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| Frequently Asked Questions |
| DAIRYLAND BJD QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
Welcome to Dairyland BJD! This is a forum focused on ball-jointed doll collectors in the Midwest USA. We also have members from all over the world! Our forum has many features to offer you, including: * Discussion about BJDs and other types of dolls * Customizable profiles, user titles, avatars, and signatures * Online photo albums * Games and Contests * Dairy Tokens (user awards) * Free online marketplace * Two yearly mega-meets hosted by the forum ...and much, much, more! FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS What is Dairyland BJD? Dairyland BJD in was started in May 2008 with the idea of being an online gathering spot for local BJD fans. Our members form friendships through chit-chat, sharing photos, playing games and planning/attending doll meets. Dairyland BJD aims to be the local forum that welcomes one and all: your virtual BJD hometown! Can I become a member if I live outside of the Midwest USA? Absolutely! Doll enthusiasts from anywhere and everywhere are more than welcome to join. Are there other members in my area? We have large member bases in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa, as well as many members from elsewhere in the Midwest and beyond, including International locations. Many of our Illinois members can also be found at Chitowndollz, our sister forum in Chicago. What if I don't own a doll? You are still welcome here! All we require is an interest in dolls, not actual ownership. Can I talk about non-BJD dolls/dolls ruled off-topic at other forums? Certainly! We have active discussion on Blythe, Pullip, Toffee, Juku Couture, Ellowyne Wilde, American Girl, Monster High, Japanese figures, fashion dolls and more in our Other Dolls forum. Can I attend a meet? All publicly-posted meets are open to all members, though there may be a limit to how many people can attend. If you are interested in attending a meet, post in the appropriate thread, or contact the organizer(s). Can I host a meet? We encourage all members to plan and host meets in their area! If you are interested in planning and/or hosting a meet, please visit the Local Meets and Dairyland Meets forums. I have a question not answered here. Who should I ask? You are welcome to contact Anielle, Criana, Floorplan, Green Unicorn or Dairy Mod Squad with questions. For information on our general requirements and regulations, please read through our Rules. If you are having difficulties using the forum, please consult the post below. FORUM-RELATED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS REGISTRATION You are required to register in order to use all the features of the forum. Being registered gives you an identity on the board, a fixed username on all messages you post and an online public profile. Registration is free, and offers an extended range of features, including: * Posting new threads * Replying to other peoples' threads * Editing your posts * Receiving email notification of replies to posts and threads you specify * Sending private messages to other members * Creating albums of pictures and comment on others' pictures * Adding events to the forum calendar How do I register? You register by clicking on the 'Register' link near the top of the page. You will be asked to choose a user name, password and enter a valid email address. Once this is complete, you will have to click on a link in an 'activation email' sent to your email address. Once you have done this, you will be registered. You may be required to wait for Moderator approval before you can access all the features of your member account. This approval should only take a few hours at most. Note that entering your email address will not leave you open to 'spam', as you can choose to hide it from other board users. You are able to allow other registered users to contact you via email, but the system won't display your email address to them unless you give permission. LOGGING IN What is 'Automatic Login'? When you register (and also when you login using the form at the top of the screen), you will be given the option to 'Remember Me'. This will store your identity securely in a cookie on your computer. If you are using a shared computer, such as in a library, school or internet cafe, or if you have reason to not trust any other users that might use this computer, we recommend you do not enable this. How do I clear cookies? You can clear all your cookies set by the forum by clicking the 'logout' link at the top of the page. In some cases, if you return to the main index page via the link provided and you are still logged in, you may have to remove your cookies manually. * In Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP: Click the 'Tools' menu. Select 'Internet Options' from the menu that appears. Click 'Delete Cookies' on the dialog box that appears. It will be in the center area of the 'General' tab. * In Internet Explorer 7: Click the 'Tools' menu. Select 'Internet Options' from the menu that appears. Click 'Delete...', beneath 'Browsing History' on the dialog box that appears. It will be in the center area of the 'General' tab. Click 'Delete cookies...' on the next dialog box that appears. * In Firefox: Click the 'Tools' menu. Select 'Options' from the menu that appears. From the dialog box, select 'Privacy' on the