Welcome to our new, richly featured Xenforo (XF) software platform.
There is no user help manual for the XF features. There is a Help link on the bottom right of this page, which provides a little info. Where I will look for help is in the Xenforo 2 Administrator's Manual and on the Xenforo support forums. You can, too. Anyone can search and read the XF support forums for answers, but only I as the licensee can post there.
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The purpose of this thread is to provide a running How-To FAQ about various XF features, which I will update periodically.
• Your Profile and Account Settings: I recommend you initially click on your profile avatar/icon in the navigation bar on the upper right. Then, you can experiment with and adjust all the various options in the Account Details, Privacy, Preferences and other account pages. You enter your location and upload an avatar on the Account Details page.
• Individual Posts are Called "Messages" in Xenforo Lingo. But I personally will use both terms to mean the same thing. Messages, whether OPs or replies, are entered in the "text entry box".
• Editing Time for Messages: You have 48 hours after posting a message to edit it. After that, the editing button will disappear. If you have an important need to edit something older than that, contact me and either I can do it or give you temporary permission to do so.
• Choosing Different Site Color Themes: The site's default color theme is blue fonts on white background. If you go down to the bottom left corner of any page, you will see the Style Chooser icon (paint brush). Click that and you can also choose the Chestnut Green-Gray, Mocha Style, Arctic, Shades of Blue, or Shades of Grey color themes.
• Forum Descriptions: If you hover your cursor over the name of a forum in the Default, Arctic, Shades of Blue or Shades of Grey color themes, you will see the detailed description of what type of threads belong in the forum. The forum descriptions are permanently visible in the Chestnut Green-Gray and the Mocha color themes.
• How to Post a New Thread: There are two ways to start a new thread, which are essentially the same:
→ 1. On the top right of the home page there is a rectangular button that says "Post thread". Click that. It brings up a box with a list of all the forums. Choose the forum that best fits your topic and click it. That will open up a new thread posting page where you fill in the title of your thread and then type your OP message in the text entry box . There are also various editing tool buttons above the text entry box that you can use for bold, italics, embedding photos and videos, etc. When you are finished and want to go public, press the "Post thread" button at the bottom of the text entry box.
→ 2. From the front page list of forums, choose the forum that best fits your topic and click it. That will bring up a page with a list of all the threads in that forum. At the top right of that page is a rectangular "Post thread" button. Click it. That will open up the new thread posting page as described in #1 above.
• How to Post Images and Attachments: Images can be embedded within message text using the Insert Image (mountain) icon in the toolbar atop the text entry box. When you click the Insert Image icon, you can either upload an image from your computer or link to the internet URL of an image. I highly recommend uploading for the reasons explained HERE.
Images can also be attached at the end (bottom) of your message using the Attach Files (paperclip) button below the text entry box. Attachments can be images, but also can be documents, sound files, video files and other things.
I have set both the maximum images per message and maximum attachments per message to 30.
• How to Post YouTube (and many other) Videos: The way you embed a YouTube video into a message is to right click on it when it's playing on YouTube, which will bring up a menu of actions including "Copy video URL". Left click on that, which puts that video's address on your clipboard. Then, in the text entry box here, click on the "Media" button (double mountain icon) in the text entry box toolbar. Paste the video's URL into the Insert Media box that pops up and hit Continue. That will paste your video into the text entry box wherever your cursor is. You can preview your message and check the video's functionality by clicking the Preview button on the extreme right of the text entry box toolbar. If you are satisfied, you can then post.
Many other videos, such as those from Vimeo and X (formerly Twitter), can be embedded by the same site tools as long as there is a way to copy the video's URL.
Embedding videos, instead of just posting a text link to them, makes the site visually classier, flashier, more professional looking, and more like the popular visual presentations on social media, which are direct competitors to traditional discussions forums such as this.
