A beginner's guide to the ScubaBoard.Com forums by Tech Admin & team.

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Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

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Ted S

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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 IV – Making your first post

ScubaBoard has created a forum specifically for new members to introduce themselves and get acclimated with our site. This forum, called the “Introductions & Greets” forum can be found at www.scubaboard.com/f19.html. While your first post can be made anywhere the Introductions & Greets forum is a nice place to tell us who you are, where you come from and ask any questions you may have about getting around the board. We have an entire team of volunteer Guides to help you in your journey and welcome you so please, take advantage of this forum as it will help you make your first step on ScubaBoard!

Section V – Using the main forums

There are nearly 250 forums covering every aspect of diving from new diver issues to technical diving and dive specialties. To ask a question or get involved in a thread look for the forum that is about the subject you are interested in. All of our forums are organized by category and subcategory and can easily be found by just clicking around the forums. Alternatively there are nearly 1,000,000 posts on our board that cover tens of thousands of topics so odds are your question has already been asked before. By using the search feature you can usually find similar threads to get you started and maybe even answer your question. Of course you are welcome to respond to any existing thread or start a new one if you need more information or just want to ask a question again. Selecting the appropriate forum for your post will insure you get a better response but if you aren't sure where to post that's ok – our Basic Scuba Discussions (link and description changed) forum is a great place to ask any question – if there's a better place for your thread a moderator will move it for you but don't worry, that's not a bad thing and you don't get in trouble for asking a question in the wrong place.

Section VI – Using extended Features

There is a lot more to ScubaBoard then just the forums; we have articles, a dive directory and photo galleries just to name a few. All of these features can be accessed via www.scubaboard.com or by clicking the appropriate link on the sidebar of any forum page. Here is an over view of our main features:

• Articles – From dive training to photo manipulation to gear and travel reviews we have articles covering all of Scuba Diving. Articles are basically extended version of threads written with the understanding of sharing and teaching information with other members. If you are interested in providing articles to us please contact us at articles@scubaboard.com – you don't need to be a professional writer or diver; we look for real information and ideas from real divers of any level so why not share your experienced with other divers outside the forums?!

• Dive Directory – When it comes time to plan your next trip to lands far away or if you just need to find a local dive shop or spot our directory contains thousands of links to shops, resorts, operators and local dive spots. Finding information is free and easy – you can browse by listing type and location or use our interactive mapping system. If you run a business or know of a local dive spot please add it to our directory, it's free!

• Photo Galleries – Each registered member is empowered to upload upto 75mb of photos to the gallery. So far we have over 12,000 such images taken by divers in all types of waters and all over the world. Many of our photographers shoot professionally or at an amazing level but many are also new to the art and contributions of either type are welcomed. Your photos remain yours to modify or remove at your discretion; whether you want to share your latest dive or see some of the most amazing scenes of the underwater world there is no larger gallery than ours (and if there is we've never seen it).

Section VII – Enjoying ScubaBoard

To get the most out of ScubaBoard you need to spend some time reading, asking and enjoying your time here. No matter how new or how experienced you are with Scuba Diving there is something you can gain here. Nearly 50,000 members have signed up with ScubaBoard to communicate with other divers so whether you want to learn to dive for the first time, need information on equipment or specialty diving or want to help other divers learn about the sport we have the forums, threads and posts for you to accomplish your goal. So long as you keep a positive attitude and are willing to share and learn from others you will enjoy your time here and you may just find that you've helped someone else enjoy the site as well.

For more information on ScubaBoard, our forums, features or using this site I recommend you check out our long and detailed FAQ. For assistance contact a moderator, guide, myself or post to Site Support.

Once again thank you for joining ScubaBoard.Com!
 
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