FAQs - Message Board Management
- How long can a discussion be?
- How long can a message be?
- How do I edit messages?
- How do I delete messages?
- How do I delete folders?
- How do I change the background color/image on my Start Page and message posts?
- How do I include graphics and links in my signature?
- How do I display an image on my Start Page?
- Can I see if a recent visitor to my Forum is still in my Message Board?
- I can't see the 'Controls' tab in the top frame of the Message Board!
- How do I know if my Message Board is nearing its size limit?
- How do I archive messages?
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How long can a Discussion be?
There is no limit to how long any given message Discussion can be. -
How long can a message be?
Messages may be any length, but messages more than 7510 characters long will be truncated, and will include a link to the full text. The 7510 character limit includes HTML code. -
How do I edit messages?
You can edit the text (body) of a message that was written by you. The Host of a Forum (along with Assistants and Editors designated by the Host) can edit any message within their own Forum, and can also edit the Subject of a discussion and move a discussion from one folder to another via the "Manage Discussion" link that appears (to the Host) at the bottom of each discussion in Advanced View.Whenever the body of a message is edited, an "edit journal" gets inserted at the bottom of the message, showing who edited the message and at what time and date.
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How do I delete messages?
The Host or any designated Assistants and/or Editors can delete any message or discussion in the Forum where they have that privileged flag. The author of any message can also delete a message that was written by them.A 'Delete' link will appear at the bottom of any message that you are capable of deleting.
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How do I delete Folders?
This is not possible. If yours is a Premium Forum, you can go into your Control Center and select "Manage Folders" from the "Forum Properties" menu. Then, set the read access for folder you want to hide to "No Members." This will make these folders invisible -- even to you, as the Forum Wizard. Starter Forums can leave already existing folders empty, or change the name. But Starter Forums cannot change who has access to folders, or hide them. -
How do I change the background color/image on my Start page screen or within my message posts?
You can't add a graphical background to the forum Start Page, because that requires access to the <BODY> tag of the document (which you don't have). You can, however, place your entire start page content inside a table, and specify the table background image or color inside of the <TABLE> tag.When participating in a forum that allows HTML posting, You can also do the same for any message you post.
If you host a Premium Forum, you have several Color Themes to choose from. To select a new Color Theme for your Forum, go to your Forum Control Center and select Color Themes from the Forum Properties menu.
Premium Forum hosts can customize the colors and fonts throughout the forum. To access these options, go to your forum Control Center and select Colors and Fonts from the Forum Properties menu. Premium Forum hosts with knowledge of Cascading Style Sheets can create unique forum interfaces by changing the forum's style sheets. For help with forum style sheets, visit the Style Center Forum in the Community Learning Center.
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How do I include graphics and links in my signature?
If you're a DelphiPlus or DelphiExtra member, you can create and save a message board signature that includes plain text or HTML formatting with links and images. You create and update your signature from the My Preferences section of your My Forums page. (DelphiBasic users who wish to use message board signatures must add them manually to each message.) Be sure to keep your graphics small in size (10 kb or less), and always use the correct height= and width= values within your <img src=> tag, to ensure that the page loads properly even if the server where your image is stored is down, or if the image is no longer there at some future date. Visit the 'Using HTML on Delphi Forums' tutorial if you need assistance learning HTML to enhance your Message Board signature.Here's an example signature:
Visit the Hosts' Forum!And this is the HTML used to make it:
<img src="http://people.delphiforums.com/dave/images/sig.gif" width="60" height="30" border="0" alt="Dave">
<br>
<a href="http://forums.delphiforums.com/hosts/start"> Visit the Hosts' Forum!</a>For more signature help, see the 'Creating a Signature' lesson in the 'Using HTML on Delphi Forums' tutorial.
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How do I display an image on my Start page?
You can't upload image files directly to your "Start page" area, but you can use simple HTML to display an image inline that is being called from another Web site that you have access to. Some example code you might use to adapt to your own needs:<p style="text-align: center; font-size: 20pt;">Welcome to My Forum</p>
<img src="http://people.delphiforums.com/membername/picture1.jpg" width="125" height="140" border="0" alt="Forum Logo">For more HTML help, see the Using HTML on Delphi Forums tutorial.
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Can I see if a recent visitor to my Forum is still in my Message Board?
There's currently no way to know if someone is still viewing a Delphi Forums Web page after they've logged in, or more specifically, are still in your Forum. The reason being that HTTP is "stateless" - meaning that any given Delphi Forums member's browser only communicates with Delphi Forums' servers for fractions of seconds at a time, when requests are made to transfer Message Board messages, load other Web pages, etc.When in Delphi Forums Chat, however, your browser keeps in constant contact with Delphi Forums, so we know you are logged in whenever you are in a Chat room.
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You are not logged in with the same account you created the Forum with. To check, go to your My Forums page and look in the list under "My Forums." If the Forum you're trying to access isn't on the list, you're probably logged in with the wrong account. Try logging out and logging in again with any other accounts you may have created.
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The 'Controls' tab is simply outside the browser screen. In this case, try the following: Decrease the font size in your browser preferences; Decrease the length of your Forum title; Increase your screen resolution; Grab the edge of the top frame and drag it down until you can see the navbar.
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How do I know if my message board is nearing its size limit?
There are no limits on how many messages a Forum can keep. If it ever becomes necessary to impose any size limitations for Message Boards, we'll be sure to have created easy-to-use tools to allow Forum hosts to easily manage their message bases (deletion, archiving, etc). -
How do I archive messages?
At present there are no archiving tools provided by Delphi Forums to allow you to easily download and store your Forum's message base on your own disk.