• Quoting other Posters: There are two types of quote features:
→ 1. Select quote: If you want to quote and reply to something Adam wrote, just highlight the words in Adam's post you want quoted. Then click the mini Reply button that pops up. That will take you to the text entry box for your reply, which automatically will have the quoted words entered.
→ 2. Multi-quote: If you want to quote both Adam and Eve (or more), highlight the words from Adam's post you want to quote, and then press the multi-quote (+Quote) button that pops up. Then do the same within Eve's post. When you scroll down to the text entry box, press the Insert Quotes button, which will pop up a Review Selected Messages box that shows you the quotes you have selected to paste into the text entry box. If you are satisfied that they are the quotes you have selected, press the Quote Messages button and the selected quotes will be entered in the text entry box for your reply. You can enter text above, below or between the selected quotes depending on where you position your cursor.
• "Unfurling" URLs: If you want to link to the URL of an article, you can do it the old-fashioned, unfurled way: Click the Insert Link icon in the text entry box and then paste in the URL. The result looks like this:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000903...ecanoeing.com/sportcanoeing/solomystique.html
In XF, you can forget clicking the Insert Link icon and simply paste the URL directly into the text box. You must paste the link in as a new paragraph if there is regular text before it. In other words, you must precede your pasted URL with a line space. Then, the software will automatically "unfurl" most URLs to give a clickable snippet preview of the article that looks like this:
Unfurling URLs is easier and more sophisticated looking, methinks, and it makes our site distinctive from others. There is more detail on how to post unfurling and regular links HERE.
• Direct Messages (which used to be called Private Conversations): There are at least two ways to initiate a direct message (DM). The first is to click on the envelope icon in the navigation bar underneath the site logo, and then follow the prompts. The second way is to hover your cursor over the member's name or avatar, which will bring up several items of information including a Start Direct Message prompt.
• Cleaning Out Your Direct Messages Inbox: To clean out old DMs, Xenforo has what it calls a "Leave" function (rather than "Delete"). Leaving a DM removes it from your inbox, but not the other participant's inbox. You may "soft" leave, which will restore the DM to your inbox if you get a future response to the DM. A "hard" leave will delete the DM on your end permanently.
You can reach the "Leave" function in two ways. First, if the DM is open like a thread, you will see a Leave button on the upper right. That button will let you soft or hard leave that single DM.
The second method allows you to leave multiple DMs at the same time. Look at the list of your DMs and you will see a checkbox next to each DM's title. Check as many DM boxes as you want to leave and a "Choose action" menu will open at the bottom of your screen. Select "leave direct messages" from the menu and then press the blue "Go" button. That will let you soft or hard leave all the checked DMs at once.
• Auto-Saving of Drafts: Message text that you type in the text entry box will automatically be saved every 30 seconds and will be stored for 120 hours (5 days). This means you can start composing a long message, leave, and then return to it within 120 hours. The text can be manually saved using the Drafts icon in the text entry box tool bar instead of waiting for the 30 second auto-save. To return to a saved draft, you must return to the exact page in the same thread you were in when you typed the interrupted message. If the message you interrupted was the OP of a new thread you had started and you want to find the draft, go to the forum you started it in, press the Post Thread button, and in the thread title field type the exact name of the thread you had started.
• Enhanced Search and Similar Threads: There is an enhanced search feature. You will mostly notice it popping up "Similar Threads" when typing a new thread topic or when just reading a thread. The purpose is to help searchers find threads similar to the topic or question they are interested in. It works more or less well depending how thoroughly former threads were titled with specific, searchable words.
• Reaction Score and Trophies: These are different ways measuring a member's posting impact. Reaction Score is an algorithm based on the reactions a post received. There are five emoji reactions available: Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, Angry. One point is scored to a member for a Like, Love or Haha given to a message, no points are scored for a Wow, Sad or Angry, and all negative scores (such as Dislikes) have been disabled.
Trophy points are awarded by a different and rather uninformative algorithm, which is somewhat explained in the Help link at the bottom right of this page.
