Guide Guide to Using Our Forum Software (XenForo)

Common XenForo terms and vBulletin equivalents

We can continue to use the familiar lingo (posts, PMs, etc), but the XenForo links/settings use different terms.


Messages

What vBulletin calls posts, XenForo calls messages.


Conversations

What vBulletin calls private messages (PMs), XenForo calls conversations. Conversations can include just two messages or more than two.


Alerts

What vBulletin calls notifications, XenForo calls Alerts. You can choose what types of alerts you want to see through the User CP (see next Page).


Watched Threads and Watched Forums

What vBulletin calls thread / forum subscriptions, XenForo calls watched threads / forums.
 
User Control Panel (User CP)

Hovering or tapping on the person icon in the upper right corner of any page on the site will bring up a box with quick access to make different settings. For the rest of this guide, I’ll refer to that box as the User CP.

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User CP
The User CP contains useful links to the following:

-Personal Details (specify your location, real first name, etc)

-Signature (change the lines shown below each of your posts)

-Contact Details, Privacy settings, Alert Preferences, Password Setting


Please take some time to explore User CP “Preferences”, “Privacy”, and “Alert Preferences” in detail. There are many useful options.
 
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Navigation bar

The bar at the top of the screen is called the navigation bar, or navbar for short. There are lots of frequently used links in the navbar.

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Navbar

Depending on the width of your display, some of those links may be automatically placed into the dropdown menu indicated by three horizontal lines as shown below:

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Breadcrumb

The area below the navbar is called the breadcrumb.

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Breadcrumb
On the left side of the breadcrumb are links taking you back part of the way or all of the way back to the homepage.

On the far right side of the breadcrumb is the “Post New Thread” button (more on that soon.

Just to the left of the Post New Thread button, indicated by the arrow in the figure above, is the Quick Navigation Menu, which contains links to the other forums and more.
 
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Avatars

The photo shown next to your forum posts is called an avatar. Avatars are central to the way XenForo works, so if yours is blank (generic), please replace it with a custom avatar. To do this, go to the User CP and choose “Avatar”, then upload a photo to serve as your avatar. You can change this as often as you like.

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Avatar
 
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Conversations, Follow, and Ignore

What we called Private Messages (PMs) in vBulletin are called Conversations in XenForo. They remain private in nature. One difference is that your posts in a conversation remain editable for 5 minutes after you post them.

To PM someone, click or tap on their avatar in any of their forum posts, and choose “Start a Conversation”. Alternatively, go to your User CP, choose “Conversations”, then “Start a New Conversation”. Or you can hover or tap on Inbox (next to link for User CP) and choose “Start a New Conversation”.

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Start a Conversation
Next to the “Start a Conversation” link is a “Follow” link:

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Follow
Your News Feed (found in the User CP) is populated by posts from members whom you Follow.

There is an “Ignore” link next to “Follow”, which lets you ignore other members. We hope it isn’t necessary for you to use that one!
 
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Starting threads

To start a new discussion thread, choose “Post New Thread”

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Post New Thread Button
If you were already in a particular subforum (eg, Landscapes subforum), the Post New Thread button will create a new thread in that subforum.

If you were not in a subforum, for example you click the Post New Thread button while viewing the forum index, you will be prompted to choose a subforum for your thread. Pick the one which best matches your topic.

After you write the title and content of your post, scroll down and click on the "Create Thread" button:

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Replying to threads

If you want to reply to a discussion thread without quoting anyone else’s post, simply scroll to the bottom of the discussion thread, enter your text in the box marked “Write your reply…”, and choose Post Reply.

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Post Reply button
 
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Quoting

To quote another person’s post in your reply, click or tap the reply link to the bottom right of their post. The posts you select will be copied to your reply at the bottom of the page. If you click “Reply” under multiple posts from the same page, all of those posts will be quoted in your reply.

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Quote Posts in Reply
To quote selectively, you can highlight just a portion of a post and click the little reply box that pops up. Much easier than quoting the whole thing and then removing parts you don't like.

