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  FAQ's Using our community websites Hint: If you are searching for something specific, use the "find" option of the browser (ctrl+f). How do I register a new account? In the top right hand corner click "Join our community". This will take you to the registration screen. Under "Not a member yet?" fill in your name, password, valid Email address and the security code. If you don't enter a correct Email address, you will not receive the activation e-mail which you will need to complete the activation of your account. If you didn't receive an email within 24 hours, please make sure you check your bulk/spam folders first before registering again. Also you can write in our Help Forum so you don't set up duplicate accounts. IMPORTANT NOTE: Yahoo!, Hotmail and AOL are using overly strong spam-blocking filters that might stop you from receiving any emails from us. You might have to set up your spam filters to allow mails from the @englishforums.com domain. (Or from the community you are registering on) I've registered. What can I do with my account? Having registered allows you to browse the forums ads-free, and post new threads and replies using your registered screen name. Some forums are only visible to registered members. You can upload a profile picture (avatar), and upload pictures into your gallery for others to see. You can now also view other member's profiles and you will be able to add other members as friends and keep track of their posts and other activity. How do I start a new post? Clicking on the "Forums" tab at the top takes you to the Forums page where you have two ways of posting. You can either browse through this current page and chose the correct forum you wish to post in. Click the Write a new post button.Please try to find the appropriate section for your post since this will help you find the right people to answer it. How do I reply to a post? When reading a thread click on the "reply" button on any of the posts to add a new post to the thread. This will take you to the new post window which opens the editor for you to write in. Also you can click "quick reply" which is a simpler way of replying to posts and it allows you to continue to scroll through the thread if you want to read more than only the post you are replying to. How do I make a poll? To create a poll, simply start a new post and click on the "Poll" option, which is the third tab at the top of the editor. How do I quote a person? After you've hit the Reply button you will see the post you are replying to above the editor. On the right of that post you will see the "quote" button. How do I use the galleries? Clicking on your user name will bring you to your profile page. Your gallery is displayed on your profile and you can view your pictures by clicking on them which will allow you to see comments or edit the name, tags etc. Also there is an upload button which allows you to upload more pictures to share with others on the forums and change their descriptions and titles. How do I edit my profile? Use the "Edit Profile" link in the top right hand corner. There you will see 7 tabs which will allow you to edit your profile in many ways. How do I set my avatar/profile picture? You can do this by selecting a picture in your gallery and clicking "Set as profile photo". Also you can upload directly by clicking "edit profile" and uploading a picture from there. How can I find more info about a member? On the right side of the post you can click on the name of the member which will take you to their profile page. You can only view the profile of a member if you are registered. You can also use the search function at the top right of the page to search for a member. Why is it asking me to register when I want to view a member's profile? You have to be a member of the community to be able to view another member's profile. Why are all anonymous posts moderated? This is done to prevent spamming and/or inappropriate posting. If we lifted the moderation, it would of course be possible to delete such posts later but it would make for a very ugly atmosphere in the meantime. Why are some of my posts being deleted? The post might not have been in the correct forum and a moderator moved it, or the post did not follow our guidelines and it was deleted, or the post was a duplicate. For any of these reasons you should get an email informing you of the reason if you are a registered member and you have opted to receive Emails. Can you remove some old posts of mine, I don't want them there anymore? Generally we do not delete any posts inside a thread where answers have already been made. This would cause confusion and disturb the flow of the thread. It would also be unfair to the members who have taken time and effort to help you. Requests for post deletion can always be made and we will gladly check the individual requests. Please make sure you are aware that we generally do not delete anything once it's posted so make sure you still want the post there in the future. Can you delete my account? Due to technical reasons we cannot delete your account. Why can't I edit and delete my posts at any time? That would be against a basic principle of discussions: you can't erase what you have already written and posted. Every discussion would turn into a mess and couldn't be called a discussion anymore. There is a time frame of one hour in which you can edit your post, but only if there are no replies. I want to find some posts that I have posted before. How can I find them? Click on your name on the top right corner of this website and you will see your profile. Underneath your user name will be the number of posts you have made. Click this and it will show all your posts. You can also find your latest posts in your profile by clicking on the "Activity" tab under your photos. How do member's status' change? Why are some users regular members, senior members etc.? Your member status changes by the amount of posts you have contributed to the forums. Here is a list of the membership structure: New Member - 0 to 50 posts Junior Member - 51 to 100 posts Full Member - 101 to 500 posts Regular Member - 501 to 1000 posts Contributing Member - 1001 to 2000 posts Senior Member - 2001 to 5000 posts Veteran Member - 5001 to .... It seems that the ranking of a member is based solely on the number of postings made by that user, however, does it apply to