Community Chat FAQ

[RandBlade]

Welcome, this thread intends to provide answers to the various Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for this forum and provide other useful information. Throughout this FAQ, ‘this forum’ refers to the Community Chat forum, while ‘Atari forums’ or 'these forums' refers to all the forums at this website. This thread is split into three posts:

1: This introduction plus FAQ for the Community Chat (CC) Forum.
2: General FAQ for the whole of the Atari forums.
3: Comprehensive list of available vB codes, to modify the formatting of your posts.

Community Chat FAQ
1: Is this a games forum?

This forum is NOT a gaming forum. Atari hosts this Forum, but each game has its own individual forum. Click here for a list of all available forums and select the forum relevant for the game you want to discuss. According to the last stated rules for this forum, game-related posts are off-topic for the forum. Not only are they off-topic for this forum however, but we are also likely to be unable to help you. If you post a topic related to a game, such as asking to join a clan, wanting technical advice etc then you are very unlikely to get any help. You will get the help etc that you want if you go to the relevant games forum but are unlikely to get your help here. Note that you can talk about games generally, eg non-game-specific or just general conversation such as “I just got game xyz and like it” etc but if you want advice for gameplay, technical advice skins, clans, cheat-codes etc then going to the correct forum will be more fruitful.

2: What is this forum for?

This forum is for the Off Topic posts that are not allowed on other forums. According to the general Atari forum rules “a good rule of thumb is that you need to post off topic threads in Community Chat” although “A select few title forums allow off topic threads”. This forum has been created with the purpose of allowing discussions not allowed in other forums, so that includes almost anything excluding the threads related to games other forums exist for, so long as it matches both the above-mentioned Atari general rules and the specific rules for this forum.

3: I don’t like discussion of politics and religion, why are they allowed here?

While many games-forums allow general off-topic conversations, almost none tolerate politics and religion since they can offend many people. However this forum is the exception, while general off-topic posts are allowed here it was created especially for these discussions which had no home anywhere else and these two controversial topics have always dominated here. If you don’t want to read these discussions then don’t read the threads, but they are not forbidden here.

4: I want to discuss xyz but it’s not being discussed here, why not?

So long as it meets the rules then any member here can create threads. If a topic you want to discuss is not being discussed then you should always feel free to create the thread yourself, if anyone else is interested then they will reply. If you do that any nobody replies then there may not be any other interest in the forum, so don’t repeatedly bump the thread, but do create it originally, nearly all threads do get replies. Also give people time to reply, this forum has members all over the world and can be slow, sometimes it can take upto 24 hours to get replies.

5: What topics are not allowed here?

Advertising – We are not interested in your ‘free Ipods’ or anything like that, advertising also includes giving links to forums, URLs which have trackers in etc - no advertising is permitted on this forum. This is true whether the advert appears in a new thread, existing threads or your signature, however members are normally permitted to provide links to other forums within their signature. However a free enema is available to all who advertise here.
Spam – Posting replies/creating threads, simply for the sake of it or to change a post count, rather than to contribute.
Trolling – Deliberately posting material with the intention of causing trouble.
Flaming - Attacking another persons character instead of their argument.
Sex – Discussions of sexuality, sexual politics, sexual news etc are all allowed. Discussing what you did in bed last night is not.
Racism/Sexism - Discussing racism, sexism the politics of race or sex, whether ‘affirmative action’ is good or bad etc are all allowed. Being racist or sexist is not.
False Atari Claims - In order to avoid confusion, it is forbidden to make false claims about being an employee of Atari, a moderator here etc

As with all rules, these rules have been set and are enforced by moderators and administrators, and their interpretation of them is final.

6: What sort of members are here?

Lots, no individual nation or philosophy etc dominates here, there are people from all over the world with all different forms of view, some wildly different to others. Anyone at all who follows the rules is welcome here. If you want more information on a user then you can click on their profile to see extra information they may have supplied about themselves, such as their location. We have members from all 6 inhabited continents. Please bear in mind that while English is the dominant language for this forum, for a very large portion of speakers English is a second-language.

7: Who is the judge of the rules?

The moderators (mods) and the administrators (admins) of the forum. At the time of last updating this, the moderators for this forum are Dreadnaught and RandBlade. When a forum has a set moderator to manage it, then their names appear on the front page of the forum, above the listed threads. In addition, other 'super moderators' or 'administrators' for these forums can also moderate here, including for example Betatestadmin.

