Profile, Notifications, and Themes

[MountainDon]

This tutorial was written for the older software version. The possibilities are still there for each member user to make, the look of the page is simply different. You may also want to view the following message in another topic.   

Click here

Please note that a member can not make changes to their user profile until they have posted at least five messages to a topic. Once that is completed, members may make changes to their own profile.

Near the upper left of the Home screen (and others) there is a row of tabs; HOME, HELP, SEARCH, PROFILE, MY MESSAGES, MEMBERS, LOGOUT.

Click on the PROFILE tab to access several forum features.



The screen changes to your Profile Summary.



Click on "Forum Profile Information" The new screen is where you can add or change your Avatar, the little image that represents you in the forums/messages.



You may choose from avatars built in to the forum; "Personalized Picture:".

You may also link to an image located on a remote site such as Photobucket; "I have my own pic:" You would copy the "Direct Link" from the Photobucket album page and paste that in this field.

The third choice is to select "I will upload my own picture:" This would be an image on your own computer. Using the browse button, select the image file.

Using this page you may also enter your "Personal Text". Your Personal Text is what appears under your name beside any messages you have posted. This is a handy place to note where you are located. Sometimes when you ask a question it helps to know where you are located when another member has some advice to offer.

You can also edit your birthday, location, gender, IM addresses, if any of them change after you registered. 

The "Signature:" ia where you can add or edit the line that appears on the bottom of all your posted messages.

After making any changes it is imperative to click on the "Change profile" button in the lower right corner of the page.

The next post message will carry on with "Notifications"

[MountainDon]

NOTIFICATIONS

Notification allows you to receive Emails notices on topics you decide are important to track. If notification is turned on for a topic you will receive an email at the address on record with the CountryPlans Forum.

Select "Notifications and Email" from the left side menu.



Under the Profile section you may make several choices.
"Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email." to elect to receive any notices issued by the forum administrator.
"Receive reply notification only for the first unread reply." to enable emails to be sent out for any topics you select to receive notification.
"Turn notification on when you post or reply to a topic." Selecting this will setup a notification response for any topic you reply to. In other words, with this selected, when you respond to a topic, you will receive a notification email when and if someone else responds after you.
"When sending notification of a reply to a topic, send the post in the email (but please don't reply to these emails.)" Selecting this will include the message post in the notification email.

The next field allows for some further choices.



"Nothing at all"  Means what it says. Don't select this if you really want notification emails.
"Moderation only if I started the topic"  Moderation is what happens if you make an off color, inflammatory or denigrating comment. Your post gets altered. Selecting this will have a notification email to you.
"Replies and moderation"   Selecting this gets you a notification email for all replies as well as moderation items. Everything on other words.
"Only replies"  As you might suspect by now this will get you email notifications only for replies to the topic.

Next down the screen is the "Current Topic Notifications" section. This is where the topics that have notification setup will be listed with the newest notification selections at the top of the list. Topics may be deleted by checking the box to the right of the topic and then clicking the "Unsubscribe" button.

Down at page bottom is another notification list. Rather than individual topics this is where entire boards are listed for notification. You select "Board Notification" by first opening the index page for the board. In the upper right area are some more tabs. Click on the "Notify" tab.



The selected notification boards will be displayed...

[MountainDon]

PERSONAL MESSAGE OPTIONS



"Save a copy of each Personal Message in my outbox by default." As it states, this will save a copy of eack PM you send in your "outbox"
"Show a popup when you receive new messages?" A popup message will appear when a PM arrives and you are logged in to the CountryPlans Forum. You may have to make adjustments to your browser settings to allow the popups.

You can add members to the "Ignorelist:" if they are annoying you with unwanted PM's.

Selecting the "MY MESSAGES" tab will present a screen like this one...



You can select between the inbox and outbox, or choose to begin a new message.

[Redoverfarm]

Don check a reply in your harebrained siding. The send me something from that post.

Thanks

[glenn kangiser]

Great tutorial, Don.  Thanks.  I learned a couple things I hadn't found yet.

[Redoverfarm]

Don & Glenn

I think I found maybe the problem.  Shucks I am not sure I have tried so many diofferent things but I am receiving E-mails now.  I went back to my Favorites or Bookmark and checked the site. I had bookmarked the Login site to avoid having it displayed in the Google site and then having to go to the board site.  Don't know if that was the problem as I went back through the post that Don had made about the index site for the board and bookmarked it instead and things started working better.  Will try again in AM before I hit the scaffolding again.

Thanks

[glenn kangiser]

Keep us posted - Hope that works for you.

