PentaxForums.com Feature/Usage Guide
This guide is primarily for new users wanting to learn more about our forum features and how to use them. I hope you find it helpful!
New Users: Note that if you can't post after registering, you haven't activated your account via e-mail. If the e-mail doesn't arrive instantly, please use the links at the top of the forum to resend it. If you are still facing issues, send me an e-mail or PM and I'll activate your account manually.
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0. Posting New Threads and Replies
To post a thread, select a category from the forum homepage, click the "New Thread" button in the upper-left corner, and type your post content into the editor provided. A similar button exists for posting replies once within a thread. However, a quick reply feature also exists- to use it, click the quick reply button to the lower right of every post, and fill out the form at the bottom of the page with your post content. This is the most self-explanatory and obvious site feature.
Post can be edited by using the edit button by each of your posts. Certain posts, i.e. those that don't begin a thread, can also be deleted if needed. To delete a post, click the edit button, and then click the delete button that appears above the edit button. Thread titles can be edited up to 10 minutes after posting a thread through the advanced post editor interface, accessible via the "Go Advanced" button visible when editing a post.
Please contact a moderator for thread closure or movement to a different category. More details on post editing cab be found in item 6.
1. Post Reporting
If you spot any post, thread, or comment that violates the forum rules, simply click the report button (
or
or
, depending on your style choice) to dispatch a notice to the forum moderators. You can also contact the
moderators directly via PM or e-mail.
2. Private Messaging
The private messaging (PM) system allows you to privately contact any user on the forum. Links allowing you to PM members quickly can be found throughout the forum, and you can also send private messages directly through the
User CP. You may also choose to be notified of new PM's via e-mail, but please be adivsed that the e-mails are for notification purposes only and cannot be replied to directly. To reply to a PM message sent to you via e-mail, please access the User CP via the link provided in the e-mail. A copy of the private message will be in your PM Inbox on the forum.
3. Thread Subscriptions
You can subscribe to any thread by acessing the "thread tools" dropdown within a thread and then selecting "Subscribe to this thread." Based on your subscription type selection, you can get the system to instantly send you an e-mail or notify you in the User CP when new replies are posted. Through the Options menu within the User CP, you may also elect to subscribe to all of your own threads by default.
4. Send to Friend / Printable Version
If you find an interesting thread, you can easily notify a friend about it by selecting "E-mail this page" from the "thread tools" dropdown menu. If you want to print out a thread, you can obtain a printer-friendly version in the dropdown as well.
5. Thread Rating
You can rate any thread on a scale from 0 to 5 stars from the "Rate Thread" dropdown at the top of the thread table. Please note that ratings cannot be changed once submitted.
6. Quick Reply, Post Editing, and AJAX features
You no longer have to waste time loading additional pages to reply to a post! Simply click the
or
or
button (depending on your style choice) on the post you wish to reply to, and then type your message in the quick reply box. After you click the "Post Quick Reply" button, your post will be added to the thread and displayed on your page
without refreshing! This technology is known as AJAX, and it's really time-saving. If you choose to post replies in the advanced view, however, you'll see a few additional options that are not accessible through quick reply. Finally, you're actually able to edit your messages after you've posted them here, unlike at DPReview. Just click the "edit" button and you'll be able to quickly modify your post!
7. Automated Polls
You can make the system add a poll to your thread by selecting "Add a poll to this thread" when posting in advanced mode, or by selecting "Add a poll" from the thread tools dropdown within 10 minutes of having posted a thread. You may choose single-option polls, multiple-choice polls, or limited-choice polls.
8. Full WYSIWYG Editing
With the "What-you-see-is-what-you-get" editor, you can easily apply text formatting (fonts, sizes, bold, italics, underlining, colors) to your messages, and you can also easily embed images and links. This editor also lets you add smilies/emoticons to your posts! If you do not wish to use the WYSIWYG editor, however, you can choose to use a simple textbox in your User CP options. However, in that case you'd have to use
vB Code manually.
