First off, I would like to point out that this is not a replacement for the rules, though regulations stated in this guide should be considered to be part of the rules.
:: The Basics ::
There are several things that you should do to ensure that you don't annoy people, or get your threads locked, and in extreme cases, get (a) strike(s).
Posting New Threads
When you want to post something, think about what it is. If it is about a computer game, it should go in General Gaming, and if it is about The Wind Waker, it should go in GameCube Zelda, to give a couple of examples. Try to keep your posts in the correct forum. If for some reason you do put a thread in the wrong forum, it can and will be moved by a Moderator or Adminstrator, but it is polite to put them in the correct place from the beginning.
Before you post a new thread about something, or asking a question, try checking the first page or two of the appropriate forum, to see if there are any topics that might be about the same thing. If you see something that is about the very subject you want to talk about, post in that thread rather than create a new one.
If you just have a question about something, you should use the Search Function that is at the top of every page.
When you create a new thread, you have the option of adding a poll. Polls are lists of options that people can choose, and everyone can view what everyone else voted. To make a poll, check the "yes" box under "Post a Poll?" Then follow instructions, after you have completed your message.
If you make a poll, there should be a relevant purpose to it. A question such as "What number do you like?" is pointless, and should not be asked. Also try not to have completely biased poll choices, such as "Yes!" "definately!" and "absolutely," and nothing else.
General Posting
Everyone loves proper grammar. While it is not absolutely essential, it is recommended that every member quickly reads over what they write before they press the submit button. If you don't know how to spell something, don't worry about it. Just try not to speel evary ward rong en ah sintance. It gets very aggravating and can make your posts unreadable. You will generally be respected more if you use proper grammar as well.
Along with using proper grammar, it is also considerate to use complete words. This is a forum, not a chat room, so you can spend the extra few seconds it takes to type "you" rather than "u," or "anyone" rather than "ne1." So, please use complete words.
Posts should include actual thought in them. Saying "That game's awesome!" and leaving it at that isn't good enough. I know I don't want to have to waste my time scrolling past those types of messages, and I'm sure no one else does either. Rather than giving the bare bones of your thoughts, try to expand on them. It makes for much more satisfying and appreciated posts.
When you post something in a thread, keep it relevent to the discussion occuring in the thread. If you want to talk about something else, post in the appropriate thread, or make a new thread about it. It is best to read up on what's going on in the thread. Conversations evolve, and it's best to respond to the last few messages rather than the very first post alone. Ideally, read through the entire thread to get a sense of what is going on.
There are language filters here, but it is still nice to not swear excessively. Getting around the language filters by saying "*****" or something similar is treated the same way as normal, filtered swearing, and when not needed and/or used excessively, may result in one or more strikes being given to you.
Another thing that makes you look better, and people like me happier, is the use of capitalization and punctuation. It is much nicer to read something that is several complete sentences, with word capitalization and punctuation when necessary then it is to read a huge, run-on sentence that never once made use of the shift key.
The term "Spam" is relatively simple. Any post that does not contribute to a thread, which includes "yeah, I agree" type posts and "bump" posts are considered spam, and are not allowed.
Double posting is rude and isn't allowed. Please utilize the edit button if you really need to add to the conversation, but no one has replied.
vB Code
vB Code is the code that you use in your posts to create various things such as a list, and to change the size, color, boldness of text, etc..
The simplest way to use vB Code is to use the buttons in the Post Reply page. However, those aren't there when using the Quick Reply feature, so you have to know what the codes are to use them.
If you want to emphasize something, it is more effective to use bold or italics instead of ALL CAPS. The codes are [b]bold[/b] and [i]italics[/i]
When you have a discussion, and you wish to quote someone else, the simplest way to do this is by clicking the "Quote" button at the bottom of the post you wish to quote. However, you may also manually do this by using the [quote] code.
Quote:
The quote code puts whatever is written between the opening and closing tags, [quote] and [/quote], into "brackets". This is much simpler, and nicer to look at then when you type a bunch of dashes (-) to emulate this, or using quotation marks.
All the other codes work in the same way, with open tags [*code] at the beginning of what you want to change, and close codes [*/code] at the end of it.
The color tag you use to change the color of the text. Use the names of the colors, such as "blue" or "orange." Hex code doesn't work. You may also use things like "navy."
If you want to say something that might spoil a game or a movie for someone, be kind and use the [spoiler] tags. [spoiler] tags make a lovely box for you, like this:
Spoiler (Highlight to read):Neat, huh?
