Ranks are based on postcount, and your rank will increase automatically as you continue to make more posts. As for what post milestones are needed to reach each rank, refer to the
Rank Thread.Here's a list of each rank that grants you new powers:
Cappy/
Frogger - Private Message system becomes available, as well as the ability to upload avatars.
Piranha Plant/
Nightmaren - You can now take quizzes, join the Pokémon Battle System, and use the Market.
Octorok/
Zombie - Editing powers become available.
Noki/
Reploid - You can now CC (Carbon-Copy) a PM to 30 members.
Pianta/
Hedgehog - Deleting your own posts is now possible.
Pokémon Trainer/
Brave Knight - You're freely able to change your member title without buying it through the Market.
Plumber/
Emerald Guardian - You're able to delete your own threads.
Special ranks are handed out for various reasons, ranging anywhere from winning contests, to just being an outstanding member. You can refer to
a post in the Rank Thread for info on all the special ranks currently available.
Staff positions are given out as deemed necessary by the administration/moderation team. For new mods, someone that shows promise may simply be picked out of the blue. Other times, users may apply for a mod position. When this happens, an announcement will be made in regards to such applications (called Nonster). In the past, the mod-application system has usually resulted in more than one new mod, so it's safe to say it'll be the case if it happens in the future.
For other staff positions, such as for Graphic Artists, an announcement will be posted on the Bulletin Board. Please take note that there's no minimal rank and/or postcount requirement you must reach in order to be considered for a staff position (though if you apply to be a Graphic Artist, for example, it would be wise to only apply if you're confident/well-skilled in your artistic abilities). The only thing that makes a difference is how you act.
In order to make a post in a thread, click the 'Fast Reply' button or the 'Post Reply' button, both located near the bottom-right of a thread. When you're done typing your post, click on the "Add Reply" button in order to post it.
In order to make a thread on a board, click on the 'New Thread' button, located near the bottom left of a board (or bottom-right, if you're viewing a thread). Enter the topic title, a description (if you want), and obviously type something up in the posting box. Once you're done, click the 'Post New Topic' button.
In order to make a poll when you're making a new topic, click on the 'Click here to manage this topic's poll' link to go to the poll options.
Enter the poll's name in the first big white box, then press the 'add poll choice' button and submit your topic.
"Flooding" is basically making a number of posts within a short period of time (in most cases, the posts are treated as spam, and handled accordingly by a mod). Sometimes it's simply a matter of you clicking the 'Submit Post/Topic' button more than once, or perhaps the server(s) caused it. Those situations are perfectly acceptable, and there's no harm done with having the extra post/thread deleted. Other times, it's done on purpose, and in those cases, the flood control helps to not make it a huge problem for you and for other users.
After posting, you have to wait 20 seconds before making another post. If you try to make another post before 20 seconds have passed, your post won't appear in the thread/board you're trying to post in.
After posting or making a thread, look in the lower-right part of your post, where the 'Quote' and 'Reply' buttons are. Click the 'Edit' button, and decide whether you want a quick-edit (an edit box will appear without leading you to another page), or use the full editor (be led to a page similar to posting a reply). You can also change your thread title and thread description, and manage the poll(s), if any (note that once a thread's closed, any polls created in the topic post are closed for voting by default).
The ability to edit posts becomes available at the
Octorok / Zombie rank. The moderating team is freely able to edit posts and threads not made by them, but only in situations that require them to do so.
You gain the ability to delete your own posts at Pianta / Hedgehog (or by gaining access to the Serious Discussion board), but you won't be able to delete your own threads until you become a Plumber / Emerald Guardian. If you wish to have one of your posts/threads deleted, send a PM to the Local Knight of the board (if there is one), a Knight, or an admin.
Normally, because of how IPB is designed, your postcount wouldn't be affected when your posts/threads get deleted, causing only the content to be removed. However, a modification is installed so that your postcount goes down when your posts/threads are deleted, as well as when your posts and threads are merged by a moderator.
Admins are also capable of lowering your postcount, and will only do so in rare situations that require it.
To lock your own thread, click this button,
. There's a catch though. This button can only be seen on the Nsider Classic Remastered skin, and only on the Power On board. If you wish to have a thread locked elsewhere, the same rules apply if you were asking to have something of yours deleted: PM a Local Knight of the board, a Knight, or an admin.
Whenever a thread gets locked, a moderator typically posts or edits their reason in the thread or contacts you via PM (they won't contact you only if they strongly believe the reason for your thread being locked/deleted is obvious). If you aren't informed why your thread was locked/deleted (or if the reason for it being locked/deleted isn't clear to you), PM any online mod immediately with a link to your thread (or a description, if it was deleted). Make sure
not to post a thread asking why your other thread was locked/deleted, or repost the original thread. Doing so could land you in further trouble. If you know why your thread was locked/deleted without having a mod tell you, don't purposely ask a mod to explain their reasoning. While there's the chance that you could be wrong about why it's locked/deleted, don't attempt to make more work than necessary.
Moderators, however, are still human, and can make a mistake from time to time. If that happens, your thread will likely be unlocked, or moved back to the board it was posted on. Don't expect this to always happen, of course.
Nope. If a thread's moved by a mod, a green arrow will appear on the original board it was moved from on the left side, and the thread will then link you to its new location on another board. Moving threads isn't a bad thing - it just means that a mod thinks the thread's better-suited on a different board (like sig-rating threads moved to the Fan Art board).
As you'd expect, the ability to move threads is only held by mods. If you've got a problem with where they moved your thread, PM any online mod with a link and an explanation.
