Frequently asked questions

How to I make an embedded link to a video, like from Youtube or Vimeo?

For a lot of video sites, you can just paste the URL to the video in your message, and it will be automagically changed to an embedded video in your post when it is created. You can also click the "Media" button in the editor (the thing that looks like a film strip) to paste your URL into your message.

This:

Code:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ5TajZYW6Y

Or this:

Code:

[media=youtube]XZ5TajZYW6Y[/media]

Will get converted to this:

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ5TajZYW6Y


A lot of different media types are supported, click the "Media" link in the editor to see a list, or click the "Help" tab at the top and then browse the bbcodes to see a list of supported media types.

When I paste content from another web site, it copies the font size and color with the content. How can I prevent that?

The reason that happens is because this site uses the "rich text editor" by default, and when you paste something in to it, it also brings the font styling as well as the content. To paste only the text, and not the font styling, a few of different methods can be used.

1. You can highlight the text you want to remove the styling from and click the eraser button on the editor, this will attempt to remove the formatting from the text.
   
2. Click the "editor switcher" icon toward the top right of the editor, it looks like a plain text "A", and a rich text/fancy "A", see the attached image for what it looks like. Clicking this icon will switch you to the plain text editor, where the only thing pasted into it is text characters. To switch back to the rich text editor, click the "Use Rich Text Editor" link on the bottom left of the plain text editor. You can switch back and forth as much as you need. You can also use the plain text editor to remove styling that you don't want in your message.
   
3. Some browsers have an option where you can paste just the text, and no styling/formatting included with it. In Chrome, you can right click where you want to paste your content, and choose the "paste as plain text" option. There may be similar functions in other browsers.

If you prefer the "plain text" editor over the "rich text" editor, you can change that option in your Preferences. The option is called "Use the rich text editor to create and edit messages". You can get to your preferences by hovering over your username at the top, and the clicking "Preferences" link.

Yes, using the formatter "eraser" is normally the best bet. You can highlight all the text, and just click that and it does a pretty good job of scrubbing.

I don't like this dark style of the board, don't you have anything that is lighter on the eyes?

At the moment, there is one light a few and dark styles with different colors available via a link at the bottom of the page. If you haven't changed your style yet, you should see a link that says "Blue (Dark) (Default)". That is the current style that is set. Click on that link, and you should see a pop up of other styles you can select. Blue, Orange, Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, and Purple are available in light and dark themes. You may want to experiment with the "fluid" themes also (available in "dark" only at the moment), which will stretch the site out to as wide as your browser window is.

Hey, I see a blank white page from time to time, what the hell is going on with that?

If you see a blank white page with no error message, it probably means I'm fixing a style, or doing something with a style that is making it unavailable at the moment. It is only temporary. I plan to do some server upgrades soon that should lessen the impact of those types of changes.

I registered on your site, but didn't receive any email notice, I requested another email confirmation email, and I didn't get that either!

Check your spam folder for email from [email protected], which is my personal email address. I'm pretty sure I know the reason for this problem, and it requires changing the way emails are sent out, but I expect to get it resolved soon. In the meantime, you can whitelist the sneakydave.com domain in your email settings.

I've recently made a couple of changes to the email delivery system, and hopefully that resolves most of the problems. If you are reading this as the result of not getting any mail (registration confirmation or otherwise), email me at [email protected], and I'll do more checking.

I've enabled the SMTP email delivery system which should alleviate a lot of the "missing" email notices, unless your mail client purposely ignores mail from sneakydave.com, it should be delivered to your inbox. If not, please let me know.

I see an error message "The Server Did Not Respond in Time". What did I do?

This has been a random problem that I though would be resolved by now. Visit this thread for more information: http://sneakydave.com/community/threads/the-server-did-not-respond-in-time.107/

Sheryl is attacking me, how can I ignore her?

Every member has the ability to ignore any non-administative member. The quickest way is to click on the nefarious user's name, then click on the "ignore" link that shows up on the pop up "member card". The link is also available by hovering over your username above, and selecting "People You Ignore", as well as here.

