Boards o' Magick Frequently Asked Questions

BoM Forum Rules
Before starting to post on our message boards, all registered members are required the read & comply with our forum rules.

Registering
Registration is required if you plan to post new topics or reply to existing topics. Registration is free, and you are not required to post your real name. You are required to post your actual e-mail address, however. (Which will never be sold, given out, exchanged or anything similar. We hate websites that do that as much as the next person.)
It is vitally important that you list an e-mail that you actually check, not register with some spam account. This is usually a good idea with large gaming networks that actually send spam to e-mails you give them, but Sorcerer's Place is none of that. The sole reason why we need you to list an e-mail you check regularly is that in the event we need to contact you for some reason (related to your visiting these boards), you will actually read our warnings/notices. So if you register with an e-mail you don't check regularly and we send an e-mail to you at one point, and get no reply to it, we will have to disable your posting privileges here until you mail or PM us back.

Gems
The pictures that appear under your username on the left side of your posts are gems. (Many members will know that these come from the Baldur's Gate games.) Every registered member gets one to start with, and more valuable ones according to the number of posts they make. Only the last collected gem will display in any post.

You cannot change the gems for avatars or portraits, though we can and will do it for certain contributing members of our community. (See Custom Avatars, Portraits & Titles.)
The gems reflect the experience you have got by posting on our boards, not how many posts you can make in the shortest time possible to get more precious gems. We will be monitoring for abuse closely, and take 50 posts off your record if we deem that you are only posting for the sake of getting better gems. Of course, this doesn't mean that you should be afraid to post anything more than you usually do either. We will trust your own judgment to decide when you are adding something valuable to a topic and when you are only bloating it up.

Ranking
The value of gems you collect increases with the number of posts you have. These are the gems and the number of posts you get them at:

-0 Turquoise (5 gp value)
-25 Fire Agate
-50 Lynx Eye
-75 Sunstone
-100 Andar
-150 Jasper
-200 Tchazar
-250 Skydrop
-300 Iol
-350 Zircon
-400 Bloodstone
-450 Moonstone
-500 Ziose
-600 Chrysoberyl
-700 Waterstar
-800 Shandon
-900 Star Diopside
-1000 Horn Coral
-1100 Aquamarine
-1200 Garnet
-1300 Pearl
-1400 Sphene
-1500 Black Opal
-1750 Water Opal
-2000 Moonbar
-2250 Diamond
-2500 Emerald
-2750 Star Sapphire
-3000 Glittering Beljuril
-3500 King's Tears
-4000 Rogue Stone (5000 gp value)

Custom Avatars, Portraits & Titles
There are four ways of getting a custom avatar or portrait and a title displayed below your user name:

Custom titles (text displayed below your username) are available for everyone entitled to a custom avatar/portrait.

NOTE: If your account on the Boards o' Magick is inactive for more than 6 months, it will be considered abandoned and your avatar or portrait will be returned to the pool of available ones.

Idiot of The Week & Grammatical Moron of The Week Plaques
There are two "awards" you might receive based on the bad general impression you make on the board administrators, moderators & other forum members. They come in the form of plaques which replace the gem rank for one week and are:

IOTWGiven to people for any number of reasons, including, but not limited to ignoring warnings from moderators & admins or repeat (minor) breaking of the forum rules etc. In short, any actions verging on banning, but not quite there yet. If the recipient of the plaque mends his/her ways after a week of bearing this plaque, the offence that caused it will be forgotten and the plaque removed. If not, the plaque will be removed as well. The difference is that in this case, the offender will also be banned.

GMOTWGiven ONLY for the most severe cases of butchering of the English language & grammar and only to people whose native tongue actually is English. (And to people living in English-speaking countries.)*
This has been decided on because most of the bad grammar, spelling mistakes and no use of punctuation we see on the boards is caused by people whose native tongue actually is English (shame on you!). Not using basic spelling, grammatical and punctuation rules taught in elementary school on a message board where everyone can take the time to write things down neatly, and most importantly of all, EDIT their original post when they spot mistakes after making a post is unforgivable. After the recipient has had the plaque for a week, it will be removed. If no change in the posting style of the offender can be seen at that point, he/she will be banned outright.

*In extreme circumstances (after a succession of unheeded warnings), this plaque may also be applied to non-English members who butcher their writing on purpose, either to attract attention or to annoy the board administration and other members.

