[WiP] How to Use This Forum

[fαllεη •]

a how-to guide

Welcome to The Great Cat Clans! I know this all seems a little confusing at first, but believe me, we're only here to help and have a good time... OK, that sounded unbelievably cheesy, but there you have it XD. The fact that you've clicked this thread shows us that you know how to use the web, which is a start!

First of all, don't forget to say hi to us in the chat-box down at the side of the page. There's usually someone online who'll be willing to talk.
It's also highly recommended that you have this guide open in a new tab or window while following it :) It contains links to get you where you need to go if you really can't find it, and hopefully the images should be of use.

Please, PM all your questions to Seafeather once you've read this thread. She's in charge of helping out people and very, very friendly -- you wouldn't deprive her of that, would you? ^^;

CONTENTS

If you don't want to read through the whole guide and just need a little bit of information, press Ctrl+F and type in the capitalised letters of the following sections.

i . REGISTERING .
How to sign up on the forums.
ii . ABOUT .
About tGCC and what we do here :)
iii . CREATING A CHARACTER .
How to create a role-play character of your own. Also goes over how to create a thread.
iv . STAFF LIST .
Who to contact if you're still having trouble.

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REGISTERING

Before you do anything, please register. If you're here as a guest, you'll see a 'register' button conveniently located under our banner :). Fill out the form as you wish (remember, you can change your display name later if you want to, so your username doesn't have to be what we know you as), then check your e-mails and click on the e-mail from ProBoards. Follow the link there (it'll be really long and have some text above saying 'click here to activate your account'), and you'll activate your account. This is really important for us, as it means that even if your e-mail is hidden, you'll still get notifications of mass PMs that are sent around the site, and these can contain really important information about updates to the site :). Not activating your account is fine too, but it means that if you forget your password you may not be able to recover it, and we won't be able to update you on the wonderful things that happen on tGCC.

WHAT WE'RE ABOUT

Registered? Logged in? Excellent! Now I can get down to the nitty gritty and tell you what tGCC is all about.
We're a Warriors role-play site, which means that the site is based around the Warriors series by Erin Hunter, and we role-play our original characters in a setting based off of the books. It's a lot more fun than I've made it sound, believe me! The role-play will be kicked off with a Gathering in the Great Hollow (of course :)) at 7:00PM, Central time. That's 11:00AM if you're also in New Zealand ^^;.
But even if you don't, that brings us to the next step of this walk-through...

CREATING A CHARACTER

Head on over to the main page, then head into the Applications board. This contains three sub-boards, at least two of which you're going to visit.

But for now, let's have a look in the BOARD WITH TITLE IN CAPS. Sorry I had to shout, but hopefully it got your attention :3
This is the board where you'll read about the dos and don'ts for signing up your character. We're sticking with natural colours on The Great Cat Clans, so you won't see any cats with wings or purple fur. No super-powers either ;).

Now, once you've copied the code to make a bio, go back into the Applications board. What rank of cat to you want to create? Check the side-bar to see what positions are open. If you want a high position, naturally you should choose the last board. To become a regular apprentice, warrior or kit then choose the middle board. Click the 'create new thread' button.

Now, remember what I said about wings and funky colours: no. Be careful with your cat, and try to stay true to reality.
The subject of your thread should be your character's name --their rank and gender are optional, but very useful for staff :).
Once you've completed the form in the appropriate board, all you have to do is wait! Don't worry; it shouldn't take too long, as the staff are on almost all the time XD.

WHAT DO I DO NOW?

Well, you can talk to us for a start ;). Everyone on the site is very friendly, and we're all glad to talk to anyone about anything and everything. And if you have any questions, you can PM them to the staff. A current list is below:

STAFF LIST

Becoming staff is a sign of maturity, longevity, blah blah blah. But you should always respect staff, no matter how hard (or little ;)) they've worked to get here, because they'll always be around to help you out when things are looking messy. If they haven't disappeared through the trap-door, that is ;).