Please do not request to become a moderator. Appointments of user mods are very rare, as most moderators are employees. User moderators are chosen by the current moderator team by their commitment and involvement with the community, not by asking over and over.

Users can not ban other users or edit the posts of other users, only the mods and admins can. Some users may say that they think a particular post/thread is against the rules but they can not judge it. If you think a post is against the forums rules and should be looked at by the moderators then under each post is a ‘Report this post’ feature, that will contact the forums mod(s) (or all universal mods/admins if there is none listed) to draw their attention to the post. Finally, bear in mind that the rules are permanent unless they are changed by the mods/admins: I.E. if another user is breaking the rules then that does not give you permission to break the rules in response, you will be just as liable to receive WL-points or be banned by a mod if you do that.

8: What sort of writing style should be used here?

All users are different and we all have different styles. There is no proscribed style. except by convention do not type in ALL CAPS. Typing in ALL CAPS is considered here like in most places on the forum to be fairly rude, an equivalent to shouting instead of talking. Please turn your caps-lock button off before you type. In general, if you want to emphasise something you have written then writing that small section in bold can be better than writing in ALL CAPS, see the third post for vB codes. Aside from that, write as you want to, it is not important how you write but what you write, however most people here do try and write in conventional forms, but it is not critical or even that important. ‘1337’ is rare on this particular forum but not unheard of.

Please do not insult users for their writing style, including for spelling, grammatical errors or typo’s, nobody is perfect, virtually everyone makes mistakes and for many of the users here English is a second or third language although native English speakers can be just as liable to make mistakes. Making mistakes is not against the rules, insulting other users however is.

However, most people and discussions here are smart and intentionally abusing grammar and/or spelling is not normally appreciated.

9: What is Godwin’s Law/’Rule 12’

Neither of these are real rules that will be enforced by the moderators, so don’t take this 1 question/answer too seriously. Godwin’s Law is a common ‘rule’ on the internet that is often mentioned/invoked here, as normally interpreted here, it means that any user who uses the Nazi’s/Hitler in a thread not about them (especially as an insult for the other side) loses the debate automatically. So avoid needlessly calling people, ideas etc Nazi’s or comparable to them. ‘Rule 12’ is part of a list of ‘rules’ suggested by a member and states that you “should not drink and post”. It’s not a real rule, it’s possible to post here while drunk, but it’s often not very advisable to do that. In particular, remember that even if you don’t remember what you posted while drunk, everyone else will be able to see it, as will you when you sober up.

10: I have another question that’s not been answered.

The next post covers general questions that cover all the forums. Otherwise, feel free to ask a question in a new thread, I will try to update this FAQ in the future if something is missing.

11: New 'rules' NEW!
"Rule 13/WikiFist": " As an online discussion grows longer, the probability that someone cites Wikipedia approaches 1.

Corollary- When Rule13/WikiFist/Dread's Rule is satisfied, the quality of the debate rapidly degrades."

12: How do I close/will you close this thread? NEW!
In some other Atari sub-forums like the DBZ forums it is possible to close your own thread, if you were the thread starter: Click Thread Tools, then Close Thread. However that is disabled in the CC. It is simply not possible. Instead if a thread requires closing, only moderators and admin's can close it in the CC. It is a matter of policy not to close a thread unless we have to in the CC. The idea that a thread is "over", or a question "answered" is not sufficient grounds for us to close a thread in the CC (although it may be in other forums). Do not request us please to close a thread for this reason as it will not be done.

[RandBlade]

General Atari Questions

1: How do I get a signature(sig), Custom Title(CT) or Avatar

Click the ‘user cp’ button at the top of each page, then select Edit Profile to enter your signature and/or CT. Select Edit Options to upload an Avatar, which can be any image within the rules upto a size of 60x60 pixels. You need a minimum of 50 posts to have a Title or Avatar, but do not spam to reach that minimum. Spamming is against the rules and you can be banned if you do it, the threshold is not particularly high (it used to be 1000 and 4000 respectively) so please respect it and do not spam. Spam is not tolerated on any forum here.

Moderators would previously occasionally permit Custom Titles with extra features (such as glow-tags), however this is no longer being offered. It is not possible for users to enter their own glowing title and User Moderators like Dreadnaught and myself can not do it either so there is no point in asking, its just not available anymore sorry.

