Guide for new users

[Paul Christopher]

I thought this would be a good place to put information for people who are new to this kind of forum. I hope it will contain many tips, techniques and etiquette information. Some of this stuff can be found in other threads, but many of those have been moved/deleted. This will be a central location where students and faculty can come for some quick tips.

Etiquette & General Tips

• Choose a username that describes who you are - There are a lot of people on this forum and it is better if students and faculty can connect a post/username to a face/person. If you have a username that not everyone can connect to you, put a photo of yourself in your avatar. This isn't a strict rule, just something to make things more friendly. Also, if you want to change your username, you can do so by going to the "Profile" area by clicking the link at the top.
• Use informative subjects - When you are making a new post, choose a subject line that describes what the post is about. This will help people find the post if they have a similar question. Something such as "Problem with code" or "I have a question" is not nearly as helpful as "undefined reference to tcp::socket" or "need clarification on quicksort algorithm."
• Use the board's features in your posts - There are lots of ways to have a post that isn't just a block of text. You can insert links, images, quotes, and lists (like this one). Using these features make things much easier to follow than just typing them all in straight text. They are all fairly simple to use, and have buttons you can use to aid you when making a post. If you need more help you can go to the board's help page by clicking the BBCode link in the 'options' area of the "Post a new topic" page. You can also use the following link. faq.php?mode=bbcode
• Check your posts before making them - It is very helpful to everyone if you check your posts over before adding them. Please look for obvious spelling and grammar errors. If you fail to catch them someone is surely going to do it for you. We all know that engineers/computer scientists/mathematicians aren't the best at writing, but we can all at least make a strong effort. Having a post that is easy to read and that looks professional will get a better response. There are several tools available to help you with this. There is a "Preview" button you can use to check what your final post will look like before you post it. You can use this to make sure your formating is correct and your pictures display properly There are also free browser plugins for Internet Explorer (iespell) and Mozilla/Firefox(spellbound) that allow you to do a spell check inside an input box, such as the one you use to type your post in. Keep in mind, if you do make a mistake, you can always go back and change it by using the "edit post" option.

If you have other tips/tricks please feel free to post them here. It would be great if someone would show how to post links/images. Every semester someone wants to put a picture in one of the picture threads and can't figure out how to upload it to the right place and include it.

[Mike Colagrosso]

It would be great if someone would show how to post links/images. Every semester someone wants to put a picture in one of the picture threads and can't figure out how to upload it to the right place and include it.

Yes, someone please do this. If you do write these directions, please include this info:

http://www.mines.edu/Academic/computer/ ... bpage.html

I would be grateful if I got one definitive set of instructions on posting images that I could keep here permanently.

[mtrg]

To post images using phpBB:

1. Make sure you have a place to host the images

In order for others to view images that you post, they've got to be stored somewhere other than on your computer. Fortunately, in addition to the possibility of setting up a web page on the CSM web server (which I'll explain later in this section) or using a friend's FTP (like I do for a lot of things), there are a variety of free hosting services that will probably suit your needs just fine. Imageshack and Photobucket are two of the best. Just go there, create an account, and upload your pictures. It's really easy, even if you're not experienced with it - ask me for help if you need it. I use photobucket for the signature you see at the bottom of this post, and all the other pictures I commonly post on forums and elsewhere.

To create a web page on the CSM web server:

1. Make sure you have a Slate account. If you need help doing this, you can get instructions at the Computing Center front desk.
2. Log into Slate and run mk_stu_hp at the prompt. (just type "mk_stu_hp" and press enter)
3. Information on putting files on your web page and other simple tasks is available here. (Let me know if you want me to expand this into some more detailed help, Mike)

2. Post your images on the forum!

This is easy if you've already got the images stored somewhere. First, you need to find out what the URL of your image is. If you're using photobucket, like I am, this means logging into your account and looking at the "url" text box under each photo you've uploaded. I'm not sure what the process is for imageshack, but it's something similar. To make it easy, if you open the photo in your web browser, the address bar should read <blahblahsomethingsomethingsomething>.jpg - that's the URL of your image. Make sure it ends in .jpg, .gif, or another image format.

Now that you've got the URL, it's time to post it. When you're editing your post on the forum, either click the "Img" button above the box where you type your post, enter your picture's URL, and then click the "Img" button again - or you can just type the code manually. It'll look like this, using my signature picture as an example:

Code: Select all

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/LordFrodo/6b70b271.jpg[/img]

Just remember to start with [img], then enter the URL, then end with [/img]

Preview your post, and if your image shows up in the preview, you've done everything correctly.

[Mike Colagrosso]

Thanks, Matt, that's a good write-up. Here's an addition to the part on the [img] tag:

Now that you've got the URL, it's time to post it. When you're editing your post on the forum, either click the "img" button above the box where you type your post, or just type <img>, only use these brackets, [ and ], instead of < and >. After <img>, type (or copy/paste) the URL of your image. After the URL of your image, type </img>, again substituting in the correct brackets. Preview your post, and if your image shows up in the preview, you've done everything correctly.

Here's what the what that will look like:

Code: Select all

[img]http://alamode.mines.edu/~mcolagro/tanzania/4.jpg[/img]

The [code] tag lets you use examples of BBCode tags as long as you don't have any other unclosed tags in your post. It took me a minute of futzing around to get this; I could have just ticked the box that reads "Disable BBCode in this post," but then your quote wouldn't look right.

[mtrg]

The [code] tag lets you use examples of BBCode tags as long as you don't have any other unclosed tags in your post.

Oh, right, I'd forgotten about that. I'll edit my post.

[ngerstle]

In terms of CSM hosted personal web pages, all pages have been migrated from the slate server to illuminate.
Instructions on setting up a web page can be found here (http://ccit.mines.edu/web/homepages/).