HI - this topic has now been ported over to the MelonLand Wiki! - You are free to modify and update it on the wiki, so please check here for the latest version!
https://wiki.melonland.net/forum_community_guide--- Archive version - will be deleted someday!!!
Hello, It struck me that some people arriving here may never have used forums, or not used them in a very long time. I know its been years since I used one regularly, so I wanted to add a few notes and memories about HOW to use them, what forum cultures were like.
NOTE, none of these are rules, they are more like unspoken social cues, you can ignore them or play with them as you like. Also if you have any to add or that you disagree with, reply below!The forum: 
Forums have 4 levels of organization.
- Categories - The overall theme that a group of boards share.
- Boards - This is like a room, with a collection of posts related to a particular subject.
- Posts - This is a talking point or thread that anyone can create.
- Replies - These are responses to a particular post.
Categories and Boards are generally defined by moderators, Posts and Replies can be made by anyone.
Creating posts: 
Don't feel intimidated starting new posts! You are on a forum, this is what you are here to do, you can start as many posts as you like. However try to put some effort into your post, a good post has a few features:
- A clear title that gives people an idea what the post is about.
- A description saying what your post is and why - this helps people know what kind of replies you are looking for!
- (Optional) Text formatting and images; These help make the post more fun for people to read!
A lot of people on this forum are into making static sites, so its worth noting; a post is not an alternative to a static page, a post is about creating a discussion, so help people to know what you want to discuss and make them feel happy to reply to you!
You can style your posts using BBCode, this is like a very simple HTML. You will see buttons when your making a posts or reply to paste in bits of BBCode, here are some examples:
[img]PASTE AN IMAGE URL HERE[/img] - Post a regular image
[img width=200]PASTE AN IMAGE URL HERE[/img] - An image with a width set to 200px
[url]URL goes here![/url] - Post a link
[url=URL-GOES-HERE]Text that you would like to be a link[/url] - Use this if you want to make text a clickable link.
[color=#00ff97]You can use HEX codes for colour too![/color]
Don't forget you can press the preview button to see what your post will look like before you post it!
TIP: Sometimes the web goes wrong; if you put a lot of effort into making a post, copy it before posting it just in case your post is lost due to web traffic issues.Replying to posts: 
A reply can just be a sentence, or something much longer and formatted like a post, that's up to you. There are a few guidelines to replying though.
Replying twice in a row is a bit of a tabo. If you want to add more to your last reply; instead of replying again, click the button that says "Modify", go to the end of your reply and add the word "EDIT" followed by your new text. You can do this again and again by doing "EDIT 1" "EDIT 2" etc. This helps keep the post clean and readable for others.
If you made a post but it has dropped down the board you may be tempted to reply to it yourself to make it jump back to the top. This is called Bumping! In some situations its fine, in others its something you want to avoid. On some boards like the showcase, you may want to bump your posts to tell people about new features you added, in this case its fine. However if you asked a question but got no replies, bumping may not be a good idea as people may not have a reply for you!
Keeping the forum usable for others: 
Forums are early web technology and there are a few things to be mindful of.
This forum will not automatically format your images so that they load quickly like Discord or Facebook will. Please resize your images so they are not too big before posting them on the forum! - You will also need to be able to host your own images to display on the forum! You can use an image hosting service like Imgur or your own site, which I recommend.
Happy foruming and good luck on your posting adventures! 
Posts: 41/1k.beats 
Reminder: Forum messages stay readable for years! Keep yours high quality! 
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