Jed's Super-Dooper 'Ask a Mod' Thread (for all your Newbie Questions)

zyzzyva said:

Ok, I have a question, how did you actually start writing?

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One day, when I was about 11 or 12, I realized that the books on my shelf had been written by honest-to-god people and that "writer" was a legitimate answer to the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And then I started putting pen to paper.

Beach Bunny said:

Uh huh, I got the following message:

The administrator has disabled Who's Online.

Are you messing with me or is it that way for everyone?

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Ah. The Who's Online feature was disabled because it made a number of people uncomfortable because it was a bit Big Brother-ish. It showed not only who was online, but what they were dong.

As in, "Birol is reading PMs." Hit refresh and it might say, "Birol is responding to a PM" or "Birol is reading thread XYX in Novels."

As a moderator, I admittedly used it to keep an eye on hotspots. If I knew a thread was on the verge of devolving into a flamewar and that people who liked to throw gas on things were involved, I could keep an eye on who was responding to things and show up quickly. But, alas, in such things Mac takes the desires of the peeps into account and it was disabled.

We lost its functionality a long time ago, so I've mostly gotten used to it being gone.

Teleute said:

So I gather from reading several threads that there's a "training area" that one must post in before access to the P&CE threads is allowed. Well, I can't find it. And I can't post in the thread about the training area. It denies me permission, every time. Sometimes, the board denies me permission to simply read softcore P&CE or the training area thread, and sometimes I can't even see softcore P&CE as a category (which might be happening with the training area, too). I tried clearing cookies, but it didn't work.

I totally appreciate the rules and their purpose, but in my case, somethin' ain't right (unless there's a post count rule that I don't know about).

Please help?

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Softcore is the training area. I don't know if there's a minimum number of posts allowed before posting in any area of P&CE or not.

Birol said:

Softcore is the training area. I don't know if there's a minimum number of posts allowed before posting in any area of P&CE or not.

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Good to know.

Softcore P&CE doesn't show up as a subforum under hardcore P&CE most of the time; and when it does, I can't post in it. I get a message that I don't have permission whenever I try to reply in a thread.

Birol said:

Ah. The Who's Online feature was disabled because it made a number of people uncomfortable because it was a bit Big Brother-ish. It showed not only who was online, but what they were dong.

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True. It caught me scratching myself once.

Teleute said:

Softcore P&CE doesn't show up as a subforum under hardcore P&CE most of the time; and when it does, I can't post in it. I get a message that I don't have permission whenever I try to reply in a thread.

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Softcore should be a forum alongside hardcore, not a subforum of hardcore. They are both under the umbrella of P&CE.

I don't think there is a post requirement, but if there is, it would be no more than 50. You've only got 12 more to go. Why not go welcome a noobie or twelve and see if that fixes it for you? If not, we can turn it over to the tekkies and see if they can fix it.

Haggis said:

Softcore should be a forum alongside hardcore, not a subforum of hardcore. They are both under the umbrella of P&CE.

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Yes, I know. I mean "below," not "a subheading of."

I don't think there is a post requirement, but if there is, it would be no more than 50. You've only got 12 more to go. Why not go welcome a noobie or twelve and see if that fixes it for you? If not, we can turn it over to the tekkies and see if they can fix it.

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Alrighty, thanks, I will try that.

BTW, once you get to 50 posts, you can import your own avatar pic too.

Beach Bunny said:

Uh huh, I got the following message:

The administrator has disabled Who's Online.

Are you messing with me or is it that way for everyone?

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Every member in their CP has a check box in the "Edit Options" section (see the list of section links on the left of your CP) that says "Use Invisible Mode"

If that is checked, only mods can see that you are online. Otherwise the little green light/radio button at the bottom left of an post you've written is green to show you're online at that time.

Your name will also appear at the bottom of the very first page of the Forum, if you don't have Invisible checked. Mods can still see you listed there even if you're invisible.

Just went to welcome some newbies and noticed that Birol had deleted a thread and banned the OP. What causes someone to be banned on the very first post of their very first day? Was it a spambot or a real person?

I know that's really nosy, but I can't help myself and hope you'll answer.

Bluestone said:

What causes someone to be banned on the very first post of their very first day? Was it a spambot or a real person?

I know that's really nosy, but I can't help myself and hope you'll answer.

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Ways to get banned on your first day: Be a sockpuppet, a troll, a previously banned individual, a stalker, or a spammer.

The userid in question had 14 posts, not 1.

Haggis said:

Softcore should be a forum alongside hardcore, not a subforum of hardcore. They are both under the umbrella of P&CE.

I don't think there is a post requirement, but if there is, it would be no more than 50. You've only got 12 more to go. Why not go welcome a noobie or twelve and see if that fixes it for you? If not, we can turn it over to the tekkies and see if they can fix it.

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OK, so I now have 50 posts, and softcore P&CE still doesn't show up. What should I do now?

Teleute said:

OK, so I now have 50 posts, and softcore P&CE still doesn't show up. What should I do now?

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Wait a little while; sometimes it take the sever a while to recognize that someone now has 50 posts. Although, like Haggis, I didn't know there was a 50 post requirement for Softcore P&CE.

Have you logged out and back in since reaching 50 posts?

Birol said:

Have you logged out and back in since reaching 50 posts?

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Yeah, it's all fixed now. Thanks!

Birol said:

Ways to get banned on your first day: Be a sockpuppet, a troll, a previously banned individual, a stalker, or a spammer.

The userid in question had 14 posts, not 1.

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Thanks, Birol. Since the thread was in the Newbie Forum I just assumed it was the start. Sounds like a complete jerk, and a needless waste of everybody's time.

I need help

I have been to the share your work forum, but can't figure out how to post my work help please.

What have you tried? Can you be more specific with the problem? It should be the exact same way you'd start a thread in any forum on AW.

I have a stupid question. What does WIP stand for?

*is sheepish*

Red - WIP stands for Work in Progress.

d&f.

Oh. *smacks forehead*

Yeah. I should have got that. lol.

Another question. How do you get a custom avatar instead of one of the offered ones? I didn't see a place to upload a picture or anything...

Gotcha. Thanks again.

As long as I've been online, one would think I should know the abbreviations by now. One is OP, I can't think of the other at this moment but when I come across it I'll be back.

On AW, OP stands for two things. The first is Original Poster, the person who started the thread. The second is Office Party, the forum where people gather to talk about non-specified subject matter. Context should tell you which is meant.

Birol said:

On AW, OP stands for two things. The first is Original Poster, the person who started the thread. The second is Office Party, the forum where people gather to talk about non-specified subject matter. Context should tell you which is meant.

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Thanks much, Birol, it always seems obvious once I hear it. Okay, I came across a couple more. One is ETA, in my world that means Estimated Time of Arrival but it didn't really fit the context. The other is GL, it could have been the poster's initials, though that didn't seem to fit either.

Is there a thread that explains the abbreviations somehwere on AW? (at least I know what that one means). Thanks again, Birol

brad_b said:

Is there a thread that explains the abbreviations somehwere on AW? (at least I know what that one means). Thanks again, Birol

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Yeah, is there a thread around that explains abbreviations? If not, I think Jed should start one for us peons who are easily confused.

Beach Bunny said:

Yeah, is there a thread around that explains abbreviations?

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There was a lengthy one but we abbreviated it.