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Registration & Login
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Why do I need to Register?
To take advantage of all the features offered by Coats Forums, such
as tracking post counts, emailing users, private messages, access private
forums, and many other you will need to have an account. It only takes a few
seconds to register, and it is recommended you do so.
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How do I Register?
To create an account you will need to visit the Registration page and complete
the form for creating a new account. Here you will specify details such as your
login name and email address.
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I have a Username and Password, How do I Login?
After successfully registering you should have a username and password. You can
then visit the login page and enter your username and password to login.
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I already logged in, why do I get logged off automatically?
When logging in if you do not check the ‘Remember Me’ option you will be
automatically logged off after an administrator-defined length of inactivity,
usually 20 minutes. If you would like the site to always log you in
automatically, please check the ‘Remember Me’ checkbox.
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I forgot my username and/or password.
If you forgot your username and/or password you can visit the Forget Your
Password page and have both your username and a new password emailed to you by
entering the email account you're registered with. You will be sent a new
password since we store your password encrypted and have no way of retrieving
the original value. Once you receive your username and new password you can
login and change your password.
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What if I’ve registered but still cannot login?
If you’ve registered and can’t login, check to ensure you have a valid username
and password. If you are sure the username and password are valid, but still
can’t login you may either require account activation or your account may be on
hold. In this case it is best to contact the board administrator(s) or
moderator(s).
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I’ve logged in before, but now can’t login?
First check to ensure your username and password are correct. If you still
can’t login your account has either been put on hold or deleted due to
inactivity. Please contact the board administrator(s) or moderator(s).
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User Profile & Settings
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What is a Profile?
A profile is information about your account that controls how you view
information within Coats Forums. This includes details about posts you’ve
contributed to, personal information you wish to share such as your web address
or weblog address, as well as setting that control how you interact with the
Coats Forums site such as: themes, time zone, and many other settings.
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Why do I want to set my time zone?
Setting your timezone will enable Coats Forums to display all dates and
time relative to your time zone.
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How do I set the date format?
The date format used to display any date information can be configured from
your profile.
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How do I turn off email-tracking?
Email tracking is a feature which will send emails to you when messages that
you are subscribed to change. You can turn off all email tracking globally from
your profile.
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What are the other icons that show up next to users?
There are many different icons that can show up next to usernames in the
forums. Common examples are administrators, moderators, or top posters. Other
images may be displayed based on groups the user belongs to.
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Why am I required to login to post, view members, or email
other users?
This is primarily to protect the privacy of users who have shared their
information or to prevent unwanted/unsolicited emails.
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Privacy & Security
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How do I change my Password?
Once logged in you can change your password from your Profile page.
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How do I change my Username?
Unless the administrator has configured the site to allow username changes you
cannot change you username. Otherwise you can change your username from the
Profile page.
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How do I change my email address?
Once logged in, you can change your private email address from your Profile
page.
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What Profile settings are required?
The only profile setting that is required is your private email address. This
is the email address that is used when you subscribe to the forums, when a
forgotten username/password is emailed. The private email address is never
shared or displayed publicly. If you wish to share an email address publicly,
use the public email address field. The remainder of the profile settings is
optional.
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What if I don’t want my name displayed in the member lists?
You can set the option in your profile and your name will not appear in any
member listings, including the listing of who is online.
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Navigation
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What is a Forum Group?
A Forum Group is a top level grouping of related forums. A forum group contains
1 or more forums.
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What is a Forum?
A Forum is a grouping of related threads of discussion. A Forum contains 0 or
more threads and 0 or more sub-forums.
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What is a Thread?
A Thread is a grouping of related posts. A Thread contains 1 or more Posts. The
first post becomes the Thread and replies to the original post increment
details on the Thread, such as the reply count or last post.
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What do the Thread icons mean?
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Thread Icon Legend
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Topic with posts you have not read.
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Topic with posts you have read.
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Popular topic with posts you have not read. A topic
becomes popular after a certain number of views and posts (administrator
defined).
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Popular topic with posts you have read. A topic
becomes popular after a certain number of views and posts (administrator
defined).
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Announcement you have not read
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Announcement you have read
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A pinned topic with posts you have not read. Pinned topics are
displayed before other topics until they become unpinned.
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A pinned topic with posts you have read. Pinned topics are
displayed before other topics until they become unpinned.
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A pinned popular topic with posts you have not read. A pinned topic
with enough views or replies to become popular.