2: What is allowed in a signature? Changed

Images are no longer permitted in signatures. As a general rule of thumb rule, your signature should be no longer than 6 5 lines of normal text in the normal font, at a screen resolution of 1024x768. If you use effects that make the text bigger then you should use less lines, and if you have more lines then please use the [size] tag to make your text smaller. As a general guideline, the [quote] tag should be avoided in signatures as this effect takes a lot of space by itself. Please note that this rule is not at the time of writing enforced in some forums, particularly the Dragonball Z forum, but now enforced in all forums excessively long signatures are not permitted here at the Community Chat forum, so if you do have a long signature please turn it off when posting in this forum (untick the Show Signature checkbox when posting) change it.

Images will not be permitted again in signatures, so please don't ask.

2: What are WL’s?

WL = Warning Level, it is the system the moderators here use to keep track of prior violations of the rules. If a user breaks a rule then depending upon the rule between 1 and 15 WL’s can be imposed. If a user ever reaches the threshold of having 15 WL points then they will be banned from all of the Atari forums instantly. For a full list of the WL rules see here however do not mess around by thinking that (for instance) you can break the rules because you don’t have many points yet, the moderators can instantly ban someone if they think they have reason to and the moderator’s decision is final.

3: I have been banned, can I return?

If you have been banned it will have been for a reason, returning from a ban is itself reason enough to be re-banned, even if you do not break any more rules. If you have been banned and want to return then try contacting a moderator before you return and ask for permission to return. I would recommend thinking about why you were banned in the first place and promising not to break that rule again. If you have been given permission to return then you can, but if you have not then returning is against the rules and worthy by itself of an instant-ban.

4: Atari? I thought this was …

This forum was previously called the Infogrames forum and it has amalgamated other forums previously such as GT. If you had an account with a previous one of these forums it could now be here.

5: An old thread I wanted no longer exists

Threads are deleted for two reasons, firstly sometimes if they violated the rules and wasn’t just edited/locked, or if the thread-starter heavily spammed so all his threads were deleted. Secondly the forums are regularly ‘pruned’ in order to maintain the database. At present, during prunings any thread that has not had a reply in over 90 days will be deleted, there are no longer any archives to move these threads into so they will be deleted entirely.

6: Why is my post-count lower than it should be?

Occasionally if the forum has problems the member database has to be recreated, with the post-count recreated to match the existing amount of posts by the user on the forum. Therefore any posts which no longer exist, for example due to prunings, will no longer be counted. This will reduce your post-count accordingly, possibly for some members by hundreds or thousands of posts. The moderators will not re-adjust a users post-count, besides it is not important.

7: Why is my registration date different to how it should be?

At some points in the histories of the various forums that have come together to make up today’s Atari forum’s, the registration date of members has been reset. For example in May 2000 when GT went from UBB to vB all members were set to that days registration. In the past one previous moderator used to correct a members registration date if asked, but with too many members having problems the moderators have been unable to do this for years now.

8: I wasn’t banned but my account no longer exists

Early in 2004, during a pruning, accounts which had not been active for 500 days were deleted. If your account was deleted in this manner then re-create it, if it was deleted due to bannings then see #3 above.

9: I want to become a moderator, how do I do it?

Get a job with Atari, then ask your employers

10: How do I lock or delete a thread I created?

You can’t any more as both functions have been abused, only mods/admins can lock or delete threads now, so ask one or report the thread, if you have a reason for wanting it either locked or deleted.

Note: In most other Atari forums users can now lock threads again, this can be done by clicking "Open / Close Thread" in the drop-down menu under "Admin Options:" at the bottom-right of a thread. This drop-down menu is not shown to users at all in the Community Chat forum though.

11: I have another question that’s not been answered

If it was specific to the Community Chat forum then it may be answered in the first post, if it is about vB codes then see the next post, otherwise please ask in a new thread. I will try to update this thread if there is something missing. Again, please do not reply to this thread if it is unlocked.

[RandBlade]

vB codes

It is often nice to change the formatting of your post. For this there is a very large selection of vB codes available, this post will attempt to include all the ones available on this forum, although there may be more. vB code uses square-brackets in the format [code] to mark the beginning of the code and [/code] to mark where it ends, with text in-between affected by the coding, switching code with the correct vB code. For convenience all code will be split into relevant sections, the exact code will be given, with an exact example and it’s result. Note that unlike the code for smilies, vB code is not case-sensitive.