To see a list of all the available tags, you may click on the "Help" link next to the vB Code heading on the Post Reply page, or clicking on this link
:: Forum Etiquette ::
More ways to be a good, productive, and liked member of the ZU community.
Do not make an entire post in leet speak or AOL talk. It is incredibly annoying to read.
When you post something, complete sentences are always a plus. Sentences make posts easier to read, and they make you sound smarter!
Another thing that is always good to have is separate paragraphs. When you make a long post, try and separate ideas with the Enter or Return key occasionally. Consider this post. If I did not separate any of these lines, imagine how hard it would be to read this? Keep that in mind when you make long posts, post stories, or participate in the RPG (or Battle Arena) as well.
Flaming is looked down upon, and can be punished with strikes, and even bans in some cases. If someone says something you don't agree with, by all means, say so. But, there is no need to insult the person in the process. Flaming is very unproductive, and doesn't help anyone.
Most everyone here seems to like smilies. I personally don't, but I don't hold that against people. However, don't overuse the smilies in a post. One or two smilies is okay. One every sentence is not. Multiple in a row is annoying, and should thus be avoided.
Rent-a-modding, that is to say, acting on behalf of a moderator, is frowned upon, and if continued, will result in warnings. If you feel that there is a bad post, either report it to the mods via the Bad Post Button, or through PMs.
:: General Forum Stuff ::
"What is it?", you say? Well, I'll tell you.
Private Messaging
The Private Message system is a way to have private conversations with other Forum members, similar to e-mail, except it is just within the Forum.
Private Messages are generally referred to as "PMs."
You can access the PM system by clicking in the words "Private Message" at the top of the Forums, or by clicking the same thing at the bottom of the Forum Index.
If you get a Private Message, a message window will appear when you visit the forums, unless you have that disabled. If that is disabled, you can see if you have unread messages by looking at the bottom of the forum index. There it lists your number of unread messages, and total messages.
If you would like to send someone a PM, you can click the button that says "PM" at the bottom of their posts, or view their profile and click "PM This Member." You could also access the PM system by clicking the "New Message" button. If you do that, you must enter the user name of the member you wish to send a PM to.
When PMing someone, be sure to enter in a subject.
Advertising through PMs is a bannable offence in some cases. Remember that.
Adoption
It seems that the 'thing' these days for newbies is to get 'adopted' by a veteran member of the forums. So, I might as well explain it as best I can.
"Adoption" basically entails puting a little note about it in your signature, and making friends with your adopter.
The point of adoption is to make a quick friend at ZU, as well as someone who you can turn to in order to ask newbie like questions, or anything else for that matter.
Getting adopted is not in any way mandatory. It is entirely voluntary. I don't personally see a point to it, since, as you can see by viewing my signature that I don't have a newbie of my own.
It seems to me that in every welcome thread, several people say "Join such-and-such Clan!", so I suppose it should be explained a bit.
There are three Clans: Farore, Nayru and Din. There is no possible way for you to create a new clan. Don't ask.
To join a Clan, you must have at least 50 posts, and have been a member for at least a month.
You may join only one Clan, and you can't pick which one. When you are eligable, and wish to join a clan, you take a 'test' which is most similar to those personality tests floating all over the net. How you answer determines what clan you join.
Clan issues, questions, etc. take place at The Temple of Light and Dark, which is located near the bottom of the Forum Index. There is a thread there that is titled "Clan FAQ." Details for joining are there.
Joining a Clan gives you access to the Clan's private forum, where you can discuss things, anything, with a smaller group of people. It also allows you to see the Clan Games forum.
Speaking of which, the Clan games, which occur occasionally, are where the three clans compete in some sort of activity (different each time) to determine the best clan. The clan games vary over time, so you'll have to wait and see what it is, exactly.
There is no best Clan. A person's opinion of which clan is best is generally whichever clan they are in. Don't be influenced by people saying a certain Clan is the best, because you may not agree.
The Battle Arena (commonly refered to as the BA) is where RPG-style battles take place.
In order to participate in the Battle Arena, you must submit a character in the Character Approval sub-forum, where it will be (dis)approved by one of the BA council. When submitting a character, be sure to follow the character information format.
Unlike the clans, you do not need to be a member for 1 month, or have 50 posts. Simply create and submit a character to use.
Ranks
Beneath everyone's name, there is a title. These titles correspond to the post count of the user. Once a user has been a member for 120 days, and has at least 50 posts, a custom rank is awarded.