Kat
Middie
Seafeather
Fallen

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[fαllεη •]

a how-to guide, part two

Welcome to the guide to The Great Cat Clans, part two! This section is for once you've created your character; the second stage of being a member. We'll tell you how to get around, what you need to know about role-playing if you don't already, and most importantly, what all of the lovely buttons do :D

PMS

I know, I know, I could have titled that better...

Anyway, here's a quick session on PMing and how it works. PM stands for personal or private messaging, which means that a PM is exactly what it says on the can. It functions in the exact same way as an e-mail, so there's no chance that anyone else is going to see it, and it doesn't clutter up the thread or chat box.
Say you want to ask me a question. To the left of this post, there's some green text that's got my username written in big green letters. Well, small green letters actually, but you know what I mean. Click on that and you'll be directed to my profile -in fact, you can click anyone's name, anywhere on the site.

You can choose to PM your chosen recipient from there :)

You can also click this icon ( ) to take you directly to the PM screen, or you could look the recipient up in the member list and use either of those options.

SIDE-BAR

That sidebar has taken up two days of my school holidays, sadly enough, so I'm hoping that its prescience is more than helpful.

The top box is our welcome message: funny that. It's a lovely greeting from Kat, our admin, telling you what's what about tGCC.

Next box down is your personal information. There's not much there, actually. It just tells you who you're logged in as, what the time is where you are, and how many total/new PMs you have. It's very important that you read all your new PMs --you never knwo when someone might drop you a line :).

In the next box, as I'm sure you've already seen, there's the cbox. When you're not role-playing, this is a great place to talk with the other members of tGCC, and there's usually... often... occasionally someone online who'll be willing to talk to you ^^;
Under the cbox, you can also find a pop-out cbox: very handy if you're the kind of person who likes to multitask, like me XD And under that, there's the pop-out music players: all the staff have different tastes in music, so we've had to separate them. If you want a track added, just PM me and I'll create a site playlist, so that everyone can have all their songs too.

The next box down is our affiliates table: here you can traverse some other sites that have agreed to add our button to their sites, in exchange for a button from theirs. Feel free to browse anywhere :D.

And finally, there are the four clan tables. here you can find how our gender balances are going, and

[fαllεη •]

a how-to guide, part three

Role-playing is, essentially, what we're here to do, so if you don't know how to do this, you've come to the right place! Essentially, it's writing a story based on your own character and those of the other role-players around you. You can look to this guide for some useful tips, but the best thing you can do to get really good at role-playing is just to get in there :D

HOW TO ROLE-PLAY

First off, you need a role-play character. Role-playing is a post-by-post business, and to start one, you must make the first post :D. This involves making (or joining) a thread.

To start a thread, go into the board that you want to post in --your clan's territory or camp. We have quite a few boards to choose from. Then click the 'new thread' icon (we've already been through that one) and title the thread with something --'Sunny Fields' or something, I don't know. Put the title in the 'Subject:' box, then use the 'Message:' box to write your role-play post :D
You should only post with your character, and it's good etiquette to set the scene when you post ;). Not just 'Sandclaw walked out and sat down'. Tell us things about where you are. Is it sunny or rainy? That might decide the mood of the cats who'll post with you later on, or what they've been doing to get out her with you. Is it cloudy? Windy?
An easy way to add character is to mention what they've been doing, and their thoughts. For example:

Briarpaw walked into the camp. She'd just been practising training with her mentor, and boy were her paws sore! She took a quick look around camp: after a training session like that, she could use some fresh-kill and a good listener to share it with.

That's a good note to leave your first post on, though yours will probably be a little more informative.
(Here's a tip: if you want to role-play with specific characters, whether it's your mentor character and someone's apprentice or just a romantic thread for two, drop them a PM and put their cat's name and yours in brackets in the title. This lets other role-players know that this thread is just for you guys, and that no-one else is allowed to join. If you put [closed] in the title, it means that whoever wants to join must PM you before making a post, and you can give the yay or nay to them joining you.)