• Users, Registration & Profile
  • Do I have to register?
  • Can I edit my profile?
  • What do I do if I forget my Password?
  • Why should I enter my Birth Date?
  • What are moderators?
  • What are administrators?
• Topics - posting & reading
  • What are Categories, Forums & Topics.
  • Can I attach my own signature to my posts?
  • What does it mean if a forum has Moderation enabled?
  • Are there any censor features?
  • What are active topics?
  • How can I use smilies and images?
  • Can I add a hyperlink to my messages?
  • Can I change the format of my text?
  • Can I attach files?
  • Can I edit my own posts?
  • Can I attach my own signature to my posts?
  • Can I be notified by e-mail when there are new posts?
  • Can I search?
• Private Messages
  • What are Private Messages?
  • How do I know if I have received Private Messages?
  • How do I send a Private Message
  • Are outgoing messages I send saved?
  • Can I receive e-mail notification when I receive a Private Message?
  • How many Private Messages can I receive?
  • What if I don't want to receive Private Messages?
  • Can other users read my Private Messages?
• Miscellaneous
  • Are cookies used & how can I delete them?
  • What is COPPA?
  • Where can I get my own copy of this Forum?
Can't find your answer here? Send us an e-mail.

Registration is not required to view most current topics on the Forum; however, if you wish to post a new topic or reply to an existing topic registration is required. Some additional sections may be hidden to non-members.

Registration is free and only takes a few minutes. The only required fields are your Username, which may be your real name or a nickname, a valid e-mail address and a password known only to you. Click here to register.

Additional information can be added to your profile at registration or later. Providing fellow users with more information about yourself may make you feel more a member of the messageboard community.

The information you provide during registration is not outsourced or used for any advertising by Dave Sharp & Soul Company Message Board.

If you believe someone is sending you advertisements as a result of the information you provided through your registration, please notify us immediately.

You may easily change any information stored in your registration profile by using the "profile" link located near the top of each page. Simply identify yourself by typing your Username and Password and all of your profile information will appear on screen. You may edit any information (except your Username).

Changing a lost password is simple. All of the pages that require you to identify yourself with your Username and Password carry a "lost Password" link that you can use to have a code e-mailed instantly to your e-mail address of record that will allow you to create a new password.

Because of the Encryption that we use for your password, we cannot tell you what your password is.

If you enter your birth date into your profile, your birthday will be included in the birthday listing on the Message Board front page.

If you do not wish your age to appear in your profile, complete the date and month but leave the "year" field blank ("----").

Moderators control individual forums. They may edit, delete, or prune any posts in their forums and may lock topics or entire forums to prevent any further replies being made. They can also make topics "sticky" to ensure they always appear at the top of a forum.

Moderators may contact users who are abusing the forums by e-mail or private message. If you wish to report abuse , you should contact the moderators via e-mail or private message.

Some moderators may only have control over one or two forums while others may have control of all forums.

Administrators have overall control of the message board.

In addition to the powers of moderators, they may add, edit, archive or delete forums & categories and they may delete users or edit their profiles (e-mail address, password etc).

They also control all the settings and features of the message board and can turn features on and off or make additions to features such as Frequently Asked Questions.

You should contact an administrator only if you have a problem with your account that cannot be resolved through the available tools in the forums.

The message board is split into a number of categories for different subjects (e.g. "The Sharp End" for subjects relating to Dave Sharp & Soul Company).

Within each category are forums dedicated to different areas of discussion.

Categories and forums are set up by the message board administrators and cannot be changed by users.

Forums are the areas for message board discussion. Within each forum are topics which are posted by message board users. Within each topic there may be any number of replies posted by other users. You may create new topics or reply to existing ones.

You may attach signatures to the end of your posts when you post either a New Topic or Reply. Your signature is editable by clicking on "profile" at the top of any forum page and entering your Username and Password.

NOTE: HTML can't be used in Signatures. However, you can use the same forum tags as used when posting messages.
E.g. to insert an image in your signature enter [ img ]http://URL[ /img ] (Where 'URL' is the full address of the image you want to include - for example [img ]http://www.mysite.co.uk/images/myimage.jpg[/img ].
To centre your signature text or image, enclose your text or image code within [center ] and [/center ].

Moderation: This feature allows the Administrator or the Moderator to "Approve", "Hold" or "Delete" a users post before it is shown to the public.
Approve: Only the administrators or the moderators will be able to approve a post made to a moderated forum. When the post is approved, it will be made viewable to the public.
Hold: When a user posts a message to a moderated forum, the message is automatically put on hold until a moderator or an administrator approves of the post. No one will be able to view the post while it is put on hold.
NOTE: Authors of the post will be able to edit their post during this mode.
Delete: If the administrator or moderator chooses this option, the post will be deleted and an e-mail will be sent to the poster of the message, informing them that their post was not approved. The administrator/moderator will be able to give their reason for not approving the post in the e-mail.

The Forum does censor certain words that may be posted; however, this censoring is not an exact science, and is being done based on the words that are being screened, so certain words may be censored out of context. By default, words that are censored are replaced with asterisks.

Active Topics are tracked by cookies. When you click on the "active topics" link, a page is generated listing all topics that have been posted or replied to since your last visit to the messageboard (or approximately 20 minutes).

You may select to display the active topics over longer or shorter timescales using the drop down menu on the Active Topics page.

You've probably seen others use smilies before in e-mail messages or other bulletin board posts. Smilies are keyboard characters used to convey an emotion, such as a smile or a frown . This bulletin board automatically converts certain text to a graphical representation when it is inserted between brackets [].  Here are the smilies that are currently supported by Dave Sharp Message Board:

smile [:)] big smile [:D] cool [8D] blush [:I] tongue [:p] evil [}:)] wink [;)] clown [:o)] black eye [B)] eightball [8]

frown [:(] shy [8)] shocked [:0] angry [:(!] dead [xx(] sleepy [|)] kisses [:X] approve [^] disapprove [V] question [?]

