|
Welcome to
Steve Saunders Goldwing Forums. This is the help page.
Use the links below to get straight to the help topics you need, or
scroll down to read the whole page. To go back to the Goldwing forum
page you just left, click your browsers "back" button.
If the answer you need isn't here, you
can contact us through the forum e-mail address;
Please don't bookmark the e-mail address as we change it
every few weeks.
If you are a total newbie to forums and don't know how
to reply to or make new posts (messages), please
CLICK HERE
for the tutorial.
Q. Can I upload images with my
messages and if so, is there a limit to the size of the images?
A. Yes you can upload images, currently one per post. You can
use the "attachment" box at the bottom of the message editor and
browse to the image on your hard drive and upload it. Currently the
size limit is 512kbs
(half a megabyte) for each image and the images must be bmp,
gif, jpg, jpeg,
png, txt, pdf
or zip format. Images should not be wider than
700 pixels, this is
to prevent the forum screen going wider than your monitor when large
images are posted. The 512kb limit is to save server space
and bandwidth, which I have to pay for out of my own pocket
because the occasional donation I get never comes close to covering
the costs of the site and forum. If you have a number of pictures
you would like to share, please upload them to
your Gallery album, there is a minimum of 10mbs available to
you.
Q. Can I have an Avatar (small
picture beside my username in my posts) with my posts and if so, is
there a limit to the size of the Avatar?
A. Yes you can attach an avatar by clicking on your "My Account"
button and selecting "Avatar" from the account options bar. You can
choose from the available avatars currently in the forum, or upload
one from your hard drive by browsing to it. The avatar shoud be in
Jpeg, Jpg, Gif or Bmp format and should be no bigger than
50kbs
(51200 bytes) and the dimensions should not be more than
200 pixels
wide by 200 pixels height. This limit is to prevent very wide
avatars hogging the profile pane and leaving less room for
posts. You cannot link to avatars on another site, this is to avoid
leaving that function open to abuse. If you have a
favourite image that you really want to use as an avatar but don't
know how to reduce the size to within the limits allowed, just
e-mail
and arrange to send the image to me (in Jpeg, Jpg, Gif or Bmp
format) and I will resize it and upload it to
your account for you.
Q. Can I link to other URL's in my
posts?
A. Yes you can. There is an "insert link" button on the text
editor for this purpose. When you click the button you will see a
pop-up box to insert the URL into. The "insert link" button looks
like this;
 .
Q. Can I link to images on other web
sites?
A. Yes indeed. This is sometimes a better option than uploading
images as you can have more than one image linked to in each post,
you are effectively leaving the image on the site that you found it
and are just linking to it in your post here. Please note that some
sites will not allow hotlinking to images on their pages. You can
use the "insert image" button on the text editor to link to an image
on another site. When you click the button you will see a pop-up box
to insert the URL of the image into. To get the URL of an image on a
web site, just right click on it (Internet Explorer, I'm not sure
how it's done in other browsers) and then click properties. In the
Address (URL) line just copy the URL before composing your message
here and paste it into the pop-up box that you will see when you
click the "insert image" button. The "insert image" button looks
like this;
 .
Q. Why do I need to be logged in to see uploaded images in posts
and also to see other users profiles?
A. We prefer to make the bandwidth available to registered forum
members, in preference to lurkers.
Q. Is there a limit to the amount of messages per day that I can
post?
A. No limit. There is currently a
10 second duration between each of your
posts. This helps to prevent duplicate posts created by accidentally
clicking the send button twice.
Q. How does the Private Messaging work?
A. When you are logged-in, you can send a PM to another
registered user by clicking on his or her profile and opting to send
a PM. You will have an inbox, sent items, saved
items and deleted items folders
and you can permanently delete old messages to avoid clutter.
Q. I see "Mana" under the profile names. What does this mean?
A. Mana is just a popularity thing. If you think another forum user
has been helpful with your questions, just click his profile and
"add mana" to boost his or her popularity rating. It's just a fun
thing and not particularly accurate either, so don't take it too seriously.
Q. Why do some usernames have titles such as "Active Member",
"Very Active Member" etc?
A. People with over 150 posts will have "Active Member" beside their
usernames, those with over 250 posts get "Very Active Member". "Top
Poster" is given to the single member with the most posts. This
doesn't happen automatically as the Administrator has to manually
edit the members profile. So if your post count reaches the required
number to get an "Active Member" or "Very Active Member" title and
you see no change, just send a PM to the Moderator or Administrator
and it will be done asap. Members with over 1000
posts become "Senior Member".
We also have many other custom titles. For instance, those members who have proved helpful to other users in the
Technical Forum and who know their stuff about Goldwings will have
the "Guru" title, regardless of number of posts. "Senior Guru" is
for the Guru members who have been around a while and who visit the
forum regularly and posted a very high number of helpful messages,
usually over 2000.