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A pinned popular topic with posts you have read. A pinned topic
with enough views or replies to become popular.
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A locked topic with posts you have not read. Locked topics do not
allow replies.
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A locked topic with posts you have read. Locked topics do not allow
replies.
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When I view a Forum I don’t see any Threads/Posts?
A forum may not display any threads if there are no threads in the forum or if
filters on the forms have been applied and no threads match the filter. An
example of a filter is filtering to display threads newer than a certain date,
such as threads new in the past 2 weeks.
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What are the different icons next to threads?
The icons next to threads when viewing a forum indicate different status. You
can move your mouse cursor over these icons to see what the different status /
types of threads are.
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What is an Announcement Thread?
An announcement is a special post type that is always displayed at the top of a
forum for a configured amount of time. The purpose of an announcement is to
increase the visibility of certain topics.
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What is a sticky Thread?
A sticky topic is a special post that causes a post to sort to the top of a
forum for a specified amount of time. A sticky topic is similar to an
announcement, whereas an announcement is displayed separate from other threads
and usually does not allow replies.
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What is a Locked Thread?
A locked thread is a special post that does not allow replies. Once a user
locks a post or an administrator/moderator locks a thread no more posts are
allowed.
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Can I sort Threads when viewing a forum?
Yes, you can sort threads when viewing a forum by Author, Replies, Views, and
Last Post. The default sort for a forum is to display the newest threads first
(Last Post descending). To sort simply click on the options button at the
bottom of the screen and select your desired sort order and click 'Apply'.
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What is the red/green icon next to a user’s name when viewing a
Post?
This icon indicates the user’s online status. A green icon means the user has
been active recently (usually within the last 15 minutes). A red icon means the
user has not recently been active. You can hover your mouse over this icon to
see details about the user’s past activity.
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Posting
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What are Emoticons?
Emoticons are graphical elements that can be added within the body of a post to
add emotions to the post. Common examples are the use of smilies within the
contents of a post.
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How do I post a new message to a forum?
You can post a new message to a forum in several ways. When viewing a forum you
should see an image button reading New Topic. Clicking on this image button
will take you to a form for posting a message or ask you to login first. If you
do not see the New Topic image button you may not have enough permissions –
even after logging in – to post a message to the forum even though you are
allowed to view the forum.
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How do I reply to an existing post?
You can reply to an existing post using either the Reply or Quote image buttons
displayed with the post. If you do not see the Reply or Quote image buttons
when viewing a post you either do not have permissions to reply or the post may
not allow replies.
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How do I edit my posts?
You will see an Edit image button next to posts you have made. Clicking on this
image button will allow you to edit your post.
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How do I delete my posts?
If the administrator or moderator has configured the forum or your role to
allow deleting posts you will see a Delete image button next to new posts you
have made. If a post you have made has one or more replies you will no longer
be able to delete the post.
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My Post has words replaced with ***?
The administrator may have specified a word filter for posts. When word filters
are enabled certain words that are deemed to be offensive are filtered and
replaced with the ‘*’ character.
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User Groups & Permissions
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What are Permissions?
Permissions control what you are or are not allowed to do while browsing the
site. The permissions you are granted control all aspects of your view within
Coats Forums
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What is an Administrator?
An administrator is the highest permission level within Coats Forums. By
default, an administrator has full permissions to perform any action, e.g.
moderating posts, approving users, and so on.
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What is a Moderator?
A moderator is the second highest permission level within Coats Forums. By
default a moderator can perform any number of tasks within a particular forum
or set of forums. This includes approving posts, moving posts, deleting posts,
editing posts, or banning users. If you have a problem with a particular forum
the best place to start is with a moderator. Moderators belong to varying
groups configured by the Administrator.
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What is a Role or User Group?
A user group, also known as a role, is grouping of common users for the purpose
of assigning permissions. In addition to common permission assignment a role
can also be used to display an image for a user in that role. Roles make the
job of administering and moderating the site easier since users can be assigned
to roles and then permission applied based on those roles.
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How do I join a Role or User Group?
Users are assigned to user groups by the administrator. If there is a
particular group you wish to join, please send a private message or email to
one of its members for more information.
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Private Messages
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What is a Private Message?
A private message is like email within Coats Forums. You can send a private
message to other users within this Coats Forums site that is visible only to
them. No private information, such as the user's email address, is ever
disclosed.
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