By registering with the forum, you will be able to edit your member profile and preferences. You will get the most out of your time here if you change your profile and preferences to suit your individual tastes. There are many options in your profile to make your experience here more enjoyable, so please take a few moments to try the various settings. Also, only users that are registered and logged in can take advantage of the "New Posts" feature upon each visit. Once you've registered and logged in, click "Edit Profile" or "Edit Preference" in the Forum Navigation island to edit your settings.
The Email Address field is used for email notifications, Watch Lists and to email your password. The Public Email Address field is what other users see when they view your profile. We realize that you may not want everyone to know your real email address, but we need to know it in case you want to watch certain content or if you want to have replies emailed to you. For this reason you can give us your real email address in the Email Address field and only the Administrators of the board will see it. You can provide a different email address for the general public using the Public Email Address. Some people like to put in something like scream@no.spam.yahoo.com. This way people can still figure out what your real email address is, but spamming agents can't just parse through the page and obtain your email address to spam you.
Yes. Cookies are used to remember your login information as well as what posts you have read during your current session. Without accepting cookies some functions won't work properly.
If you have registered with these forums, you must log in to take advantage of the personalization of settings. To log in, look in the upper right-hand corner of your screen for the "Log In" link. This link will take you to a page where you can enter your Username (email address) and Password. Keep in mind that the password is always case-sensitive. This means that the software considers "S" and "s" to be different characters.
Once you have entered your Username (email address) and Password, you'll be brought to your Starting View. (You can change the page used for your Default Starting View by clicking "Edit Preferences" in the Forum Navigation island.) If you have any Private Messages waiting for you, you'll see a flashing envelope on the My Messages island. (Note that this only applies if the Private Messaging feature has been enabled by the Administrators of the board.)
This checklist may help you successfully log in:
1) Make sure you are entering your password correctly. Passwords are case-sensitive.
2) Ensure that your browser supports cookies; if so, check the security level you are using. High levels of security restriction in certain browsers will automatically reject cookies. In order to use the key features of these forums, you'll need to accept cookies. The maker of your browser can help you with additional problems you may have with your cookie settings.
3) Completely log out by hitting the Log Out link in the upper right-hand corner of the page, and then log back in again.
4) After logging in, you may have to hit the Reload or Refresh button on your browser to expedite the authentication.
5) If these steps don't work you can try purging your cookies for this site using the My Cookies tool.
6) If you continue to have problems, go to the Log In page and click "Have you forgotten your login information?". Enter your real email address into the Email Address field and a temporary password will be emailed to the email address used for the account setup.
It's a system-generated User Title to give ranking to your postcount. You will progress through the various levels according to the cumulative number of posts you have made.
Everyone has a title within the forum. You will notice the title below the Display Name in each post. Some titles are automatically assigned based on the number of posts a user has made, and some titles are assigned by the forum owner to denote official representatives of the company or other VIPs in the forums.
0 newbie 15 member 50 member 100 member 200 member 400 member 700 member 1200 member 1600 member 2500 member
If you have forgotten your password, don't worry! You can very easily have a temporary password emailed to you. Go to the Log In page and click "Have you forgotten your login information?". Enter your real email address into the Email Address field and a temporary password will be emailed to the email address used for the account setup.
This process is safe because the password is only emailed to the original owner of the account. There is no way to steal the password by using this feature.
You may change your password any time. On the Forum Navigation island, click "Edit Profile". Edit the Password and Verify Password fields and then click "Submit" to save the information. (Keep in mind that passwords are case-sensitive.)
In order to add an image to your message or your signature, you must have the image already available on a web server and reachable by a URL. This can be an image on your own personal web page, for example. To place an image within a message, simply use the following Markup Tag:
[image]http://www.url_to_image.com/image_name.gif[/image]
For example, if you have an image called cateye.gif and its available from your own website at http://www.mywebsite.com/pics, then you would use the following image markup:
[image]http://www.mywebsite.com/pics/cateye.gif[/image]
You can do the same for your signature. Click the My Home option found on any page. Then, under the Main Configuration heading, click on "Personal Information, email, password...". Look for the Signature box, and enter your desired information, including any images/markup as above.
Note: To keep the forums loading quickly for everyone, it is recommended that you do not exceed 35k for your image size.
We ask that you keep your images relatively small. As a rule, please do not exceed 600 x 125 pixels and/or 35k for a signature image. This will ensure that the forums load quickly for all users.
Everyone is welcome to participate in the "Lightweight" Backcountry Forum Community. INITIAL DISCLAIMER:
We do our best to maintain security and keep your personal information secure, but we cannot make any guarantees. We admit hackers and that sort of person are smarter than we are. However, we do our best to protect your information. You enter these forums at your own risk so take every precaution. Change your password regularly. Be prudent with personal information that you make available to the general population. Thank you.!!