"Guru" and "Senior Guru" titles are generally given out at the
request of other forum members who nominate the particular members
to the Administrator or Moderators, who in turn have a look at the
nominated members posts before deciding to apply the new title.
We also have titles for "Forum Welcomer", "Spam Hunter",
"Forum Diplomat", "Forum Ferret" and others. It's
all about doing something different from other forums and having a
bit of fun!
Q. Will my e-mail address be given out to third parties when I
register?
A. No. I have no interest in parting with peoples e-mail
addresses for fractions of pennies or for any other reason and goldwingfacts.com
does not participate in mailing lists or affiliate programs of any
kind.
This web site and forum are strictly non-commercial
and are maintained by me as a hobby (with the help of
donations from people who want to help out with the costs), for the benefit of Goldwing
owners everywhere. I'm not trying to sell you anything and that's
why you won't see flashing banners or fly-in adverts. It has been
this way since 1999 and will continue like this. I'm just not interested in having
this humble web site hijacked in this
manner.
Q. When will I get e-mails from this forum?
A. Only when you opt for e-mail notification of replies to your
posts (you can turn this option on or off in your profile) and of
course your account activation e-mail when you first register. You
should set your anti-Spam filter to recognize the notifications
otherwise you won't know if you have any replies to your posts
unless you log-in. You can opt to be notified of new messages in the
"watched forums" part of your profile. If
you opt for the daily digest, you will get an e-mail every day of
new messages posted. If you opt for e-mail notification of every new
post, you will get an e-mail every time someone posts a new message.
So be careful! You can of course turn the e-mail
notifications on or off whenever you wish and untick all the forums
in MY ACCOUNT>WATCHED FORUMS to receive no notifications.
If the Moderators or Administrators need to contact any forum
members for other reasons (for instance if they breach the forum
guidelines or if for instance there is important information about
the site that you need to know) we will usually send a private message (PM)
instead of an e-mail. You will not receive spam
from this forum as I am not trying to sell or promote anything. Like
I mentioned elsewhere on this site, this is a non-commercial web
site and forum. As of December 2009, we have only ever sent three mass
e-mails to the forum members. One in December 2008 to wish
everyone a Happy Christmas and inform them about free members prize Raffle,
the other one in June 2008 to let them know of major changes to the forums layout,
and one in November 2009 to wish them a Happy Christmas and details of the free members prize Raffle.
Q. I registered but I didn't get
my account activation e-mail.
A. Your account was activated automatically as soon as you
registered, there was no need for an activation e-mail to be sent.
Q. I
registered
but my account disappeared.
A. You must post at least once within 24
hours even if only to introduce yourself, because we delete accounts
if they don't post within that time. This is to deter spambots from
registering and spamming the forum later on. There is a warning
in red letters about this on the registration
page which you should have seen, and we also send out a reminder
either by PM before deleting accounts. If your account did get deleted,
you will have to register again and remember to post within 24 hours this time.
Q. Help! I forgot my username and
password and can't log-in anymore.
A. On the login page, just enter the e-mail address you used
during registration. An e-mail that contains your username and a
special URL that will reset your password to a random one will be
sent to this e-mail address. Then you will be able to login again
and if you wish, change your password to one that you are more
likely to remember.
Q. Help! I can't login with my
username and password and I know they are correct.
A. Press the "Reset the cookie used by
this board" link on the login page and try again. Most
login issues on forums can be fixed by clearing the cookie cache in
your browser. The reset link on this forum makes this an easy
one-click job. A guide to modifying your browser settings (if you
need to) is in the FAQ section as well.
Q. Help! I can login but can't post
messages.
A. Try lowering your Internet Explorer security settings. Also,
please note that usernames with apostrophes in them can't be used on
the forum and will result in an error message when you try to post.
This forum software works best in Internet Explorer 5 and later.
Q. How long can my messages be?
A. 64kbs. That should be more than enough for the trigger-happy
posters!
Q. What is not allowed on this
forum?
A. You are welcome to e-mail me at
or
login to the forum and PM me (wingnut)
if you have questions about the web site or forum, or problems using it.
But please refrain from contacting me with questions about Goldwing maintenance or parts, the forum
is the best place to ask these things. Do not contact me with advertising offers, affiliate offers etc.
as I am not interested and will not reply to such messages
Spam and repeated flagrant advertising of your
own companies products are a no-no. Posting your
experience about products or items you find is great, we all like to
hear about these things and share the information. But repeated
spamming or plugging your products is out. Joining the forum just to
plug your products or web site (and never posting anything else) is
frowned on and will definitely see you banned from
the forum.
If you want me to post a link to your company or site on my links
page, then just let me know and I will oblige. Posting links to
other sites with products that you want to let us know about is
fine, so long as you don't just register here for that purpose only.
You can have a link to your web site (provided it's not a
commercial site) in your signature as well, but
no images or links to images in the signature
please, this just clutters up the forum pages.
