How To Use The Website

[Brel]

This thread will contain information and links on how to effectively use the various website features.

FORUM, SEARCH, MY MESSAGES, and PROFILE
Please checkout the Help page here.

MEDIA GALLERY
Please checkout the FAQ page here.

MY GROUPS
If you are a Group Moderator assigned by the TW Administrator, you will have access to the "My Groups" functionalities.  You will be able to view, add, edit, and delete Members of your Groups.  Just click the corresponding Member Count number of the Group you want to view.

To request Group Moderator permission, please send a Private Message to a TW Administrator.  Site Members who are also Group Members can access special Group-only features in the website.  An example of a Group-only feature is the Media Gallery's "Groups Image & File Gallery" where Group Members can privately share images and files with their own Group Members.  Group Members also share their own unique Group Badges.  Sometimes there are also promos and contests available to Group Members only.

MEMBERS DIRECTORY
This page lists down all Site Members and gives you the option to search and filter records based on the available options.  If a particular Site Member completes his/her information upon registering in the website or in his/her Profile page, those information will be considered when searching and filtering records.  So it is very important for all Site Members to complete their account information.

CALENDAR
The Calendar now also allows repeating events.  Click the "Post Event" link below the Calendar page to add an entry in the Calendar.  You then have the option to link your Calendar entry to a specific thread in the "General - Events" Forum topic by ticking the "Link Event To Post" box.  If you do this, you will be immediately redirected to the Forum Post thread page upon clicking the "Post" button in the Calendar.  This is so you can then create the content for your event that is linked to the Calendar.  Furthermore, please know that a particular Forum thread can be linked to several dates in the Calendar by using the "Link To Calendar" button under any Forum thread.

REWARDS SHOP
The Rewards Shop lists down goodies that can be "purchased" by any Site Member with enough "Kredz".  "Kreds" are considered digitial money in TabletopWars.com.  TW Site Members gain "Kredz" by posting in the Forum.

Site Members are also allowed to give "Kredz" and "Reward Items" to any Site Members.  "Kredz" and "Reward Items" given this way cannot be taken back by the giver unless the receiver returns them.  Site Members can view each other's Inventory of "Reward Items" as well as trade them in the "Trade Center" page.

POLL
A Site Member can create their own Poll inside their own topics.  You must first create a topic by clicking the New Topic button inside a Forum.   After writing the content of your topic (poll description) and saving it, you can click the Add Poll button.  You will be presented with several fields that you have to populate.  See image below:

All Polls should only be created and placed in the Polls & Statistics board category under any of the ff. forum that corresponds to your content:

• Tabletop Gaming Industry
• Game Focused
• Group Related
• Miscellaneous

[Brel]

TIPS

HELP ICON
You can click a icon to view help for that section or feature of the website.

COPY MEMBERS DIRECTORY LINK
In the Members Directory, you can click the "Copy Link" button to copy to the clipboard the current page you may have just filtered in order to paste it in your hyperlinks.

KARMA
The Karma feature in the website is ideally used for rating the members personality especially when doing business with them.  You can "Applaud" or "Smite" a member to change his/her Karma, but you have to post your reason everytime.  These reasons will be available for everyone to see so be wary of what you post.

UNLIMITED MEDIA GALLERY SPACE
You are only allowed to upload images and files to the website that are related to the tabletop gaming hobby.  But as long as our server can accomodate it, you are alloted an unlimited space for image and file uploads in the Media Gallery.  Please be reminded that only a maximum of 1.9 MB per file upload is accepted.

We encourage members to use the User Galleries by creating their own Gallery wherein they can upload their images and files.

UPLOADING URI/URL
This can be ideally used to link to external files that have a filesize more than our maximum limit of 1.9 MB per file.  When including URI/URL uploads, please make sure that the link ends with a legal filename.  Below are some examples:

Correct:

Code:

http://rapidshare.com/files/50341168/FABA2007.part1.rar

Wrong:

Code:

http://files.filefront.com/My_File_-_TW_Ok.zip/;8406765;/fileinfo.html

TRACK YOUR BUDDIES
There is an Edit Buddies option in your Profile page.  This is for keeping a contact listing of your friends that are already members of the website.  In the Home page and Forum Index page, you will also see your Buddies if they are logged in the website (Who's Online section).

