Because not every relationship lasts.

Um *raises hand* I have a question for the moderators.

I want to make a quick comment on the current strip to point out something no one else seems to have pointed out, but the topic to do so has been locked. And I fear that if I open a new topic to do so, the (for want of a better word) "argument" that caused the topic closed will move on to there.

I considered making a locked-to-replies topic with a poll (did you notice X? Yes, No) as a workaround, but not only did I want to ask least I be accused of loop-holing, I also seem to lack the privileges to do so.

I also wanted to ask because I am aware I may be creating a precedent we want to avoid (we don't want this thing filled with polls every time a topic is closed, do we?)

so of course, my question is, how does the moderation team see this?

thread reopened

Wow... That looks like an accident, as I'm pretty sure we don't lock those threads, at least not for a week or so...

Rockstar, I saw it before it got "cleaned up" (after being locked but before having posts deleted). Believe me, I would have locked it too. I was just wondering if there could be a workaround to not have to reopen it (or rather now, if there could be one in the future if something like that happens again)

Oh, yeah, I think I heard someone was being stupid in there...
I dunno about that stuff, I don't really hang around that section unless I specifically feel like discussing something from the comic...

We've been getting just enough questions about the forum basics that I figured we should just cover them here nice and concisely.

First let's go over posting in a thread:

Post
1. When you want to reply to a thread, click the "Post Reply" button. This is at the bottom of the page to the left (#1 box), underneath all the posts on the page.
Edit
2. If after you post, you realize you made a mistake, or if you want to post something more but your post is still the most recent; click the "Edit" button in the top right corner of your post (#2 circle). You will only find edit buttons on your posts, so you can't edit anyone else's . Once in there, you'll note it looks exactly like the normal Post a Reply page and follows exactly the same format.
So instead of double posting, edit.
Note: If and only if your post is most recent, you can delete the post in edit mode by checking the box next to "Delete Post" and clicking submit. (Moderators can always delete a post if necessary).
Quote
3. If you want to reply to someone specifically but there are some posts in between theirs and where yours would go, you can use the handy "Quote" button in the top right corner of their post (#3 circle). This will take you to the Post a Reply page with the user's post already quoted for you so you can reply.
Note: You can quote more than one post either by typing the "quote" tags yourself. You can also look down below all the submit buttons on the Post a Reply page to the "Topic Review" section which shows the last 40 posts with a quote button in each one. You can add as many quotes as you want from there.
Report
4. Diss has gone over the report button in the Forum Rules, but in case you missed it, it's in the bottom right corner of every post (#4 box).

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The other question we get a lot is how to put up your avatar. Cause everyone else has a really cool picture to the left of their posts.
Well, at the top of every page in the forum you'll see the "User Control Panel" link (underlined in red with the big red arrow). This is where you set up all your info, forum settings, and your avatar.

Once there you can look to your left for all the options. Go to "Profile" and then click "Edit Avatar" to upload a picture. (You can also edit your profile information or add a signature which will appear below all your posts).
There are a few ways to upload an image for your avatar:
1. If the image is physically on your computer, use option (1).
2. If the image is on an image hosting site (like photobucket, imgur, imageshack, etc), use option (2).
3. Option (3) is the same as option (2) except the image won't be uploaded and stored on the forum's servers. Instead it goes out to the website where your image is stored and gets it from there every time.
Usually stick with options (1) or (2).
Remember: Make sure your image is no more than 100 pixels by 100 pixels and does not exceed 24 kilobytes in size. (Mine is 99x99 and 20 KiB, so it can't get much bigger than what you see there.)
Note: Option (3) ignores this limit and will shrink your image down to size if it doesn't fit, so this is a good option if you can't make it fit within the restrictions.
When you're all done, hit submit, et voilà! You have an avatar.

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Lastly are the name colors and the titles below certain names (for example, "Smiley McSmiles" below my name).
These are reserved for the admins and moderators.
Red is for the Forum Administrators
Green is for the Global Moderators who have jurisdiction over the whole forum
Blue is for the Forum Moderators who have jurisdiction over one (or two) subforum(s).
These are the people to ask if you are having problems or want clarification on something before you make that questionable post .
Karishad is a good friend of Rick's and thus our Supreme Fox who comes and goes as he pleases.

I have a quick how-to question which I would really appreciate help with, and I believe it to be on topic. Around the forum I have seen people using Housepets! themed smilies. Am I missing something as I cannot find these included in the standard post tools?!