left. Find 'Cookies' on the main pane, and click the 'Clear' button adjacent to it. * In Safari: Go to Preferences, Security, then show Cookies and either select 'Remove all' or select individual cookies and then the 'Delete' button. * In Opera: Go to Tools, Preferences, Advanced, Cookies, Manage cookies then select the name of this site and click the 'Delete' button. Your cookies should now be removed. You may want to restart the computer and revisit the forums to be sure. Other browsers may have a different method of clearing cookies. Refer to the documentation for your own browser if you are unsure. I forgot my password. What can I do? If you forget your password, you can click on the 'Forgotten Your Password' link. This will appear on any page that requires you to fill in your password. This link brings up a page where you should enter your registered email address. An email will be sent to that address shortly, with instructions for resetting your password. Since passwords are encrypted, there is no way to resend your original password. This option provides you with the ability to reset your password. You must be able to receive emails to your registered email address for this to work. You may need to check your spam filters and folder if you do not see this email in a few minutes. FORUM FUNCTION: SEARCHING, MEMBERS, USER SETTINGS How is the Dairyland BJD bulletin board structured? The bulletin board as a whole contains various categories (broad subject areas), which themselves contain forums (more specific subject areas) which contain threads (conversations on a topic) which are made up of individual posts (where a user writes something). The board home page has a list of categories and forums, with basic statistics for each - including the number of threads and posts, and which member posted the most recent message. How can I see the latest posts? There are two ways to quickly view recently created or updated threads. If you are not logged in, the 'today's posts' link will show a list of all threads that have been created or updated in the last 24 hours. If you are logged in, the 'Today's Posts' link will change to 'New Posts', which gives you a listing of all threads that have been created or updated since your last visit. The board is set up so that each thread you read is marked in the database. Then new threads (or threads with new posts) will not be marked as read until you have actually read them. What are announcements? Announcements are special messages posted by the administrator or moderators. They are a simple one-way communication with the users. Announcement threads are displayed at the top of forum listing pages, above regular and sticky threads. Is there a faster way to get to forums? If you know which forum you want to go to, you can use the 'Forum Jump' control, which appears at the bottom of many pages within the board. How do I search for something? To quickly find a thread or post of interest anywhere on the bulletin board, click on the 'Search' link in the navigation bar at the top of most forum pages. Then, type in the keyword or phrase you wish to search for, and select either 'Show Threads' or 'Show Posts' to view the results. By selecting posts, you will be shown only the actual post in which the search word appears. For more control over the search, select 'Advanced Search' from the drop-down box. The advanced search page allows you to restrict your search to individual forums, or find posts or threads by user. There are also options to find posts from a certain date, or threads with a certain number of replies. If you are browsing a forum, you can quickly search for a thread or post within it by clicking on the 'Search this forum' link near the top of the page (it's above the list of threads). You can also search for individual posts within a thread by clicking on the 'Search this Thread' link at the top of any thread view page. How do I change my user details? You can change your account information using the User Control Panel. For basic profile details (including your email address and password), click on the 'Edit Your Details' option from within the User CP. This page allows you to set a number of required and optional details, some of which will be displayed on your public profile. With the exception of your email address, do not enter information that you do not wish to be publicly viewable. How do I set signatures, avatars and profile pictures? You can set and change your signature, avatar and profile picture in the User Control Panel. For signatures, click on 'Edit Signature' under the 'Settings and Options' area of the navigation bar within the User CP. To select an existing or upload a new avatar, click on 'Edit Avatar'. To upload a profile picture, click on 'Edit Profile Picture' in the 'Your Profile' section. What is the User Profile Page? Every member has a publicly viewable profile page. This page includes information provided by the member, either during the registration process or later on via the User Control Panel. There are a number of ways to view a member's profile. Whenever you see a member's name, clicking on it will usually take you to view their profile page. The members list allows you to browse all registered members, and quickly click through to public profiles. When logged in, you can also view your own public profile by logging into the forums and clicking on your username shown in the header