Forum Guide



About our forum

Setting your User Preferences

How to format your posts

Forum Images

About our forum...

We are all HT enthusiasts, but feel free to chat about any/all matters of interest in the forum. Calls to get "back to topic" are really unnecessary. We are self-policing.

Also, please be patient for a response to your posts/questions in the forum. We avoid posting on items we aren't knowledgeable about so currently active members may not respond. Rest assured, however, that someone will likely answer within 24 hours. If not, feel free to politely repost.

Unfortunately, due to persistant spam posts, we have had to restrict the ability to post in our forum to registered members. HOWEVER...registering is FREE.

Setting your User Preferences

All user-configurable settings are reached from the User Preferences link which displays in the far left frame
when viewing the HTOC Forums. From this page, you can:

  • Set the way your alias displays(This field accepts all SML tags)
  • Set the number of posts to display(starting with the most-recent first)
  • Specify which timezone to display for date/time a post was made
  • Specify whether to display images
  • Specify which optional buttons and/or fields should display
  • Reset your "date last visited" cookie to start fresh
  • Switch to the Change Member Password page
Note: To simplify design, and avoid browser-compatibility issues, we chose
to retain user settings in COOKIES. If you do not enable cookies,
none of the settings listed above will be retained, and will not work.

Clicking the Change Member Password link brings up a second page, where you can:

  • Change your password
  • Specify whether or not to store your password in a cookie
        (If you don't, you will have to manually enter it to reach protected areas of the HTOC)
  • Have your current password emailed to you..in case you forgot it
  • Reset the email address you use with the HTOC
        (This is used to send you a password reminder if you
        request it, as well as any HTOC-wide broadcast messages that are sent out) 

How to format your posts...

The ability to add color and format your posts in multiple ways is a feature made possible by a unique markup language designed by Scott Lagaly (with input/beta testing from multiple members of the HTOC when being written). This language provides html tag capability while protecting our forum from inaccurate or indescriminate use of HTML tags.

 

GENERAL NOTES

Commands can be nested inside of the text section of the brackets. They can be separated by either a comma or space. You have the option of using quotes or not for the parameter of f, c, s, g, and w. The commands f, c, s, g, and w must have a space before the parameter. Any combination of commands can be used in a single set of brackets, but only the first of any type of command will be used (e.g., c red c green will result in red text) Any commands after the first of the same type is discarded. This also strips the leading and trailing spaces out of the parameter text, both in the commands and the text modified by the commands, as well as the leading and trailing spaces in the modified text. It also strips any commands that have nothing to modify or don't have a parameter if they require one.

If you want to bypass the parser, simply put a \ immediately in front of any [ you type. The parser will then ignore the contents of the brackets (unless you have an open bracket inside them)

 

 

SML TAGS

Bold           Italics           Underline           Font Face           Font Color           Font Size           Quote          
Image           Web Link           Email Address           Unordered Lists           Ordered Lists

 

Examples

 

Bold

This tag makes it possible to change this to this

Syntax

[b; text to bold ]

Usage

Can be combined with other tags within the same brackets. See examples

Italics

This tag makes it possible to change this to this

Syntax

[i; text to italicize ]

Usage

Can be combined with other tags within the same brackets. See examples

Underline

This tag makes it possible to change this to this

Syntax

[u; text to underline ]

Usage

Can be combined with other tags within the same brackets. See examples

Font Face

This tag makes it possible to change this to this

Syntax

[f "face" ; text to change font on]

Usage

You must place a space between the command and the font face, or this tag will not work properly

If the font face contains special characters such as space, comma, or semicolon, include it within quotes.

Can be combined with other tags within the same brackets. See examples

Font Color

This tag makes it possible to change this to this, or this, or even this

Syntax

[c color; text to color]

Usage

You must place a space between the command and the color, or this tag will not work properly.

You can also use hex color values by placing them within quotes. Click here for a good site for choosing these types of colors.

Can be combined with other tags within the same brackets. See examples

Font Size

This tag makes it possible to change this to this, or this, or even this

Syntax

[s size; text to resize]

Usage

You must place a space between the command and the size, or this tag will not work properly

The size values this tag will accept are 0 to 7, +1 to +3 or -1 to -3. Any number out of this range will be ignored.

Can be combined with other tags within the same brackets. See examples

Quote

This tag makes it possible to indent a paragraph(blockquote html tag)

Syntax

[q ; text to indent]

Usage

Image

This tag makes it possible to add a link to an image

Syntax

[g URL; description]

Usage

You must place a space between the command and the URL, or this tag will not work properly

If the URL contains special characters such as space, comma, or semicolon, include it within quotes.

NOTE: This WILL NOT cause the image to be imbedded in the forum.

Web Link

This tag makes it possible to add a link to another web page

Syntax

[w URL; description]

Usage

You must place a space between the command and the URL, or this tag will not work properly

If the URL contains special characters such as space, comma, or semicolon, include it within quotes.

Email Address

This tag makes it possible to insert an email link

Syntax

[e email address;description]

Usage

You must place a space between the command and the e-mail address, or this tag will not work properly

If the e-mail address contains special characters such as space, comma, or semicolon, include it within quotes.

Unordered Lists

This tag makes it possible to make lists like this:

Title

Syntax

[l {subitem 1} {subitem 2};optional title]

Usage

Any other commands you place in the same set of brackets as a list are applied to everything in the list.

The title will actually be displayed BEFORE the list itself. This was done to make nested lists work correctly. Also, you can nest lists. See the examples, below.

Ordered Lists

This tag makes it possible to make lists like this:

Title

  1. subitem 1
  2. subitem 2

Syntax

[o {subitem 1} {subitem 2};optional title]

Usage

Any other commands you place in the same set of brackets as a list are applied to everything in the list.

The title will actually be displayed BEFORE the list itself. This was done to make nested lists work correctly. Also, you can nest lists. See the examples, below.

Examples

SML Code Results
[b i ;[s 3 c red;Bold, Italicized,][s -2 c green; multiple sizes and colors]] Bold, Italicized, multiple sizes and colors
[s +4 c blue; Large Blue Text] Large Blue Text
[b c "#FF7F50"; Bold, Custom color] Bold, Custom color
[u ; underlined text] underlined text
This is a sample of using the quote tag[q ; this text is blockquoted, which is what makes it all indent at the same distance for all text that is specified]

This is a sample of using the quote tag

this text is blockquoted, which is what makes it all indent at the same distance for all text that is specified
[b, l {[l {subitem 1} {subitem 2};item one]}{item two};title]

title

  • item one
    • subitem 1
    • subitem 2
  • item two
[b, o {[o {subitem 1} {subitem 2};item one]}{item two};]
  1. item one
    1. subitem 1
    2. subitem 2
  2. item two
[w http://www.htoc.net; hyperlink to the HTOC HQ ] hyperlink to the HTOC HQ
[e gilligan@island.com; send email to Gilligan via jungle drums ] send email to Gilligan via jungle drums

 

HTOC Forum Images

The HTOC has a pretty extensive set of small images that can be inserted into both the alias name and message text fields. EACH is inserted using a special code sequence, most using a format of ":codestring:".....for instance :rtfm:

A subset of these can be auto-added to the message text box(and auto-previewed) by using the dropdown list and Add/Preview buttons at the top of the forum window.

(Note also that any images added to your alias display will be retained if you store it in your cookies...)

The available images can also be viewed using this link