NEW MEMBERS
NOTE to NEW MEMBERS: We would greatly appreciate your filling in your profile, to at least some degree. This is especially helpful to us if you will be asking questions. We are unable to help you if we don't know your location (state/province is fine, we don't need your address!) and where you generally backpack, in addition to other info you are able to provide.
Thank you very much for helping us to help you!
Registration - Personal Information:
We realize that sharing personal info is potentially risky in any venue, including the internet. Here in our forums, a small amount of personal data is necessary for establishing your account and identity. Beyond that, any info that you provide is voluntary and optional. However, we encourage you to tell us as much as you can about yourself. It is helpful to all the members if we know a little about you like where you're from, what type of hiking you like to do, favorite places, hobbies, etc. You will find that this info helps in building relationships with other members and in cultivating trust that goes a long ways, for example, when executing transactions in the Classifieds Buy/Sell Forum. As you can see from the precautions mentioned below, we try to protect existing members and their information. Thanks.
Initial Restrictions to Protect Existing Members:
Each new member that registers is automatically assigned to the "New_Users" group. In order to protect existing membership from SPAM and those who might register just to sell their stuff, promote their business, post polls or use our search engine for research purposes, or for similar reasons other than participating as a member in this community, we place temporary restrictions on new members. These restrictions are removed when one of the following is satisfied.
(1) reaching 25 approved postings in the community forums, each new user is automatically moved to the main users group and gains full member standing and benefit.
(2) a new_user can also petition the moderators for full user status after they have been a member for 30 days. This is not automatic, you have to ask.
Restrictions placed on new users until one of the above options is satisfied:
(1) no write access to the Classifieds (Buy/Sell) Forum
(2) no signature block available within your postings
(3) no "shout box" write access
(4) 60 second delay between searches
(5) PM (personal msg) to only one member at a time
(6) no creation of polls within postings
(7) cannot view other member's profiles
(8) no upload of attachments
RULES
:: NO Foul Language (read notes below)
:: NO Photos deemed inappropriate for family consumption
:: NO Flame Wars (read notes below on acceptable flaming artistry)
:: NO Unauthorized Advertising (read all the notes below)
The standard rules apply. No foul language in any way, shape or form, and this includes partially disguised spellings such as "sh!t" and "fukin". No advertising of any kind. NO FLAMES! NO SPAM!!! Follow the rules & guidance of good NetiQuette. Also read the guidance provided in the "General Discussion Forum" section, below.
As stated above, messages which the administrator or the monitors judge to be offtopic, overly arrogant, confrontational, or disruptive such to promote wars of words will be deleted - without comment. Worst case scenario is that repeat offenders will be banned - without comment.
Also, all messages posted become the property of the Backcountry Forums?. Basically, that means we can republish them in other parts of this website, in order to preserve them over a longer period of time - e.g., tips, reviews, gear lists could be republished elsewhere.
Buy & Sell classified ads posted in the Buy & Sell Gear forum will be maintained for approximately 60 days and then deleted. If your gear hasn't sold by then, you can repost your advertisement.
Personal messages (PM) will also be maintained for approximately 60 days and then deleted. If you wish to keep an archive of your PMs, then cut & paste them to your personal computer.
CROSS POSTING
The Backcountry Forums has mulitple boards, each with its own subject matter. This could lead to confusion about which board to post in. Accordingly, your response may be to post in multiple boards, in order to compensate. Please don't do this! This cannot be allowed because it would quickly flood the databases with unnecessary, duplicate content. Take a couple of additional seconds to make your best choice of boards then post in only one. If your choice is erroneous, a moderator will probably move it for you.
FORUMS ARE MONITORED
The boards are monitored. That is, each board has at least one monitor who manages the board according to this policy statement. They will routinely review posted messages to ensure that message content meets the requirements set herein. Messages not in line with this stated policy will be edited or deleted, at our discretion, with no subsequent notification. Repeat offenders of policy will be educated or temporarily or permanently banned. This sounds harsh but has rarely happened.
UNAUTHORIZED ADVERTISING
Innovators, entrepreneurs, inventors, if you have new ideas you'd like to test out on the "lightweight community", please feel free to do so, but don't confuse interacting with advertising. Unauthorized advertising is not allowed! If you have a legitimate advertising offer for us to consider, please contact us.
