Charles Adams
03-08-2006, 11:07 PM
POSTING GUIDELINES – Please Read Before You Post
This is a friendly community and we don't get too stern with rules and regulations. Still, there are some overall guidelines for using this site. Violating these may result in a warning. Repeated violations may result in being banned from using this site.
Topics
We have many different forums in order to better organize the material. This makes it much easier to find what you're looking for by subject. Remember, much of what is posted here ends up being a sort of archive of valuable info over time.
Please carefully select the right forum before posting your new topic. Also be VERY careful about the name of your new post. How can you name your thread so it will be easy to find later? Imagine you are searching through a site with thousands of posts for an important piece of information. If you were to you sift through all this information, you'd be very glad that people took the time to name their posts carefully.
Restricted Subjects
Please refrain from posting things that are completely off topic in the specialty forums. If you can't decide where you should post, contact a Moderator or the Administrator first.
If you wish to share something that is not directly related to modeling (and would not be considered annoying SPAM), but you think it might be of interest to our members, please post it in the General Discussion forum and clearly mark the topic “(OT)” in the title.
We do tolerate "sensitive" subjects such as religion and politics, but only in such a way that this does not start to detract from the overall discussion. If a thread starts to get people upset, it will likely be locked. So, be diplomatic!
Abuse
Remember, deliberately inflammatory or abusive posts will not be tolerated. If you want to start a flame war, please do it somewhere else. If you can't stick to the facts in a debate and feel it necessary to launch into a personal attack, you've probably already lost the argument anyway.
Quoting what was previously said in your post
One thing that we are going to be strict about here is being careful about how you quote. Some people just like to hit the "quote" button, quoting everything that was just said, and then type a short reply. This makes threads very hard to read!
If you wish to use this function, you should take a moment to edit and shorten what is being quoted. Do not just quote a whole, huge post! Don't quote any post that contains an inline image as this will cause the image to repeat over and over again inside the thread, making it harder for everyone to read.
Inline Images
In general, avoid these in your posts. It makes the page take longer to load and, when things are busy, can cause people to abort viewing and skip the thread altogether.
If you MUST post an inline image, it should be small such as a thumbnail. Large images are not permitted!
Linking to info in this site
If you want people to see what's available here, feel free to post a link to this site. You may link to the splash page (http://www.AirshipModeler.com), the main index (http://www.AirshipModeler.com/forums) or any individual forum that is open to all users.
You should NOT post a link to any thread in a forum that is reserved only for registered users of this site. When someone who is not registered follows this link, they won't be able to view the information anyway and it will be frustrating to them.
NO HOTLINKING ALLOWED
In general, you may NOT post direct links to *any* images hosted on this site. (Instead, direct people here so they can view those images.) Most especially, do not create an inline image in a post on another site using a link to an image on this site. This uses our bandwidth to show images on the other site for people who aren't even visiting here. As a result, it's just not a cool thing to do.
Editing Your Posts
Sometimes people post things and then later go back and "erase the record" of what was said. To prevent things like this from happening arbitrarily, there is a time limit on editing posts. You may feel free to edit any post for up to 72 hours (3 days). After that time limit has expired, you must e-mail and admin or moderator in order to edit your post.
Notification of Replies
One of the best new features we now offer is automatic notification of responses to your favorite threads. If you want to receive an e-mail each time someone replies to a thread, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the thread. You can do this whether or not you have actually posted or replied to the thread. In other words, you can subscribe to threads that you are actively involved in or you can just subscribe to a thread to watch what's going on.
The best part about this feature is the text of the response is included in the e-mail. So if you're in a hurry, at work, or maybe just getting e-mail on a phone or PDA, you'll know what's happening without having to log into the site and read the thread online.
How To Subscribe
When you post a new topic or respond to an existing topic, scroll down toward the bottom of the screen and look for the Additional Options which include Subscription Options (and Attachments). Choose whether to subscribe and how you would like to be notified when a new post is made. "Instant e-mail notification" is the popular choice here.
If you want to monitor a thread in which you are not actively participating (i.e. you want to lurk), open the thread and look for the "Thread Tools" link. Here you will find the Subscribe/Unsubscribe option.
You can also change your mind and use these same tools to Unsubscribe to any thread for which you are receiving notifications.
More Options
Whether to subscribe to threads you have created or joined is also a preference in your User Control Panel. You can decide whether you wish to Subscribe by default to all threads in which you are participating. So you can either turn this feature on/off each time you post, or just set the option in your Control Panel and let it take place automatically.
