FAQ: Board Features and Usage

[Athena]

This is a FAQ on using the features found on Deathberry. This is still a Work In Progress.

I. Registering, Logging In, and Anti-Spam Measures
II. Member Titles and Reputation
III. Private Messages (PMs)
IV. User Profiles, VMs, Buddy List, and Ignore List
V. Signatures
VI. Mobile Version
VII. Small Things You May Not Have Noticed
VIII. Features That Cannot Currently Be Implemented
IX. Known Issues/Bugs



I. Registering, Logging In, and Anti-Spam Measures
Registering is self-explanatory. However, before you can post, you need to verify your account. An e-mail will be sent to your account after you register, so you need to click the link in the e-mail for verification. If you don't receive the e-mail within one hour, check your spam folder/junk box. If the e-mail is not there, then please e-mail admin@deathberry.com with your username and e-mail address.

To log-in, you can use the "Quick Log-in" at the top of the page or click "Login" in the purple navigation bar at the top. You can specify how long your login will last (which will expire earlier if you deliberately log-out or delete your cookies).

To prevent spam, you will have to do a captcha and answer an easy Bleach trivia question every time you post or PM until you reach 3 posts on the board. We realize this is inconvenient, but you will only have to suffer through it for 3 posts, so persevere!



II. Member Titles and Reputation

Member Titles
- Shinigami Academy Applicant: 0 posts
- Shinigami Academy Class A: 50 posts
- Member of the Gotei 13: 100 posts
- Seated Shinigami: 250 posts
- Hero Shinigami: 500 posts

Reputation Titles
- is a wandering soul
- is a Plus
- has reiatsu detected
- is a Shinigami student
- is a Shinigami
- has mastered Kidou
- has mastered Shikai
- is Vice-Captain level
- has mastered Bankai
- is Captain level
- is part of Division Zero
- has surpassed the King Soul

Reputation Points
How many points per post? 1
Users gain 1 power for every __ points? 150
Users gain 1 bar image / new reputation title for every __ points? 500
Welcome new members with how many points? 100
How many times a day can a person give reputation? 20
How many people does a user have to give reputation to before they can repeat a person? 10

The above values may be adjusted as the forum grows.

Explanation of Reputation Power, Reputation Points, Reputation Title, and Reputation Level
"Reputation Power" (listed under a member's name) is different from your total "Reputation Points." "Reputation Power" is how much influence you have, i.e., the number of points by which you can change someone else's reputation; this number increases as your total reputation points increase. You can see your total reputation points by going to Profile -> Forum Profile and scrolling down. The tiny green bars under your name give a visual approximation of your reputation level. Your reputation title will change as your reputation level increases. You will reach the second reputation level (i.e., get the title of "is a Plus" and have two green bars under your name) when you reach 1000 reputation points. Then your reputation level increases for every 500 points thereafter (in other words, after you reach 1000 reputation points total, you gain a new reputation title for every additional 500 reputation points). There are only 10 green bars but about 15 reputation titles, so once you hit 10 green bars, you will still should change titles for a bit after that.

To summarize: as your total reputation points increase, 1) your Reputation Power (shown under your name in your posts) will increase and 2) your reputation level increases (shown by the green bars under your name), which means your reputation title will also change (first at 1000 points, then every 500 points after that).

For example: If I have 419 total reputation points, then I will have a Reputation Power of 2 (you gain 1 point of Reputation Power for every 150 total reputation points you have). If I positive-rep someone, my positive-rep will give them +2 points to their total reputation points. If I negative-rep someone, my negative-rep will subtract 2 points from their total reputation points. My Reputation Power will increase to 3 when I get 450 total reputation points. Currently, I would be at reputation level one, with one green bar under my name and a title of "is a wandering soul." I wouldn't reach reputation level two until I have 1000 total reputation points; once I reached that amount, I would get two green bars under my name and will gain the reputation title of "is a Plus". I would reach reputation level three when I have 1500 total reputation points, which means I'll have three green bars under my name and a reputation title of "has reiatsu detected". And so forth. :]

Viewing and Leaving Reputation
A) To view your reputation, click "Profile" on the top purple navigation bar. Hover over "Profile Info" (under the orange navigation bar that says "Deathberry > Profile of [Your Name] > Summary") and click "View Reputation" (the last link in the list). You will see the reputation people have left you. Green means positive; gray means the person doesn't have enough reputation to affect yours yet; red means negative. To report abusive or spammy reputation, PM an administrator with your information.