My question is about the HP! homepage rather than the forums. Of late, when I access the homepage to view the latest comic and whatnot, my antivirus software pops up telling me that I can't see anything missing or different about the website since this message started popping up so I was just wondering if this is just my antivirus software trying to bubblewrap my online world or if something (or someone) else has gotten into your website which you need to be aware of?
I'm not intending to click "allow" by the way - I was just wondering about the potential cause of the message...

Cheers.

I've never had that message before, but don't have any antivirus (apart from that already built in, thanks Apple). Do you mind me asking what antivirus or site analyser plugin you use?

Also I've been meaning to mention to the mods that every so often (a few times every few days) I get an 'Internal Server Error' while browsing the forum.

I use MacAfee mainly but I also have Adblocker installed as well as a free version of Malwarebytes AntiMalware.

I get that internal error too but it disappears as soon as I refresh the page. It's error number 500 if that means anything to anyone.

That tends to happen. I'm not sure it's something that can be fixed but refreshing usually does the trick.

Yeah refreshing normally works although one time that didn't work and I was franticly refreshing and getting concerned that I broke the forum! I was only using the egosearch page, but still, it had me very worried.

It could be one of several things, but should be something the server admin can look into if it gets any worse. I just didn't know if the mods were aware that we were getting these errors.

Edit: this is very odd, http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/vf/www ... scomic.com shows that Mcafee SiteAdvisor doesn't see the site as a threat so I don't know where that warning message could be coming from?

Yeah, I have no idea. My computer is probably just being overly cautious.

Doesn't a porfanity filter in people's private messages seem a bit extreme?

That would explain why I haven't recieved any replies from oh so many of them.

You can do it in other languages. That works for me.

I've found in my rambling journeys across internet forums that it's a good rule of thumb to keep the ways you circumvent profanity filters to yourself

How frowned upon is double-posting on this site?

It's a good idea to minimise it as much as possible. If you're commenting on a thread where there's been no replies to your previous comment after a few days/weeks (e.g. to resurrect a dead thread) then you may get away with it. I also think it's OK in the poetry thread to show where one poem stops and another starts. Beyond that the mods to prefer you to edit rather than double post though.

we sometimes let it slide depending on time between the posts and the content of the second post, but I usually just copy my original post, delete it, then paste it into a new post with the new information to bump a thread without double posting

I confess, I turned him into behaving like that, I was the mastermind behind his bad PMs.
It was all me!, This was all my own doing! I even went as far as to use the phrase "I wouldn't want to go anywhere without my wonderful towel." with Hlaoroo, on one ocassion!

I've done wrong.


By the way, how long is it acceptable for someone to bring back a thread before it is considered as necroposting?
One month?, Two?
I'm asking this because.... Well.... Becoming a necromancer seems pretty neat!

There is really no time set for when it's unacceptable to bring back a thread from the dead. As long as you bring it back with the intention of actually discussing whatever it was made for.

However, I'd say after about 6 months you could make a new one. We can always merge them after that if we feel that we need to.

What's mostly frowned upon is resurrecting an old thread without actually contributing to it.

Could be just me, but is there an issue with certain sigs on the forums right now? I can't see some of the images from certain computers.

Hmmm... I'm not having any problems. Then again, I'm only using one computer.

Are all of these images hosted on the same site? (If you can somehow tell) Maybe it has to do with the site that is hosting them rather than our forum?

I can't see your sig, it says Media is not available

Maybe PM one of us, or give an example of a member whose sig is not showing for you so we can get an idea of it?

That's what I get as well. It happens when I saw mine and Zander's for example. I'm using my work PCs now and they seem to be working fine, but certain personal computers have the same problem. Not sure if it's the site/forums or just the sigs. Going to look into it when I get home.

Now it's doing it for me with your sig, GameCobra. I duno what to make of it.

Where did your sig come from? I think maybe the account that you have on Imageshack or wherever you two got them might have been deleted or something...

Just found out it's the link, apparently. And yup, it's from imageshack. Aww. Guess I'll have to figure this one out. X3

If it was something you have a copy of the picture of, just try re-uploading it. If not, then I don't think there is much you can do.

Nah, no copy of it, unfortunately. It was just borrowed from the userbar section. =P

I've been having an issue with the PMs lately. I keep getting a message saying "The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again." and I have to press submit 4 or 5 tiems to actually get the message to go through. Is this a glitch in the system of some sort or is it just happening for me?

I send off at least 3 or 4 a day, and I never have trouble...

It's happened once or twice on regular posts around the forums too...