[Tigerblade]

Originally Posted by Tea Granny

Drop the "no colors/no bold/no fancy"text "rule" in the introductions section, and just tell the newcomer that color/bold/fancy text is only used in moderation in the rest of the forum areas.

Sorry, but that wouldn't be such a great idea. The reason we have that rule is that people don't tend to listen to suggestions like that. It's hard to read huge, uppercase, purple Comic Sans text, even if you have good eyesight. We try to correct any posts that have such horrible formatting, but it's better if everyone knows that's not how posts are to be made.

Instead of telling a newcomer not to post "that particular question" here, tell them exactly where to post that question. Simpy say; "Try posting that question here.... xxx." (some say that, some don't)

i always try to find an appropriate section for people to repost a question in... i'm not aware of any staffers who reply and don't do this.

Tutorials! Yes! Videos-no! Just use an image to illustrate the point. Show someone exactly what it would look like.

Tutorials are an excellent idea, for several different subjects... hopefully we can get some in the works soon. It's being discussed among the staff right now as to what should be written up.

I have read the faqs five times now and I still don't know how to use the tags properly! I would like to see a tutorial using images on...

-use of each of the tags... post/thread/other website addresses/etc.
-use of all the "buttons" on each post... rep/quote/quick reply/etc.
-everything related to posting/using the forum here at BBB

Yes a lot of work, but most of it is already done, maybe you just need to add images to text you already have in the faqs.

Use of the tags - available at the bottom the page when you submit a comment, via the text that says "vB code is On"
Reputation system.
Posting/using the forum... we're thinking about working on this one.

Perhaps you should simply merge all the "off topic" topics into one "off topic" category, and everything that isn't IM or Computer related can be posted there - one simple place.

Meh, except there's a good deal of posts in each of those subforums, so it's simpler to break them up. It's much easier to find what you're looking for instead of sifting through the hundreds of posts in the main category.

For that matter, why are all the topics broken up in to so many smaller areas? Why not just have one "MSN" area and all questions get asked there? I still have a tough time figuring out which "sub forum" some questions should be asked in, or which sub forum I need to search for the answers.

I actually agree with this one. For example, in the AIM forum (for which I'm advisor), I don't see the purpose of the subsections "Buddy Icons & Smileys" or Away Messages"... maybe that's just me.