To embed a photo, click on the image icon(
or
or
) at the top of the editor and paste the URL of your photo. If your photo is not already hosted online (PBase, ImageShack, PhotoBucket, etc.), please use the forum attachment system instead.
Should you choose to post photos wider than 800 pixels, use the
button to embed your photos instead of following the method above. After you click the button, two tags ([imgwide][/imgwide]) will appear in the WYSIWYG editor. Simply paste your image URL in between the two tags and your image will become clickable, featuring a JavaScript effect that restores it to its original dimensions only when clicked, thus not disrupting the format of your post.
To left-align wide images, use the imgwideleft tag.
9. File attachments
The advanced posting screen lets you attach files to your posts. Simply click the "manage attachments" button and then select a file from your computer to upload. Please keep all photos as small as possible and no wider than 800 pixels. Note that you can upload a maximum of 2 Mb of files total (20Mb if you have donated to the site).
10. Additional profile features
You'll notice that there are several custom profile fields and options available for you to fill out and set. Most of these can be controlled through the
User CP, and you can also select an avatar and profile picture to associate with your account! Clicking on a member's name in a post or on the forum index will bring you to his or her profile page, showing basic details such as post count as well as optional profile information provided by the member on an individual basis. Status icons in each post and on every profie will show whete or not the member is currently online.
or
or
mean that the user is online,
or
or
mean that the user is offline.
11. Powerful forum searching
The
forum search engine allows you to easily find anything you're looking for! It features an advanced mode for specific searching and a standard mode (dropdown menu) for quick access. You can choose to see the results either as threads or posts. The search feature can also be used to list unread posts or post made within the last day, and links to your own threads and posts can be found on your profile page as well as in the "Quick Links" dropdown.
To maintain optimal searching speed, the search engine does not index 3-letter and 2-letter words. Because of this drawback, we suggest you use
Google to search for any terms containing fewer than 4 letters.
Using Google to search PentaxForums.com maintains all of Google's great search engine flexibility: ability to specify search terms shorter than 4 characters, using boolean logic (AND and OR between search terms), specify phrases (by enclosing them within quotes), etc. You may even restrict the search to individual forums on our site. To do so:
* To search individual forums, simply replace the above
http://www.pentaxforums.com/ with the URL for the individual forum. For example, to search the Pentax SLR Lens Discussion forum only, use
http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/. You may find and copy forum-specific URLs while viewing the
main forum by right-clicking the forum link and selecting
Copy Link Location (Firefox) or
Copy Shortcut (Internet Explorer).
12. User photo gallery
You can upload and share photos (like on PBase) for free here at our Pentax Forum! In our
user photo gallery, each member is entitled to upload up to 50 1.5-megabyte photos at any resolution into a personal album! Other forum members will be able to rate and comment on your photos, and you'll also be able to link to them from other sites. Users that have made
donations to PentaxForums will automatically have their upload limit increased to 200 photos!
13. Pentax Lens Reviews
This section is complete with a listing of all Pentax M42, K-Mount, 645 and 67 lenses ever produced. You're free to post your own reviews of any lens; fields for rating, price, recommendation, pors, cons, and overall impression are provided. To review a lens, simply click "post a review" or
when viewing its entry. If you own a lens that we do not currently have a photo of, please contact us.
We also offer a database for
third-party lenses compatible with the Pentax K-mount.
14. Links Directory
The
Links Directory is intended to provide our users with quality links to resources and personal pages. You may add links to the directory by clicking "add link" in the menu bar, but we ask that you link back to us if linking to a personal site. All links are subject to moderator approval.
vBulletin's feature list is endless, so I could be going on like this for hours. Sections/features like the
Members List,
Calendar,
Unread Posts Display, Selectable Forum Styles, Post Icons, Navigational Breadcrumbs, and Collapsible Forums can also prove very useful
15. Marketplace
We offer free a marketplace forum which allows users to buy and sell photo gear. Please navigate to it via the forum homepage for more details.