B) To leave reputation, click the red heart icon underneath the person's name, avatar, and stats on the left-side of their post. You can leave positive or negative reputation, as well as a comment.



III. Private Messages (PMs)
There is a limit of 50 PMs total. This includes both PMs received and sent. We recommend cleaning out your PM box regularly, especially for notification PMs.

To view/manage your PMs and send new ones, click "My Messages" on the top purple navigation bar. If you have new PMs that you haven't read, there will be a number in brackets after "My Messages" (e.g. "My Messages [1]" for one new message).

To create a new PM, hover over "Messages" (under the orange navigation bar that says "Deathberry > Personal Messages > Inbox") and click on "New Message." You can send PMs to multiple recipients, but you need to add each recipient one at a time. Start filling out their name, and choices to "autofill" will come up. Select the name and it will be added underneath the "To:" box. Continue adding recipients. You can send PMs to up to 10 recipients total. You can also BCC recipients by clicking the "Add BCC" link next to the "To:" text box.

Under "Preferences" (under the orange navigation bar that says "Deathberry > Personal Messages > Inbox"), you can set various preferences related to PM notifications, how PMs are displayed, etc.



IV. User Profiles, VMs, Buddy List, and Ignore List

Customize your Ultimate Profile:
1) Click on "Profile" on the top purple navigation bar.
2) Hover over "Modify Profile" (which is underneath the orange "Deathberry > Profile of [You] > Summary" link list) and click "Ultimate Profile."
3) You can choose some of your options, add an "About Me" section, and add "My Interests."

If you have trouble saving your "About Me" or "My Interests" sections, please PM an administrator with the changes you wish to make.

You can also add one picture to your profile. To upload a picture:
1) Click on "Profile" on the top purple navigation bar.
2) Hover over "Profile Info" (which is underneath the orange "Deathberry > Profile of [You] > Summary" link list) and click "Show Pictures."
3) Scroll to the bottom until you see "Add Picture", which is actually a link. Click "Add Picture", and you'll be able to upload a picture and give a title/description for that pic.
4) Please make sure your image is at least 200px in width. All pictures will automatically be resized to 200px in width, even if it's smaller than that. Additionally, animated gifs will NOT work.

Viewing Ultimate Profiles
To view someone's Ultimate Profile, click on that user's name. You'll automatically see their new Ultimate Profile (unless they have it set that only their Buddies can view it).

Visitor Messages
At the bottom of someone's Ultimate Profile page, you can leave Visitor Messages for the person (though they can set it so that only Buddies are permitted to leave VMs). Click "Add Comment" to open up a comment box, then leave your message by clicking "Save."

Unfortunately, there is not any way for you to view a "conversation" between yourself and another person, like in VBulletin. There is also not a way to change the number of VMs being displayed on the page. Also, you are not able to edit VMs. If you need to report a VM, please PM an administrator.

Adding and Approving Buddies
A) To request that someone be your Buddy, you can go to their Ultimate Profile, go to the "Contact Me" section on the left, then click the link to send them a Buddy request. They will not be added to your Buddy list until they approve your request.

B) To view and manage your Buddies, 1) click on "Profile" on the top purple navigation bar, then 2) hover over "Modify Profile" and click "Buddies/Ignore List".
- "Buddies Center" is your list of approved Buddies. You can remove Buddies by clicking the red X icon at the end. You can also reorder your Buddy list by using the up and down arrows. (Note: Reordering is slightly buggy, so you might need to mess with the arrows a bit.)
- "Unapproved Buddies" are those who have sent you requests. You can add a buddy by clicking the icon of three people in the second-to-last column. You can reject the request by clicking the red X icon at the end.
- "Pending Buddies" are those to whom you have sent requests.

Notifications
You will receive notifications via PM when someone requests that you become their Buddy. It is recommended that you delete these notices when you are done with them because otherwise they take up space in your PM folder. (There is a limit of 50 PMs total, which includes both sent and received PMs.)

You will also receive notifications via PM if someone leaves a VM on your wall, unless you turn that feature off. Follow the steps for "Customize your Ultimate Profile," then check the box that says "Disable new comments notification".

