By registering with the forum, you will be able to edit your member profile and preferences. You will get the most out of your time here if you change your profile and preferences to suit your individual tastes. There are many options in your profile to make your experience here more enjoyable, so please take a few moments to try the various settings. Also, only users that are registered and logged in can take advantage of the "New Posts" feature upon each visit. Once you've registered and logged in, click "Edit Profile" or "Edit Preference" in the Forum Navigation island to edit your settings.

The Email Address field is used for email notifications, Watch Lists and to email your password. The Public Email Address field is what other users see when they view your profile. We realize that you may not want everyone to know your real email address, but we need to know it in case you want to watch certain content or if you want to have replies emailed to you. For this reason you can give us your real email address in the Email Address field and only the Administrators of the board will see it. You can provide a different email address for the general public using the Public Email Address. Some people like to put in something like scream@no.spam.yahoo.com. This way people can still figure out what your real email address is, but spamming agents can't just parse through the page and obtain your email address to spam you.

Yes. Cookies are used to remember your login information as well as what posts you have read during your current session. Without accepting cookies some functions won't work properly.

If you have registered with these forums, you must log in to take advantage of the personalization of settings. To log in, look in the upper right-hand corner of your screen for the "Log In" link. This link will take you to a page where you can enter your Username (email address) and Password. Keep in mind that the password is always case-sensitive. This means that the software considers "S" and "s" to be different characters.

Once you have entered your Username (email address) and Password, you'll be brought to your Starting View. (You can change the page used for your Default Starting View by clicking "Edit Preferences" in the Forum Navigation island.) If you have any Private Messages waiting for you, you'll see a flashing envelope on the My Messages island. (Note that this only applies if the Private Messaging feature has been enabled by the Administrators of the board.)

This checklist may help you successfully log in:

1) Make sure you are entering your password correctly. Passwords are case-sensitive.
2) Ensure that your browser supports cookies; if so, check the security level you are using. High levels of security restriction in certain browsers will automatically reject cookies. In order to use the key features of these forums, you'll need to accept cookies. The maker of your browser can help you with additional problems you may have with your cookie settings.
3) Completely log out by hitting the Log Out link in the upper right-hand corner of the page, and then log back in again.
4) After logging in, you may have to hit the Reload or Refresh button on your browser to expedite the authentication.
5) If these steps don't work you can try purging your cookies for this site using the My Cookies tool.
6) If you continue to have problems, go to the Log In page and click "Have you forgotten your login information?". Enter your real email address into the Email Address field and a temporary password will be emailed to the email address used for the account setup.

It's a system-generated User Title to give ranking to your postcount. You will progress through the various levels according to the cumulative number of posts you have made.

Everyone has a title within the forum. You will notice the title below the Display Name in each post. Some titles are automatically assigned based on the number of posts a user has made, and some titles are assigned by the forum owner to denote official representatives of the company or other VIPs in the forums.

0	Junior Member
100	Member
5000	Senior Member
10000	Lifer
20000	Sierra Hotel

If you have forgotten your password, don't worry! You can very easily have a temporary password emailed to you. Go to the Log In page and click "Have you forgotten your login information?". Enter your real email address into the Email Address field and a temporary password will be emailed to the email address used for the account setup.

This process is safe because the password is only emailed to the original owner of the account. There is no way to steal the password by using this feature.

You may change your password any time. On the Forum Navigation island, click "Edit Profile". Edit the Password and Verify Password fields and then click "Submit" to save the information. (Keep in mind that passwords are case-sensitive.)

In order to add an image to your message or your signature, you must have the image already available on a web server and reachable by a URL. This can be an image on your own personal web page, for example. To place an image within a message, simply use the following Markup Tag:

[image]http://www.url_to_image.com/image_name.gif[/image]

For example, if you have an image called cateye.gif and its available from your own website at http://www.mywebsite.com/pics, then you would use the following image markup:

[image]http://www.mywebsite.com/pics/cateye.gif[/image]

You can do the same for your signature. Click the My Home option found on any page. Then, under the Main Configuration heading, click on "Personal Information, email, password...". Look for the Signature box, and enter your desired information, including any images/markup as above.

Note: To keep the forums loading quickly for everyone, it is recommended that you do not exceed 35k for your image size.

