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3.1 Posting Messages
Some things to think about/do before you post (this applies to most of the forums on the site): Keep in mind, this is to help you get your questions across clearly so we can better help you:
--- From a post by Carrie by KeysCapt First, find the forum topic that most pertains to the question you want to ask. Then, read over the questions others have asked to see if someone else has already asked it (you may find your answer this way). If not, then you're ready to start a new thread. Starting a new thread: Simply click on the new topic icon at the top right of the page. Try to come up with an effective "catchy title" for your post. This is what people see, and it often dictates whether your post gets the traffic you would like. Replying to another post: If you are not creating a new topic, it is preferable to use the link on the post to which you are replying. This gives the original poster a notification of your reply (if they elected that option). If you are adding more information to the entire topic, or replying to the original post, you can use the link at the bottom of the topic. Note: When reading through the posts in a thread, you may see a "In reply to" link in small text at the top of certain posts: This link indicates that the author of that particular post was responding to the poster whose name is in the link. Clicking on the link will show you the post that was responded to. Entering your text: Type your question into the text box, including any details that may help get a more specific answer. It's a good idea to let your text flow (word wrap) rather than use the return key. This allows the text to look the same to all users. When finished, choose if and how you want to be notified of replies to your question (e-mail, instant message or none). Finally, use the spell check option and/or preview. This gives you a chance to correct any spelling errors highlighted in red ... please do ... and finally, hit "Post Now." Please do not reply to threads that are more than a week or so old. You will generally receive a warning when trying to do so, and that warning is there for a reason. In this case, start a new topic. Feedback received on this FAQ entry:
by KeysCapt There is an option called "Fast Post" available when creating a new post on the site. Fast Post merely side-steps the preview and view of the finished post and appears to just return you to the forum top page. There is more to it, however. The idea of Fast Post is that it does the posting work AFTER your browser gets control back. Usually, when you hit "Post Now!," the hang time that is sometimes encountered is the system waiting for a chance to insert, doing the insert and various other database things. Fast Post basically queues your post for posting. It will usually appear right away but not always. It is not meant to be heavily utilized by those who are significantly challenged at spelling. by KeysCapt See »Site FAQ »How do I post? by KeysCapt edited by state Feedback received on this FAQ entry:
by KeysCapt The site provides many ways for you to enhance your posts. You can experiment with these in the Dev/Null forum. This forum was provided specifically for test purposes, and all posts are regularly DELETED. If you are not sure how a post will come out, then use this forum! If you have questions about posting features, you can ask in the Site Help forum. edited by KeysCapt After you submit a post, you have a 5-day period within which you can edit your post by clicking on the "edit" link. This time window was established to prevent confusion and a loss of continuity when posts were edited long after they were posted. Editing caused subsequent messages to lose their meaning or relevance. Feedback received on this FAQ entry:
by KeysCapt If you are using OPERA as your browser, and you find that you can't post a message on the site because you don't see a "post" button, try this: Go to FILE -> QUICK PREFERENCES (or just hit the F12 key) and select IDENTIFY AS OPERA. Note: This fix may cause the "Attachments" button to disappear with Opera. --- Thanks to Slashdot14 for this one. by KeysCapt This is a new site feature, designed to try to reduce some of the shortened word abbreviations used in posts, also known as "board slang," to make all posts more intelligible to everyone using the site. In the words of one of our esteemed site users, Yazdzik: If you have included certain abbreviated words in your post, usually more than once in that post, you will see the following screen when you go to review it: The words that are flagged will appear in red. Simply return to your edit screen, fix these words and review again. --- [Edit: right now, the target words are not appearing, so it's not easy to see which ones are hindering your post. Try just making sure all your words are spelled rather than abbreviated and that words like "gonna" aren't used.] by KeysCapt "SPAM" (posting unsolicited advertising) is not permitted or welcome on this site. This includes, but is not limited to, advertorials in forum posts, sigs or text and links of an overtly commercial nature. We also do not allow people associated with a company to promote the services of that company in their posts or forum sig. For example, if you work for an ISP, promotion of your ISP or its sign-up page is not normally allowed in posts or in your sig. If you work for an e-commerce company, promotion of that company in posts or sig is also not normally allowed. Linking to your page on an auction site, such as ebay, is generally