at the top of the page. How do I customize my profile page? You may edit the design and styling of your public profile page via the 'Customize Profile' section within the User CP. You can adjust the color scheme, fonts, borders and layout of elements on the page. You can also use images as background for various sections of you profile. First you will need to upload the background images to an album you have created. Background images can be sourced only from albums defined as public, or 'profile' type. Images in private albums cannot be used. What do the other settings do? In your User CP, there is a section under Settings & Options named 'Edit Options'. * Login & Privacy: o 'Allow vCard Download' - sets whether or not to allow other members to download a vCard containing your email address and username. * Messaging & Notification - options include: o 'Receive Email' - whether or not you want to receive emails from other Members and administrators o 'Default Thread Subscription Mode' - how you want to be notified about new posts in threads to which you have subscribed o 'Private Messaging' - control how you want Private Messaging to work for your account o 'Visitor Messaging' - control how you want Visitor Messaging to work for your account * Thread Display Options - these include: o 'Visible Post Elements' - whether or not you want to be able to see Signatures, Avatars and Images in posts o 'Thread Display Mode' - how you want to view threads by default o 'Number of Posts to Show Per Page' o 'Default Thread Age Cut Off' - the time period for threads to be displayed - threads older than this age will be hidden * Date & Time Options - these include: o 'Time Zone' - your local geographical time zone offset from GMT/UTC o 'Start of the Week' - for the Calendar. * Miscellaneous Options include: o 'Message Editor Interface' - This option allows you choose what kind of editor you will use when posting messages. Your choices include a basic text-only editor, a standard editor with clickable formatting controls, or a full WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor that will show your formatting as you type. What is the Members List? The members list shows the registered members of the board. You can view the member list ordered alphabetically by username, by the date they joined, or by the number of posts they have made. To view the members list, click on 'Community' on main navigation bar at the top of the page. To quickly find a particular member, click on the 'Search Members' link and type a username (or partial username) into the box. For further search options - including searching based on join date, post count or home page - click on 'Advanced Search' on the search menu. How do I find out more about members? To view information about a particular member, click on the user name. This will take you to their public profile page. What is the Quick Links menu? The navigation bar at the top of each page has several helpful links. One of them is a dropdown menu called Quick Links. (It appears only to registered members who are logged in). Clicking it once with the mouse will make it drop down and show the following options: * Quick Links o Today's Posts (shows posts created in the past 24 hours) o Mark Forums Read (marks all the threads and posts as read for your session - this is a shortcut alternative to actually reading the threads and posts) * Networking o Pictures and Albums (where you can manage your pictures and albums) * User Control Panel o Edit Signature (edit your personal signature that appears below posts) o Edit Your Details (edit your personal profile details) o Edit Options (manage your community settings) * Miscellaneous o Private Messages (manage your private messages, read your inbox, create new messages, etc) o Subscribed Threads (get an overview of your free subscriptions and options to manage them) o Your Profile (loads your social profile) o Who's Online (see which users who are currently online on the board) POSTING How do I format my posts and messages? When posting messages you may wish to include some formatting such as bold text, italic text and underlined text. Adding formatting to your post can be done in two ways: * Using clickable controls similar to those found in most word processors * Typing formatting commands in BB code Clickable controls are available in the Standard and Enhanced WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors. The difference between these is that the standard editor will show the BB code in your message and be processed when it is displayed. The enhanced WYSIWYG editor will show your message as it will be displayed while you are typing. To use these, simply click the button, for example the B (bold) button and then type to get bold text. Click the button again to stop using that formatting. You can also highlight text that you have already typed then click the formatting button to format existing text. BB code is a special set of codes similar to HTML that can be used in posts to the board. To see the full list of BB code tags that can be used on this site and examples of their use, click here. What are thread tools? At the top of each thread, there is a link called 'Thread Tools'. By clicking on this link, a menu will appear with a number of options: * Show Printable Version - this will show you a page with the thread post content in a reduced graphics format that is more 'printer