Some guidelines we would like to remind board members about.

We've noticed some members not using certain features that the board has. While for the most part it isn't an issue - we thought these guidelines would help, not only posters but readers to format posts in a way that helps reading of them.

Using Quotes.

Quoting is a great aspect of a board. Not only does it show in a post when someone is taking another person's words, which we feel is important to acknowledge you are doing, simply from the point of manners; it also allows the readers to understand the context of posts that is also important.

So, how can you use Quote? There are two main methods. If you simply wish to quote a specific person's post, and you are not using Fast Reply, you have a Quote button alongside each person's post. By pressing that, it will bring the wording up in another box below your main reply box that will then open up.

Put your comments in the reply box as you would usually, then add it as normal. The quote should show.

The other method is to out the code in yourself to quote a line or lines.
Because the board will recognise this as code, please note there are gaps between the wording and the [ ] markers. To enable it to work, type as all in one without any gap!
To use manual quoting type [ QUOTE ] at the start of your quote and [ /QUOTE ] at the end.
This will then look like this

at the end once posted.

Another issue to avoid is what is called nesting quotes. In other words, you quote another, still keeping their coding intact. This nests a quote within a quote like so:

Now it doesn't become too much of a problem with just one or two occasions of nesting quotes. In fact, it can often help show a poster what you are referring to. However - we would recommend you do it no more than twice in any one quote since this does begin to become excessive and annoying for some members to read.

Other features

Now, other features we have are bold, italic and underline

Again, you can see small buttons in your full reply screen (not available in fast reply mode). They have a B, I and U mark on them respectively.
You highlight the text you want, click on the button for the relevant look. Note: The highlighting version doesn't work in Firefox at the moment. You need to type in the code or click on the button before you type in what you want to change, then click on the Close All Tags text link on the right of the button area.

Alternatively, as with the quoting feature you can type the codes in yourself. Again, these have gaps to show the code otherwise you wouldn't see it.
For bold [ b ] at start of bold [ /b ] at the end of the bold.
For Italics [ i ] at start of italics [ /i ] at the end of the italics.
For underline [ u ] at the start of underline [ /u ] at the end of the underline!

Click here for another thread which contains some pictures of how to use the bold feature.

Now we appreciate that if your new to the internet or message boards, this is all very confusing and not something most people feel confident on tackling.

However, we do ask all members continue to try and use these board features, since ultimately they enhance your posting experience as well as readers visiting and reading experience. There might also be times where you will be contacted and asked to use some of these features for the good of the board/posting. This is particularly the case in areas like the Debate room, where it is vital you use options like Quoting to help show what wording is your own, and what is taken from other people either on this board - or even from a 3rd party site for use as reference.
For this reason, we will be checking the debate room and being slightly more vigorous about asking members to use these features. So if you post in the debate room, this is an especially important topic for you to read and learn.
Remember, it is each board members responsibility to ensure they read our guidelines and rules.

We hope these tips help, and enjoy your posting! Oh and don't worry if you mess it up - just keep practising! You will eventually get there, and we would rather see posts with incomplete attempts :)

You can use this thread as a practice area if you would like to have a go!

This post is duplicated in the Help forum and Debate forum on the board.