Unauthorized advertising includes posting links to external sites, thus drawing this forum's readership to other websites for the benefit of those websites. This includes outdoor-related subject matter, such as, articles, gear for sale, trip reports, gear reviews. Rather, this type of information can very well be posted here in The Backcountry Forum, in its entirety.
Any exception to the above restrictions - e.g. for long-standing, contributing members involved in daily discussions - is at the discretion of the forum moderator team.
Cottage-Gear Advertising. Gear makers from small shops (which we refer to as "Cottage Gear Manufacturers") may possibly advertise in the forums for a small annual fee. To request more information about this opportunity, please inquire HERE !
SURVEYS - Rules for Posting Surveys
You may not post links to surveys located outside of this forum. Posts containing such links will be deleted. Repeat violators may be banned from the site at moderators' discretion.
You may post surveys in the following manner: (1) Start a new topic of discussion soliciting members' feedback via either personal message (PM) or by posting their responses within the forum (2) You may use the Poll Manager to create polls using the forum software. The Poll Manager is accessed through a link when you start a New Topic.
NOTE: This survey policy includes Survey Monkey. We have lately had several surveys posted by alleged "high school students" which use the Survey Monkey website to host their surveys. We suspect Survey Monkey is being used to mine user ip's for purposes of advertising/spamming. In other words, if you go to Survey Monkey, you may end up receiving considerably more unwanted advertising/spam.
SEARCH for TRAVELING PARTNERS - Rules for Acquiring Backcountry Buddies
Common sense, common sense, common sense. This caution is for all forums at backpacking.net. Be prudent at all times and do not take risks. If someone on the forum with whom you are not acquainted (especially new members) wishes to get together for any reason (backcountry travel, fishing, etc.) exercise due diligence to vet the person by inquiring of other members, other forums, other resources, before committing to a get together. Obviously, you do so at your own risk. We cannot and do not accept responsibility for any experiences you may have while meeting up with other forum members (i.e., folks you communicate with on this forum). Thanks.
Policies for Specific Forums
GENERAL DISCUSSION
The guidance below is appropriate for the Backcountry Forums, in its entirety, but moreso for the General Discussion forum because that is the appropriate forum for backcountry discussions related to the environment, society, culture and so on where heated arguments, beyond your control, can occur. We hope this guidance will clarify the intended direction of these Forums -- what we can and cannot accommodate:
::: If you are a person who wants to discuss politics for the purpose of arguing political issues, if you want to discuss environment for the purpose of arguing environmental issues, if you want to argue for the sake of listening to yourself and your debating skills, if you want to argue for the sake of argument or if you want to test the mettle of the moderators in carrying out the forum's policy, then we have to tell you that this forum was not designed to accommodate you. This forum was never, never intended to facilitate such and the moderators and members want no part of it. If the foregoing fits your motives and desires, then we might recommend that you seek another venue. I believe that un-moderated argument of political, environmental, socioeconomic, etc. issues is a mainstay at many boards and news groups - just not here. Nothing negative personally is intended by these comments, but sometimes what you want and what we intend to provide are not compatible. :::
BUY & SELL OUTDOOR GEAR!
The Buy & Sell Gear forum is a "member's only" service wherein forum members may negotiate gear-exchange transactions amongst themselves. The original intent of the Buy & Sell forum was and is as a convenient place for registered members to sell used gear to each other - period! Unless otherwise noted (see eBay Policy below) any other uses, such as advertising for established retail stores or for advertising personal businesses, are prohibited and messages posted will be deleted without comment.
eBay Policy: If you have a business in eBay, you may not advertise your business nor your goods within the forums nor link to your business from within the forums. This is viewed as doing business, as mentioned above. If on the other hand, you as a member see a hot deal (unrelated to your business) on eBay and want to pass-on the tip to other forum members, this is okay - this is acceptable. If you are selling a piece of personal gear in eBay it is okay to post the link to your personal auction.
Also, read the section regarding the Buy & Sell Gear forum in our DISCLAIMER. In addition to the disclaimer, there are helpful tips on how to conduct business in this forum more safely.
Thanks,
Definitions
SPAM - Spam is the internet equivalent of junk mail. Spam is bad manners, breaks the rules of all reputable service providers, and is often illegal.
FLAMES - Flaming has come to refer to almost any mail insult.
NETIQUETTE - How to behave oneself while online.
Basic Disclaimer
Original TLB Disclaimer, from 1996:
...... if you happen to break your neck in the backcountry while thinking
about something you heard here, we empathize but accept no responsibility.
Our original disclaimer, stated above, is still valid.