If you post something, and post something else 15 minutes later, it's one situation in which a mod might merge your posts together, resulting in two (or more) of your posts' content being combined, and lowering your postcount a bit in the process. If you've got a question about why your posts were merged together, PM the mod that edited it (which will be displayed at the bottom of the new post).
Threads being merged typically involves two or more threads with very similar topics that're better left as one thread, and they'll be merged into the thread made before the others. This, too, can also lower your postcount, but it depends on the situation.
Topic bans are nifty tools used by moderators to ban users from posting in a topic. They can post anywhere else, but when they receive a topic ban, they either (a) can view the thread but can't reply, or (b) can't view the thread or reply altogether (so either way, you can't reply to the thread - the only thing that varies is whether you can see it or not). These are mainly used in large, general discussion threads, but also prove their worth for RP threads, The Town Square on Power On, clan threads, contests, and anything else related.
Receiving a topic ban is the same as receiving a warning - not only are you conveniently notified of being banned from posting in a topic, but in most cases, you're also given a warning, which typically includes a posting suspension (you shouldn't expect it to last more than two or three days, but it depends on what you did). Posting things like porn images/links/videos not only gets you a topic ban if the topic happens to be a large, general discussion topic, but also gives you, at the very least, a forum suspension of at least 5-10 days. Second offenses involving the previously-mentioned links/images/videos that occur after the suspension is lifted and the ban is removed will have you be suspended for a longer period of time and banned from the topic permanently.
Unfortunately, topic bans aren't set so that it only lasts for an exact amount of time (say, 10 hours). The mod that bans you from a topic will attempt to keep track of how long you've been banned and use their best judgment when deciding if you should be allowed to post in the topic again, even after your posting/account suspension is lifted. Or they might end up forgetting until you PM them about it. Hopefully it's the former.
You can. You're able to accomplish this either by going to their profile, clicking on the Options tab, and clicking on 'Ignore User'. You can also go straight to My Controls and click on 'Manage Ignored Users'. Whichever way you choose will lead you to the same page. Type in the person you want to ignore to add them to the list (keep in mind certain users can't be added to the list, such as mods...for obvious reasons). From that point on, whenever you come across a post made by someone you've added to your ignore list, you'll get an automated message:
You have chosen to ignore all posts from: *insertuserhere*, and you'll have the option to view their post, or un-ignore them. You can also un-ignore them by clicking 'Remove' in the 'Manage Ignored Users' page.
Keep in mind that you'll still be able to see any threads they make.
You can either post images by using BBCode or you can use the picture button while you're typing a post or making a thread. You can use the following code to post pictures while using BBCode:
CODE
[IMG]URL of the image here[/IMG]
Here's an example:
CODE
[IMG]http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll146/Nsider2/Rank%20Animations/Special%20Ranks/KingofHearts.gif[/IMG]
This equals:
You can also use the Insert Image button by clicking on it:
, which would bring up the following box:
This box will ask you to enter the URL of the picture that you'd like to post. Put it in, and hit OK. Afterward, the coding'll be set up for you (and you can remember how to set it up later, to save yourself a bit of time). Be advised that there's a limit of 45 images for each post. If you exceed that, your post will be halted and you'll have a chance to remove an image before re-sending it.
While typing out a post, look for this button:
This'll give you the more popular emoticons used. For all of them, there's a list of them to the left of the box where you type. Click the "Show All" button to view them all, then click on one to put it in your post.
Similar for posting images, you can either use the BBCode, or you can use the Insert Link button. If you'd like to use BBCode, use the following:
CODE
[url="*url of website here*"]*Text for the link that you want to appear[/url]
An example would be:
CODE
[url="www.nsider2.com"]NSider2[/url]
This would equal:
NSider2If you were to use the Insert Link button:
you would have to first enter the URL of the page that you'd like to link in the following box:
Once you've entered the URL that you'd like to link, another box'll come up when you have pressed OK:
In this box, enter the text that you'd like people to click, and then press OK.
There are two ways that you're able to embed a video. You can either user the BBCode, or use the Insert Flash Video button (which can't be seen on the Fire Emblem skin). If you'd like to use the BBCode, use the following:
CODE
[video]*url of video here*[/video]
An example would be:
CODE
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4CxBeIV6pc[/video]
This would equal:
<!--id1-->
<!--id2-->
If you'd like to use the Insert Flash Video button:
You'd have to click on it to get the coding. Enter the video URL in the box that pops up to have your video embedded.
*Please note that you're not allowed to put videos into your signature, and that you're expected to include an explanation when you post a video (embedded or otherwise). If no description is seen, your post/thread will likely be locked or deleted.
In order to add a font color effect, use the following BBCode:
CODE
[color="Hex Code Or Name of Font"]"Text Here"[/color]
So if I were to change my font color to blue, it'd look like this:
CODE
[color="blue"]Color Blue[/color]
CODE
[color="#0000FF"]Hex code Blue[/color]
Giving me:
Color Blueor
Hex code BlueNo. Only (red) Moderators and above are able to post HTML. The reason behind this is that HTML can be dangerous, and although IPB protects against most harmful HTML, it can't stop all of it.
This means that you've somehow switched to Outline mode. Switching back to standard is quite easy. When viewing a topic, look in the bar above the first post on a page, called 'Options', then select 'Standard'.
The topic-rating system is basically the same as the user-rating system found in user profiles. Anyone can rate a topic out of five stars for whatever reason they feel like. To use it, look to the left of the Options tab on the top part of a thread's first page, move your mouse over the number of stars you wish to rate it, and give it a click.
Whenever a topic has 10 or more ratings from users, the rating will be displayed on the board page.
Apr 10 2008, 02:27 PM
