H=Y
Where:
X is the desired width
W is the original width
H is the original height
Y is the proportional height.
So say if I had a picture that was 382x641, and I wanted it to be 300 wide instead of 382?
Well, I'd go 300 divided by 382, times 641 equals 503.4
So now I go and put in 300x503, and voila! I have a smaller image that is not warped like the above example! And by the way, round
down if
given a number such as 203.8. i.e. just ignore the decimals.
Or, you could just keep in dividing each side by 2 until you got to the size you want, but that's easy and boring.
3.
ATS has members from just about every country in the world, and as such, the
Language barrier can at times be hard to break. There will
always be members that have joined the site to better their language skills, BUT THIS IS NO EXCUSE FOR ENGLISH SPEAKING MEMBERS TO TYPE USING 'TXT'
SPEECH! None at all!
Because you cannot be 'bothered' to type out full words you will generally be shunned. It is rude and people will not read what you have to say.
Rather, take an extra minute and type properly, and perhaps even use a spellchecker - such as
SpellBound for Firefox and any one of
these for Internet Explorer - to check your work.
Members who are obviously
not making an effort with their type will pretty much be regarded as 1st graders.
Grammar and Punctuation is as important as spelling.
Always include full stops, commas and question marks.
All that is required is that you try your best. As Majic once said,
"Rumor has it that more than a few members post while intoxicated," so
don't start stressing out about it, just try.
Also, read
this thread if you dno't want to get hard-to-spell words mixed up. It's good
to check if you're not sure
4.
The
'Preview Post' button, this
one, is one handy little feature which
I think is not used enough. It shows you
exactly what your post will look like, but without posting it; so you can pick up on mistakes in code
and spelling and whatever else it may be, and no one will see your wrongdoings. What more could you ask for
Oh, yeah, someone to do it all for
you, but most of our partners don't love us enough for that.
5.
If you are new to the internet, you will not know what
BBcode is.
Every time you see
italized text, that's BBcode. BB stands for 'Bulletin Board,' by the way.
It is very simple stuff. 'U' stands for underlined, 'B' stands for bold, and 'I' stands for Italics. The three buttons
here automatically insert the BB code, but it is much easier to just write it out.
Say I wanted to underline the word 'Peace.' All I have to do is put
[u] and
[/u] on either end of the word, so I end up
with
[u]Peace
[/u], which, when Previewed or Posted, will give me
Peace. Very easy. In fact, that image and
hyperlink code were BBcode, I think.
There is a lot of BBcode. You can make numbered lists:
[list1]=1]
[*]Apple
[*]Pear
[/list=1]
which gives you
- Apple
- Pear
And all other sorts of stuff. The 13 buttons above the text box automatically insert the basic BBcode. I was going to include how to make colourful
scrolling marquees, but apparently that's been disabled. Bummer.
Kinglizards little summary of BBcode:
BBcode.jpg (Put your mouse over it and
click once the image loads to make it clearer, in case you can't read it)
6.
Quotations, on message boards, are little boxes
like this
that enable you to post text (including BBcode) that another poster wrote. The codes are, once again, exactly what you would expect. If I were to
quote some weirdo member, say, watchtherocks, it would go like this:
[quote][i]Originally posted by watch_the_rocks
[/i]
Hi there. I'm from Australia and I ride Kangaroos for fun.
[/quote]
Which would come out like this:
Originally posted by watch_the_rocks
Hi there. I'm from Australia and I ride Kangaroos for fun.
Do not misuse quotation boxes. It is disallowed to quote someone’s full post (unless you are posting on the last page of a 20 page long thread, and
don't want your reply mixed in with the arguments of hundreds of others). I also believe you are not allowed to quote text from outside
AboveTopSecret.com.
7.
And because you are not allowed to quote work from outside ATS, that's what
External Tags are for. Putting
[ex] and
[/ex] instead of the quotation tags will display this:
I have never had peanut butter and jam (jelly) before. I would have no idea what it tastes like. Rather disgusting, I'd guess. I wonder who
first tried the combination?
As you can see, BBcode works inside the
[ex] tags, and the same goes for quotes.
These are to be used if you want to quote something from outside of ATS. Copyright laws apply, so you are not able to quote more than 15 percent of
the total text, or three paragraphs (whichever is less).
Another sort of box that is like External boxes are the News boxes. They are great for when you are reporting news directly form some website.
[news] and
[/news] will give you:
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
So if you want to include a link just stick the hyperlink BBcode in:
[news] [url=www.google.com]Google[/url]. Easy. Copy
that and then preview it to see what it does.
All you have to do then is add the text from the news story, and close it with a
[/news] tag.
I think there is also a
[code] [/code] set, but I dunno what they are for. Smart people, possibly.
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