BBCODE
Since early 2009, the following BBCODEs were added:

BoardGameGeek.com Web Widget
If you are a member of BGG, simply login to their site and go to http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geekwidget.php.  You can configure the fields on the Geek Web Widget Form into the following ideal setting then copy the generated HTML/JavaScript code:

Select Type: Your Top 10
Number of Items: 10
Text: No Text
Images: Small Thumbnail
Image Position: Center
Show: Tick "Header" and "Only Items with Images"
Display: Display Inline

Sample of a generated code:

Code:

<script language="javascript" src="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/jswidget.php?username=brel&numitems=10&header=1&text=none&images=small&show=top10&imagesonly=1&imagepos=center&inline=1">
</script>

In the generated code, only copy the text starting from "/jswidget.php?username=..." up to "...inline=1".  Then paste the copied text inside the "bgg" tag.  Like any BBCode, you can also use this tag in your Signature in this website.  You can also choose to configure the BGG Web Widget to instead display the Hot games, Recently Played Games, Random Games, or Your Wishlist instead of the Top games.  Just remember to keep the records displayed to 10 or less so our page's layout will not break due to the long width.

BBCode example:

Code:

[bgg]/jswidget.php?username=brel&numitems=10&header=1&text=none&images=small&show=top10&imagesonly=1&imagepos=center&inline=1[/bgg]

Please note that the BGG BBCode has been updated to allow any widget originating from BGG.  Just copy the embed text code starting just after the URL (starting from trailing slash) up to the end (just before the end quote).


iframe
You can now include external web pages to be displayed within your posts in the forum.  The iframe window width is fixed to 100% but it requires a "height" option and the "URL path" to the web page that you want to display.

BBCode example:

Code:

[iframe=500]http://www.xe.com/ucc/index.php[/iframe]

MetaCafe.com
Users can now display Flash videos from MetaCafe.com in their Forum posts.  You just need to copy the URL path Embed code to the SWF file in Meta Cafe website and extract the text after "http://www.metacafe.com".  Paste that text inside the BBCode tag.

BBCode example:

Code:

[metacafe]/fplayer/2207777/dtv011_great_games_d.swf[/metacafe]

blip.TV
Users can now display videos from blip.TV in their Forum posts.  You just need to copy the URL path Embed code to the video file in blip.TV website and extract the text after "http://blip.tv".  Paste that text inside the BBCode tag.

BBCode example:

Code:

[bliptv]/play/AeCAEoyONQ[/bliptv]

vimeo.com
Users can now display videos from Vimeo.com in their Forum posts.  You just need to copy the URL path Embed code to the video file in vimeo.com website and extract the text after "http://vimeo.com".  Paste that text inside the BBCode tag.

BBCode example:

Code:

[vimeo]/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1084739&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1[/vimeo]

podbean.com
Users can now include an audio toolbar from PodBean.com in their Forum posts to play audio files from that site.  You just need to copy the URL path Embed code to the audio file in PodBean.com website and extract the text after "http://www.podbean.com".  Paste that text inside the BBCode tag.

BBCode example:

Code:

[podbean]/podcast-audio-video-blog-player/mp3playerlightsmallv3.swf?audioPath=http://wapcaplets.podbean.com/medias/play/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhMi5wb2RiZWFuLmNvbS80MTA2OS91LzAwMzZfY2FsbF9vZl9jdGh1bGh1X2xjZy5tcDM/0036_call_of_cthulhu_lcg.mp3&autoStart=no[/podbean]

soundcloud.com
Users can now share uploaded music from SoundCloud.com in their Forum posts.  You just need to copy the URL path Embed code in soundcloud.com website and extract the text after "http://player.soundcloud.com".  Paste that text inside the BBCode tag.

BBCode example:

Code:

[soundcloud]/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fvoxmood%2Fjackiem-joyner-lost-without-you&amp;show_comments=true&amp;auto_play=false&amp;color=254179[/soundcloud]

old.thesixtyone.com
Users can now share available music from old.theSixtyOne.com in their Forum posts.  You just need to copy the URL path Embed code in thesixtyone.com website and extract the text after "http://old.thesixtyone.com".  Paste that text inside the BBCode tag.