[Redoverfarm]

Glenn & Don

Thanks for all the help. I think I got it operating basicly the way I had it before.  As soon as bad weather hits I will try to start a post on my project with pictures possibly. It will be a little belated but better late than never.
Spent the day rocking the chimney but still have a little to do in the AM before the forecast turns ugly.

John

[MountainDon]

G/L with the chimney and yes, late is better than never. Something to do on the cold winter days/nights.

[glenn kangiser]

Well be waiting, Redoverfarm John.

[John Raabe]

I have recently set the theme to the SMF default. This gives us a nice feature set.
However, you can set your template to the setup closer to the older YaBB forum. Here's how.

• Log onto your Profile tab at the top of the page.


• Then change the template file to one of these - the top one will be the one picked by the Administrator. Choose whichever you like best.

[glenn kangiser]

Any more voters out there? hmm 

Poll is at the top. 

SMF is the light blue shaded one in the middle above.  Note that if you are interested in the memberlist it is on the SMF one, however if you only want it occasionally, you can easily switch in your profile as John detailed above.

[John Raabe]

I have ended the poll early, and reset to the SMF default. The score was 7 to 2 for this.

[Bradon Wesche]

Hi All,

I think I am doing something wrong because when I click "Profile" I see the summary information but not the toolbar on the left shown in your pictures.  I spend most of my forum time over at Permies.com but I've been lurking here for a little while.  I was going to offer help to anyone using SketchUp to create Country Plans with a link in my signature.

What am I missing?  I've tried it in Chrome 5.0, Firefox 3.6, and even IE 8 with the same results in each.

[EDIT]  Wouldn't you know it; right after I posted this, it worked just fine.  Please disregard.

[MountainDon]

    bradonw

I'm sorry that you ran into that difficulty. Perhaps you also noticed that after you made your first post to the forum, you also advanced from Newbie status to Apprentice? A newly signed up member (a Newbie) needs to make one message post before they have access to their profile. This is a forum anti spam measure.

You may use the signature area for links to personal websites and the like;  unauthorized links to commercial websites are not allowed in the signature space. You could start a topic for sketchup ideas and info trading in the General topic area. That might be more visible than a signature line unless you make more message posts.

Once again I apologize for any inconvenience or confusion you or anyone else has run into. We all look forward to your participation in the Country Plans community.

[pagan]

Don,

I lost my avatar from earlier and have been trying to upload another. The "I will load my own picture" option is not showing for me. Any ideas?

[MountainDon]

Sorry for the delay in responding; I was away 4 wheeling in UT. 

It is possible to link to an image for an avatar on any web photo hosting site though.

[pagan]

I'll try that.

Hope you had a good time. 

[houseplans]

I think something problem with me. There is not left panel at my profile page. I don't know what actually happened.

Can anyone help me about it?

Thanks in advance



Happy Now that solved

[MountainDon]

I think something problem with me.

Note: "newbies" can not make changes to their profile until they have made at least one post. That's listed in the user agreement. I know nobody reads those.

[MountainDon]

There is new updated info in the first post of this topic.

[R J]

 :I 'm in ; Thanks Don

[MountainDon]

 

[gbleuc]

Note: "newbies" can not make changes to their profile until they have made at least one post. That's listed in the user agreement. I know nobody reads those.

I created an account a few days ago and have made a few posts, but I still don't have a panel on the left hand side. Does this kick in after a certain period of time, or.. ? Also, is there a way to verify that my email address isn't being displayed/is private? That was mostly why I was looking for the panel. Thanks!

[MountainDon]

I created an account a few days ago and have made a few posts, but I still don't have a panel on the left hand side. Does this kick in after a certain period of time, or.. ? Also, is there a way to verify that my email address isn't being displayed/is private? That was mostly why I was looking for the panel. Thanks!

The panel does not appear until after you have 5 posted messages. That is an anti-spammer measure. The left side panel does not appear on an ordinary forum topic or message page.

Once you have made 5 or more posts, if you click on "Profile" in the menubar that runs across the top of each page, about an inch from the screen top, the left side bar will appear. There you can see your personal info. Under "Modify Profile" click on "Account Settings". If the check box under the email address field is checked other members can see your email. Non members viewing the forum as a guest cannot see any email addresses as they cannot see profiles at all. If the box is not checked nobody can see your email other than an administrator.  Note: I manually changed your post count to 5 so you should be able to access your profile info. I apologize that the info in the topic quoted was incorrectly stating one posted message was required.

The default setting is to NOT display a member email to other members. Your email is hidden from the general membership.