Frequently Asked Questions

General

Registration/Logging In

Viewing and Posting Messages

Formatting Messages

General

Q. What are the features of Community Forum?
A. Community Forum provides a platform for registered members or guests to:
  • Discuss topics of any kinds and share your viewpoint with the others by posting and replying to messages;
  • Exchange ideas and transmit private messages by internal messaging system;
  • Search the entire forum to find the right person or the right message through the advanced search tools;
  • Get interactively alert whenever your post gets answered or your buddies are online.
  • Customize your the forum by setting what it's supposed to look like and how it supposed to function according to your own criteria.

Q. What are the roles of users of Community Forum?
A. There is a summary of the roles of the forum community participants.
  • Administrator(s) -- The king of the community who has the super right of whatsoever.
  • Moderators -- Rules of the Forum enforcement operators in charge of maintenance and monitoring of a specific forum.
  • Members -- Those who participated through registration or log in (Members can be further classified as Silver Members, Platinum Members and Gold Members with different rights, depending on the Administrator's settings).
  • Guests -- Those who are not Administrators, Moderators, or Members.

Q. Are there any rules governing my use of the Forum? If yes, what are they?
A. Yes. By participating in the Forum, including the posting of content and sending of messages, you agree to:
  • 1) Use the Forum at your own risk. In any online forum like the Forum, it is not possible to be sure that other users are who they say they are;
  • 2) Address any other members respectfully and refer to any other members or guests in a respectful manner;
  • 3) Use the Forum only to post and send messages that are consistent with the proper use set above by the Terms of Use, including, but not limited to, content that is threatening, abusive, harassing, sexually explicit, obscene, indecent, racially or ethnically offensive, or unlawful;
  • 4) Not post or send any content that infringes on any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary rights of any party;
  • 5) Not post any advertisements, spamming mail, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of unauthorized solicitation;
  • 6) Not post or distribute any content that contains software viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, or any other computer code or files that are designed to disrupt, damage, or limit the function of any software or hardware of any party;
  • 7) Not abuse the Forum processing system, including, but not limited to, spamming with junk posts or spamming with junk mails;
  • 8) Not post, send, or discuss any contents that suggests or encourages illegal activity, or otherwise in violation of any law.

Q. What's my responsibility in the Community?
A. As a user of the Forum, you remains solely responsible for the content of your messages posted on the Forum. Your use of the Forum is subject to the Terms of Use.

Q. What is a 'post'?
A. A post is a specific message w/o message title. A post is the smallest entity in the forum.

Q. What is a 'thread'?
A. A thread is a series of posts chronologically addressing the same topic. If a user 'initiates' a post addressing a brand new topic, then a new thread is thereafter generated, and this user is called 'starter' of this thread.

Q. What is a 'forum'?
A. A forum is a place where similar threads go together with each thread addressing a specific topic.

Q. What is a 'category'?
A. A category is a virtual place where similar forums are classified or organized into a kind of group.


Registration/Logging In

Q. Do I have to register in order to use the Community Forum?
A. No, you do not have to. You can browser most of the site to view most messages and you MAY be allowed to post on the Forum as a Guest, depending on how much power the Administrator has assigned to Guest. But only the registered member can have the power to interact with the forum and other members.

Q. What information do I have to provide with registration?
A. When you register for an account, we will ask you for only one personally identifiable information -- your email address for contact purpose. We also ask for some general non-personally identifiable information, including your location, age, and gender. You may choose whether or not to provide those information. If you choose not to provide those information we request, you can still visit most of our web site, but you may be unable to access certain options, offers, and services that involve our interaction with you.

Q. How is my personal information be used, shared, and safeguarded?
A. Please refer to our Privacy Policy for details.

Q. What should I do if I have forgotten my password?
A. If you have forgotten your password, do not worry. The system can automatically email you a new one instantly once you fill the request form. It should be noted that the email address must be the one you submitted with registration for the sake of safety.

Q. Can I change my profile such as password and email?
A. Yes, you can. Just log in to your account and you can change most fields of your profile.


Viewing and Posting Messages

Q. How do I view messages posted on the Forum?
A. Simply use your Internet browser and you can view most messages posted on the Forum w/o logging in. But some forums MAY be set up as private ones which require special permissions to gain the access rights.

Q. How do I post a reply?
A. If you want to post a message in reply to another member's post, click on Reply within the specific post frame and then input your message. If you want to post a message in reply to the topic, click on Post Reply on the top or bottom of the page and then input your message.

Q. How do I start a new thread addressing a brand new topic?
A. Simply click on New Thread and then input the topic of your message and the message itself. It should be noted that 'starting' a new thread may require higher permission than Member, depending on the settings when the forum's Administrator set up the forum.

Q. Can I edit a post once I posted it?
A. Yes, you can. But once your post is addressed by other members, it cannot be edited anymore for the integrity of the context.

Q. Can I delete a post once I posted it?
A. No, you cannot. But you can modify it into a blank one where the 'edit' rule applies.


Formatting Messages

Q. How can I use text links leading to where I referenced?
A. This feature is subject to the forum Administrator's setting. If this feature is on, you can reference any site, taking http://www.yahoo.com for example here, by using one of the following:
  • [url="http://www.yahoo.com"]Yahoo[/url]
  • [url="www.yahoo.com"]Yahoo[/url]
  • [url]http://www.yahoo.com/[/url]
  • [url]www.yahoo.com[/url]

Q. How can I insert pictures into my post?
A. This feature is subject to the forum Administrator's setting. If this feature is on, you can insert a picture by using one of the following:
  • [img]http://www.yahoo.com/sample.gif[/img]
  • [img]www.yahoo.com/sample.gif[/img]
  • [img=345x123]http://www.yahoo.com/sample.gif[/img]
  • [img=345x123]www.yahoo.com/sample.gif[/img]

Q. What other BBCodes can I use to format my post?
A. Apart from [url][/ur] and [img][/img], the following BBcodes are supported provided that this feature is set as on by the forum's Administrator.
  • [quote][/quote] -- quotation
  • [b][/b] -- bold font
  • [i][/i] -- Italic font
  • [li][/li] -- List
  • [pre][/pre] -- whitespaces perserve
  • [code][/code] -- whitespaces perserve AND Java, C/C++ code styles perserve
  • [sandbox][/sandbox] -- whatever input would be run in a sandbox
  • [center][/center] -- centerlized text
  • [size=1][/size] -- size of font
  • [color=red][/color] -- font's color: red, green, blue, pink and purple, otherwise/default black
By the way, you can use the above codes in a combination way as long as it makes sense.