There is no user help manual for the XF features. There is a Help link on the bottom right of this page, which provides a little info. Where I will look for help is in the Xenforo 2 Administrator's Manual and on the Xenforo support forums. You can, too. Anyone can search and read the XF support forums for answers, but only I as the licensee can post there.
*****************
The purpose of this thread is to provide a running How-To FAQ about various XF features, which I will update periodically.
• Your Profile and Account Settings: I recommend you initially click on your profile avatar/icon in the navigation bar on the upper right. Then, you can experiment with and adjust all the various options in the Account Details, Privacy, Preferences and other account pages. You enter your location and upload an avatar on the Account Details page.
• Individual Posts are Called "Messages" in Xenforo Lingo. But I personally will use both terms to mean the same thing. Messages, whether OPs or replies, are entered in the "text entry box".
• Editing Time for Messages: You have 48 hours after posting a message to edit it. After that, the editing button will disappear. If you have an important need to edit something older than that, contact me and either I can do it or give you temporary permission to do so.
• Choosing Different Site Color Themes: The site's default color theme is blue fonts on white background. If you go down to the bottom left corner of any page, you will see the Style Chooser icon (paint brush). Click that and you can also choose the Chestnut Green-Gray, Mocha Style, Arctic, Shades of Blue, or Shades of Grey color themes.
• Forum Descriptions: If you hover your cursor over the name of a forum in the Default, Arctic, Shades of Blue or Shades of Grey color themes, you will see the detailed description of what type of threads belong in the forum. The forum descriptions are permanently visible in the Chestnut Green-Gray and the Mocha color themes.
• How to Post a New Thread: There are two ways to start a new thread, which are essentially the same:
→ 1. On the top right of the home page there is a rectangular button that says "Post thread". Click that. It brings up a box with a list of all the forums. Choose the forum that best fits your topic and click it. That will open up a new thread posting page where you fill in the title of your thread and then type your OP message in the text entry box . There are also various editing tool buttons above the text entry box that you can use for bold, italics, embedding photos and videos, etc. When you are finished and want to go public, press the "Post thread" button at the bottom of the text entry box.
→ 2. From the front page list of forums, choose the forum that best fits your topic and click it. That will bring up a page with a list of all the threads in that forum. At the top right of that page is a rectangular "Post thread" button. Click it. That will open up the new thread posting page as described in #1 above.
• How to Post Images and Attachments: Images can be embedded within message text using the Insert Image (mountain) icon in the toolbar atop the text entry box. When you click the Insert Image icon, you can either upload an image from your computer or link to the internet URL of an image. I highly recommend uploading for the reasons explained HERE.
Images can also be attached at the end (bottom) of your message using the Attach Files (paperclip) button below the text entry box. Attachments can be images, but also can be documents, sound files, video files and other things.
I have set both the maximum images per message and maximum attachments per message to 30.
• How to Post YouTube (and many other) Videos: The way you embed a YouTube video into a message is to right click on it when it's playing on YouTube, which will bring up a menu of actions including "Copy video URL". Left click on that, which puts that video's address on your clipboard. Then, in the text entry box here, click on the "Media" button (double mountain icon) in the text entry box toolbar. Paste the video's URL into the Insert Media box that pops up and hit Continue. That will paste your video into the text entry box wherever your cursor is. You can preview your message and check the video's functionality by clicking the Preview button on the extreme right of the text entry box toolbar. If you are satisfied, you can then post.
Many other videos, such as those from Vimeo and X (formerly Twitter), can be embedded by the same site tools as long as there is a way to copy the video's URL.
Embedding videos, instead of just posting a text link to them, makes the site visually classier, flashier, more professional looking, and more like the popular visual presentations on social media, which are direct competitors to traditional discussions forums such as this.
• Quoting other Posters: There are two types of quote features:
→ 1. Select quote: If you want to quote and reply to something Adam wrote, just highlight the words in Adam's post you want quoted. Then click the mini Reply button that pops up. That will take you to the text entry box for your reply, which automatically will have the quoted words entered.