Name Changes
You are allowed to change your name while you stay at ZU. To do so, all you need to do is PM a Super Moderator or Administrator (spdude will not do name changes for you, however) asking to do so. There are a two conditions to getting a name change: 1)You subject your PM with "Name Change" and try to bold ([b][/b] are the tags to bold) the username you want to change to. 2)You are with Zelda Universe for two (2) months before you get your first name change (and members must wait for at least 3 months before changing their names yet again). However, any mod can deny any change at their discretion. Please keep that in mind when making your next change.
The Staff
There are a number of moderators here at the Zelda Universe Forums in addition to the site staff. A listing of them all can be found in the Forum Leaders section at the bottom of the forum index. The staff are separated into several groups, webmasters, administrators, super mods, global mods, section mods, and forum mods, each of whom have varying sizes for area of control, and responsiblities around the site.
:: Signatures & Avatars ::
Explanation of how to use pictures and such. Please note that I can't post tags properly when giving examples, so I have added *s to all of them. When I give a tag to use, remember to leave out the *s.
Avatars
Your avatar is a picture displayed underneath your username when you post messages. An avatar cannot be larger than 130x100 pixels and 25 kb. Find a picture yourself, or get one from a signature shop in the Signature Shop Forum.
To make a picture your avatar, you will need to click on the "User CP" link at the top of the ZU Forums Index, and then the "Edit Avatar" link. This will bring you to the Avatar Selection Screen. From there, you can either enter the URL (web address) of the image, or select and upload it from your computer's hard drive.
Signatures
Signatures can include one image that is a maximum of 400 x 150 pixels & 200kb (maximum; animated or not), or two pictures which add up to no more than 400 pixels wide and 150 pixels tall, as well as three lines of text. If you have no images, you are allowed up to 7 lines of text (as it would take the place of an image).
"Blinkies" (animated images showing text) are counted as images, not text.
At the top of all the pages of the ZU Forums, there is a menu bar. Click on "User CP". In that page, you will find an "Edit Signature" link. Click on it. There is a space for entering your signature. To put an image in, you will need to write [img]your_picture's_URL[/img]. Click "Save Signature" at the bottom.
More on Signatures & Avatars
Images for avatars and signatures should be .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, or .png. Bitmaps and other picture types are generally far too large in size to use. The avatar uploading feature will not let you upload an avatar if it is too large, and signature images that are too large are not good for dial-up users. I don't like bitmap signatures, and I have a fast cable connection!
A URL is the web address of a webpage or file. You can see the URL of a webpage in the address bar of your Internet browser, and you can find the URL of a picture, once it's uploaded, by right-clicking on the picture and selecting "Properties". An example of a URL for a picture is "http://members.lycos.co.uk/kokirikid256/imperial.jpg", which is for one of my old avatars.
Signature shops and their owners in the Signature Shop Forum make quality images for your signature and avatar needs.
Before requesting a sig/avy set, be kind to the sig makers by following the requesting rules.
To center something, add in [center] tags. The line should look something like this:
[center][img]http://members.lycos.co.uk/kokirikid256/imperial.jpg[/img][/center]. The same applies for text, but without the [img] tags.
As you may already know from the nifty buttons at the top of the "Post Reply" page, the tag for color is [color=(insertcolorhere)]. In order to have your links to other web pages a different color, have the [color] tags inside the [url] tags. For example: [url=http://www.zeldauniverse.net/main.php?page=msgboard][color=red]The Rules![/color][/url]. Otherwise, the link will still be the default tan color of ZU's links.
:: More Help ::
Although I don't personally participate in it, a good way to learn all about the workings of the Forum, as well as make a new friend or two here, is the Adoption Center. There, you, the newbie, can get adopted by a benevolent member personally approved by everyone's favorite Newbie Board Moderator, Lioness.
Making a welcome thread prompts lots of members to welcome you and generally spew random advice, which could be useful, so don't neglect to make a thread proclaiming that you've joined! Just be sure to keep it in the New Members' Board.
The Moderators and Adminstrators are knowledgable, and helpful. If you're lost, you can ask any of us about something using a Private Message.
As is probably apparent from the existence of this thread, I am willing to help with any problems you may be having, so if you have a question for me, feel free to Private Message me, or IM me, if that's what you use to sustain your socialization. Either way, I will respond, and update this lovely post accordingly so as to assist future members.
Now that you've read over this guide, get out there, post, meet new people, and have fun!
__________________
If the world is to be destroyed, so be it. If my fate is to die, I must simply laugh.
Read up on the Rules!
Last edited by BigGoronSword; 08-06-2007 at 09:29 PM.
Reason: Updating some hyperlinks
03-16-2004, 10:31 PM
