Forum  FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Below you will find a list of frequently asked questions. You can click on any of these and get some help with anything you might be having a problem with. If you know of anything else that should be addressed on this page please send your suggestions to info@awinspire.com.

Why should I register a Username?
Why do you ask for two email addresses?
Do I have to accept cookies?
How do I login?
Help! I'm having trouble logging in
What is the string that appears beneath my username in posts?
What are these Titles about?
I forgot my password!
How do I change my password?
How do I add an image to my message?
Is there a limit to signature image size?
Can I attach music to my post?
What are the rules?
How do I edit my profile?
How do I edit my display preferences?
Why is a post's subject so important?
How do I find posts that may already have the answer to the question I have?
What does the flashing envelope icon on the Menu bar denote?
What do the letters in the Received Private Messages display denote?
I'm having problems getting the URL tags to work
How do I layout my posts so as to have white space between paragraphs?
Is there a spellchecker?
What if I make a mistake in my post?
What if I post in the wrong forum?
Can I use html in my posts?
How do I put a poll in my post?
I want to see more (or less) posts per page.
What's with all the buttons?
Why are Subject, Poster and Posted on clickable?
Can I run my own forum?

Why should I register a Username?
By registering a Username, you will be able to edit your profile and preferences. You will get the most out of your time here if you change your profile to suit your individual tastes. There are a lot of options in your profile to make your experience here more enjoyable, so please take a few moments to try the various settings. Also only people with registered Usernames can take advantage of the "New Posts" feature upon each visit.

Why do you ask for two email addresses?
The real email address is used for email notifications and forum subscriptions and to email your password. The other is what other users see when they view your profile. We realize that some people don't want everyone to know their normal email address, but we need to know it in case you want to subscribe to a forum or if you want to have replies emailed to you. For this reason you can give us your real email address that only we will see and you can provide a different one for the general public. Some people like to put in something like scream@no.spam.domain.com. This way people can still figure out what your real email address is, but spamming agents can't just parse through the page and spam you.

Do I have to accept cookies?
Yes. Cookies are used to track your Username/Password and which posts you have read for your current session. Without accepting cookies some functions won't work properly.

How do I login?
If you have registered an account (username) within these forums, you must login in order to take advantage of the personalization features. To login, look in the upper right-hand corner of your screen for the Login link. This link will take you to a page where you can enter your Username and Password. Keep in mind that the password is always case-sensitive. This means that S and s are considered different by the software.

Once you have entered your Username and Password, you'll be brought to what is called the Start Page. If you have any Private messages, you'll see a flashing envelope at the top left of the menu bar. You can now enter the main forum area by clicking the Main Index link at the top of the page. This will list all of the forums for you.

Help! I'm having trouble logging in!
This checklist may help you successfully login:

• Make sure you are entering your password correctly. They are case-sensitive.
• Ensure that your browser supports cookies; if so, check the security level you are using. High levels of security restriction in certain browsers will automatically reject cookies. In order to use the key features of these forums, you'll need to accept cookies.
• Completely logout by hitting the Logout link on the page, and then log back in again.
• After logging in, you may have to hit the reload/refresh button on your Web browser to expedite the authentication.
• If you continue to have problems, go to the login page. Enter your Username in the Username field and click the "I forgot my password" button. A temporary password will be generated and emailed to the email address used for the account setup. You MUST enter a Username in the Username field before you use this feature.

What is the string that appears beneath my username in posts?
It's a system-generated User Title - stranger, newbie, journeyman, member etc. You progress through the various levels according to the cumulative number of posts you have made.

What are these titles about?
Everyone has a title within the forum. You will notice them below the Username in each post. Some titles are automatically assigned based on the number of posts a user has made, and some titles are assigned by the forum owner to denote official representatives of the company or other VIPs in the forums.

Here is the list of the standard titles and # of posts to achieve them:

• 0 Newcomer
• 10 Regular
• 50 Experienced
• 100 Pro
• 200 Enthusiast
• 500+ Guru

I forgot my password!
If you have forgotten your password, dont worry! You can very easily have a temporary password emailed to you. All you need to do is go to the login page of the forums and enter your Username in the Username field. Then click the button marked I forgot my password, and a temporary password will be emailed to the email address of the username you registered.