The most important thing any recipients of these two shameful plaques should keep in mind is keeping a low profile for the duration of that week. If, for example, we see an Idiot or a Moron bragging about his plaque, or, God forbid, make new topics discussing his/her new-found position, they will be banned on the spot. (Since their act would indicate that not only have they not read the obligatory Forum Rules and this FAQ, but also that they do not comprehend the delicate position they are in and are therefore highly unlikely to change their ways.)

The other important thing that goes without saying is that if you get either of these plaques, ask yourself why did you get it and never do the same thing again. It's as simple as that. Usually your offence will be noted in the title that comes with the plaque. Still, if you need any further explanations, e-mail or PM your administrator Taluntain.

Advice to other forum members regarding the treatment of Idiots or Morons: Do not mock them or point out their mistakes any more. They have been punished already, and if they need further encouragement, the admins will take care of it.

Member of The Week, Distinguished Member & SPS Account Holder Titles
The Member of The Week title is awarded to those members of BoM who perform an extraordinary service for SP. This service can be any number of things; for example: a generous donation to help with the costs of running SP, exclusive submission of high quality content, performing a personal favour for me (Taluntain), etc. Whenever you see a BoM member with the golden MoTW title, you can be sure they have done something highly beneficial to the whole community.

As far as donations are concerned, anyone who donates $100 or more receives the Member of The Week title, which expires after one week. To earn a permanent Distinguished Member title, $500 or more in (successive) donations is required.

The Sorcerer's Place Supporter (SPS) Account Holder icon + title duration depends on the SPS subscription option of the account holder.

Sorcerer's Place Common Acronyms
Please click here for a full list of acronyms commonly used on Sorcerer's Place.

Smilies
Smilies are keyboard characters used to convey an emotion, such as a smile :) or a frown :(. This message board automatically converts certain smilies to a graphical representation. For a full list of our smilies and their meaning, check here.

New Post Images
Every time you begin browsing the board, a cookie is set in your browser containing the date and time. When you return later, this cookie is read, and the date in the cookie is compared to the last post time of each topic. If the topic has had new posts since you last visited the board, it will be marked with a "new" icon. Use this link to mark all forums read.

Private Messaging
All registered users may send private messages to other registered users on our message boards. A private message is not an e-mail, though the concept is similar. Private messages are one-to-one communications that can only be read by the recipient. You can read private messages in your profile section. You can also elect to be notified by email whenever someone sends you a private message (you can set this in your profile). You can also prevent anyone from sending you a private message (also configurable in your profile). Only registered members may send private messages.

To send someone a private message, click on their user name on the left in any of their posts and you will see a dropdown menu option to do so. You can also send a private message through the person's member profile, or from your Buddy List, if you have added the person to your Buddy List.

If at any time you receive a spamming or abusing private message from anyone on our message board, please click on the Report Private Message icon in the top right corner of the PM in question. This will send a copy of the offensive PM to our moderators and they will deal with the offender, if warranted.

What is an Ignore List?
Ignore lists apply to private messages and threads. Anyone you add to your ignore list can no longer send you a private message, and their thread posts will be hidden from your view. You can put someone on your ignore list by viewing the member's profile and clicking on the "add to ignore list" link.

What is a Buddy List?
Buddy lists apply to private messages only. Anyone you add to your buddy list is stored in a handy location, so that you can easily send the person a private message. You can put someone on your buddy list by viewing the member's profile and clicking on the "add to buddy list" link.

New PM Notification
When you receive a private message, the indicator in the upper right corner of any board page will show you how many unread PMs you have. If you have enabled the option in your preferences, you will also receive an email notification of the private message, or you can enable the pop-up window notification of a received PM. You may edit your preferences in your User CP.

Using HTML and/or vB Code
You may be able to use HTML and/or vB Code in your posts, if the administrators and moderators have those options turned on for each forum. Some forums may have either HTML or vB Code turned off, or both turned off. Every time you make a new post, you will be told whether vB Code and/or HTML is enabled for that particular forum. If HTML is on, you may use any HTML tags, but please be very careful that you use proper HTML syntax. If you do not, your moderator or administrator may have to edit your post. vB Code is similar to HTML, but offers just a few basic functions, such as hyperlinking, image display, bolding and italicizing. Complete details on vB Code are listed here.

