Welcome everyone. I go by Bartier on this site and I am the moderator of the introductions forum. I am writing this for all the new people to fish forums or forums in general so as they can understand the way a forum works. There are many ways this forum can be used; a place to have a chat, to find information, give your information to others, and tell people about your tanks and what fish you keep.
1. Introduce Yourself
Before you go around talking to everyone offering and asking for advice things become much easier if people can recognise and remember who you are. To make many of the people realise who you are all you need to do is write up an introduction. To do this you must first go into the introductions forum and click on the New Topic link (see 3. Adding a New Post). In here you would like to include anything about yourself you want people to know. You can tell us where you live, what things interest you however don’t drag this part out because we all want to here about your fish! Tell us what kinds of fish you have, your tanks, your experience with fish and anything that you can see as something you would like us too know. Of course you have to remember this is just an introduction you will have plenty of other chances to tell us all about your tanks, etc in other parts of the forum. Also remember to tell us how you found out about the forum. A search engine, other forums, you were recruited by another member, etc. If you were recruited by another member, be sure to mention there name as it gives them the opportunity to receive aquatokens for helping to promote the site.
2. Browsing
Now before you go posting and adding new topics everywhere you can see possible you will first want to check if the information you are looking for is already within the site. To do this you are going to want to use the search option. This is found in the top panel of the site on the right hand side. Search is positioned between the Help and Members links. The search is a very basic and all you need to do is type in a few words describing what you are looking for. If in doubt make this basic as everyone says things in there own way and if you say something along the lines of, “Help my fish seem to have little white lumpy things on their outer surface” you are far less likely to find information than if you were to write something along the lines of “fish white dots” as there are fewer words and therefore more chance that others have used these words in previous experiences. Another great way to browse the forums is using the My Assistant option. This is located in the second highest panel on the very far right. In this you will find many links such as New Posts (since your last visit), New Replies to Top You started (since your last visit). You can also view the moderating team, See Today’s active topics, View the top 10 posters for today and overall. You can also view your own last 10 posts.
3. Adding a New Topic
So now that you have searched for what you are looking for (not included for those who just wish to post something about their tank or something in the Town Centre) then you are ready to add a New Topic. However remember when you are adding New Topics remember that you must post in the post in the correct forum. If you are not sure on this please contact myself or one of the other moderators. So once you have found your correct forum you can start adding Topics. When adding a New Topic you must first now how to get into the page where you can type up your New Topic. This link is located near the top of the forum next to the New Poll Button while browsing the forum and next to the Post Reply button while reading a topic. Now that you are in the Posting a New Topic page you can see lots of boxes and a bunch of little pictures. In these boxes you will type up your message and the little pictures are called emoticons, which you can use to show emotions or just add a silly little picture to your post. The first thing you will want to do is come up with a Title for your post. Let us pretend the person has a fish tank contaminated with ich – a disease commonly found in the aquarium world which can kill fish. So when adding a Title they may just write something like “Fish covered in white dots.” This would suggest to the knowledgeable fish keeper that there is a good chance the fish are infected with ich. Then when you go down the page a little bit further you will see you can add a Topic Description (not compulsory) you can add details that may interest the person such as “Dots are spreading throughout all the fish” which would also suggest ich or you could just write something like “Help” which may also get some attention. Now that you have a good Topic Title and Description you will have the attention of the people who are trying to help you it is time to type up your post. In your post you want to include everything. For this example you would include what has happened, how long it has taken, what kind and number of fish you have, which it has affected, size of tank, readings for nitrates, nitrites, pH, ammonia, etc if you have them and anything else you see necessary. Now when posting about something else such as writing a journal on your own tank you can write it as you wish. However when looking for help try to include as much information as possible.
4. Add Reply
When you are in someone else’s post and you wish to comment on what others have written. Then you are going to need to use the Add Reply button which is located at the top and bottom of all topics. You use this option to give people answers to their questions, comment on something someone has done or something that they are talking about. There are many other things which you can post about however everyone posts different things and that’s what makes a forum so helpful it gives you many people’s opinions and helps you make the right decision with your fish keeping. You can also use things like emoticons, etc. Also if you wish to write a text only post and want to do it quicker you can click on the Fast Reply button which is located beneath
5. Personal Message
If you wish to talk to someone in private you can use the Personal Message option or PM as it is often referred as. To send a PM you can click on the PM button below a members post of their profile. You can also send them one by going to the My Controls option or click on your inbox both of which are found near the top of most pages of Aquatopia. When you want to compose a new PM you go to Compose New Message which is found in the side panel of the My Controls page. It is quite alike to Posting a New Topic however you also enter the name of the person you are sending it too into the box above the post.
6. Member Map
Another great part of the Aquatopia forums is the member map. This can be found in the introductions forum at the very top. When you click on this you are redirected to our member map which is currently hosted by www.mapservices.com When you first come on the forums you should put this in so as people can have a look for others in their area. Sometimes however it is just fun to look through at all the different places the members of this forum are located in.
7. Adding a Signature/Avatar
When scrolling through posts looking for a particular persons post or even your own it becomes a lot easier when the person is using a Signature and/or Avatar. An avatar is a picture on the left hand side of the post (my avatar is a picture of my Oscar with Bartier written underneath it). To upload an avatar you must first go to your control panel by clicking on My Controls at the top of the page. Then when you are in go to the link that says edit avatar setting under the title of Personal Profile. In here there are a few options for getting your avatar up. You can go through the galleries and find one. You can copy a link for a picture (upload using Imageshack, Photobucket, etc.) or if you are not the most technologically advanced person around you can upload a picture by clicking on browse which is to the right of the words "upload a new image from your computer". You then browse through your computer and find the picture you want for your avatar and click on and press enter. After this go down and click on the link upload avatar. A page will then come up saying your avatar is being uploaded then another page will come up with your avatar on it and it will be done. If you want to add a signature you once again go to the My Controls page however this time you go to Edit Signature which is also under the Personal Profile subheading on the page. Now this part is all about preference. Your signature can contain just about anything as long as it isn't offensive or too big. For my signature I have BARTIER written in a format that I got off of www.flamingtext.com everyone is welcome to do this if they wish however first you would have to upload the picture from a site such as Imageshack. Another popular option is to list your tanks or the fish you keep. That is about all there is to making a signature. However as the name suggest it is a way of signing off your post so make it individual so that everyone knows that's you who is talking without having to look at your name.
This should be enough to get you started using the Aquatopia Forums. If you have any questions on the above information just PM me. Also if you have any alterations or additions to the above information that you think I may be interested in PM me. I am open to suggestions however I won’t take them all so don’t take it offensively if I don’t edit what you think I should. So get out their and use the forum and hopefully we can help you or you can help us.
- Bartier
Very Nice Bartier! I even learned a few new things!
Just doing my job. Thanks for the feedback.