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  1. #1
    Super Moderator Sue Mackay's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Rhoose Point, South Wales
    Posts
    6,540

    Default Customising your Forum Options

    Many newbies (and I suspect a lot of not so newbies) will have happily chugged along using the Forum Default Settings and will never have clicked on General Settings, located in the Forum Actions menu on the blue banner at the top, just below the tree.

    It is well worth clicking General Settings. Many of the niggling things that annoy you about the way the forum is set up may be altered here.

    I have had my settings personalised for some time and am no longer sure what the defaults are, but these are the things you can set.

    The first thing you get to set is whether other members can e-mail you directly. You may prefer, as I do, not to tick this box, in order to keep your e-mail private. Doing so does not prevent your receiving e-mail alerts to posts you have made. You can always give your e-mail to trusted members via the Private Message system.

    Scrolling down, the next thing you can set is how often, if at all, you get an e-mail notification of an answer to a thread you have contributed to. I opt for daily - they come in just after midnight. I usually delete them all the next morning as I have seen them on the forum, but occasionally an answer to an old post will slip through the net and it is reassuring to have the backup. It is also very useful when you have been away on holiday and can see immediately if replies have come to your own posts without wading through thirty pages of New Posts. It is possible to turn off the e-mail notification if it annoys you, or to set it to weekly. If you are really keen you can set it to instant notification!

    The next thing you can set is Private Messaging. It is really useful to have this enabled, so that people can give you information that they might not feel able to post on the open forum. If you want you can set it so that you can only receive Private Messages from the Moderators and your Contact List. You can opt to be sent an e-mail of a private message, in case you don't visit the forum daily. You can also opt for a pop up notification.

    Scroll down to Thread Display Options. If you hate all the silly pictures (avatars) that we have beside our names, then you can opt to turn them off. Similarly you can opt whether to display signatures and images. Most people who are on broadband have these three boxes ticked, then they don't miss anything.

    You can also choose whether you want a thread displayed with the oldest or the newest post at the top, and you can choose between linear and threaded modes. The best way to choose is to play with the settings and decide which you like best.

    Slightly lower down you can set how many posts appear on a page. I advise setting this to the maximum (40) so that only the really long threads will spread to more than one page.

    The final setting in this section is the cut off date for threads. I discovered recently that the forum default is 45 days. I advise setting it to Show All Posts, as sometimes useful information is contained in the old posts.

    Next comes the time zone settings. If it annoys you that the forum clock is set to GMT you can change it to your own time zone.

    Finally you can set whether you have a basic text editor or more editing tools.

    You can also reach these settings via the Quick Links menu (also on the blue banner) and clicking UserCP (User Control Panel). This time to access General Settings you need to look on the left hand side, under My Settings/My Account/General Settings, but you can also alter your Profile via UserCP. When you click on UserCP, the main body of the screen will show you instantly any threads you have subscribed/contributed to, and whether there have been any new posts. You can also subscribe to specific forums that you visit often (click Forum Tools at the top of any forum and then Subscribe to this Forum) and these will appear below your Subscribed Posts, showing whether any new threads have been added to that forum since your last visit to B-G.
    Last edited by Sue Mackay; 28-08-2010 at 9:48 AM. Reason: Reflecting changes since upgrade
    Sue Mackay
    Insanity is hereditary - you get it from your kids

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