FAQ

Have you registered? Seriously, you must register in order to log in. Have you been banned from the board? (A message will be displayed if you have, and it will also state why.) If you have registered and are not banned and you still cannot log in then check and double-check your username and password. Usually this is the problem; if not, contact the administrator (David B) for assistance.

Registration is just one of the many ways that we use to keep the Programming Language Community Forums safe & secure. If registration wasn't required, it would be too easy for someone to attempt to destroy the forum.

If you do not check the Log me in automatically box when you log in, the board will only keep you logged in for a preset time. This prevents misuse of your account by anyone else. To stay logged in, check the box during login. This is not recommended if you access the board from a shared computer, e.g. library, internet cafe, university cluster, etc.

In your profile you will find an option Hide your online status; if you switch this on you'll only appear to board administrators or to yourself. You will be counted as a hidden user.

Don't panic! While your password cannot be retrieved it can be reset. To do this go to the login page and click I've forgotten my password. Follow the instructions and you should be back online in no time.

First check that you are entering the correct username and password. If you are absolutely sure that you are, but aren't successful at recovering your account, then try contacting the administrator (David B).

The most likely reason for this is you entered an incorrect username or password (check the e-mail you were sent when you first registered). If you are sure that this is not the problem, then you should contact the administrator (David B) for help.

All your settings (if you are registered) are stored in the database. To alter them click the Profile link shown at the top of page. This will allow you to change all your settings.

The times are almost certainly correct; however, what you may be seeing are times displayed in a timezone different from the one you are in (the Programming Language Community Forums clock is set to Eastern Time). If this is the case, you should change your profile setting for the timezone to match your particular area, e.g. London, Paris, New York, Sydney, etc. Please note that changing the timezone, like most settings, can only be done by registered users. So if you are not registered, this is a good time to do so, if you pardon the pun!

If you are sure you have set the timezone correctly and the time is still different, the most likely answer is daylight savings time (or summer time as it is known in the UK and other places). The board is not designed to handle the changeovers between standard and daylight time so during summer months the time may be an hour different from the real local time.

There may be two images below a username when viewing posts. The first is an image associated with your rank; generally these take the form of stars or blocks indicating how many posts you have made or your status on the forums. Below this may be a larger image known as an avatar; this is generally unique or personal to each user.

In general you cannot directly change the wording of any rank (ranks appear below your username in topics and on your profile depending on the style used). Most boards use ranks to indicate the number of posts you have made and to identify certain users. (As of right now, this forum doesn't, but just wait because it is coming.) For example, moderators and administrators have a special rank. Please do not abuse the board by posting unnecessarily just to increase your rank. By doing so, you will have your warning status lowered until you reach the banning point, and the unnecessary posts will be removed.

Sorry, but only registered users can send e-mail to people via the built-in e-mail form. This is to prevent malicious use of the e-mail system by anonymous users.

Easy -- click the relevant button on either the forum or topic screens. You need to register before you can post a message. The facilities available to you are listed at the bottom of the forum and topic screens (the You can post new topics, You can vote in polls, etc. list)

Unless you are the board admin or forum moderator you can only edit or delete your own posts. You can edit a post by clicking the edit button for the relevant post. If someone has already replied to the post, you will find a small piece of text output below the post when you return to the topic that lists the number of times you edited it. This will only appear if no one has replied; it also will not appear if moderators or administrators edit the post (they should leave a message saying what they altered and why). Please note that normal users cannot delete a post once someone has replied.

Multi-Quoting on the Programming Language Community Forums is very easy! -- Click on the Multi-Quote button that appears on the posts that you want to quote, and then click on the Post Reply button.

To add a signature to a post you must first create one; this is done via your profile. Once created you can check the Add Signature box on the posting form to add your signature. You can also add a signature by default to all your posts by checking the appropriate radio box in your profile. You can still prevent a signature being added to individual posts by un-checking the add signature box on the posting form.