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Selective Quoting
If you want to quote more multiple posts from different pages of a thread, use the “+ Quote” button (next to “Reply”) to select them all.

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Multi-Quote Selection
Then use the “Insert Quotes” button to the bottom left of where you type your reply as shown below:
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Editing Thread Titles

While viewing a thread that you have started, click or tap on the Thread Tools menu which you will find near the top of the thread and then choose “Edit Thread”. Edit the title and then save changes.

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Thread Tools menu
Limitation: Titles in some subforums may not be changeable. If you need to change a title and cannot, please notify a moderator.
 
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Watched Threads

The “Watch Thread” link at the top of any thread will give you the option to watch (subscribe to) that thread with or without email notifications. There is a link to all your Watched Threads in the navbar.

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Watch Thread link
 
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Posting Photos in Threads

The easiest way to post an image is as follows:

1) Either drag the image(s) to your message (post) or use the "Upload a Photo" button (right next to "Post Reply") to select your image(s).
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Upload a Photo
2) Use the appropriate "Click Here to Insert Image into Post" button depending on whether you want to insert all images or one image into your message.

In the example below, I have uploaded three photos to my post. The button indicated by the arrow would insert all three images into my post. The other buttons would insert only the indicated single image. Don't forget to click on "Post Reply" to submit your post after you are finished writing it and inserting any images.

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Images greater than 1600px in maximum dimension will be automatically resized using high quality resizing (jpegoptim max quality setting 90%), so feel free to upload images of any size (50MB maximum file size).

There is no limit on the number of photos or total storage used by photos when you upload to forum threads in this way.
 
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Deleting Uploaded Photos

To delete your uploaded photos, edit the post where they are found, scroll to the bottom where the attachments are shown, and choose “Delete” as shown below:

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If you delete the images in the body of the post without using the Delete buttons at the bottom, the images will remain attached at the bottom of your post.

Another way to delete uploaded images is to use the “Your Attachments” link in the User CP to get to the attachment manager, which is handy when you want to delete multiple images from multiple threads by clicking the red “X”s one by one as shown below:

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There is no way to bulk delete all your attachments on your own. Please contact me directly if you would like all of your image attachments deleted irreversibly.
 
Recent Posts

The “Recent Posts” link in the site navigation bar (navbar) shows you a list of threads which have recently been started or have recently received a reply, from newest to oldest.


Unread

“Unread” is the same as Recent Posts but only includes threads which contain posts which you have not yet read (new to you).

The number next to Unread (Unread Posts Counter) tells you the number of new (unread) posts made since you last used the “Mark Read” function. If you don’t ever mark forums as read and you don’t read every forum post, this number will continue to increase over time.

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Recent Posts, Unread Posts, Unread Posts Counter, Mark Forums Read
 
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Finding Your Own Content

We have multiple ways of finding your own content. You can use the “Your Posts” and “Your Threads” dropdown submenus of the “Forums” link in the navigation bar at the top of the page as shown below:

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Another option is the “Your Content” link in the User CP. Lastly you can do a search and enter your username in the “Posted by Member” field, which is handy if you want to find your posts in a particular thread.
 
Post Ratings

To the bottom right of any post, you’ll find a collection of Post Ratings icons which you can use to rate that post. You can only select one rating per post, and you cannot rate your own posts.

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Post Ratings
 
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User Tagging

Typing the “@” symbol followed by a member’s username creates a user tag within your post. This is a clickable link to the member’s profile. If that member has chosen to receive alerts when they are tagged, then they will be notified of and provided with a link to your post.

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User tagging in a forum post
 
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Searching

Our site search functionality is built on top of elasticsearch (www.elasticsearch.org) which offers good flexibility and performance.

To search the site, use the Search box provided in the upper right corner of any page.

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Site Search box
Click on the “More” button for additional search options, such as searching within a different subforum.
 
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Site Style (Skin)

At the bottom left corner of any page, there is a link indicating your current style. Click this link to bring up a menu of style choices. Current options include default (light), medium, and dark.

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Link to Site Style Menu
 
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