Hello and welcome to ScubaBoard.Com, on behalf of the entire ScubaBoard.Com team I want to thank you for joining our forums. This document is meant to guide you through the many features and facets of the ScubaBoard site – while it is fairly comprehensive no single article can cover the entire website so please, feel free to ask questions either by contacting a moderator, guide, myself or by posting to Site Support.
Section I – Registration:
If you are reading this, chances are you are already registered with ScubaBoard but if not that is something we need to fix immediately! Becoming a registered member of ScubaBoard will cost you nothing and will greatly increase your access and abilities within our site. Most important of all, registering allows you to post questions, ideas, answers or experiences. But registering allows for much more then that – registered users can search with advanced options, subscribe to interesting threads or forums to receive email updates, update their profile, upload photos to our user photo gallery and much, much more. To register just head over to www.scubaboard.com/register.php, review the terms of service and fill out a few basic details about yourself (your email address will remain private) and you’re registered. If you are using a friend or family member’s computer you may have to log out before registering – to do this click the “log out” link on any ScubaBoard forums page.
Section II – Setting up your profile:
While certainly not required, new members are strongly encouraged to setup their personal profile, dive history and signature. These pages allow you to input information on who you are and what you are all about so that other members know a little more about who they are talking to. How personal you get is entirely up to you – most of our members remain anonymous but it’s all your choice.
• The first page to start with is the profile page located at www.scubaboard.com/profile.php?do=editprofile. On this page you will have the opportunity to setup your basic details such as your birthdate (no year required ), your biography, location and other general information.
• The next step is to tell us about your dive history and level; this information can be filled out at www.scubaboard.com/profile.php?do=extra and includes fields ranging from your certification agency to dive experience and so forth. The more you tell us here the more people will understand about you when you post a question, answer a thread or give any sort of opinion.
• The final steps are to setup your signature, profile picture and avatars. All of these features can be accessed via your User Control Panel (User CP) located at www.scubaboard.com/usercp.php. In brief your signature is a few (max. 4) lines placed at the end of all your private messages and posts which may contain your name, nick name, a funny quote, your url or your business information if you so desire. Your profile picture appears on your profile and your avatar is a smaller image of yourself or anything else which appears with each of your posts.
Nothing here is required but again, the more you post the better others will understand who you are and what you are all about. Feel free to start with some basic facts and as time goes on you can come back to add more information.
Section III – The Rules in Brief
When you first signed up you were asked to review our terms of service agreement which is currently around one and a half pages long. While we do expect you to adhere to this document completely, we understand that some people need a refresher so here are a few of our important rules again.
• Regarding commercial posting – ScubaBoard does not allow for self promotion in new threads, spam or any other blatant forms of advertising. However, you are welcome to post your urls or business information in a few special places to get your name out. (1) your signature may contain information about your business including a link (2) you may make a post to the relevant MarketPlace forum about your business, a special, products for sale or other related information and (3) you may respond to a relevant question with your url so long as your post is of substantive value. Our intent here is to stop people from blatantly filling our forums with advertisements while respecting the fact that promotion is a part of Scuba Diving and allowing ways for your to achieve your business goals in a controlled manner.
• This board is a work-friendly board – that means every post, every link, every image and every quote should be appropriate for a working place environment. This doesn’t mean you have to be 100% G rated but that your posts should be something an adult in a professional setting would not mind having their boss or coworker see – the only problem with surfing our site at work should be that you aren’t working; not what’s being said or shown!
• Respect other users, respect threads and respect the policies of this board and you will have a great time here. We do have a wide array of rules which we believe are fair and equally applied – we expect you to follow these rules at all times and not to cause havoc, insult members or hijack threads for your own purposes. Should you see something that concerns or upsets you we ask you to inform us by using the Report a Post link on any post or by contacting us directly.
Section I – Registration:
If you are reading this, chances are you are already registered with ScubaBoard but if not that is something we need to fix immediately! Becoming a registered member of ScubaBoard will cost you nothing and will greatly increase your access and abilities within our site. Most important of all, registering allows you to post questions, ideas, answers or experiences. But registering allows for much more then that – registered users can search with advanced options, subscribe to interesting threads or forums to receive email updates, update their profile, upload photos to our user photo gallery and much, much more. To register just head over to www.scubaboard.com/register.php, review the terms of service and fill out a few basic details about yourself (your email address will remain private) and you’re registered. If you are using a friend or family member’s computer you may have to log out before registering – to do this click the “log out” link on any ScubaBoard forums page.
Section II – Setting up your profile:
While certainly not required, new members are strongly encouraged to setup their personal profile, dive history and signature. These pages allow you to input information on who you are and what you are all about so that other members know a little more about who they are talking to. How personal you get is entirely up to you – most of our members remain anonymous but it’s all your choice.
• The first page to start with is the profile page located at www.scubaboard.com/profile.php?do=editprofile. On this page you will have the opportunity to setup your basic details such as your birthdate (no year required ), your biography, location and other general information.
• The next step is to tell us about your dive history and level; this information can be filled out at www.scubaboard.com/profile.php?do=extra and includes fields ranging from your certification agency to dive experience and so forth. The more you tell us here the more people will understand about you when you post a question, answer a thread or give any sort of opinion.
• The final steps are to setup your signature, profile picture and avatars. All of these features can be accessed via your User Control Panel (User CP) located at www.scubaboard.com/usercp.php. In brief your signature is a few (max. 4) lines placed at the end of all your private messages and posts which may contain your name, nick name, a funny quote, your url or your business information if you so desire. Your profile picture appears on your profile and your avatar is a smaller image of yourself or anything else which appears with each of your posts.
Nothing here is required but again, the more you post the better others will understand who you are and what you are all about. Feel free to start with some basic facts and as time goes on you can come back to add more information.
Section III – The Rules in Brief
When you first signed up you were asked to review our terms of service agreement which is currently around one and a half pages long. While we do expect you to adhere to this document completely, we understand that some people need a refresher so here are a few of our important rules again.
• Regarding commercial posting – ScubaBoard does not allow for self promotion in new threads, spam or any other blatant forms of advertising. However, you are welcome to post your urls or business information in a few special places to get your name out. (1) your signature may contain information about your business including a link (2) you may make a post to the relevant MarketPlace forum about your business, a special, products for sale or other related information and (3) you may respond to a relevant question with your url so long as your post is of substantive value. Our intent here is to stop people from blatantly filling our forums with advertisements while respecting the fact that promotion is a part of Scuba Diving and allowing ways for your to achieve your business goals in a controlled manner.
• This board is a work-friendly board – that means every post, every link, every image and every quote should be appropriate for a working place environment. This doesn’t mean you have to be 100% G rated but that your posts should be something an adult in a professional setting would not mind having their boss or coworker see – the only problem with surfing our site at work should be that you aren’t working; not what’s being said or shown!
• Respect other users, respect threads and respect the policies of this board and you will have a great time here. We do have a wide array of rules which we believe are fair and equally applied – we expect you to follow these rules at all times and not to cause havoc, insult members or hijack threads for your own purposes. Should you see something that concerns or upsets you we ask you to inform us by using the Report a Post link on any post or by contacting us directly.