General text modifiers

Bold: [b]This text will be written in bold[/b] = This text will be written in bold
Italics: [i]This text will be written in italics[/i] = This text will be written in italics
Underline: [u]This text will be written underlined[/u] = This text will be written underlined

All vB codes can be combined. For example, to use all the above codes:

Bold, italics and underlined: [b][i][u]This text will be written in bold, italics and underlined[/b][/i][/u] = This text will be written in bold, italics and underlined

To change the size of your text is slightly more complicated, you need to use the size code including what size you are going to change it into, using the format: [size=a]Text here[/size] where a is the size you want. Note that the ending tag does not contain the =a part. In ascending order: 1 is small, 2 is the default size, 3 is slightly bigger than normal etc – although there is a limit to the size you can provide, if you write size=100 it will just put it into the biggest size available. The size can be changed within the same paragraph, an example:

[size=1]This text is small,[/size] [size=2]this text is normal[/size] as is this unmodified text, [size=3]this text is bigger[/size] [size=4] while this text is even bigger[/size]

Becomes:

This text is small, this text is normal as is this unmodified text, this text is bigger while this text is even bigger

When you type, the forum automatically removes spaces between words of more than one space. This is called ‘soft spaces’, if you want to add in ‘hard spaces’ then instead of pressing space bar type the code   - for each one of those you write there will be one space as a result. EG:

Five     spaces = Five     spaces

Quotes and Lists

To quote someone then the code used is [quote]Text Quoted[quote] – this wraps the text quoted, indented. If you click on the quote button underneath another users posts then it will automatically add these quote tags, as well as writing in italics who was quoted and putting the quoted text in bold. You can use whatever style you want when quoting people, but in general it is a good idea to have it written somewhere who you’re quoting, otherwise it can get very confusing.

For example if I wanted to quote a relevant line from above, using the default standard used by the forum, then it would look like this:

[quote][i]Originally posted by RandBlade[/i]
[b]All vB codes can be combined.[/b][/quote]

Becomes:

Originally posted by RandBlade
All vB codes can be combined.

Note the combination of three different tags to get the desired effect: quote, i and b.

To write a list there are a few different means. The most basic is as follows, and will simply indent your text:

[list]Item 1
Item 2
Item 3[/list]

Becomes

• Item 1
  Item 2
  Item 3

To add ‘bullet points’ then add the code [*] at the start of each line, note that as part of the list code this is the only (to my knowledge) VB code that does not need a closing tag, there is no [/*]

[list][*]Item 1[*]Item 2[*]Item 3[/list]

Becomes

• Item 1
• Item 2
• Item 3

If you wanted numbers or letters instead of bullet points then you can replace the firs [list] with [list=1] or [list=a] instead. Nothing else changes, each [*] then becomes a number or letter depending upon which you wrote. Note that it has to be 1 or a, write another number such as 2 or b and the code will not work. While codes are not case-sensitive, for this code it you write “=a” then each index will be lower case, if you write “=A” then the index will be upper case. I will only demonstrate one example:

[list=A][*]Item 1[*]Item 2[*]Item 3[/list]

Becomes

1. Item 1
2. Item 2
   Still item 2
3. Item 3

Alignment
To change the alignment of your text, to central or right hand side alignment, use the code [align=position, for example:

[align=center]This text is written in the center [/align] becomes:

This text is written in the center

[align=right]This text is written on the right[/align] becomes:

This text is written on the right

Colour-coding
Two codes modify colour, one to change the colour of the text itself, the other to give a glow-effect to the code. Note that while the author of this FAQ is British and says colour, the code is American and thus only accepts the word color. There are two ways to enter a colour-code, either using the name of the colour, which may be pre-defined, or by entering it in a hexadecimal format of #RRGGBB Examples:

[color=red]This text is in the colour red[/color] = This text is in the colour red
[color=#123ABC]This text is in the colour #123ABC[/color] = This text is in the colour #123ABC
[glow=green]This text has a green glow[/glow] =

This text has a green glow

[glow=#ABC123]This text has a glow of colour #ABC123[/glow] =

This text has a glow of colour #ABC123

You can also increase the size of the glowing effect by making the first term [glow=colour, strength=number – although note that the final closing tag is still merely [glow] no matter what. Examples:

[glow=blue, strength=3]This blue glow is strength 3[/glow] becomes:

This blue glow is strength 3

[glow=blue, strength=30]This blue glow is strength 30[/glow] becomes:

This blue glow is strength 30

Note that the glow-code uses non-standard Internet-Explorer specific code. Users on alternative browsers such as Mozilla, Firefox, Opera etc will not see any glow, only IE users will see it. For either IE or alternative browsers, use of the glow tag will start a new line at the start of the glowing section, and the end of it. It is not possible to have a glow in the middle of a paragraph.