not acceptable. Links to your own single-person and/or unincorporated business are allowable where the text associated with the link, or the link text itself if visible, is not overtly commercial in nature. Examples NOT allowable:If there is any doubt, ask a moderator first! Use of a sig for a period without complaint from us does NOT guarantee it is acceptable. Our decision on which side of the line a given link or text falls (spam or not spam) is ours alone and is not negotiable. Owner/Operators of sites with information or services that parallel or are similar to subjects we cover may be subject to more limitations than the above if it is determined that the site owner is frequently posting for traffic and business, as much or more than posting to assist other users. by KeysCapt To include a link in your post, copy the link to your clipboard and paste it as you are composing your post. With most browsers, use CTRL-C to copy it and CTRL-V to paste it.In any forum post on the site, you can also right-click on "permalink" at the bottom, then click on "copy link" in the window that opens. If it's a link from another page here on the site, the easiest way is to open another instance of your browser, navigate to the page you wish to link, right-click in the browser address window, select "COPY" in the drop-down menu, and then switch to the browser window where you are composing your post and CTRL-V the link to paste it. Links that refer to dslreports.com are treated differently, and the domain name is stripped. If the link is a common one, a full name is substituted: They will still work normally. If the link is an FAQ entry or another topic in the forums, the TITLE of the FAQ entry or forum topic is automatically included. When you paste the link, it will appear in full, but when you post it, it will appear truncated. That's OK ... it's all there when someone clicks on it. Feedback received on this FAQ entry:
by KeysCapt by Steve edited by KeysCapt If you want to include some remarks that another user has posted in your post, after clicking on below the post that you want to quote from, click on "auto quote" in the next screen: You will see the ENTIRE message shows up. It is up to you to EDIT the unimportant parts out, so that you're not forcing others to read through a repeat of a message to find the pertinent parts.
A recent site enhancement added the quoted member's URL to the quoted text, so that when you click on "autoquote," you will see this: Which will show the member's "business card" icon, like this: You can also make it appear in a post without the autoquote by typing in [user=keyscapt] ]]>or uid://=428142 ... either of which will show up as KeysCapt (the user name input is not case sensitive) --- by KeysCapt I received this message: What gives? If you are a "basic member" who joined after February 2002, you are limited to 100 posts in a rolling 7-day period. It lets you know when you are getting close to that limit. A rolling 7-day period means that what you posted last week will drop off your count a week later. If you waited a week and posted 100 times in a single day, you would have to wait seven more days for your post count to reset. by connellyg edited by KeysCapt You try to submit your post, but all you get is this: That means you need to take a closer look at what you've submitted, because there's a word or two in there that the system doesn't like. A good starting point is any word that appears in red font. Change the word(s) and resubmit -- you should be all set. by KeysCapt When you preview your post before actually sending it, there is a row of options at the bottom by which you can elect to be notified when there is a response to your post: If you select "email," you will be notified at the email address that you have provided to DSLR. If you select "Instant Message," you will be notified by the flashing IM icon at the top of the page. Clicking on the flashing IM icon will give you a link to the thread in which your response appears. If the flashing icon is RED rather than YELLOW as shown above, it indicates that it is from the System or a moderator. More Info: (Thanks to Pacrat ) If you started the thread, then you should get a reply notification every time someone hits "Reply" or "Topic reply." If someone responds to another poster in the thread by hitting "Post reply," you will not get notification. If you post in someone else's thread, the only way you'll get a reply notification is if someone hits the "Post reply" at the bottom of your posting. You do not get notification of every posting in every thread you post in unless an individual replies specifically to your post . by KeysCapt See this faq entry for info on adding "emoticons" like this to your posts. by KeysCapt A problem experienced by many here is losing everything they have written into a post box if they move forward or back with their browser before posting. In other words, you start to author a post but then click "back" to check something. When you return, your text is gone, and you have to start over. This most commonly occurs with Internet Explorer. Here's a very helpful explanation of what's going on from a post by rjackson :
by KeysCapt If you respond in a thread and use the quote feature, you must include some remarks of your own in the post. Posting only the quote of what another user said will result in the following error message: If you receive this error, you will have to add your own remarks to the intended post and try again. by KeysCapt Note: These instructions are for those running Microsoft Windows.