This ignore system is similar to other boards, with a few changes. If a person that you ignore tries to start a conversation (private message) with you, you won't receive it. If they post a public message on your profile the content won't be visible by you unless you click the "Show ignored content" link at the bottom right, but other members that aren't ignoring the member can see the content. In other words, ignored users are (mostly) unaware they are being ignored, this is by design.

If a user you have ignored starts a thread, you'll still see the thread, but the word "Ignored User" will appear as the topic starter, this is by design as you probably don't want to ignore the whole thread, just the topic starter.

How can I find the link to a certain post in a thread?

Beside each post, next to the "Like" and "Reply" (quote) links, there is a number, such as #14, for this post. Normally called a "permalink", click on that, and you'll get a pop up that will allow you to copy the URL, the bbcode URL, the HTML HREF code, and/or share the link with a few different social networks.

I keep getting email notices that somebody has replied to a thread I posted in, or I have a lot of email that I'm not interested in from these forums.

When you register on this forum, your profile is set by default to "watch" every thread you start or participate in, similar to "subscribing" to a thread. When you watch a thread, you'll receive alerts at the top indicating when somebody has replied to your thread, or replied in a thread that you participated in. Also, by default, you'll receive an email notice indicating that the thread you're watching has been updated.

You can watch a thread without particpating in it by clicking the "Watch Thread" link to the right of the first post in a thread. If you are currently watching that thread, the link will say "Unwatch Thread".

You can view all the threads you are watching/following by and hovering over your username at the top and clicking the Watched Threads link. From this list of threads, you can select them and (at the bottom of the page) choose to "stop watching the threads", "enable email notification", or "disable email notification" when the threads are updated.

You can also turn off email notifications completely via your profile preferences. Uncheck the box for the option to automatically watch threads you start or reply to that says "and receive email notifications of replies"

If you get too many alerts at the top of the page that you're not interested in, you can choose which alerts you want to be shown. It is the Alert Preferences link available by hover over your username at the top.

I'm trying to use bbcodes in my post, but they are automagically being parsed like a bbcode, but I want to DISPLAY the bbcode, how do I do that?

Use the 'plain' tag like so: This content will [b]not[/b] be parsed.


How do I go to the first post in a thread? It keeps taking me to the first unread post?

Click on the date/time under the thread title.

Are you going to ban me for advertising my business or favorite place to hang out?

No, forum spam's one thing, but letting people know about your favorite haunts are another. I allow any links (as long as they follow the rules) in your signature. Links can be to message forums, blogs, web sites, whatever. They can't be links meant to degrade or criticize another member, such as "Hey, look at how stupid Sheryl is?!", but I know it's a gray area as to what people would think is offensive.

I encourage providing links to content you find on the web that support your opinion or content you provide.

I want to report somebody for the content they posted, or report somebody for trolling, or not adhering to the site rules.

Here is how I will try to enforce the rules. These procedures will be added to the Terms and Rules page. If anybody wants a discussion on these for clarification, please create a separate thread.

If you find a post objectionable for any reason, either a personal objection, or because of a site rule that isn't being followed, click the "Report" link under a post to officially lodge a complaint. I won't respond to emails or conversations about a person, thread, or post without the report coming to me. That way, it's logged in the system for myself to review.

Once the reported content gets to me, you may or may not get a response. I will not comment publicly about anything reported, but there MAY be a message on the post indicating that it was reported. There may be a link on a post that says "View Warning" indicating what type of warning was given.I will not divulge any names of who reported what.

Unless the information is personally identifiable information, or illegal in some sense, I won't edit any content. This is at my discretion alone. If I do edit content, there will be a note to explain what was changed or removed.

In the past, warnings may have been given to individuals involved in arguments, or other objectionable offense. Going forward, warnings will be given rarely. Threads that are derailed or have outlived their usefulness will be locked and moved to the "Rough" forum. I'll use a conversation with individuals that seem to not understand the rules rather than slap them with a warning.

I'd like to say these rules are set in stone, but because of human nature, exceptions are probably going to be made.

Terms and Rules