New to ScubaBoard and xenForo? Here's The Chairman's user guide...

[The Chairman]

Glossary
XenForo uses some terms that are slightly different from vBulletin (and other forums). Here are some key ones to be aware of:

• Messages – These are what vBulletin calls “Posts”. Your number of posts will be migrated over to become your current number of messages.
• Alerts – These replace vBulletin’s “Notifications”. You’ll see an Alerts menu at the top right of the page when you’re signed in (next to your profile information). Here you’ll see notifications on threads and forums you’re watching, and you can manage your alert preferences from here.
• Conversations – These are Private Messages you have with other users. You have to hqave ten Messages (Posts) in order to use this feature.
• Community – This is where you'll find the Forums where you can post.
• Bread Crumb – An easy way to navigate the site.

Log In or Sign Up
Here's your first choice. While there is a lot to read as a visitor, there's a lot more to do and see as a registered user. You can't start a thread or post a reply as a visitor and you know you will want to. So, take a few moments and create an account if you don't already have one or sign in.

If you're signing up, you have several options. If you want to specify a user name, rather than use your real name, please don't use the Facebook sign in. Changing user names is the most frequent request to support@scubaboard.com. <sigh> You'll get an email from SB to finish your registration, so be sure to use a valid email, that you check and won't flag us for spam! If you don't receive that email, check your spam folder... all of them. Here's a screenshot of the sign up window

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Changing your E-Mail or Password
This is pretty easy once you find the path. Click on <Your Name> in the upper bar. That will open a dialog box where you can then select "Preferences" There, hidden in plain sight on the left side are two links to change either your E-Mail or Password! Here are some pics:

 

[The Chairman]

How to View and Start New Threads
First, make sure you're in the Forum area which is called "Community". Then scroll down to any sub-forum that interests you. Click on any forum title to view the threads in that forum. You’ll see the name of each thread, who started that thread and when, the number of replies and views, and the name of the last contributor to the thread (and when that contribution occurred). You'll also see a link to start a New Thread and any Sub-Forums that are in that Sub-Forum. Sticky threads will be at the top and then they will be sorted by the most recently replied to on down. Click on the black dot (in the red circle) to go to the last unread message in that thread.

 

[The Chairman]

How to Reply to a Post or in a Thread

To reply, just type in the box at the very bottom of the page of an open Thread. There are some threads that are closed to discussion. You can also click on "Reply" at the bottom of any post in order to quote them. While you can edit their post for brevity or to highlight a particular point, it's in poor form to alter their words, even in jest. While you're posting you can also share your post to Facebook or Twitter. Once you sign in through ScubaBoard, we will remember your encrypted credentials. Don't worry though: no one can get to them, not even staff.

As you can see, there are lots of options to make your post look great. Bullets, different fonts, justifications and even a way to embed video, including YouTube. Play around, add a smiley. It's your forum, so have fun. A picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a million. If you mess up, you get to edit your thread for 24 hours. Here's a caution. Don't post your email or phone number publicly. You can always invite people to start a conversation if they want that kind of private information.

Finished? Just click on "Post Reply" in the Actions area. Don't like how it looks or maybe the way you're coming across? Go ahead and edit it!

 

[The Chairman]

Garibaldi? Angelfish? DIR? How did I get this title? How do I get rid of it???

Some of the most frequently asked questions of Support@ScubaBoard.com are about titles. Here's the low down. Titles are determined by the number of posts you have or the Group you've decided to join. The following titles are determined by the number of posts you have...

Garibaldi: 0+
Angelfish: 5+
Nassau Grouper: 70+
Barracuda: 200+
Manta Ray: 500+
Loggerhead Turtle: 1250+
Great White: 3000+
Orca: 5000+
Giant Squid: 10,000+
Blue Whale: 15,000+
Kraken: 30,000+

But none of these will show up if you join a user group. How do you join or leave a group? I'm glad you asked. First look at the blue bar at the top of the page that never goes away. To the right you'll see your username and your avatar. Hover over that with your mouse and a drop down box will appear. Lots of good stuff in there, but near the bottom on the right, you'll see "Join User Groups". Don't let it fool you: you can leave groups there as well! Here's a caution: Only join the groups you are a part of. We get a lot of people trying to join "Marine Scientists" or "Liveaboard" among others because they are interested in these. Don't join them if you don't belong. If you squeak through people will think you are a scientist or work on a liveaboard! Some of these groups aren't moderated and I get all sorts of people concerned with being identified as a DIR or Solo Diver all the time. These groups are yours to join or leave as you see fit.

 

[The Chairman]

How to Personalize your Experience

Want to have more fun? Want to fill out your profile? Need to add an avatar or a pithy Sig line? You can do all that here:

Want to change your birthday? Go to Personal Details. Want to edit your email? That's under Contact Details. Want to change your password from Scuba1234 to something less common? We've cunningly hidden that under Change Password. Want to add your contact details to all of your posts? Go to Signature. At the bottom you can even update your status! There's a lot there, so go explore and pimp out your account.