1. Open a command prompt or MS-DOS prompt window. 1a. If you are not sure how to do this, press the start button and select Run... to bring up the Run dialog box. If you are running Windows 95 or 98, type dosprmpt in the Run dialog box, followed by the enter key. If you are running Windows 2000 or XP, type cmd in the Run dialog box, followed by the enter key. If the command prompt does not display in a window but takes up the full screen, hold down the ALT key and press the ENTER key. This will switch to windowed mode. 2. Run a traceroute by entering the command tracert dslreports.com followed by the ENTER key. Be patient as the traceroute may take a minute or two to complete. You'll know it's finished when you see the message "Trace complete." You can run a traceroute to any Internet site you wish by substituting the site name on the command line. Please keep in mind some sites may not respond to a trace at the end, but you will be able to see the route along the way to that site. 3. You may redirect the output to a text file, by using a command like this one: tracert dslreports.com > c:\tracert_01.txt ]]>(Thanks to one of our users for that suggestion) Or you may use the more labor-intensive method of copying the text to the clipboard. In the upper left hand corner of the command prompt window, left-click on the icon to open the menu. From the "Edit" sub menu, use Select All (unless you would rather highlight only part, in which case you might want to use Mark). 4. Using the mouse, drag the selection box from one corner to the other of the text you wish to copy. Once you have selected the text, press the ENTER key to copy the text to the clipboard. 5. You can now paste the traceroute results into a forum post by pressing CTRL-V while you are creating a new post. by MacGyver edited by KeysCapt Posting material that would otherwise be translated is now easier, using code blocks: UPDATE: New inline code blocks are quite useful for explaining things code or config related since they can contain < and > and other dangerous characters without worry . You can use them like this: please use [blockquote=..] or include someones username by [user=fatness] Use them like <code> .. </code> anywhere. (Note: This is different from the code tag enclosed in braces, below) Email headers, often pasted in the stopping spam forums, often contain html-like stuff that would otherwise be stripped. You can now just put that stuff inside a code block, and it will be left alone. will look like this: Return-Path: <xxxx@yahoo.com> X-Original-To: yyy@dslr.net Delivered-To: yyyy@dslr.net Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.dslr.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0793E1CB25 for <yyyy@dslr.net>; Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:45:58 -0500 (EST) Received: from mail.dslr.net ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (gold [127.0.0.1:10024]) (amavisd-new) with ESMTP id 30156-08 for <yyyy@dslr.net>; Mon, 3 Nov 2003 09:45:57 -0500 (EST) ]]> Programming code or javascript type code also looks best if formatting is preserved, and the font is mono-spaced. Code blocks do that as well. This: Will show up looking like this:for($x=0; $x<=10; $x++) { # My code goes here } ]]> URLs within code blocks: will look like this:http://www.cnn.com https://www.cnn.com ftp://ftp.cnn.com ]]> If it does not preview the way you want, it won't post, so there is no point posting hoping it will somehow magically fix itself. When you preview your code you may see extraneous HTML breaks in the code lines, but in the final form, they will not appear. Syntax Colored Code: See these two FAQ entries: »Testing Forum FAQ »How do I post syntax-colored CODE »Testing Forum FAQ »What languages are supported in syntax blocks by KeysCapt To show another member's "business card" icon, like this: You can make it appear in a post by typing in [user=FATNESS] ]]>or uid://=243195 ... either of which will show up as fatness (notice the user name input is not case sensitive) by KeysCapt The system automatically picks up certain "busy" threads on the site and links them on the front page. "Entertainment" forums are excluded. The "tech" forums are polled for these threads. If you are creating a topic that is probably NOT one for the front page, such as personal events (births, deaths, sickness, marriage, etc), you should place [OT] or OT: in front of the thread title. This prevents it from being picked up and included on the front page. If your topic is appearing on the front page, and you don't think it should be there, you can edit the title so it includes one of the labels above. If it has timed-out for editing, you can ask a mod to help. by Fudus edited by KeysCapt There are a few ways to post either a complete or partial URL so that it is fully visible but not clickable: 1) Use a code block as described in »Re: Posting How To - Examples. This places the link in its own box and breaks up the paragraph. Or simply put a space in the "http" so that it appears as ht tp by cinnamon edited by KeysCapt One of our users was reading a "how to" on including links in your posts here on the site. It got him thinking that a quick cut and paste text file with font options might be handy for others, so he posted this: A fast way to emphasize the link if need be, i.e; Shortcut to the Text file Choose desired format Fill in the blanks - Cut & Paste Post. The Text File Standard <A HREF="_____">_____</a> Bold <A HREF="_____"><B>_____</b></a> Italic <A HREF="_____"><I>_____</i></a> Bold - Italic <A HREF="_____"><I><B>_____</b></i></a> Strong <A HREF="_____"><STRONG>_____</strong></a> Strong - Bold <A HREF="_____"><STRONG><B>_____</b></strong></a> Strong - Italic <A HREF="_____"><STRONG><I>_____</i></strong></a> Strong - Bold - Italic <A HREF="_____"><STRONG><I><B>_____</b></i></strong></a> Small <A HREF="_____"><SMALL>_____</small></a> Small - Bold <A HREF="_____"><SMALL><B>_____</b></small></a> Small - Italic <A HREF="_____"><SMALL><I>_____</i></small></a> Small - Bold - Italic <A HREF="_____"><SMALL><B><I>_____</i></b></small></a> ]]>Results Using (ht tp://www.broadbandreports.com Broadband Reports) as an example. Standard ................... Broadband Reports Bold .......................... Broadband Reports Italic ......................... Broadband Reports Bold - Italic ................ Broadband Reports Strong ....................... Broadband Reports Strong - Bold .............. Broadband Reports Strong - Italic ............. Broadband Reports Strong - Bold - Italic .... Broadband Reports Small ......................... Broadband Reports Small - Bold ................ Broadband Reports Small - Italic ............... Broadband Reports Small - Bold - Italic ...... Broadband Reports ---- Thanks to EFS for the post and the info. by KeysCapt When creating hyperlinks to pages within BBR, it is important to remember that the domain name is stripped. Hyperlinks, on the other hand, are taken exactly as you type them. Because the site now uses only one domain, please do not create links to broadbandreports.com. by Optimized edited by KeysCapt This feature exists only in forums that are grouped under the "Entertainment" heading. It is designed to trigger if multiple posts with very few words have been made to the topic in the last few hours. Its purpose is to impede fast-growing topics with nonsense posts. Once the filter is activated, it remains in effect for everyone. So as long as the posts that trigger it continue to be added by others, you will find that the filter does not time out for those who posted earlier. by KeysCapt Sometimes while browsing or posting in the forums you may see a "held by system" stub as pictured here: The "held by system" stub can appear for a few reasons: •The post was pulled from public view by a forum moderator for review. Possible reasons for this include, but are not limited to, violation of site rules and/or terms of service. •The member is on a post-watch requiring moderator approval before the post becomes public. •Flood control/autohold has kicked in: The autohold for lots of posts from one location within a certain time frame is separate from post watch. It will happen when you are not on watch as well. It's a form of flood control. You made 15 posts in 15 minutes. That's happened numerous times on the site, and a great many times the person doing it was spamming, so the autohold was put there to deal with it. It's aimed only at #posts/timeframe. by state edited by KeysCapt First a definition. An "offsite inline image" (or hotlinked clickable image) is a "clickable" image that resides on a non-DSLR server. This can be accomplished by using HTML markup language to include an image from another website in your post that when clicked should take you to the image: html code: When previewing or submitting a post that contains offsite inline images, you may receive the following warning: While the system currently allows you to post inline images from offsite locations, it's not the recommended method for sharing images for the following reasons:
You can still post the image by clicking 'Post Now' button, but the preferred method for including images in your posts here is to use the site's built-in image attachment feature. For more information on how to attach images, see this site FAQ: »Site FAQ »How do I post attachments and screenshots? by state From time to time members request removal of old posts from their history here on DSLR for any number of reasons, sometimes referred to as "reputation management". Our policy is that these requests are seldom granted. You are solely responsible for what you say on the site, and a change of heart or attitude at a later date will not result in your posts being removed or modified. by KeysCapt Articles should not be posted in their entirety. The acceptable way to post external articles is to partially quote, add some personal comments and give a full credit with a link back to the original site. We encourage active dialogue about trending news. We discourage posting news for the sake of ... posting news. And we STRONGLY discourage posting news with zero attribution and zero commentary from the poster. Article references should have no more than 5 lines of direct quotes without comments from poster being posted. Sample Acceptable Post: Wow ... I see a coalition group has been formed urging action. Do you think there is any chance that they will be effective? "A coalition of 37 groups and companies is urging the FCC to block the Comcast acquisition of Time Warner Cable, arguing that no number of conditions, no manner how well designed, will prevent the potential problems a larger, stronger Comcast would create. The coalition of deal opponents, which include Consumers Union (authors of Consumer Reports), Dish Network, Cogent, Free Press and Common Cause, argues that even conditions forcing Comcast to agree to the agency's new net neutrality rules (whether lawsuits succeed or not) won't be enough to seriously protect consumers." Hyperlink to include the actual link: --> Source: DSLreports.com http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Merger-Critics-No-Deal-Conditions-Can-Fix-This-Mess-133410 by state edited by cabana |