his/her English language & grammar knowledge? Ranking is based on number of posts. Administration also awards symbols on an individual basis to members who have demonstrated positive qualities in the course of their participation here: Administrator - A system administrator takes care of the inner workings of the entire system. These users have the ability to promote, ban and modify other users. Moderator - A super-user who takes care of the forums. You have the ability to message a moderator privately should you wish. These users have a range of elevated privileges including the deletion, editing and movement of posts when needed. Trusted User - Trusted users are allowed to use additional capabilities of the site such as private messaging to all users and various other advanced features. You cannot join this role unless you are promoted by an administrator. Englishforums.com specific: Proficient Speaker - Users in this role are known to maintain an excellent grasp of the English language. You can only be promoted to this role by the Englishforums team. Teachers - Users in this role are DELTA, CELTA, TESOL, CELTAYL, TEYL or TEFL qualified teachers. To become a member of this group you must send a private message with a scan of your qualification to an administrator. These are placed under the avatar to the right of each post. Clicking on these icons in a post will show you the list of members that fall under this role. These do not mean that other members, junior or otherwise, are not excellent advisors. The site administration can only do with and monitor so many valued assistants. In the end, this is the internet, and you can only see what you read on your screen: you must consider the advice given and decide for yourself whether it is of value to you. How do I change my user name? Send a PM to an administrator if it is absolutely necessary for you to change your user name, and they will get back to you. How do I put pictures in a post? You will see a link "attach an image" underneath the subject line. You can upload more than one picture at a time. How do I start a conversation (send a private message (PM)) to another member? Either go to the profile of the member and you will see the option on the bottom left, or click on the mail icon next to a member's name in a post. Generally you must be friends with this member before being able to contact them. They also have to have "Allow conversations from friends" enabled in their profile. Some members will chose to allow conversations from all users, or no one, depending on their settings in their profile. All the notification messages are sent to my bulk box even though after many times I've tried to put them back to my inbox. Does anyone know why? If this happens you need to check your junk filter settings. Usually you will find an option to add a "safe sender". I marked all read by mistake, how do I undo it? Since there is no record of your previous unread/read status it cannot be undone. Why are anonymous posts allowed? It is everyone's right to remain anonymous, and some visitors are prevented from registering by their company or institution Internet policy. Of course we would prefer everyone to register because it is more motivating and personal to answer a question a member has made rather than a post by an anonymous user. What do I do if I lose my password? On the log in screen there is an option for us to send you a replacement password through e-mail. What are Tags and how do I use them? By adding tags to your post and photos, you give information to the forums concerning what the post is about. That way other users can find your post if they search for the tags that are relevant. When I click videos I see a box full of differently sized words what are these? That is called a tag cloud, the larger the word, the more times someone has posted a video we relevance to that word. By clicking that word you will pull up all videos with that tag. Clicking a word again will pull up all videos with both the first and the second word. How do I include a video in a post? Simply include the full youtube link as part of the post and the software will do the rest. Remember to leave spaces before and after the link. I just posted to the forums and received a message that it was a moderated forum, and I should wait. What does this mean? It means that it will not be posted directly, but will go to a "moderator's" section where a moderator reviews the post and will either approve it (post it), edit it (make changes to it), or delete it. This is to avoid misuse of certain sections on the forums. Why are controversial subjects and all anonymous posts moderated? The threads in Controversial tend to attract strange posts, simply because they tend to deal with race, religion, politics, etc. If we lifted the moderation, it would of course be possible to delete such posts later; but it would make for a very ugly atmosphere in the meantime. Same goes for anonymous posts. We want to prevent spam, duplicate posting etc. I have posted a question, but no one is replying, why? There are a lot of posts and only so many people around to answer them. Anyone can post up an answer but many of the members feel a bit shy about this, so most answers are coming from a fairly small group of people. Everyone is here voluntarily so sometimes, unfortunately, no one has time to deal with a particular post. Register and log-in before posting - messages from people we feel we have come to know and regular visitors will naturally be more attractive to us than the hundreds of anonymous posts, where we don't even know that the poster will bother to come back and read our reply. Become an active member of the forum, answering other posts as well, and you will become part of our community and be more likely to get answers in return. Make the subject line interesting and descriptive of the contents of the post. Just 'hello' or 'help' do not really catch the eye when you are scanning a long list of unanswered posts. Don't take it personally, we all have busy lives, and sometimes posts just stack up and get missed due to lack of time. In the Make Friends section, try answering a few requests instead of just posting your own, there are lots of people feeling the same way that you do. If you still have questions on how to use the site, feel free to ask us in the Help Forum . Enjoy the site! | Have a question? People are waiting to help. |