This process is safe because the password is only emailed to the original owner of the account. There is no way to steal the password by using this feature.

How do I change my password!
You may change your password any time. All you need to do is click the My Home option found on any page. Then, under the Main Configuration heading, click on "Personal Information, email, password...". To change your password, simply edit the password and verify password fields on this page. Once you have entered the new password, click submit to save the information. Keep in mind that passwords are case-sensitive.

How do I add an image to my message?
In order to add an image to your message or your signature, you must have the image already available on a web server. This can be an image on your own personal web page, for example. To place an image within a message, simply use the following Markup Tag:

[image]http://www.url_to_image.com/image_name.gif[/image]

For example, if you have an image called cateye.gif and its available from your own website at http://www.mywebsite.com/pics, then you would use the following image markup:

[image]http://www.mywebsite.com/pics/cateye.gif[/image]

You can do the same for your signature. Click the My Home option found on any page. Then, under the Main Configuration heading, click on "Personal Information, email, password...". Look for the Signature box, and enter your desired information, including any images/markup as above.

Note: To keep the forums loading quickly for everyone, it is recommended that you do not exceed 35k for your image size.

Is there a limit to signature image size?
We ask that you keep your images relatively small. As a rule, please do not exceed 125 x 600 pixels and/or 35k for a signature image. This will ensure that the forums load quickly for all users.

Can I attach music to my post?
If you are registered, and provided you  are not  running a very old browser (something like Netscape 3.0)  then the answer is yes you can. When you preview your post you will have the opportunity to attach the following file types to your post:

mid
.wav
.aiff
.mp3
Any native S90/S90 ES file (.w2p, .w3v, etc.)

Please note Motif file formats appear as two separate files on a computer. You can only attach one file to any given post, so reply to your own post immediately, attaching the 'second' file.

What are the rules?
Registration as a User implies acceptance of the following terms and conditions:

• Participants shall not post any material likely to cause offence, that is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right - without the express permission of the owner of such copyright - or that contains personal phone numbers or addresses.
• Participants may not use the Forums to post or transmit advertisements or commercial solicitations of any kind.
• The appropriate Forum Moderator has the right to edit, censor, delete or otherwise modify any posted message.
• This web site does not verify or guarantee the accuracy of the material posted to the Forums or bear any responsibility for any loss, damage, or other liabilities caused by any posted message.

How do I edit my profile?
Click the My Home link on the Menubar. At the bottom of the next screen you will see options for editing your profile.

How do I edit my display preferences?
Yes, you'll be missing a trick if you fail to take advantage of the versatility UBB.threads Forums offer. There are many aspects of how the Forums are displayed that may be customized. The procedure is similar to that for editing your profile, but in this case, after clicking the My Home link on the Menubar, you need to select the 'Display preferences, .....' option in the Main Configuration area.

You can choose what language you want the Forums to use, the stylesheet that you want to govern the Forums' look and feel, how many posts there are per page, whether or not you want to view Users' pictures alongside their posts, and much more. Once saved, these become your default settings. You may edit these preferences again at anytime.

Why is a post's subject so important?
The first post of a given thread establishes the subject by which all subsequent replies will be known. Once there's been a reply, the thread subject cannot be subsequently changed. It's therefore important to get the subject right from the outset. Make it as descriptive and as specific as possible. For example, 'LCD burn-in questions', is much better than something completely generic, such as 'Newbie needs help!'. Not only is it more likely to elicit a response, but it'll also make it much easier for all posts in the thread to be subsequently located.

How do I find posts that may already have the answer to the question I have?
One of the key benefits of the discussion board format is that it enables commonly asked questions to be answered once, for the benefit of all. Before posting your question, it is always worth checking to see if it has already been asked - and answered! You can do this via the Search link on the Menubar. Various options are available, both for how the search term is specified and for controlling how much of the Forums database you want to search. This is where the specificity of thread subjects is important, making it much easier to locate precisely what it is you're after from a list of search results.

Additionally you can refer to the Support Knowledgebase, which is a detailed database compiled during Motif's first year on the market.