We do however make some exceptions, so make sure you ask for Admin
permission first before putting an image in your signature.
No using this forum to promote your own or another web site
or forum. Registering and posting here in order to promote other
forums or web sites is regarded as spam and is not allowed here.
Please find somewhere else to advertise.
No political, guns, religious or racial threads allowed. These topics are banned here simply because they
almost always result in arguments between posters and the thread going down in flames.
No flaming or abusive posts please, or foul language in your
posts either. No inflammatory, political, guns, racial or other content
that might offend your fellow forum members.
Trolls and flamers are not tolerated here and will be banned. Have a bit of respect
for the views of other forum users, even if you don't share the same views.
When registering, don't choose a
username with a rude, offensive or pornographic meaning. This
is a SafeSurf rated site and we will just ban users with
inappropriate usernames.
You agree, through your use of the BB service and Steve
Saunders Goldwing Page forums, that you will not use the resource to
post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory,
inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane,
sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or
otherwise in violation of any law. You agree not to post any
copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or you
have the permission of the copyright owner to reproduce the item(s). The administrators reserve the right to edit, delete or lock posts and/or threads/topics which we interpret as being in breach of the forum guidelines.
If you do not agree with these basic conditions of use, then please
join another forum.
It pays to actually read your posts before clicking the
"send" button. No-one likes abusive posters, the best bet is to
either ignore or report them to the Moderators or Administrators with a Private
Message. The Administrator and Moderator contact links are at the
top of each forum. If you have a bone to pick with a particular
member, please use the Private Messaging (PM) facility to do it with
them in a civil manner instead of posting it publicly on the forum. Abusive
posts/threads will just be deleted as they serve no useful purpose
to the rest of the members.
The Technical Forum in particular should be used for posting
technical questions and answers. There is a very high percentage of
quality information to be found there and we have no room for posts
that are counter-productive to maintaining a good technical forum
for all Goldwing riders and owners to enjoy.
There is a foul language filter on the forum and it
replaces any offending characters with asterisks where needed.
No links to porn sites, ever.
People who abuse the friendly and good natured style of this
forum run the risk of being banned from posting messages here in the
future. They may get a Private Message (PM) warning them about any
objectionable posts, any further abuse of the Message Board will see
their membership revoked without further warning or notice and with no additional
correspondence from me on the matter.
Your use of the forums on Steve Saunders Goldwing Page indicates
that you have read, understood and fully agree with any and all
conditions in these Forum FAQ's.
These conditions may occasionally be updated if I think it is necessary.
First thing to try if your login fails is to click the "reset the cookie
used by this board" link on the login page. If after using this link, the problem persists, you
might need to check your web browser settings as explained below;
Internet Explorer 6 and later Users:
- Go to Tools > Internet Options, click Delete Cookies
and then OK.
- Go to Tools > Internet Options > Privacy, and make sure
that the privacy setting is set to Medium. If not, set it
to medium, and click OK.
- Go to Tools > Internet Options > General, click the
Settings button, and make sure that "check for newer
versions of stored pages" is set to automatically. If
not, set it to "automatically", and click OK.
FireFox Users:
Go to Tools > Options > Privacy. Click on Cookies to
open its options, and make sure that Allow sites to set cookies
is checked. If this setting is already checked, click the Clear
button next to Cookies to clear cookies.
If changing your browser settings did not help, check whether you
are using a third-party Internet firewall/security/antivirus
software. Some of these may block cookies, and cause login problems.
If you still have problems, pop an e-mail off to us at
and we will try and help. The
support boffins at WOWBB (who created the forum software) are
always willing to help us out if we can't solve problems here.
E-mail notifications help.
How to get around the spam and junk mail filters.
Many members of this world wide family use email accounts
provided by some Internet Service Providers such as Hotmail, Gmail
and Yahoo. The notification email, that is
the one that tells you someone has posted a reply to a topic you
have contributed to, or that you have received a PM is sometimes
being treated as spam, or junk mail so you may or may not be getting
your notifications here is a short guide for some of the more
popular email accounts on how to insure this does not happen.
Hotmail
Login to your email account as you
would do normally.
In the Light blue bar at the top, just
below the dark blue bar on the right hand side there is a link
�Options� click on this.
On the options page under �Junk Mail�
click on �Safe and blocked senders.
On the next page click on Safe Senders
In the box below Sender or domain to mark as safe: type
goldwingfacts.com and click the �Add
to List� button.
That�s it done.
Gmail
Login to your email account as you
would do normally.
Check you �spam� folder, if there are
any mails from the goldwingfacts forum click on it and then click
the �not spam� button.
You�re done.
Yahoo
In Yahoo mail it appears you have to
state that spam mail is �spam� so you
should be ok, if anyone knows different please let me know and I
will amend this.
|