friendly'. * Email this Page - if you think the thread may be interesting to someone else, you can forward a link to it to their email address. * Subscribe (or Unsubscribe) from this Thread - by subscribing to a thread, you will receive periodic email updates on recent activity within it. * Adding a Poll - if you started the thread, you can add a poll to it with this option. How do I reply to a post? To reply, you have a few options. You can click on the 'Post Reply' button and add a new post to the end of the thread. Alternatively, you can leave a quick reply in a quick editor box listed below the posts in the thread. When using 'Quick Reply' you can choose to quote a particular post if you are replying to something someone wrote. You may need to click the quick reply button in a post to activate the quick reply box before you can type into it. If you want to post replies to multiple posts you can select them by clicking the multi quote button . This button will change to indicate that you've selected it. Clicking post reply will then bring you to the full editor with all the posts quoted. Can I edit or delete my posts? If you have registered and are logged in, you will be able to edit your posts. To edit your posts, click the Edit button by the particular post. Once you've made your modifications, a note will appear to inform other users that you have edited your post. At this time, registered users are not able to delete their own threads. If you wish to delete your thread, please PM a Moderator. Creating and Participating in Polls You may notice that some threads on this forum also include a section where you can vote on an issue or question. These threads are called 'polls.' How do I create a new poll? When you post a new thread, you may also have the option to create a poll. This allows you to ask a question and specify a number of possible responses. Other members will then be able to vote for the response they wish, and the results of the voting will be displayed in the thread. To create a poll when you post a new thread, simply click the 'Yes, post a poll with this thread' checkbox at the bottom of the page, and set the number of possible responses you want to include. When you click the submit button, you will be taken to the poll creation page, where you can specify the question and the list of responses you want to include. You may also want to specify a time limit for the poll, so that (for example) it stays open for voting for only a week. How do I add an image to a post? To include an image that is located on another website, you can do so by copying the full URL to the image, (not the page on which the image is located), and either pressing the 'Insert Image' icon or by typing [img] before the URL and [/img] after it, ensuring that you do not have any spaces before or after the URL of the image. You can insert pictures from your albums in this way too. PHOTO ALBUMS How do I use albums? As a member, you can create Albums of images that are linked to your public profile. Albums can be created by visiting the User Control Panel, and clicking on the 'Pictures & Albums' link, and then clicking on 'Add Album'. Each album can have a title ('My New Doll'), a description ('A bunch of photos of my newest acquisition') and can be of three different types: Public, Private or Profile. * Public albums can be viewed by anyone * Private albums can only be viewed by you, and by site staff (moderators, administrators) * Profile albums are viewable only by you. However, you can use the images to customize your public profile How do I upload pictures? Once you've created an album you can upload images to it. Simply view the album and click on 'Upload Pictures.' You'll have the option to give each picture a caption, and to set one image as the Album cover, which will be displayed on the public profile. To delete an album or edit the title, description or album type, click on 'Edit Album'. To delete an image, or to edit a caption or change the album cover, click on 'Edit Pictures'. All members who have access to your album images can comment on them. You can report inappropriate messages to Moderators. When you have uploaded a picture, you can place it in your posts by using the BB code text that is displayed below the image when you view it at full size. CALENDARS You will see a 'Calendar' link near the top of the forums. Members can add upcoming events that might interest the community. You can also sign up to get email alerts about upcoming events. How do I add an event to the Calendar? There will be a box on the Calendar labeled 'Add New Event'. There are three types of event that can be added to a calendar: * Single, All Day Event - an event that takes place for the whole of a day. * Ranged Event - events that have a defined start time and end time, not necessarily both on the same day. * Recurring Event - repeat over a set period of time based on certain criteria. Examples would be an event that occurs on the first Monday of every month and an event that occurs every Monday and Wednesday. Just choose the appropriate option for the event you are adding, fill in the required information, then save the event. It will now appear on the Calendar. Where do birthdays show? Your birthday will automatically be shown on the calendar if you have entered the date of your birthday in your profile. Note: if you do not enter the year of your birth when you edit your