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General help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2014 12:34 pm
by Shirluban
This thread is intended to be a collection of help/tips/troubleshooting to use a forum.
Mostly about generic phpBB fora, not specific to RM.com's forum.


How does topics title work? How do you get two topic titles in the same thread?
Every time you add a post (either as a reply or as a new thread), you can put a specific title to it in the "subject" field on the top of the form (before the BBcode buttons).
It's easily overlooked when you add a post on an existing thread, since it's already filled and there is generally no need to change it.
By default, the title depend on if you reply by hitting the "post reply" button (takes the thread's title), or a "quote" button (takes the quoted post's title).
But generally, a thread with two topic titles will be either a split thread or a merged thread, the moved posts keeping their original title.

That being said, keep in mind that in the search results the post's title is the only thing telling you to which thread the post belongs, and what the discussion/subject was about.
So, the original thread's title SHOULD be kept.

Re: General help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 10:59 pm
by or2az
All of those little circles that are just before a topic.
Some have a star, some are red, some are in motion, some have a little circle in the bigger circle, some are not circles but look like a lightbulb.......
Can someone explain what all this means?
(I think the red star means I have a post in that topic)
(also, the little circle in the bigger one indicates a sub-forum in the forum)...........Are both these correct?

Re: Genaral help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 2:54 am
by Referee
Red means you have some unread posts there.

Re: Genaral help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 3:07 am
by Ozball
I thought that there was usually a page that explained them built into the forum by default, or maybe I'm thinking vBulletin.
Anyways:
Red * means you have posted in the topic.

Lightbulb looking one is a sticky post meaning it will always show at the top of the topic list. Eg the Scoring calculation (Menzen-kafu and Pinfu + more) topic.

The small icon within the big icon is, as you guessed, a forum with a sub forum.

If any of the icons are red then it means there are unread posts in that topic, as Referee said.

The icon where the "text" is scrolling, Eg the Furiten Question topic means that it's a hot topic and has x number of replies. The number required varies between forums but it looks like it's 25 here.

The paperclip icon under the topic name means there is an attachment uploaded in the topic somewhere.

There will also be an icon for a closed/locked topic but I don't know if any examples in this forum off the top of my head and I'm writing this on the train in a tunnel so can't check. The icon usually involves an X or a padlock though.

Re: General help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 5:06 am
by or2az
ok, its becoming clearer now, except for the lightbulb. The FAQ "what is a sticky topic" seems different from your explanation.
From the definition, I'm not sure "lightbulb" and "sticky" go together.
Also, what makes a topic "sticky"?
last question, I hope. If you click "mark forums read" or "mark topics read", what does that do? And can it be undone?
Sorry about all of this but I couldn't find that explanation page you mentioned, if it exists.
Note: I did find a locked topic. (last one on p.8 in reach mahjong by wortex)

Re: Genaral help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 12:04 pm
by Barticle
The meanings of the standard phpBB icons are illustrated nicely in this random thread: http://samuraikids.com.au/phpbb2/viewto ... t=20#p1137

(I think this legend used to be part of the main forum view?)

A thread (topic) can be set as sticky by a moderator, pinning it to the top of the topic index. I think any resemblance to a lightbulb :idea: is probably coincidental, although you could think of it as a "spotlight" thread or a "bright idea"! :) Really it's just the normal icon with an exclamation mark added. Perhaps something with a noticeboard pin would be clearer.

The "mark read" options clear all red icons (threads where you have unread messages) - all topics on either one forum or all forums. I would guess this can't be undone.

The forums can only track which messages are read/unread when you are logged in. If you normally view the forums without logging in then when you do finally log in you'll find that all the new posts (since your last login) which you've already read are still marked as unread.

Re: General help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 3:55 pm
by or2az
Thanks. That was helpful. So you are saying that being "sticky" is a GOOD THING. I had the impression that it wasn't, for some reason, like in the sentence,
CAUTION! YOU ARE ENTERING A STICKY SITUATION. Nice to have that cleared up.

Re: General help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 5:08 am
by or2az
When I write a PM (private message) and click send, it goes into my outbox. It does not get transmitted to the intended recipient.
In order to get it "sent", I have to send a BCC to myself. It then goes out to both parties.
Am I doing something wrong or is that the way it's supposed to work?

Re: Genaral help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 9:04 am
by Ozball
I believe that it sits in the Outbox until the other person reads it. Seems like an odd way of doing it, but *shrugs*. I think with the BCC it leaves the Outbox because at least one of the recipients has read it (thoughi t still goes to all recipients regardless)

I could be wrong though.

Re: Genaral help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 12:12 pm
by Shirluban
Ozball wrote:I believe that it sits in the Outbox until the other person reads it.
Yes, phpBB forums work this way.
It's nice because it lets you know if (one of) the recipient had read it or not yet. But when you don't know this trick it's sure confusing to have two outboxes: one for "sent messages, not read" and one for "sent messages, read by at least one guy but maybe not all recipient".

Re: General help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 4:42 pm
by or2az
So you are saying that if the message is in the OUTBOX but not in SENT MESSAGES, that it has been transmitted;
And once it is read by the recipient, it magically disappears from the OUTBOX and appears in the SENT MESSAGES box.
Did I get that right?

Re: General help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 5:11 pm
by Shirluban
or2az wrote:So you are saying that if the message is in the OUTBOX but not in SENT MESSAGES, that it has been transmitted;
And once it is read by the recipient, it magically disappears from the OUTBOX and appears in the SENT MESSAGES box.
Did I get that right?
Yes.

Re: General help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 3:58 pm
by or2az
Does that mean that if you DELETE the message while it is still in your OUTBOX (before the recipient has read it), that it will disappear from the recipients INBOX, as if it was never sent at all.

Re: General help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Fri May 30, 2014 2:09 am
by Ozball
or2az wrote:Does that mean that if you DELETE the message while it is still in your OUTBOX (before the recipient has read it), that it will disappear from the recipients INBOX, as if it was never sent at all.
Actually the recipient gets a "This message had been deleted before it was sent" message in their inbox instead. But yes essentially it will be as if it was never sent I think.

Re: General help for using a (phpBB) forum.

Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 8:10 am
by or2az
I could use a little guidance on using the search function of the forum.
Sometimes, I try to search for posts on certain topics that I know exist but what I get back is this.

The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words:

Two such items are open pinfu and double yakuman.
Is there a way to yield results for these types of search inquiries?

I looked at the advanced search options but I'm not quite following the instructions and what I do understand doesn't seem to be very advanced.