Connection and registration issues Why do I have to register? You may not want to do this, but the forum administrator may have configured the forums so that it is necessary to register to post messages. In addition, registration allows you to benefit from additional functionalities inaccessible to guests such as personalized avatars, private messaging, sending e-mails to other members, joining groups, etc. Creating an account is quick and highly recommended. What does COPPA mean? COPPA (or Children's Online Privacy Protection Act1998) is a law in the United States that says websites that may collect information from minors under the age of 13 must obtain written consent from parents (or a legal guardian) for the collection of such information, allowing '' identify a minor under the age of 13. If you are not sure if this applies to you, when you register or someone does it for you, contact legal counsel for advice. Note that phpBB Limited and the owners of this forum cannot provide legal advice and cannot be contacted for legal questions of any kind, except those mentioned in the question "Who to contact for abuse or legal questions regarding this forum? " I want to register, but I can't! A forum administrator may have disabled the creation of new accounts. It may also have banned your IP or banned the username you want to use. Contact a forum administrator for assistance. I am registered but I cannot connect! First, verify your username and password. If they are correct, there are two possibilities: If COPPA management is active and if you indicated that you were under 13 years old during registration, then you will have to follow the instructions received by email. Some forums may also require that any new account creation be activated by yourself or by an administrator before you can log in. This information is indicated during registration. If you received an email, follow its instructions. If you have not received an email, you may have provided an incorrect address or the email may have been processed by a spam filter. If you are unsure of the email address provided, contact an administrator. Why can't I log in? Several reasons could explain this. First, verify that your username and password are correct. If they are, contact a forum administrator to verify that you have not been banned. It is also possible that the owner of the website has a configuration error on his side, and that he will have to correct it. I have registered in the past but can no longer connect ?! An administrator may have disabled or deleted your account. Indeed, it is common to regularly delete non-posting members to reduce the size of the database. If this happens to you, try to re-register and be more invested in the forum. I've lost my password ! Do not panic ! Although your password cannot be recovered, it can easily be reset. To do this, go to the login page and click on I forgot my password . Follow the instructions and you should be able to log in again. If, however, you cannot reset your password, contact a forum administrator. Why am I automatically logged out? If you do not check the Remember me when you log in box, you will only stay logged in for a specified period of time. This prevents someone else from using your account without your knowledge using the same computer. To stay connected, check the Remember me when connecting box. It is not recommended if you use a public computer to access the forum (library, internet cafe, university, etc.). If you do not see this box, it means that a forum administrator has disabled this feature. How to change my settings ? If you are a member of this forum, all your settings are stored in our database. To modify them, access the User Panel (usually this link is accessible by clicking on your username at the top of the forum pages). This will allow you to change all of your account settings and preferences. What are the images near my username? There are two images that can be associated with your username when you view a topic's posts. One of them can be associated with your rank, generally stars or blocks indicating your number of messages or your status on the forum. The second image, often larger, is known as an avatar and is generally unique or unique to each member. How can I display an avatar? From your user panel, in the "profile" tab you can add an avatar using one of the following four avatar methods: Gravatar, gallery, remote or imported. The forum administrator can activate or not the avatars and decide how they are made available. If you cannot use an avatar, contact a forum administrator. What is my rank and how do I change it? The ranks, which can be associated with the user name, indicate the number of messages posted or identify certain members such as moderators and administrators. In general, you cannot directly modify the title of a row because it is configured by the administrator of the forum. Avoid posting messages on the forum for the sole purpose of moving to the next rank. On most forums, this practice is rarely tolerated and a moderator (or administrator) can easily lower your message counter. When I click on a member's email link , I am asked to log in !? Only members can send emails via the integrated form (if the function has been activated by the administrator). This is to prevent malicious use of the functionality by guests. Posting Problems How do I create a new topic or post a response? Click on the "New" button from the forum page or "Reply" from the topic page. You may need to be registered to write a message A list of available options is displayed at the bottom of the forums page, example: You can post new topics, You can attach files, etc. How to change or delete a post ? Unless you are an administrator or moderator, you can only modify or delete your own messages. You can modify a message (sometimes for a limited time after its publication) by clicking on the modify button of the corresponding message. If someone has already replied to the message, a small text will appear at the bottom of the message indicating that it has been modified, the number of times it has been modified as well as the date and time of the last modification. . This message will not appear if a moderator or administrator modifies the message, however they have the option of leaving a note indicating that they have modified the message on their own initiative. Note that users cannot delete a message after someone has replied to it. Why can't I access a forum? Certain forums can be reserved for certain users or groups. To view, read, post, etc., you must have the related permissions. Only group moderators and administrators can grant these accesses, so you must contact them. Why can't I attach files to my message? The possibility of adding attached files can be granted by forum, by group, or by user. The administrator may not have allowed adding attachments to the forum you are posting to, or perhaps only a group can join them. Contact the administrator if you are unsure why you cannot add attachments to a forum. Why did I receive a warning? Each administrator has their own set of rules for their site. If you have broken a rule, you may receive a warning. Note that this is the administrator's decision, and that phpBB Limited is not affected by warnings from a given site. Contact the administrator if you do not understand the reasons for your warning. How can I report posts to a moderator ? If the administrator has allowed it, go to the message to report and you should see a button to report the message. By clicking on it, you will access the necessary steps to do so. What is the "Save" button for in the message writing page? It allows you to save drafts of your messages and post them later. To reload them, go to the user panel ( Preview tab -> Draft management ). Why does my post need to be approved ? The administrator may have decided that the messages of the forum in which you post need to be validated before being published. It is also possible that the administrator has placed you in a group whose messages must be validated before being