profile, your age will not be shown on the calendar. If you enter your birthday, your name will also appear on the main forum page when it is your birthday. MESSAGING What is private messaging? Registered members are able to send messages to other members of this forum using the private messaging system. How do I send Private Messages? Private messages work a little like email within the forum. You may send a private message to a member of this forum by clicking the 'Send A Private Message' link in the private messaging section of your user control panel, or by clicking the 'SendPM' button in a member's posts. When you send a message, you have the option to save a copy of it in your 'Sent Items' folder. How do I work with Private Message Folders? By default, you will have two folders in your private message area. These are the 'Inbox' and the 'Sent' Items folders. The 'Inbox' folder contains any new messages you receive. It allows you to view all the messages you have received, along with the name of the person who sent it, and the date and time it was sent. The 'Sent Items' folder contains a copy of any messages that you have sent, where you have specified that you wish to keep a copy for future reference. You can create additional folders for your messages by clicking the 'Edit Folders' link. Each folder has a set of message controls which allow you to select messages, then either move them to one of your custom folders, or delete them. Once you have selected your messages, you can choose the following options in the 'Selected Messages' box at the bottom of the list: * Move to Folder * Delete * Mark as Read * Mark as Unread * Download as XML * Download as CSV * Download as TEXT You will need to periodically delete old messages, as you are limited to only a certain number of private messages in your folders. If you exceed this number, you will not be able to send or receive new messages until you delete some old ones. If you would like to keep a record of your messages before you delete them, you can use any of the 'Download as..' options listed above to take a copy and store them on your own computer. Whenever you read a message, you will have the option to reply or forward it to another member of the forum. You may also have the ability to forward that message to multiple members of your contact list. Can I email other members? Yes. To send an email to another member, you can either find them on the member list, or click the email user button on any post they have written. This will usually open a page that contains a form where you can enter your message. When you have finished typing your message, press the 'send email' button and your message will be sent instantly. Can I see email addresses? For privacy reasons, the recipient's email address is not revealed to you during this process. Why can't I send an email to someone? If you cannot find an email button or link for a member, it means that the member has said that they do not wish to receive email from other members. What is 'Your Notifications?' When you have logged into the board, a link to 'Your Notifications' may be displayed in the 'Welcome' box near the top of the forum. 'Your Notifications' will show if you have any one of the following: * Unread Private Messages * Unread Profile Visitor Messages * Profile Visitor Messages Awaiting Approval * Unread Picture Comments * Picture Comments Awaiting Approval By clicking on the 'Your Notifications' link, you will be able to quickly see how many of each type you have received. Clicking on any of the links in the menu will take you to the relevant page within the User Control Panel or elsewhere in the system. If there are no notifications, then this link will be replaced by a link to 'Private Messages.' What are visitor messages? Visitor messages are publicly viewable messages posted on member profile pages. To post a message, click on the 'Visitor messages' tab, and use the form at the top of the section. This message will be viewable by all visitors to this profile. To communicate privately with a member, send a Private Message instead. Visitor messages can be edited or deleted by site moderators or the member who owns the profile. The 'View Conversation' link allows you to view all visitor messages between the member and the owner of the profile. TROUBLESHOOTING Dealing with Troublesome Users? If there are particular members that bother you and you do not want to see their posts or receive Private Messages and Emails from them, then you can add these members to your 'Ignore List'. There are several ways to do this: Through your User Control Panel: User CP, Settings & Options, Edit Ignore List. Then, click on their name and choose: User List, Add to Ignore List What if I see something offensive? Please PM a Moderator immediately. What are Moderators and Administrators? Moderators oversee specific forums. They generally have the ability to edit and delete posts, move threads, and perform other actions. Administrators are the people who have overall control of everything that happens on the board. They oversee how the board is styled, what forums to create and how to organize them, what information to require from members and who to appoint as moderators. At Dairyland BJD, the Moderators are all Administrators as well, and all share the duties of running the forum. The Moderators of this forum are Anielle, Criana, Floorplan and Green Unicorn. |