Forum Registration and Use Agreement


SimHQ’s forums are intended for our members to learn and exchange information about our common interests, share experiences and enjoy time spent with one another. We expect members to treat each other with respect and civility. The forums are open 24 hours a day. Our moderation is done on a wholly volunteer, unpaid basis. Accordingly, we cannot watch every post in every thread all the time. SimHQ array(“The Site”) is not responsible for any member's posts, emails, or messages array(collectively, “Postings”), including without limitation the content, tone and accuracy of a Posting, or for any material in a Posting that may be offensive to a particular viewer. The author of each Posting is solely responsible for its contents, and each viewer waives all claims, rights and causes of action he or she may assert against The Site arising from or in connection with a Posting. The views of any member, however relayed, are not necessarily the views of The Site or any entity associated with The Site or any of its advertisers. We encourage members to notify us of any Posting that may be objectionable so that we may deal with it accordingly. These concerns can be addressed to any of the moderators, staff, or the webmaster. We reserve the right to edit or delete all or any portion of any member’s Posting as we in our sole discretion deem appropriate. Your use of The Site is at our discretion and you agree to abide by our rules as they may be amended from time to time, including but not limited to the following:


You agree that you will not use The Site to post or link any material that is deceptive and/or defamatory, abusive, hateful, harassing, obscene, discriminitory, profane, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or in violation of any law, license or copyright. The Site’s server may not be used for illegal purposes or in support of illegal services, will not be used to harm or attempt to harm minors in any way, and will not be used to transmit anything that threatens or harasses another person. The Site actively discourages cheating, and the posting of hacks or cheats for any games is forbidden. You agree that you will not attempt to impersonate another person.


The Site’s server will not be used to make unsolicited offers to sell or buy products, items, or services, or to advance any type of financial scam or scheme such as pyramid schemes. We reserve the right to cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or other wrongdoing, and to provide information we know about you in the event of a complaint, claim, suit, or other legal action or investigation involving you. You agree to remain solely responsible for the content of your Postings, and to indemnify and hold harmless The Site, it’s owners, staff, moderators or it's ISP, all advertisers and their agents, their affiliates, successors and assigns of the foregoing parties, for all expenses of any nature incurred with respect to any claim or demand arising from or based upon your Postings.

Image posting and reposting. We cannot allow unauthorized, copyrighted images in the SimHQ Forums. If you find an image that you know is copyrighted and not posted by the owner, email the webmaster and it will be deleted. We will allow: a) images created by the poster; b) screenshots taken by the poster; c) images and/or screenshots directly released from developers to promote their games/sims. Do not post images originally published on another enthusiast web site. In all other cases beside these examples a link to the image at the source site must be used in lieu of the reposted image. We ask that members not repeatedly embed images in their posts, similar to a signature image. Any images not complying with those criteria will be deleted.

Unauthorized advertisements, solicitations, chain letters, commercial or bulk e-mail array(SPAM) are not allowed.


The Site may amend these rules from time to time without notice.  


 


Effective October 29, 2004

Yes, you'll be missing a trick if you fail to take advantage of the versatility offered. There are many aspects of how the Forums are displayed that may be customized. On the Forum Navigation island, click "Edit Preferences".

You can choose the stylesheet in which you wish to view the forums, how many posts are displayed on each page, whether or not you want to view users' pictures alongside their posts, and much more. Once saved, these become your default settings. You may edit these preferences again at anytime.

The first post of a given topic establishes the subject by which all subsequent replies will be known. Once there's been a reply, the topic subject cannot be subsequently changed. It's therefore important to get the subject right from the outset. Make it as descriptive and as specific as possible. For example, "LCD burn-in questions", is much better than something completely generic, such as "Newbie needs help!". Not only is it more likely to elicit a response, but it'll also make it much easier for all posts in the topic to be subsequently located.

One of the key benefits of the discussion board format is that it enables commonly asked questions to be answered once, for the benefit of all. Before posting your question, it is always worth checking to see if it has already been asked - and answered! You can do this via the Search island. Using the Search island, you can perform a quick keyword search, or click on the "Advanced" button to search by more specific criteria. Various options are available, both for how the search term is specified and for controlling how many forums you want to search. This is where the specificity of topic subjects is important, making it much easier to locate precisely what it is you're after from a list of search results.

It means that you have unread Private Messages. When you hover over this image it should display how many unread Private Messages that you have.

On the "New Private Topic" screen, you can type in a new user then press "add" or you can select them from the "My Buddies" dropdown. You can add up to the forum maximum of users (this limit will show on the "New Private Topic" screen) to the Private Topic.

If the tags are showing up in your text or you're getting a link, but it's to "http:///", you're including some unwanted spaces in the syntax. Avoid any intervening spaces, and everything will work fine.

Users can edit their own posts up to 888888 minutes after they are made. Where the change is substantial, it is courteous mark the post as edited so as to alert readers to the changed content. For cosmetic changes, it's better not to do so.

Let the forum Administrator or Moderator know - he/she will be able to move it for you.

The following tags are available for your use if UBBCode is enabled:

Text Formatting
[b] text [/b] = Makes the given text bold.
[i] text [/i] = Makes the given text italic.
[u] text [/u] = Underlines the given text.
[s] text [/s] = Will post your text with a line through it (strike through).
[color:red] text [/color] = Makes the given text red.
[color:#00FF00] text [/color] = Makes the given text green. [size:20pt] text [/size] = Will change the size of the text to whatever size value you specify.
[font:Comic Sans MS] text [/font] = Will post your text with the specified font.