The TLB Forum is a private entity which we have made available for your use, at your own risk. We, at TLB, accept zero responsibility and liability with regard to your use of these private forums. We make no promises to you, with respect to their performance, longevity of their existence, their content or lack thereof, and to your overall experience, including your compatibility or incompatibility with the forums community. We also disclaim responsibility and liability for anything you might say against someone else and what they might say about you! We always reserve the right to delete or remove anything in the forums that is against stated policy. Furthermore, we disclaim responsibility and liability for everything else that we didn't mention above.
By entering this website, to include the TLB Forums (and related archives), you agree with our disclaimer. You agree that your use is at your own risk and that all your experiences here in these forums, your resultant thought patterns, and subsequent actions are no one's responsibility but your own.
Yes, you'll be missing a trick if you fail to take advantage of the versatility offered. There are many aspects of how the Forums are displayed that may be customized. On the Forum Navigation island, click "Edit Preferences".
You can choose the stylesheet in which you wish to view the forums, how many posts are displayed on each page, whether or not you want to view users' pictures alongside their posts, and much more. Once saved, these become your default settings. You may edit these preferences again at anytime.
The first post of a given topic establishes the subject by which all subsequent replies will be known. Once there's been a reply, the topic subject cannot be subsequently changed. It's therefore important to get the subject right from the outset. Make it as descriptive and as specific as possible. For example, "LCD burn-in questions", is much better than something completely generic, such as "Newbie needs help!". Not only is it more likely to elicit a response, but it'll also make it much easier for all posts in the topic to be subsequently located.
One of the key benefits of the discussion board format is that it enables commonly asked questions to be answered once, for the benefit of all. Before posting your question, it is always worth checking to see if it has already been asked - and answered! You can do this via the Search island. Using the Search island, you can perform a quick keyword search, or click on the "Advanced" button to search by more specific criteria. Various options are available, both for how the search term is specified and for controlling how many forums you want to search. This is where the specificity of topic subjects is important, making it much easier to locate precisely what it is you're after from a list of search results.
It means that you have unread Private Messages. When you hover over this image it should display how many unread Private Messages that you have.
On the "New Private Topic" screen, you can type in a new user then press "add" or you can select them from the "My Buddies" dropdown. You can add up to the forum maximum of users (this limit will show on the "New Private Topic" screen) to the Private Topic.
If the tags are showing up in your text or you're getting a link, but it's to "http:///", you're including some unwanted spaces in the syntax. Avoid any intervening spaces, and everything will work fine.
Users can edit their own posts up to minutes after they are made. Where the change is substantial, it is courteous mark the post as edited so as to alert readers to the changed content. For cosmetic changes, it's better not to do so.
Let the forum Administrator or Moderator know - he/she will be able to move it for you.
There are 2 ways that this can be configured on a per-forum basis. If HTML is On then you will see HTML is On and you can use normal HTML in your posts. If UBBCode is on you will see UBBCode is On.
The following tags are available for your use if UBBCode is enabled:
Text Formatting
[b]
text
[/b]
= Makes the given text bold.
[i]
text
[/i]
= Makes the given text italic.
[u]
text
[/u]
= Underlines the given text.
[s]
text
[/s]
= Will post your text with a line through it (strike through).
[color:red]
text
[/color]
= Makes the given text red.
[color:#00FF00]
text
[/color]
= Makes the given text green.
[size:20pt]
text
[/size]
= Will change the size of the text to whatever size value you specify.
[font:Comic Sans MS]
text
[/font]
= Will post your text with the specified font.
Links
[email]
joe@email.com
[/email]
= Makes the given email address clickable.
[email=
joe@email.com
]
text
[/email]
= Makes the given email address clickable.
[url]
link
[/url]
= Makes the given url into a link.
[url=
link
]
title
[/url]
= Makes the given title into a hyperlink pointing to link.
[img]
link
[/img]
= Embeds an image.
Code Tags & Highlighting
[code]
text
[/code]
= Surrounds the given text with pre format tags.
[php]
text
[/php]
= Passes the text through the PHP Syntax Highlighter
[highlight]
text
[/highlight]
= Will highlight your text.
[spoiler]
text
[/spoiler]
= Will wrap your text in a spoiler container. Users must click a button in order to see this text, thus giving them the ability to specify if they want to read the item.
[spoiler:warning]
text
[/spoiler]
= Will wrap your text in a spoiler container and allow you to specify the warning message displayed. Users must click a button in order to see this text, thus giving them the ability to specify if they want to read the item.
Text and Image Alignment
[align:left|center|right]
text
[/align]
= Will align the text in the direction defined.
[img:left|center|right]
Image URL
[/img]
= Will allow you to allow text to wrap on the specified side of your image.
Misc.