 

[The Chairman]

How to Search ScubaBoard...

It's easy to do a search on sub forum and you'll find the search box cunningly hidden near the top of the page...

Once you click on it a drop down box appears allowing you to type in your search parameters. The more parameters, the more specific your search will be. You can also choose to narrow your search to a particular user, to include only thread titles and you should notice that the search is limited to the sub forum you're in by default. If you're not finding that thread, odds are you need to de-select that box.

Clicking on "More" will open up yet more options to narrow your search.

[/more]

Okay... so are there any limitations? Sure: one, two and three letter words won't be included in your search. We were able to add a number of exceptions on the old software, but not on xenForo. You'll have to resort to using Google to search our forum... Here is Google's tutorial on that: How to search on Google - Search Help If you want to really get good, then check out this article on using Google Search: Top Ten Ways to Search More Effectively on Google | Tip #1: Fine-Tune Your Query with More Keywords | Que BTW, there are parts of ScubaBoard that are not open to Google like our non-diving discussion areas. Don't be surprised if your favorite topic doesn't come up on a Google search.​

 

[The Chairman]

More about alerts...

There are several kinds of alerts that you can get. You can set them up here: https://www.scubaboard.com/community/account/alert-preferences.

Here's a few of the more common alerts and when you will get them if you selected to be alerted:

• New post in a thread you are following...
  • Only one until you visit the thread again
• Someone Quoted you...
  • Comes up with each and every quote
• Someone Mentioned you...
  • Comes up each and every time someone use the @ with your username such as @The Chairman.
• Someone Liked your post...
  • Comes up each and every time someone liked your post
• New Thread in a Sub Forum you're following...
  • Get one alert for every new thread in any forum you're following.

 

[The Chairman]

More Ways to Quote posts

An easy way to quote only a part of a post is to simply highlight the phrase(s) you want to respond to and you'll see dialog box open. Choose "Reply" and it puts the selected text with attribution into the reply window for you. Now you can easily address point by point without having to quote the entire text and tediously editing it. Simply highlight, select reply, comment and then repeat as you see fit.

 

[The Chairman]

This post is useless without pics!

So, how do you add pictures? It's so easy!

Copy and paste!

Then on ScubaBoard...

It comes out looking like this:

Image Tags:

You can also copy a picture from anywhere on the internet by using IMG tags.

[img]PasteAddressHere[/img]

When you right clicked on that pictures, click on "Copy image address" and then pasted it between two image tags like this:

[img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/yTbCL-YnBrZTRC-BrGaNdgT6fez13uqbXRp_dTd2HxB1vyxJp3woNZg2Y-soInhVV59HIiFL7CRgw0ypWAHE_A6Z0Le3OQmN8zhp7nVdqYiMCL6ADIkSDUBbhS_LUr6MDGVZMy0I6490Aawh5v2fyAgjUU1CCTsa2bQrClUQsuz58cgNGUFZLcwoR2Akdi0uov5ss_5xorOd4mR_jB0OZj_Xdg-vIufcmT8nQZganJ9mXPosgKKQqT8tzobfDhsE1KtPDrbslVhsEWEehhDq6RSJd-Pzk7l5rKxg1JulxEljwId9dbPu6mrneWQbsFqyB_2edYmCwVVQPwiFX_ySdFcqpRnl86LOlqnyOXGEwYAEWY_NAjQNZCu3gxMEh_tQ7bA6SlthbTUyc20H4vNEBdNI3toxEU0PUuf08uluv79cMsE7yMsyALjthhy7dYLfkh5wKU_Jdb8l6Xzm5NTZIiZ1B4e2KBptPV9aQZuvejAEsVlWKtllyG_d4VjwlZ0IVOeFaMLfCpxxpj_gINksaLlzaYx25uHcnYf5-ipq9mr4Ixdu8IHkOpyZAnTAsI5l5WM4QAXXyq_ZQxaux3-5N-NbJx97gPtH8CQIBfJNR_YX0HFXWzC1=w690-h919-no[/img]

Wait there's more...

So play around and see what you like and what you don't!

 

[The Chairman]

Lists can be useful and fun!

[list][*]First Tier [list][*]Second Tier [*]Second Tier [/list]
[*]First Tier [list][*]Second Tier [list][*]Third Tier [/list][/list][/list]

Produces this:

• First Tier
  • Second Tier
  • Second Tier
• First Tier
  • Second Tier
    • Third Tier

You can create infinite tiers just by using the [list][/list] codes within the tiers. Use the [*] as a divider between entries. If you want numbers simply use [list=1][/list]. You still separate entries with a [*].