Getting to know the forum

Getting to Know the Forum

Once you've logged into the forum you should see something like this (minus the orange numbers).



1. The home button, hit this and you will go back to the main forum view

2. Profile. Click here to view and edit your profile.

3. Messages. Click here to view and send messages.

4. Participated. Click here to view all the threads you have recently posted in.

5. Category. On the home page you will see a number of grey boxes like this, they are the different categories of the forum. Everything under rules and information is general information for the site. Under the Ivyclan category you will find the Ivyclan roleplay boards and so on and so forth.

6. Board. To enter a board you want to click on the big grey letters such as Site News or Information. You will have to enter a board to make threads.

In the home page scroll down to find the Out of Character, Characters and Roleplay areas.

Posting

First things first you need to find an active thread. You can do this in a number of ways.

Think about which area you would like to roleplay in. Is your cat an Ivyclan cat, a Roseclan cat or a cat outside the clans? For Ivyclan cats you want to roleplay in the Ivyclan board, in the Roseclan board for Rosecaln and for other cats you want to pick one of the boards under Beyond Borders.



You should get a page looking something like this. You want to pick one of the threads lower down like [NC] Example Post. Remember to check when the post was last active by looking to the right.


Otherwise you can scroll all the way down the homepage until you find where it says FORUM INFORMATION & STATISTICS. Click on Recent Threads just beneath the heading and you'll have a page looking something like this.

From here you want to pick a thread. Look closely at the titles, Roleplay threads will generally have descriptive names and either [IC] for Ivyclan, [RC] for Roseclan or [NC] for non clan. You want to pick a thread that has the code that best fits the character you wish to roleplay with. In this case we would pick [NC] Example Post for our non-clan character.

Looking for a specific thread you replied to the other day? Click on PARTICIPATED under the header image to see your participated threads.



1. Quick reply area. You can type your post out here but it's a little tricky to add effects in this box.

2. Post Quick Reply. Once you've written out your reply press this button.

3. Reply button. If you're going to make a more complicated reply with things like bold text, italics etc these buttons will take you to a more detailed posting area.

4. Thread page navigation. This shows you how many pages the thread has.


Editing



Oh no! I made a mistake. Am I doomed to be forever mocked for my atrocious spelling? Luckily proboards lets you edit your post. Just click the edit button (blue) shown in the picture. If you need to delete your post you can do so by clicking the gear button (red). Keep in mind there are some courtesies when deleting and editing your posts.

• Try not to delete posts in roleplay threads unless you double posted or something. Generally only delete if you have a really good reason.
  
• Try not to delete threads. If you must delete a thread please do not delete the first post as that corrupts the thread. Instead put Mod Please Delete in the title or message Leopard and we will take care of it.
  
• When editing please try not to edit the actual content of your posts in roleplay. How would you feel if you replied to a thread only to find your reply didn't make sense because the person before you edited the last reply. Editing for spelling, grammar and occasional clarity is fine.
  
• Use this feature on character skellies, plotting posts etc to make things easier for other members.
  

Making Threads

Firstly you need to navigate to the area you wish to post in. There are instructions on this in the last post.



Once you are in the board you want to hit the Create Thread button (red).



You're now ready to write out your thread.

1. Thread title. Call your thread whatever you like. Be sure to include [NC] if your thread is in a Non-Clan territory, [IC] if it is in an Ivyclan territory or [RC] if it's in a Roseclan territory.

2. The style bar. Here you can make text bold, tag people and add images.

3. The reply box. Write out your reply here.

4. BBCode/Preview mode. This allows you to toggle between seeing the code and the text as it will be posted. You probably want to keep it in preview mode.

Tips and Tricks:

• Have your character do something. It's much easier to reply to a post about a cat chasing leaves as they fall from trees than it is to reply to a post about a cat taking a nap.
  
• What time of day is it? What's the weather like? Where in the territory is your cat? You should include all this information. You may want to look at the weather and the landmarks post in the board you are posting in for some idea.
  
• Who are you posting with? Try to include your cat's name in the first sentence or two. If they're a Roseclan cat venturing into Ivyclan territory make that clear.
  

Notifications

Maybe someone hasn't replied to your post in a while whatever the reason there are a few ways to get someone's attention.


Tagging

Tagging is great for getting the attention of someone who hasn't replied in a thread yet. We also require leaders tag roleplayers involved in ceremonies and deputies roleplayers involved in patrols.


To tag someone in your reply click the symbol circled in red.


From there just type in the name of the person you wish to tag and then click their name when it pops up. Once they've been tagged the member will see a number by the profile button. If they click on their profile and then notifications they will see a link to the thread. You probably experienced this when your characters were added to the allegiances.

Liking

Liking is most useful in roleplay when a member may have forgotten about replying to a thread. Find one of their posts in that thread and click the little heart to send them a notification.