BBCode example:

Code:

[thesixtyone]/site_media/swf/song_player_embed.swf?song_id=8v9f4bxrn7e&artist_username=AM[/thesixtyone]

Bordered Table, Bordered Table Rows, Bordered Table Columns, and Table Column with Background Color
These BBCodes will allow the insertion of bordered tables.  These are NOT compatible with the old unbordered Table BBCodes EXCEPT the "Table Column with Background Color".

Usage Example:

Code:

[b]Two Column Table with Background Colors[/b]
[table][tr][td][td-c=red]Test[/td-c][td-c=red]Test2[/td-c][/td][/tr][/table]

[b]Two Row and Two Column Table with Background Colors[/b]
[table][tr][td][td-c=red]test1[/td-c][td-c=red]test2[/td-c][/td][/tr][tr][td][td-c=blue]1[/td-c][td-c=blue]2[/td-c][/td][/tr][/table]

[b]Two Row and Two Column Table with Border and Colored / Non-colored Columns[/b]
[table-b=white][tr-b][td-b]test[/td-b][td-c=green]test2[/td-c][/tr-b][tr-b][td-c=teal]test3[/td-c][td-b]test4[/td-b][/tr-b][/table-b]

Output Example:

Two Column Table with Background Colors

Test

Test2

Two Row and Two Column Table with Background Colors

	test1	test2
	1	2

Two Row and Two Column Table with Border and Colored / Non-colored Columns

test	test2
test3	test4

[Mark Humphries]

Hi Brel,

I would like to start a series of polls to get opinions and  information to improve the Open Meets. Topics such as: how many Open Gaming Meets people would be willing to attend each single month , how much would they be willing to pay for a better venue. But I don't know how to go about it.

[Brel]

Hi Mark!  I've posted some instructions above on how Site Members can create a poll and where to place them.  If you are having difficulties on creating them, you may also send us the content and we'll place it for you. 

[Mark Humphries]

Thanks very much  Brel

[Mark Humphries]

Hi Brel,
How does one insert a BGG Widget into a TTW message?
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geekwidget.php

[alfblack]

Ahh.. Looks like the site is sanitizing javascript from text box (as it should) so the widget is not working.

If it didnt. A hacker can do some damage to us visitors.

[Mark Humphries]

I see. A lot of BGG members are using this widget on their blog and bbs posts. It's pretty neat, it displays game thumbnails randomly selected out of your BGG collection. It's nice to have as part of one's signature, since it changes every time it's viewed.

[alfblack]

Should work in your blog if you turn of javascript sanization.

I'm personally be weary of forums what allows javascript.

[Brel]

Because of security issues, embedding of javascript codes etc. is not permitted in the site.  Blog's allow this because only the owner's can embed their own widgets and not visitors.  In forums, it's different as it is dangerous to allow anyone to have access to that feature.

[Mark Humphries]

Ok, no problem. I discovered it because a few people are using it on Consimworld, and I thought it looked neat. I'll save it for blogging then.

[Brel]

I don't know how Consimworld do it.  Do they allow direct posting from members of their own BGG widgets?  Being an admin I can have a section for my own BGG collections in our website coded manually but not for TW members.  hmm I'll try to search for an alternative without allowing posting of HTML/Javascript tags.

Oh, our Splash Art image in the Home page can also be used by members to post images of their favorite games if they want to promote them. 

[Brel]

Added 3 new BBCodes:

• BoardGameGeek.com Web Widget
• iframe
• MetaCafe.com

See posting number 2 above for usage instructions.

[Brel]

Just a quick feature add-on:  Since one of my passion is music, I've decided to add some BB Codes to allow sharing them from these websites...

• SoundCloud.com
• old.theSixtyOne.com

SoundCloud.com can be used to upload any music files you want.  You can also choose to share music to the public.  The community site is very easy to use and has some nice features for music sharing. Check it out.

Here is a sample from Jackiem Joyner - "Lost Without You"

old.theSixtyOne.com has some nice independent artists that allows their music to be shared in external websites.  If you are a musician, you can also choose to create an artist account there to sell/share your music.  Very nifty music website that has a gaming component.

Here is a sample from AM - "Playing the Game"

You can read the instructions in post 1 of this thread.  Imagine, you can now add music to your posts in TW to build up the mood of your articles/comments.