Micro Four Thirds User Forum - Making the forums work for you

I hope everyone has seen this thread, which is a good starting point for new members.

This thread discusses some of the finer points of using the forum for the best member experience possible.

Below are some tips, according to category.

Login issues

If you are having problems logging in or staying logged in, try the following:

Leave the site (navigate to a different site)
Erase your browser cache
Delete all cookies (warning - this will log you out of other sites as well!)
Return to mu-43 and log in again

You should only have to do this once.

If that doesn't work, your browser may not be compatible with our forum software. Some members have reported problems with certain versions of Internet Explorer.

Navigating the forums

1) In the top right corner of the screen, you'll see numerous tabs. Amongst these is the "Active" tab, which gives you the 50 most recently active discussions from the whole site.

2) In the Navbar (blue bar near the top of the screen), you'll find a link for "New Posts", which gives you a list of discussions which have been active since the last time you came to mu-43.

3) Also in the Navbar, if you click on the "Quick Links" menu and select "Mark Forums Read", it clears all existing posts from the "New Posts" list, so you can focus only on discussions which subsequently become active.

4) The "My Threads" link in the Navbar takes you to a list of your subscribed threads. By default, you are subscribed to any thread in which you have participated.

If you don't see your threads after clicking on "My Threads", go here, and under "Default Thread Subscription Mode", choose something other than "Do not subscribe", then click on "Save changes".

Also, note that the top box in the "My Threads" view is collapsible (click on the http://www.mu-43.com/images/buttons/collapse_tcat.gif to collapse it).

Personal options

1) To display an avatar (small picture next to each of your forum posts), click here. If the process doesn't make sense, see this video.

2) To display a profile picture (small picture displayed within your user profile), click here.

3) To add a signature (text or image automatically displayed under each of your posts), click here.

If you click on the "Quick Links" menu in the Navbar and select "Edit Options", you get a whole bunch of options, some of which are highlighted below according to category.

1) Under Thread Display Options, you have the option to globally hide avatars and signatures from posts if you find these distracting or annoying. It is strongly recommended that you leave "Show Images" checked, since this is a photography forum :smile:.

2) Also under Thread Display Options, youcan specify the number of posts to display per page. Those with slower internet connections may want to display threads with 10 posts per page rather than the forum default of 50.

Ignoring specific forums

Members can choose to omit specific forum(s) from their 'New Posts' (show in the blue Navbar above) or 'Today's Posts' (shown in the 'Quick Links' menu in the blue Navbar above) views.

You can do this under User CP > Edit Options - Scroll to the bottom under "Exclude Forums from 'Get New Posts'" and highlight the forums you wish to exclude. Control click (command click on a Mac) to select or deselect forums one by one. Then click on 'Save changes'.

Note that this setting does not affect the threads shown on the 'Active' tab or the 'Recent Discussions' column, which will continue to show all recently active threads. If you really want to make a forum non-existant, use the "Exclude Forums from 'Get New Posts'" as above, collapse the 'Recent Discussions' module in the right column by clicking on the http://www.mu-43.com/images/buttons/collapse_tcat.gif, and stay away from the 'Active' tab :wink:.