→ 2. Multi-quote: If you want to quote both Adam and Eve (or more), highlight the words from Adam's post you want to quote, and then press the multi-quote (+Quote) button that pops up. Then do the same within Eve's post. When you scroll down to the text entry box, press the Insert Quotes button, which will pop up a Review Selected Messages box that shows you the quotes you have selected to paste into the text entry box. If you are satisfied that they are the quotes you have selected, press the Quote Messages button and the selected quotes will be entered in the text entry box for your reply. You can enter text above, below or between the selected quotes depending on where you position your cursor.
• "Unfurling" URLs: If you want to link to the URL of an article, you can do it the old-fashioned, unfurled way: Click the Insert Link icon in the text entry box and then paste in the URL. The result looks like this:
http://web.archive.org/web/20000903...ecanoeing.com/sportcanoeing/solomystique.html
In XF, you can forget clicking the Insert Link icon and simply paste the URL directly into the text box. You must paste the link in as a new paragraph if there is regular text before it. In other words, you must precede your pasted URL with a line space. Then, the software will automatically "unfurl" most URLs to give a clickable snippet preview of the article that looks like this:
Mike Galt - The Solo Mystique
The rebirth of the pure solo canoe is the most exciting single event to occur in sport canoeing in this century.
web.archive.org
Unfurling URLs is easier and more sophisticated looking, methinks, and it makes our site distinctive from others. There is more detail on how to post unfurling and regular links HERE.
• Direct Messages (which used to be called Private Conversations): There are at least two ways to initiate a direct message (DM). The first is to click on the envelope icon in the navigation bar underneath the site logo, and then follow the prompts. The second way is to hover your cursor over the member's name or avatar, which will bring up several items of information including a Start Direct Message prompt.
• Cleaning Out Your Direct Messages Inbox: To clean out old DMs, Xenforo has what it calls a "Leave" function (rather than "Delete"). Leaving a DM removes it from your inbox, but not the other participant's inbox. You may "soft" leave, which will restore the DM to your inbox if you get a future response to the DM. A "hard" leave will delete the DM on your end permanently.
You can reach the "Leave" function in two ways. First, if the DM is open like a thread, you will see a Leave button on the upper right. That button will let you soft or hard leave that single DM.
The second method allows you to leave multiple DMs at the same time. Look at the list of your DMs and you will see a checkbox next to each DM's title. Check as many DM boxes as you want to leave and a "Choose action" menu will open at the bottom of your screen. Select "leave direct messages" from the menu and then press the blue "Go" button. That will let you soft or hard leave all the checked DMs at once.
• Auto-Saving of Drafts: Message text that you type in the text entry box will automatically be saved every 30 seconds and will be stored for 120 hours (5 days). This means you can start composing a long message, leave, and then return to it within 120 hours. The text can be manually saved using the Drafts icon in the text entry box tool bar instead of waiting for the 30 second auto-save. To return to a saved draft, you must return to the exact page in the same thread you were in when you typed the interrupted message. If the message you interrupted was the OP of a new thread you had started and you want to find the draft, go to the forum you started it in, press the Post Thread button, and in the thread title field type the exact name of the thread you had started.
• Enhanced Search and Similar Threads: There is an enhanced search feature. You will mostly notice it popping up "Similar Threads" when typing a new thread topic or when just reading a thread. The purpose is to help searchers find threads similar to the topic or question they are interested in. It works more or less well depending how thoroughly former threads were titled with specific, searchable words.
• Reaction Score and Trophies: These are different ways measuring a member's posting impact. Reaction Score is an algorithm based on the reactions a post received. There are five emoji reactions available: Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad, Angry. One point is scored to a member for a Like, Love or Haha given to a message, no points are scored for a Wow, Sad or Angry, and all negative scores (such as Dislikes) have been disabled.
Trophy points are awarded by a different and rather uninformative algorithm, which is somewhat explained in the Help link at the bottom right of this page.
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