More advanced text modifiers
The spoiler code is very useful, it hides text until the reader puts his/her mouse over it or otherwise highlights it, thus hiding potential ‘spoilers’. It is generally considered very rude to give away a ‘spoiler’ to something, whether it be for example the end of a game/movie/book etc without prior warning. If a thread is a thread specifically for spoilers, with warning in the title then there is no need for this code. If however you want to include a spoiler in a non-spoiler thread then use this code. Note that this code has changed, in the past you had to include a colour for the spoiler background, now you neither need to nor can.

[spoiler]This code is a hidden spoiler[/spoiler] =

Spoiler:

This code is a hidden spoiler

Similar to the spoiler code, in case you wish to make it patently clear that you are being sarcastic:
[sarcasm]So, can you tell if I’m being sarcastic yet?[/sarcasm] becomes:
Sarcasm: So, can you tell if I’m being sarcastic yet?

Alpha-coding (Internet Explorer only!): Alpha-coding means changing the shading of a text, with alpha=100 the text is normal, alpha=50 only half displays the text, while alpha=0 does not display the text at all, it shades entirely into the background colour. This vB code uses IE-specific code and will only display in Internet Explorer, which only some users browse the forum with, for non-IE users it is equivalent to using the code size=3 instead. Also note that any text in an Alpha code automatically goes into a new line, whichever browser is being used to read it.

Example:
[alpha=100]Text with alpha 100[/alpha] [alpha=75]Text with alpha 75[/alpha] [alpha=50]Text with alpha 50[/alpha] [alpha=25]Text with alpha 25[/alpha] [alpha=0]Text with alpha 0[/alpha]
Becomes:

Text with alpha 100

Text with alpha 75

Text with alpha 50

Text with alpha 25

Text with alpha 0

Images and hyperlinks
There are two ways to link to another website. Firstly for example you can surround an URL with the [url] and [/url] tags, or you can give write [url=url here]text here[/url]

As an example, if I want to link to the BBC News website of news.bbc.co.uk
[url]news.bbc.co.uk[/url] = news.bbc.co.uk
[url=news.bbc.co.uk]BBC News[/url] = BBC News

Including an image is similar to the first hyperlink code, with img instead or url. For example, to give an image of the Atari logo located here: http://www.atari.com/us/images/atari.gif

=

If an image is big, such as a screenshot, then you can use the [screenshot] tag, which works in the exact same way as the [img] tag. This will then automatically create and display a large thumbnail image of the large image to be displayed on the forum, which if clicked will show the full, original image in a new window. Example, a screenshot from the following URL: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...Screenshot.png

[screenshot]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/RandBlade/AtariForumsIndexPageScreenshot.png[/screenshot] Becomes:



Note: With either image code, for a big image it is a good idea to start the image on a new line to help avoid side-scrolling.

This is a very good tag to use, as it will prevent side-scrolling for users browsers which can be a nuisance. Also remember that if you have a large screen resolution then while a large image may not cause side-scrolling for you, it may for users on smaller resolutions.

Miscellaneous
If you want to draw a line across the screen, like the <hr> tag, then use the code [hr][/hr] – Note this is the only tag I can this think of where you should not include any text between the two sets of code. Any text you include in-between them will be lost, any before or after will be put on separate lines. Example:

Text before [hr]Text in-between[/hr] Text after
Becomes:
Text before

---

Text after

Conclusion

I hope this FAQ has been of assistance. This post has been intended to be a concise and complete list of all vB codes that can be used on these forums. If any have been forgotten or get added then in time they should be added. If you have any more questions then please ask.

[RandBlade]

Replying just to ensure the thread never gets pruned, ignore this post (will be deleted and re-posted whenever its needed).