Enjoy! :)
This is a friendly community and we don't get too stern with rules and regulations. Still, there are some overall guidelines for using this site. Violating these may result in a warning. Repeated violations may result in being banned from using this site.
Topics
We have many different forums in order to better organize the material. This makes it much easier to find what you're looking for by subject. Remember, much of what is posted here ends up being a sort of archive of valuable info over time.
Please carefully select the right forum before posting your new topic. Also be VERY careful about the name of your new post. How can you name your thread so it will be easy to find later? Imagine you are searching through a site with thousands of posts for an important piece of information. If you were to you sift through all this information, you'd be very glad that people took the time to name their posts carefully.
Restricted Subjects
Please refrain from posting things that are completely off topic in the specialty forums. If you can't decide where you should post, contact a Moderator or the Administrator first.
If you wish to share something that is not directly related to modeling (and would not be considered annoying SPAM), but you think it might be of interest to our members, please post it in the General Discussion forum and clearly mark the topic “(OT)” in the title.
We do tolerate "sensitive" subjects such as religion and politics, but only in such a way that this does not start to detract from the overall discussion. If a thread starts to get people upset, it will likely be locked. So, be diplomatic!
Abuse
Remember, deliberately inflammatory or abusive posts will not be tolerated. If you want to start a flame war, please do it somewhere else. If you can't stick to the facts in a debate and feel it necessary to launch into a personal attack, you've probably already lost the argument anyway.
Quoting what was previously said in your post
One thing that we are going to be strict about here is being careful about how you quote. Some people just like to hit the "quote" button, quoting everything that was just said, and then type a short reply. This makes threads very hard to read!
If you wish to use this function, you should take a moment to edit and shorten what is being quoted. Do not just quote a whole, huge post! Don't quote any post that contains an inline image as this will cause the image to repeat over and over again inside the thread, making it harder for everyone to read.
Inline Images
In general, avoid these in your posts. It makes the page take longer to load and, when things are busy, can cause people to abort viewing and skip the thread altogether.
If you MUST post an inline image, it should be small such as a thumbnail. Large images are not permitted!
Linking to info in this site
If you want people to see what's available here, feel free to post a link to this site. You may link to the splash page (http://www.AirshipModeler.com), the main index (http://www.AirshipModeler.com/forums) or any individual forum that is open to all users.
You should NOT post a link to any thread in a forum that is reserved only for registered users of this site. When someone who is not registered follows this link, they won't be able to view the information anyway and it will be frustrating to them.
NO HOTLINKING ALLOWED
In general, you may NOT post direct links to *any* images hosted on this site. (Instead, direct people here so they can view those images.) Most especially, do not create an inline image in a post on another site using a link to an image on this site. This uses our bandwidth to show images on the other site for people who aren't even visiting here. As a result, it's just not a cool thing to do.
Editing Your Posts
Sometimes people post things and then later go back and "erase the record" of what was said. To prevent things like this from happening arbitrarily, there is a time limit on editing posts. You may feel free to edit any post for up to 72 hours (3 days). After that time limit has expired, you must e-mail and admin or moderator in order to edit your post.
Notification of Replies
One of the best new features we now offer is automatic notification of responses to your favorite threads. If you want to receive an e-mail each time someone replies to a thread, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the thread. You can do this whether or not you have actually posted or replied to the thread. In other words, you can subscribe to threads that you are actively involved in or you can just subscribe to a thread to watch what's going on.
The best part about this feature is the text of the response is included in the e-mail. So if you're in a hurry, at work, or maybe just getting e-mail on a phone or PDA, you'll know what's happening without having to log into the site and read the thread online.
How To Subscribe
When you post a new topic or respond to an existing topic, scroll down toward the bottom of the screen and look for the Additional Options which include Subscription Options (and Attachments). Choose whether to subscribe and how you would like to be notified when a new post is made. "Instant e-mail notification" is the popular choice here.
If you want to monitor a thread in which you are not actively participating (i.e. you want to lurk), open the thread and look for the "Thread Tools" link. Here you will find the Subscribe/Unsubscribe option.
You can also change your mind and use these same tools to Unsubscribe to any thread for which you are receiving notifications.
More Options
Whether to subscribe to threads you have created or joined is also a preference in your User Control Panel. You can decide whether you wish to Subscribe by default to all threads in which you are participating. So you can either turn this feature on/off each time you post, or just set the option in your Control Panel and let it take place automatically.
Enjoy! :)