Question: How can I send PM or Private Mail to users of this forum?
Answer: There are two ways you can do this. Point your cursor to the name of the person you wish to send PM, and right click.
  1. If his e-mail address is visible you may send him mail that way.
  2. If not, you may send him private mail via the forum by scrolling down to the bottom of the profile page, where you read "Send this member a private message." Click on that sentence to send PM. When the user returns to the forum he will be notified he has private mail to read.

Question: How do I change the text under my name from, "I'm a llama!"
Answer: You may change your "personal text" by right clicking on the Profile button, placing your password where it says "Current Password", scrolling down to the Box with the title "Personal Text", change it to whatever you like, then scrolling down to the bottom to save.

Question: Can I change my name on the Forum?"
Answer: Yes, many people sign on with a handle that they are not really comfortable with anymore. You can change the name that everyone on the forum will see, and that will appear in all your posts, but you cannot change the name you "logon" with. In other words, your logon name will remain "lamebrain" but those on the forum will know you by your new name "Steve."

To change your forum name simply click on the link called Profile, located at the top of the page.

1. In the space where it says Name, simply place the new name you want.
2. Enter your current password in the space provided.
3. Scroll to the bottom, and click on "Change Profile."

Question: Can I send an Instant Message (IM) to someone who I see online?
Answer: Yes, there are various ways to talk live with someone here, depending upon which service they use. There is AIM, ICQ, MSN, and YIM. To send instant message, right click on the members name, or Profile, and see which ones they have available. Then click on it.
Symbols :   AIM     ICQ     MSN   Yahoo    

Question: How do I place my picture (Avatar) or Christian symbol under my name?
Answer: You may use your own picture (maximum size 100x100) by right clicking on Profile and placing a check mark where it says "I have my own pic," and then placing the url to the picture in the box provided.

Example:   http://members.aol.com/twarren10/mypicture.gif

If you have no Avatar of your own, there is a large collection of Christian avatars here for you to choose from. Simply scroll in profile to where you read "Personalized Picture" and highlight one of the names in the Menu. The image will show to the right. If that is the Avatar picture you want, leave it highlighted, place your password in the appropriate box at top, scroll to bottom, and save.

Question: How do I place a link in my Message?
Answer: There are two ways to do this.

1. If you simply want to place a clickable URL into a message, just write the "full" url (including http://) separated at the front and back by a space, or better yet, a empty line. It will automatically become clickable in your post. Example:

http://www.mountainretreatorg.net/

2. If you want to write the name and make it clickable, you have to use the code. Here is what you would write:

[url=http://www.mountainretreatorg.net/]The Name of the Page[/url]

That would result in this : The Name of the Page

Question: Why is it that when I cut and paste messages to this forum, the apostrophes and quotes get changed to characters like “ and ”
Answer: This is a character set (charset) problem concerning the editor you use. Try using a different editor, or if you are using office, try saving the doc as an html.

Question: I spent a long time writing a message, and when I went to post it, I got logged out, loosing all my work
Answer: When you log in, you will see a option "Session Length in Minutes: 120". That's how long your session is before it will automatically log you out. This also means that if you log in one hour and spend 30 minutes online, and leave, and come back 88 minutes later and start writing a message, you will only have 2 minutes in which to do it before you will be logged out.

To avoid this problem, if you plan to be online for a while, you should either increase the minutes, or, to stay logged in continuously, check the box entitled "Always stay logged in:" Then you will always be logged in when you come to the forum, until you decide to log out yourself.

Question: I don't want all the Information on the top of the page, what can I do?
Answer: There is a button on the upper left of the page.

This button pointing upward in the left hand corner, near the top of the page, removes the User Info, Stats, and Search box above it, for that unclutered look.

By contrast, this button pointing downward brings back the User Info, Stats, and Search box at the top of the page.

Question: How can I find all the new messages since my last visit.
Answer: There are a couple ways to accomplish this. First, in the user Info at the top of the main index, there is a link which says Show unread posts since last visit. This is self explanitory. There is also an option there to Show new replies to your posts.

The second way is that when there are no new messages on a board since your last visit, the SMF image on the index page will be pale and uncolorized.
  Example:
When there are new Messages it will be Dark colored.
  Example:

Once you click on the forum, all topics with new messages since your last visit will be followed by the Image.

Question: Why was my message deleted?
Answer: First, it may not have been deleted. It may have been moved from an inappropriate Forum (category), to an appropriate one. Make sure you place Eschatology topics in the Eschatology forum, and Cooking topics in Cooking forum, etc.

If it was deleted, possibly it was because it was abusive, there was foul language in it, or some other violation of the rules. Note that messages in the Biblical Discussions category have Special Rules and Guidelines which you should familiarize yourself with if you are going to post there.

Question: Why can't I register with a hotmail address?
Answer: Because these email adresses are free and anyone can get as many of them as they like, the priviledge is often abused. Because of these abuses, we have been forced to exclude the free hotmail addresses (e.g.: myname@hotmail.com) and some others from being used for registration on this system. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Question: Why was I banned from posting, and my message deleted?
Answer: Possibly because,
  1. You were posting under several different names.
  2. You were previously banned, and are using another email or alias.
  3. You were warned, and continued in violation of the rules.
  4. You were continually abusive to other guests.
  5. You used foul language
  6. You continually violated the clearly posted rules of the forum.