Ignore List
To ignore other members, 1) click on "Profile" on the top purple navigation bar; 2) hover over "Modify Profile", hover over "Buddies/Ignore List", and pick "Edit Ignore List"; 3) under "Add To Ignore List", start typing in the member name (usernames will automatically start to show up underneath as you type), then click "Add". You can remove someone from your Ignore List (i.e., re-enable their posts/PMs) by clicking the white icon with the red "X" on it (text says "Remove from Ignore list" when you hover over it).

Alternately, you can click the link "Ignore User", which is at the bottom of every person's post, to ignore a user. Click "Unignore User" to remove them from the Ignore List.

Members on your Ignore List will have their posts "hidden" - the post content will be blocked, with a message stating: "You are ignoring this user. Show me the post." Please note that you can still see that person's post if someone else quotes it. You also will ignore PMs from that person.



V. Signatures
There is a 300 character limit on signatures, which includes HTML or BBC codes. You can only have one image maximum in your signature, which must be 500x300 px (width x height) or smaller. Signature images that are overly large, either in pixels or in file size, may be deleted.

If you have trouble editing your signature, please PM an administrator with the changes you wish to make to your signature.



VI. Mobile Version
To use the mobile version, click the yellow "WAP2" link at the very bottom of any webpage. The link is specifically http://deathberry.com/index.php?wap2

The mobile version is very plain and stripped down, but posting may be easier for users on phones or tablets. You can still browse the forum, view your PMs, view unread posts, etc. However, you cannot edit your posts in the mobile version.

To post a reply, click the thread, then scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. Click the "Reply" button, and you will be able to post a reply. Although the BBCode buttons and smileys will not be displayed in the mobile version, BBCode in your posts will still work.



VII. Small Things You May Not Have Noticed
1) If there is a list of page numbers, if you click on the ellipsis (the three dots: ...) in between the numbers, then that will expand the page list to show all page numbers.

2) There is a red "New" icon that appears after thread titles; if you click it, you will be taken to the first post in the thread that you haven't yet read (more specifically, to the first post that was made after you last visited the thread).

3) When you are posting in normal mode by hitting "Reply" (i.e., not using the Quick Reply box), you can increase the size of the reply box by clicking on the bottom portion (it's a gray box with two black lines in the center) and dragging it up or down.

4) To see more Smileys/Smilies, click the purple and white "[more]" link underneath the default smilies.



VIII. Features That Cannot Currently Be Implemented
SMF is the script that powers this forum. It is a free script, and VBulletin, which many of you have used before, is a really expensive script. Many of the features available in VBulletin are not available in SMF by default. Some of the current features on Deathberry are actually due to "modifications", which are unofficial scripts created by other SMF users in their own free time. Unfortunately, there are not always modifications for certain features that you or we may want, either because they don't exist period or because they aren't supported for DB's version of SMF.

Here are some features that we currently cannot include (unless a compatible modification appears):
- The ability to delete or edit VMs (basically everything currently available for VMs is what we're limited to)
- A way to display who has posted in a thread, their number of posts in the thread, and a link to all their posts in the thread



IX. Known Issues/Bugs
If you have problems posting, make sure you are not using the WYSIWYG editor. If the WYSIWYG editor is enabled, then when you post, try disabling the editor first by clicking the icon with the blue arrow, surrounded by red brackets on the second line (if you hover over it, it says "Toggle View"). If you still have issues, please PM an administrator. Due to bugginess, the WYSIWYG editor has been disabled on the board.

There is a rare bug where certain posts may appear fine when you preview them, but when you actually post them, they cut off prematurely. We will soon be trying to implement the suggested fix for this. In the meantime, if you want to post something lengthy, it may be best to save it in a .txt document first. However, cutting and pasting text from a Word document may trigger the bug. I also recommend installing Lazarus for Firefox, Chrome, or Safari because it is amazing and has saved many posts I was working on when my browser crashed :3

Reordering your Buddy List is buggy. I don't have any solutions to this other than messing with the Up and Down arrows and hoping things work out.

Sometimes you may get the Mysql server has gone away error message. This is a temporary server problem that usually resolves itself within 5-10 minutes. Often your changes or posts have gone through anyway. Try again in a couple of minutes. If the problem persists for longer than 10 minutes, please e-mail us at admin@deathberry.com.



If you have any questions, problems, or suggestions, please post in the Suggestions, thank yous, all about the forum here! thread.