What does the flashing envelope icon on the Menu bar denote?
It means that you have unread Private Messages.

What do the letters in the Received Private Messages display denote?
'N' denotes an unread message.
'R' denotes a message that's been replied to.
A space denotes a message that's been read but not replied to.

I'm having problems getting the URL tags to work!
If the tags are showing up in your text or you're getting a link, but it's to 'http:///', you're including some unwanted spaces in the syntax. Avoid any intervening spaces, and everything will work fine.

How do I layout my posts so as to have white space between paragraphs?
By hitting carriage return twice at the points where you want to insert a blank line. If you opt to preview your posts, you get the opportunity to do a further iteration of editing before you finally accept the post.

Is there a spellchecker?
No. If you want to be sure that you're word perfect, you'll have to spellcheck your post in some text editor and then cut and paste it into the Forums edit box.

What if I make a mistake in my post?
Users can edit their own posts up to 150 hours after they are made. Where the change is substantive, you should mark the post as edited so as to alert viewers to the changed content. For cosmetic changes it's better not to do so.

What if I post in the wrong forum?
Let the Forum Administrator know - he/she will be able to move it for you.  We also reserve the right to move posts automatically if they would be better viewed elsewhere.

Can I use HTML in my posts?
There are 2 ways that this can be configured on a per board basis. If HTML is On then you will see HTML is On and you can use normal HTML in your posts. If UBBCode is on you will see UBBCode is On. The following tags are available for your use if UBBCode is enabled:

[b] text [/b] = Makes the given text bold.
[email] joe@email.com [/email] = Makes the given email address clickable.
[i] text [/i] = Makes the given text italic.
[image]url[/image] = Puts the given url in an img src tag.
[code] text [/code] = Surrounds the given text with pre tags.
[quote] text [/quote] = Surrounds the given text with blockquote and hr's. This UBBCode tag is used for quoting a reply.
[url] link [/url] = Makes the given url into a link.
[url=link] title [/url] = Makes the given title into a hyperlink pointing to link.
[list]
[*]Item 1
[*]Item 1
[/list] = Makes a bullet list. [list=A] or [list=1] will make order/numbered lists.
[blush] or :o =
[cool] =
[crazy] =
[frown] or :( =
[laugh] or :D =
[mad] =
[shocked] =
[smile] or :) =
[tongue] or :p =
[wink] or ;) =
[color:red] text [/color] = Makes the given text red.
[color:#00FF00] text [/color] = Makes the given text green.

How do I put a poll in my post?
Putting a poll in your post is simple, but remember: Posts with polls in them cannot be edited but they may be deleted. To add a poll to your post, use this format:

[pollstart]
[polltitle=Name of your poll]
[polloption=First Choice]
[polloption=Second Choice]
[polloption=As many choices as you would like]
[pollstop]

I want to see more (or less) posts per page.
You can change the number of posts to be displayed per page by editing your profile. You can set this from anything between 1 and 99 posts per page. When you first sign up this gets set to 10 posts per page.

What's with all the buttons?
The buttons are used for navigation and displaying posts. Depending on the screen you are on they may serve different purposes.

When displaying a list of all threads:

• The and buttons will take you to the previous or next page of posts.
• The button will take you to the index of all available forums.
• The button will let you make a new post on that board.
• The and buttons will allow you to toggle between expanded and collapsed threads. Expanded threads will show the subject of all posts and replies in a threaded format. Collapsed threads will show the subject of the main post along with the number of replies to that post.

When viewing individual threads:

• The and buttons will take you to the previous or next thread.
• The button will take you back to the listing of all posts on that page.
• The button allows you to view the entire thread on one page if there are any replies to the original message.
• The button allows you to view the current post with all other posts on that thread displayed below in a threaded format.
• The button allows you to reply to a post.
• The button allows you to edit a post.

Why are Subject, Poster and Posted On clickable?
You can click on any of these to change the order in which the posts are sorted and displayed. If you click on Subject once, it will display posts by Subject in reverse alphabetical order. If you click on it again it will display posts by Subject in alphabetical order. Poster and Posted on works similarly.

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