Moderators & Administrators
Moderators control individual forums. They can edit, delete, or prune any posts in their forums. If you have a question about a particular forum, you should direct it to your forum moderator. A moderator's job is to make sure people are following the rules of our forums.

More than anything, we want our members to have helpful, fun and interesting conversations. Spam, obscenity, and abusive posts don't allow you to do that. Persistent offenders will be banned. If you do get banned at some point, don't try to get around the ban by posting from a friend's computer or new name, it won't work and will only annoy us more. If you feel you've been wrongfully banned, send us one e-mail telling us why, politely, and we may reconsider.

Keep in mind that all moderators have the right to edit, delete, or close any posts for our own reasons without warning. Administrators can do everything the regular moderators can, plus all of the other more complex operations that are not accessible to moderators.

Changing Your Profile
You may easily change any info stored in your registration profile, using the "User CP" link located near the top of each page. You must be logged in in order to update your profile.

Cookies
This bulletin board uses cookies to store the following information: the last time you logged in, your login identification, and your preferences. These cookies are stored in your browser. Cookies are not used to perform any function other than to enhance your use of the message board. If your browser does not support cookies, or you have not enabled cookies on your browser, many of these time-saving features will not work properly and you will not be able log in. You must be logged in to use most functions of this board.

If you ever experience login problems, you may have a problem with the cookies that have been set in your browser.

Editing Your Posts
You may edit your own posts at any time. Look for the edit icon on the post to be edited. No one else can edit your post, except for the forum moderators or the message board administrators. A note is generated at the bottom of each post that is edited so that everyone knows when a post has been edited.

The ability to delete your own posts is disabled on all forums, but you can edit a post blank and leave a note for the moderators to delete it if necessary. Try not to do this when your post is the one that started a thread, since we will not delete the whole thread if a meaningful discussion has already started in it.

Attaching Files
For security reasons, you may not attach files to any posts this time. You may cut and paste text into your post, however, or use vB Code to provide hyperlinks to outside documents.

Searching For Specific Posts
You may search for specific posts based on a word or words found in the posts, by a particular registered member, by date, and/or by forum. Just click on the "search" link at the top of most pages.

Signatures
You can set a signature in your User CP. If signatures bother you, you can also disable their showing board-wide. Simply go to your profile options, untick "Show Signatures" and Save Changes.

Censoring Posts
The bulletin board administrators have the power to censor certain words that may be posted. This censoring is not an exact science, however, so certain words may be censored out of context. Please realize that the censoring is being done by a computer based on the words that are being screened. Words that are censored are replaced with asterisks.

What do I do if I forget my user name and/or password?
Retrieving your user name and password is simple. All of the pages that require you to identify yourself with your user name and password carry a "lost password" link that you can use to have your username and password e-mailed instantly to your e-mail address of record.

E-mail Notification
If you create a new thread, you have the option of receiving an email notification every time someone posts a reply to your thread. Just check the e-mail notification box when creating a new topic, if you want to use this feature. Also make sure that you have a working e-mail listed in your profile, otherwise no notification will ever reach you.

Can I search private forums?
Yes, if you have permission to access the particular private forums you wish to search. Note that you must be logged in to search private forums.

What are post icons?
You are able to associate an icon with each post that you make. There are currently 21 icons, each expressing a different emotion or identification. These icons range from a simple note to sadness to warning. These icons appear next to each thread in a forum listing and in each post.

What is Quick Reply?
Quick Reply allows you to add a reply to an open topic without leaving the topic itself. At the bottom of each topic will be a field in which you may write your reply. Once you are done, you may post the reply directly or move the post to the normal reply page. If you do not wish to use Quick Reply, you may turn it off by editing your preferences.

How can users get in touch with me if I hide my e-mail address?
If you would prefer that your email address not be publicly available, but you want users to mail you through this message board, you may choose to do so by editing your mailing preferences in your User CP.

What is Currently Active Users?
Currently Active Users is a display of users browsing the forums and threads on this board in the past 15 minutes.

I just visited a forum or thread. Why am I not on the list of visitors?
The recent visitors information is only updated once a minute to reduce server load. As a result, you may not immediately see yourself or others.

How do I take my name off the list of recent visitors?
You may make yourself invisible to the Currently Active Users list by entering your User CP and selecting the hiding preference.

How can I tell where a certain user was last seen?
You can view the user's last known location by viewing his or her profile. If the user has not been here recently, this information will not be available.

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