[Enforcer]

One of the things that happens in all the forums is the re-posting and rehashing of previous topics and information.

This is not necessarily a bad thing in that fresh minds bring fresh ideas. But, it tends to fragment the information and make it difficult to build upon previous knowledge. It's our combined knowledge that makes this forum greater than our individual sums.

And for someone just joining the forum, it's tough to go back and read all the posts and tough to know what key words to search for.

But, you should take the time to try to use some of the features of this site first in order to find background information to refine your question, build on the previous knowledge or maybe even answer your own question.

Just to be clear, my concern is that I'm afraid we'll forget or miss something (especially me) when trying to give links to previous threads or answer the question again.

So, this thread is an attempt to provide usefull info on how to utilize the tools this forum offers to your advantage.

In a lot of ways, each of us is a newbie. I've been on vBulletin based forums for a couple years now and I'm still learning things everyday. And it's the best forum SW IMHO that I've ever used. So everybody chime in with ideas. Maybe even links to frequent topics.

Let me be clear on this because it comes up frequently. I am not admin. This is not "my" site. Admin created this site for us and we all greatly benefit from his generosity. Both in creating the forum and outfitting it with great SW and bandwidth. See This Thread.


First of all is the Search feature at the top of the page. This feature will return results of all threads that have the word(s) you search for.
E.G. If you have a question about wheels, do a search on wheels. If you have a problem with rattles, do a search on rattle etc.

 

[Enforcer]

The next feature I find of value is the "Order from" feature pull down list in the lower right hand corner.

Selecting "From the beginning" will display all the threads in a given topic regardless of when they were posted. If you leave it on forum Default, threads older than a month will not show up in the list.

 

[Enforcer]

Order from the beginning has the limitation that every time you come back, you have to set it again. So, if you go into Control Panel (upper left top of screen) then Edit Options and set Default Thread View to Show all threads, then every time you open a topic, you will get a listing of all threads posted.

 

[Enforcer]

And also, don't forget the Gallery and Knowledge Base pages, links found at the top of the screen.

In the gallery, you can find pictures of lots of Mo's and ancillary equipment. You can even post your own for all of us to benefit from. And, you can also post a pic right in a post...more on this later.

On the knowledge base page, you will find some pdfs for download and a problem database. I believe it's real important for those that have problems to post in that database. Whether it's already there or not. The more people post, the more trends you can see and the more knowledge we all gain.

 

[Enforcer]

Sometimes a complicated question can be answered with a single picture or attachment. Attachments have restrictions in terms of size and file type. When posting a reply to a thread, at the bottom of the text box is another box that tells you the attachment limitations and allows you to browse your computer for the file you want to attach.

To reduce images to a size you can post, See This Thread.

If your attachment is not within the limitations, email admin (click on "contact us" at the top of the screen) the file or PM a mod for help.

 

[Enforcer]

Also, when you are reading a thread and want to reply to that thread, be careful and click the correct button. At the bottom of the screen under the text box, you will see two buttons.

One is labelled new thread and the other is labelled post reply.

Clicking on new thread will create a whole new thread with your post as the first.

Clicking on post reply will append your reply at the bottom of the thread you were reading.

Not a big deal, mods can join the threads. We try to catch those but sometimes I miss them. Just PM one of the moderators to make sure.