[list]
[*]Item 1
[*]Item 1
[/list] = Makes a bullet list. [list=A] or [list=1] will make order/numbered lists. Other options include: circle, i, I, a, A, 1, disc, square.
[quote]
text
[/quote]
= Surrounds the given text with blockquote and hr's. This UBBCode tag is used for quoting a reply.
[quote=username]
text
[/quote]
= Surrounds the given text with blockquote and hr's. This UBBCode tag is used for quoting a reply. The username specified will be shown as quoted.
Putting a poll in your post is simple.
If polls are enabled, start by creating a new post in a forum. Below the body of your post, you will see a text box that allows you to specify how many polls you want to have in your post and the system will guide you through the rest.
You can change the number of posts displayed on each page by editing your display preferences. You can set this to anything between 1 and 99 posts per page. By default, this is set to 20 posts per page.
Quick Reply is made as a "Quick Response" block, so you can make a response to a post (or thread) before you forget or as you read them. Quick Reply is meant as a "no thrills" response box, as it's just there for a fast/non-formatted response.
Reply however brings you to a "Full Response" page that allows for heavy posting.
You can also click the "Full Reply" button from the Quick Reply box which will forward you (and all of your Quick Reply text) to the Full Reply page.
Quote will quote the users text to the Full Reply page. Quick Quote will quote the users text to the Quick Reply box below the thread.
Click the "My Profile" link from the "My Stuff" dropdown on the Forum Navigation island.
Using Gallery Forums are just like using any other forums... However, you can post images too!
After you create your post (subject and post, both required) you can click on the "Image Manager" link.
Adding images are as easy as:
1. Click "Browse" and a navigation area will appear that shows your computers files, navigate around to locate the image you'd like to upload. Once located, click on the image and select "open"; you can also choose to add a description (note that in v7.2 you do not have the option to change the description once another image is added).
2. If you wish to add another image, repeat step one; otherwise, select "done".
From here, just press submit, and your new "Gallery Posting" should appear for users to comment on your image(s).
When creating a new thread or response, you'll see a "File Manager" link on the "Full Reply" or "New Post" page. When selecting this option you'll receive a popup which will allow you to attach files to your post.
Steps:
1. Click "File Manager" to bring up the "Attachment" window.
2. Click "Browse" to bring up the file browser window; this will allow you to browse your computer for any files or images you wish to upload; please note that you're bound by whatever the "allowed file type" setting is for the board.
3. Click "open" on the file you wish to upload.
4. Enter a description of what the file is (if you want to).
5. Click "add file" to add another file, or "done" to close the window and complete your posting.
Please note that you must enter some text in both the "subject" and "post" fields when responding otherwise you will receive an error; you cannot just respond with an attachment ;).
Subscribing to a Forum
Enter the Forum and Select "Add Forum to Watched Forums" from the "Forum Options" dropdown.
Subscribing to a Topic
Enter the Topic and Select "Add Topic to your Watched Topics" option from the "Topic Options" dropdown.
Managing Watch Lists
Select "My Watch Lists" from the "My Stuff" dropdown, from here you can select the type of List that you wish to edit and by clicking the "Edit Watched Topics" (or "Edit Watched Forums" or "Edit Watched Users") link you can remove them or toggle the "Email Notification" option.
Toggling EMailed Watch Lists
See the above "Managing Watch Lists" directions.
Toggling the Default "EMail Watchedlist" Options
Select "My Preferences" from the "My Stuff" dropdown. From here you can manage the "By default should anything added to your Watch Lists be emailed to you?" option.
EMailing a Post or Thread
To email a post, simply navigate to the post and select "email post" from the bottom set of buttons (near reply, quote, notify, etc).
From this "email post" screen, you can select to mail yourself:
Just this post
This post and all replies
The entire thread
EMailing a Private Topic
When viewing a Private Message, simply click the "EMail Topic" button from the bottom set of buttons (near reply, quote, etc).
RSS Feeds for Forums
For forums which have an RSS Feed configured for them, you can enter the forum and select the feed link from the "Forum Options" dropdown.
My Feeds
If the administration has enabled the "My Feeds" option, you can manage RSS feeds from the "Feeds" link in the "My Stuff" dropdown in the navigation area.
From the My Feeds area you can see all of the RSS Feeds available to you, including all of the forums which have individual feeds. You will also be able to retrieve the feeds for your inbox and the global feeds for recent topics. Please note that these may or may not be available based on admin preferences.
The username colors generally specify a users status. Some select users can can also have special colors signified by the Administration.
The default user status colors are:
Administration
Global Moderator
Moderator
Search Engine Robot
The numbers in parenthesise indicate how many new topics (or posts) have been made since your last visit to the forums.
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