Creating a poll is easy -- when you post a new topic you should see a Add Poll form below the main posting box. You should enter a title for the poll and then at least two options -- to set an option type in the poll question and click the Add option button. You can also set a time limit for the poll, 0 being an infinite amount. There will be a limit to the number of options you can list, which is set by the board administrator

As with posts, polls can only be edited by the original poster, a moderator, or board administrator. To edit a poll, click the first post in the topic, which always has the poll associated with it. If no one has cast a vote then users can delete the poll or edit any poll option. However, if people have already placed votes only moderators or administrators can edit or delete it; this is to prevent people rigging polls by changing options mid-way through a poll.

Some forums may be limited to certain users or groups. To view, read, post, etc. you may need special authorization which only administrator can grant. Contact the forum administrator (David B) for more details.

Only registered users can vote in polls so as to prevent spoofing of results. If you have registered and still cannot vote then that means there is a problem that you should contact the forum administrator (David B) about.

BBCode is a special implementation of HTML. This forum allows the use of BBCode, but HTML is not allowed. You can disable BBCode on a per post basis from the posting form. BBCode itself is similar in style to HTML. In BBCode, tags are enclosed in square braces [ and ] rather than, < and >, which is used in HTML. For more information on BBCode see the guide which can be accessed from the posting page.

Unfortunately, this forum doesn't allow the use of HTML. This is for the safety of the forum. By allowing HTML, we also allow for people to destroy the layout of the forum.

Smileys, or Emoticons, are small graphical images which can be used to express some feeling using a short code, e.g. :) means happy, :( means sad. The full list of emoticons can be seen via the posting form. Try not to overuse smileys, though, as they can quickly render a post unreadable and the administrator may decide to edit them out or remove the post altogether.

Images can indeed be shown in your posts. However, there is no facility at present for uploading images directly to this board. Therefore you must link to an image stored on a publicly accessible web server, e.g. http://www.some-unknown-place.net/my-picture.gif. You cannot link to pictures stored on your own PC (unless it is a publicly accessible server) nor to images stored behind authentication mechanisms such as Hotmail or Yahoo mailboxes, password-protected sites, etc. To display the image use the BBCode [img] tag.

Announcements often contain important information and you should read them as soon as possible. Announcements appear at the top of every page in the forum to which they are posted. Whether or not you can post an announcement depends on the permissions required, which are set by the administrator.

Sticky topics appear below any announcements in the forum and only on the first page. They are often quite important so you should read them where possible. As with announcements the board administrator determines what permissions are required to post sticky topics in each forum.

Locked topics are set by the administrator. You cannot reply to locked topics and any poll contained inside is automatically ended. Topics may be locked for many reasons.

Administrators are people assigned the highest level of control over the entire board. These people can control all facets of board operation which include setting permissions, banning users, creating usergroups or moderators, etc. They also have full moderator capabilities in all the forums. This forum only has one administrator that goes under the username, "David B."

Moderators are individuals (or groups of individuals) whose job it is to look after the running of the forums from day to day. They have the power to edit or delete posts and lock, unlock, move, delete and split topics in the forum they moderate. Generally moderators are there to prevent people going off-topic or posting abusive or offensive material. This forum has no moderators, but the administrator of this forum (David B), has all the powers of an moderator, in addition to the powers of an administrator.

Usergroups are a way in which board administrators can group users. Each user can belong to several groups (this differs from most other boards) and each group can be assigned individual access rights. This makes it easy for administrators to set up several users as moderators of a forum, or to give them access to a private forum, etc.

To join a usergroup click the usergroup link on the page header and you can then view all usergroups. Not all groups are open access -- some are closed and some may even have hidden memberships. If the board is open then you can request to join it by clicking the appropriate button. The user group moderator will need to approve your request; they may ask why you want to join the group. Please do not pester a group moderator if they turn your request down -- they will have their reasons.

Usergroups are initially created by the board administrator who also assigns a board moderator. If you are interested in creating a usergroup contact the administrator (David B).

There are two reasons for this; you are not registered and/or not logged on, or the administrator has prevented you individually from sending messages. If it is the latter case you should try asking the administrator why.

Inform the administrator (David B) -- they have the power to prevent a user from sending private messages at all.

We are sorry to hear that. The e-mail form feature of this board includes safeguards to try to track users who send such posts. You should e-mail the board administrator with a full copy of the e-mail you received and it is very important this include the headers (these list details of the user that sent the e-mail). They can (and will) then take action.