published. Contact the administrator for more information. Formatting and types of subjects What are BBCodes? BBCode is a special implementation in HTML, offering wide control over the formatting of the elements of a message. The administrator can decide if you can use BBCodes, you can also deactivate them in each of your messages using the appropriate option of the message writing form. The BBCode itself is similar to HTML style, but the tags are enclosed in square brackets [and] rather than <and>. For more information on BBCode, see the guide accessible from the message writing page. Can I use HTML? No, it is not possible to publish HTML on this forum. Most of the formatting allowed by HTML can be applied with BBCodes. What are the Smileys ? Smilies, or emoticons, are small images used to express feelings with a simple code, for example: :) means happy, :( means sad. The full list of smileys is visible on the message writing page. They can quickly make a message unreadable and a moderator can decide to remove them or simply delete the message. The administrator can also have defined a maximum number of smileys per message. Can I post images? Yes, you can display images in your messages. In addition, if the administrator has authorized the attached files, you can upload an image to the forum. Otherwise, you must link an image placed on a public Web server, example: http://www.example.com/mon-image.gif. You cannot link images from your computer (unless it is a public Web server) or images placed behind authentication mechanisms, for example: Hotmail mailboxes or Yahoo !, password protected sites, etc. To display the image, use the BBCode [img] tag. What are locked topics ? You can no longer respond to locked topics and any surveys contained therein will be completed. Topics can be locked for different reasons by a moderator or administrator. Depending on the permissions granted by the administrator, you may or may not be able to lock your own topics. What are topic icons ? Subject icons are images that can be associated with messages to reflect their content. The possibility of using subject icons depends on the permissions defined by the administrator. User and group levels What are administrators? Administrators are the users who have the highest level of control over the entire forum. They control all aspects of the forum such as permissions, banning, creating user groups or moderators, etc., according to the permissions that the forum founder has assigned to other administrators. They can also have all the moderation capacities on all of the forums, depending on what the founder has authorized. What are Moderators ? Moderators are users (or groups of users) whose job is to verify the proper functioning of the forum day by day. They have the power to modify or delete messages, to lock, unlock, move, delete and divide the topics of the forums they moderate. Generally, moderators prevent users from going off-topic or posting abusive or offensive content. What are user groups? Groups allow administrators to manage member and guest access to the forum and its features. Each member can belong to one or more groups and each group can have their permissions. Managing members through groups allows administrators to quickly change the permissions of multiple members at once, such as adding moderation permissions or making a private forum accessible. Where to find the list of user groups and how to join them? To view the list of groups, click the User Groups link from your user panel. If you wish to join one of the groups, select the desired group and click the appropriate button. However, not all groups are freely accessible. Some may require approval, some are closed, and others may even be hidden. If the group is said to be "Open", you can join it freely. If the group says "On demand", you can join the group but your request will need to be approved by a group leader. The latter can ask you why you want to join the group and thus decide whether or not to approve your request. Do not bother the group leader if he cancels your request, he surely has his reasons. How to become a group leader? When groups are created by the administrator, they are assigned a group leader. If you want to create a group of users, contact the administrator first by sending them a private message. Why do some members appear in a different color? The administrator can assign a color to the members of a group to make them easily identifiable. What is a "Default Group"? If you are a member of more than one group, the default is used to determine the group rank and color displayed by default. The administrator can allow you to change your default group via your user panel. s the "Forum team" link? This page lists the members of the forum team, including administrators and moderators, as well as other details such as the forums they moderate. Private messaging I can not send private messages ! There are three reasons for this: you are not registered and / or logged in, the administrator has disabled private messaging throughout the forum, or the administrator has prevented you from sending messages. Contact the administrator for more information. I keep receiving unwanted messages! You can automatically delete a member's private messages using message filters in your private messaging settings. If you receive abusive private messages from a particular member, report the messages to moderators. The latter can completely prevent a member from sending private messages. I received spam or abusive email from a member of this forum! The forum email form includes safeguards for tracking users who send such messages. Send the administrator a full copy of the email received. It is very important to include the header (it contains information about the sender of the email). The administrator can then take the necessary measures. How can I add / remove users from my friends or ignored list? You can add users to your list in two ways. In each member's profile, there is a link to add them to your friends or ignored list. Or, from your user panel, you can add members directly by entering their username. You can also remove users from your list from this same page. Search the forums How to search in forums? Enter a search term in the search box at the top of index, forum, or topic pages. Advanced search is accessible by clicking on the "Advanced search" link available on all pages of the forum. Access to research may depend on the graphic themes used. Why does my search return no results ? Your search is probably too vague or includes several common terms not indexed by phpBB. You can refine your search using the options available in the advanced search. Why is my search returning a blank page ?! Your search returns more results than the web server can handle. Use the "Advanced Search" and be more precise in the choice of terms used and the forums concerned by the search. How can we look for members ? Go to the "Members" page, click on the "Find a member" link. How can I find my own posts and topics? Your messages can be found by clicking on the "View your messages" link in the user panel, by clicking on the "Search for user messages" link from your own profile page or by clicking on the link. "Quick access" from any page of the forum. To search for your topics, use the advanced search page and choose the appropriate settings. Attachments What attachments are allowed on this forum? The administrator can allow or prohibit certain types of attachments. If you are not sure what is allowed to be loaded, contact the administrator for more information. How to find all my attachments ? To access the list of files you have attached to your messages and private messages, go to your user panel then Manage attached files . Who to contact for abuse or legal questions regarding this forum? Contact any of the administrators on the "Forum Team" list. How can I contact a forum administrator? For all forum users, you can use the "Contact Us" link, if it has been activated by an administrator. For forum members, you can also use the "Forum team" link.
