This thread explores the different ways you may search our forums, search our current memberships, and find topics or posts that you have subscribed to, bookmarked or provided attachments on. In order to utilize any of the following features, please understand that you must be registered and logged in with our forums.

Topic/Thread Searches

All users are capable of searching the forums for posts of a specified genre, type, or author. Looking toward the very top of the forum on the right hand side, you will find a dark blue box containing the word 'Search.' Should you choose to click on the said box, a outlined area will be displayed in which options can be chosen to find specific posts sought after. The top thread options display what type of searches may be conducted: a keyword search, an author search, and a forum search.

The six specifications underneath your search options help narrow down the search to your specific preferences. You may choose whether or not to search subforums (forums housed within the main forums), to what extent the content of the matching posts will be displayed, how the posts will be ordered in the result field, whether or not you wish to view actual posts or simply topics, how old of posts the database is allowed to pull results from, and how many characters you wish to appear in the post results.

Enter your search query and select your preferences and click the search button to conduct your desired search of posts on our forums. If your search is granted 'No results,' you have entered a search that is too vague or too specific to come up with any matching data. Re-enter your desired search with more specifications or broaden your search with less specifications to receive search results. If you search should turn up a blank page, your query has resulted in too many matches for our webserver to handle. Please conduct another search with narrower specifications to receive your desired results.

Membership Searches

Our forums also allow you to search the current memberships with our forums. Scrolling again to the top of the forums and clicking on the dark blue rectangle to the left of the Search button (it says "Members"), you find yourself on a page that displays all the members of the forums. They will automatically be sorted by the date they joined in a descending fashion. You may click on the drop down menu on the left hand side above the list to select the first letter of a member's username to find them or you may click on the 'Find a Member' link located on the top right.

With the 'Find a Member' feature, you may specify username, email, date joined, last active, posts, groups, how the results are sorted, ICQ (if member volunteered this information on their profile), AIM (if member volunteered this information on their profile), YIM (if member volunteered this information on their profile), MSNM/WLM (if member volunteered this information on their profile), Jabber (if member volunteered this information on their profile), and/or IP address.

Your Posts

If you wish to access all the posts and topics you have posted since your welcome to our forums, you may find them by searching your own username using the "Find a Member" page, scrolling down the bottom of the Forum Index and clicking on your username within the "Who Is Online" section, using the "Search" feature with you as an author, or clicking on the link in the upper right hand corner of any page that says "View Your Posts." Any posts authored by you also contain a dark blue button leading to your personal profile, from which a list of your posts and topics may also be found.

Bookmarking/Subscribing

As a member of our forums, you are also allowed to bookmark and subscribe to topics or forums. Bookmarking topics is very similar to the process of bookmarking sites within a specific browser. All bookmarked forums or topics are located in a central location from which you can access them, namely under the Overview section in your UCP. When you subscribe to a topic however, a method of notification is employed by our site. You will receive email notifications every time someone replies within the subscribed topic or forum.

Subscriptions are therefore a better use if you wish to visit the forums only when specific topics are replied to rather than visiting the forums and going through topics you bookmarked that may or may not have new posts.

Should you wish to subscribe to or bookmark a topic, click on the topic and then look on the upper left hand side of the topic window. Both options are present. You may subscribe to forums (you cannot bookmark forums) by scrolling to the bottom of the page on the left hand side when currently in the forum you wish to subscribe to; click on the link that says 'Subscribe to Forum' in order to subscribe. To unsubscribe or to unbookmark, the same procedures can be followed as well as accessing your Overview section in the UCP and deleting topics and forums off your bookmarked and subscribed to lists.

Attachments

Attachments such as word documents, images, and google documents are allowed on our forums. In order to attach something to a post, click post reply and scroll down below the text box to the Upload Attachment section. Chose a file, provide a comment on the file (if you wish), and then click submit. It will be attached to the post or topic you have composed. Attachments must always meet forum standards and policies and are subject to removal if they should not. You can manage all your attachments found on our forums by accessing your UCP, looking under the Overview category and selecting the "Manage Attachments" link.

If you have any further questions regarding searches, bookmarks, subscriptions, or attachments, you may state them here.