There are several Forum Codes you may use to change the appearance of your text.  Following is the list of codes currently available:

For security reasons, you may not attach files to any posts. However, you may cut and paste text into your post.

You may edit or delete your own posts at any time. Just go to the topic where the post to be edited or deleted is located and you will see a edit or delete icon () on the line that begins "posted on..." Click on this icon to edit or delete the post. No one else can edit your post, except for the forum Moderator or the forum Administrator. A note is generated at the bottom of each edited post displaying when and by whom the post was edited.

Yes, the Subscription feature allows you to subscribe to the entire Board, individual Categories, Forums and/or Topics, depending on what the administrator of this site allows. You will receive an e-mail notifying you of a post that has been made to the Category/Forum/Topic that you have subscribed to. There are four levels of subscription:

- Board Wide Subscription
If you can subscribe to an entire Board, you'll get a notification for any posts made within all the forums inside that board.

- Category Wide Subscription
You can subscribe to an entire Category, which will notify you if there was any posts made within any topic, within any forum, within that Category.

- Forum Wide Subscription
If you don't want to subscribe to an entire Category, you can subscribe to a single forum. This will notify you of any posts made within any topic, within that forum.

- Topic Wide Subscription
More conveniently, you can subscribe to just an individual topic. You will be notified of any post made within that topic.

Each level of subscription is optional. The administrator can turn On/Off each level of subscription for each Category/Forum/Topic.
To Subscribe or Unsubscribe from any level of subscription, you can use the "My Subscriptions" link, located near the top of each page to manage your subscriptions. Or you can click on the subscribe/unsubscribe icons ( ) for that Category/Forum/Topic you want to subscribe/unsubscribe to/from.

You may search for specific posts based on a word or words found in the posts, user name, date, and particular forum(s). Simply click on the "search" link at the top of most pages.

Private messages (or PMs) are messages sent direct from one message board user to another.

To send a private message or view received private messages, click "Private Messages" in the top right of the messageboard or in the main forum listing below the other categories. This will take you to your Private Message area.

When you have received a private message, a pop up box informing you that you have received private messages will appear (requires Java enabled browser).
The number of unread private messages in your inbox will also be displayed after "Private Messages" in the top right corner of the messageboard and in the main forum listing below the other categories.

To go to your Private Message inbox, click "OK" on the pop-up box or click on "Private Messages" in the top right corner or main listing.

You may also opt to receive when you receive a Private Message. See this FAQ for details.

You can send a Private Message from the Private Message interface, from a posting by a user in any forum or from the users listing in the Members listing (link in top right corner).

To enter the Private Message interface, click "Private Messages" in the top right corner or main listing. Then select from the icons.
If you do not know the username of the person you wish to send a message to, select "Member List" alongside the "Send To:" field. To send a PM to multiple users, enter their usernames separated by commas ","

To send from within a forum or from the memberslisting, select the "Send ***** a Private Message" icon from above the user's posting or to the left of their name in the [url=members.asp]Members[/url]listing.

By default, you have an Private Message Inbox & Outbox. Any messages you send are saved in the Outbox.

To view the contents of your Outbox, enter the private message area and click .

You may modify your Private Message area to display your Inbox & Outbox simultaneously or to turn off your Outbox (so that messages you send are not saved). To do this, click in the Private Message interface and select the required setting under "InBox/OutBox Preferences".

Yes you can.

To enable this feature, enter your Private Message area and select . Select "Receive e-mail notification of private messages" and then "Submit Preferences"

You are limited to a maximum of 20 Private Messages in your Inbox.

If you exceed this limit, you will still be able to receive further messages, but will not be able to reply to messages or send further messages until you have cleared out your inbox to within the allowed limit.

Please delete Private Messages once you have read them.

You may opt not to receive Private Messages from all users or from selected users.

To prevent messages from all users, enter your Private Messages area and select Options

Select "Disable private messages" and click "Submit Preferences".

Note: You will still be able to send Private Messages, but will no longer be able to receive them. Any Private Messages already in your Inbox or Outbox will remain.

To block messages from individual users, enter your Private Messages area and select Block List.
Enter the Username of the user you do not wish to receive Private Messages from and click "Add to block list". You can subsequently remove any blocked users from the same page.

No, other users can not read your private messages. To view your private messages, you must have logged in using your username and password.

Remember if you are using a public or shared computer, deselect the "Save My Password" checkbox when logging in or select "Logout" when you are finished using the messageboard.

To prevent rogue users using the Private Message feature to send abuse or spam to other users, the Messageboard Administrators can view the inbox and outbox of any users if necessary.

These Forums use cookies to store the following information: the last time you logged in, your Username and your Encrypted Password.

These cookies are stored on your hard drive. Cookies are not used to track your movement or perform any function other than to enhance your use of these forums.

If you have not enabled cookies in your browser, many of these time-saving features will not work properly. Also, you need to have cookies enabled if you want to enter a private forum or post a topic/reply.

You may delete all cookies set by these forums by selecting the "logout" button at the top of any page. Or alternatively by clicking this link: Delete Forum Cookies

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and Rule apply to individually identifiable information about a child that is collected online, such as full name, home address, e-mail address, telephone number or any other information that would allow someone to identify or contact the child. The Act and Rule also cover other types of information -- for example, hobbies, interests and information collected through cookies or other types of tracking mechanisms -- when they are tied to individually identifiable information. More information can be found here.

The most recent version of this Snitz Forum can be downloaded at this Internet web site.

NOTE: The software is highly configurable, and the baseline Snitz Forum may not have all the features this forum does.