Links
[email] joe@email.com [/email] = Makes the given email address clickable.
[email= joe@email.com ] text [/email] = Makes the given email address clickable.
[url] link [/url] = Makes the given url into a link.
[url= link ] title [/url] = Makes the given title into a hyperlink pointing to link.
[img] link [/img] = Embeds an image.

Code Tags & Highlighting
[code] text [/code] = Surrounds the given text with pre format tags.
[php] text [/php] = Passes the text through the PHP Syntax Highlighter
[highlight] text [/highlight] = Will highlight your text.
[spoiler] text [/spoiler] = Will wrap your text in a spoiler container. Users must click a button in order to see this text, thus giving them the ability to specify if they want to read the item.
[spoiler:warning] text [/spoiler] = Will wrap your text in a spoiler container and allow you to specify the warning message displayed. Users must click a button in order to see this text, thus giving them the ability to specify if they want to read the item.

Text and Image Alignment
[align:left|center|right] text [/align] = Will align the text in the direction defined.
[img:left|center|right] Image URL [/img] = Will allow you to allow text to wrap on the specified side of your image.

Misc.
[list]
[*]Item 1
[*]Item 1
[/list] = Makes a bullet list. [list=A] or [list=1] will make order/numbered lists. Other options include: circle, i, I, a, A, 1, disc, square.
[quote] text [/quote] = Surrounds the given text with blockquote and hr's. This UBBCode tag is used for quoting a reply.
[quote=username] text [/quote] = Surrounds the given text with blockquote and hr's. This UBBCode tag is used for quoting a reply. The username specified will be shown as quoted.

Putting a poll in your post is simple.

If polls are enabled, start by creating a new post in a forum. Below the body of your post, you will see a text box that allows you to specify how many polls you want to have in your post and the system will guide you through the rest.

You can change the number of posts displayed on each page by editing your display preferences. You can set this to anything between 1 and 99 posts per page. By default, this is set to 15 posts per page.

Quick Reply is made as a "Quick Response" block, so you can make a response to a post (or thread) before you forget or as you read them. Quick Reply is meant as a "no thrills" response box, as it's just there for a fast/non-formatted response.

Reply however brings you to a "Full Response" page that allows for heavy posting.

You can also click the "Full Reply" button from the Quick Reply box which will forward you (and all of your Quick Reply text) to the Full Reply page.

Quote will quote the users text to the Full Reply page. Quick Quote will quote the users text to the Quick Reply box below the thread.

Click the "My Profile" link from the "My Stuff" dropdown on the Forum Navigation island.

Subscribing to a Forum
Enter the Forum and Select "Add Forum to Watched Forums" from the "Forum Options" dropdown.

Subscribing to a Topic
Enter the Topic and Select "Add Topic to your Watched Topics" option from the "Topic Options" dropdown.

Managing Watch Lists
Select "My Watch Lists" from the "My Stuff" dropdown, from here you can select the type of List that you wish to edit and by clicking the "Edit Watched Topics" (or "Edit Watched Forums" or "Edit Watched Users") link you can remove them or toggle the "Email Notification" option.

Toggling EMailed Watch Lists
See the above "Managing Watch Lists" directions.

Toggling the Default "EMail Watchedlist" Options
Select "My Preferences" from the "My Stuff" dropdown. From here you can manage the "By default should anything added to your Watch Lists be emailed to you?" option.

EMailing a Post or Thread
To email a post, simply navigate to the post and select "email post" from the bottom set of buttons (near reply, quote, notify, etc).

From this "email post" screen, you can select to mail yourself:
Just this post
This post and all replies
The entire thread

EMailing a Private Topic
When viewing a Private Message, simply click the "EMail Topic" button from the bottom set of buttons (near reply, quote, etc).

RSS Feeds for Forums
For forums which have an RSS Feed configured for them, you can enter the forum and select the feed link from the "Forum Options" dropdown.

My Feeds
If the administration has enabled the "My Feeds" option, you can manage RSS feeds from the "Feeds" link in the "My Stuff" dropdown in the navigation area.

From the My Feeds area you can see all of the RSS Feeds available to you, including all of the forums which have individual feeds. You will also be able to retrieve the feeds for your inbox and the global feeds for recent topics. Please note that these may or may not be available based on admin preferences.

The username colors generally specify a users status. Some select users can can also have special colors signified by the Administration.

The default user status colors are:
Administration
Global Moderator
Moderator
Search Engine Robot

The numbers in parenthesise indicate how many new topics (or posts) have been made since your last visit to the forums.