Posting on BZPower:
Starting a New Topic:
In the upper right-hand corner of any forum but the Reference Desk, Bionicle Reference Center, and BZPower News Discussion, you will see a "Start New Topic" button:
Use this to create a new topic in that forum.
Here are the fields that you are able to fill out:
"Topic Title": This is a required field. Simply put, this is what your topic will be titled. Note that consecutive capital letters will be made lowercase, and the first letter of each word in the title will be made uppercase. However, in most cases, a Forum Leader should be able to fix these automatic corrections, so feel free to report the topic and request that the title be changed.
"Topic Tags": You are allowed up to five tags, separated by commas, with which you want to identify the topic. Any member who clicks on one of these tags will trigger a search for topics with a similar tag.
Starting a New Poll:
Starting a new poll in BZPower's Voting Booth is a perk available to BZPower's Premier Members.
While starting a new topic in the Voting Booth, you will notice a "Manage Topic Poll" option off to the right-hand side:
Click this to bring up the following menu:
Poll Manager:
"Poll Title": Simply, what you wish to title your poll.
"Make votes public?": "If checked, member votes will be made public. (This cannot be changed once a vote has been made!)" Checking this will allow members to see a list of who voted for which option.
"Question 1": You may have up to three questions per poll, with ten choices per question. Click "Add Another Question" to add an additional question; click "Add Another Choice" to add another poll option for that question.
"Allow multiple choice?": Select this if you wish to allow members to select more than one response for a question. This may be toggled differently for each question. Questions allowing multiple choice will display square check boxes; questions allowing only one choice will display circles.
Starting a New Post:
While looking through a topic, you will notice a "Reply to this topic" button in the top right-hand corner. If that button is red and says, "This topic is locked," you will be unable to reply. There will also be a field at the bottom of a topic's page that you can use to type out a reply quickly. The "More Reply Options" button below that field will load this new reply page:
Post Options:
"Enable emoticons?": Uncheck this to have any emoticons appear in text form, as opposed to images. ( : ) instead of 
)
"Enable signature?": Uncheck this to prevent your signature from appearing below your post. More on signatures to come.
"Follow this topic?": Check this if you wish to receive a notification when another member posts in the topic. You will also find a "Follow this topic" button in the upper right-hand corner of a topic's page that you may use. More on notifications can be found here.
Attach Files:
This option is available to BZPower's Premier Members. This allows you to attach media files to a post that other members may download.
Formatting Your Post:
The new IPB software uses a rich text editor for posting as a default. You may, however, still type in BBCode tags. To switch from the rich text editor to the BBCode view, click on the "light switch" (
) in the upper left-hand corner. In this mode, you can type in your tags manually, or view and edit the tags you have added by formatting in the rich text editor. You may also type out BBCode in the rich text editor, and then click on the "light switch" twice to see the results.
Below, we will be covering the basics for formatting your posts. We will describe how to use the rich text editor and provide the corresponding BBCode tags.
Bold Text: Highlight/select the text you want to bold, then click on the 
button.
[b]sample text[/b]
Italic Text: Highlight/select the text you want to make italic, then click on the 
button.
[i]sample text[/i]
Font Color: Click 
to select a color you want. Advanced users may use any color hex code with the BBCode tags.
[color=common color name here]sample text[/color]
[color=#hex code here]sample text[/color]
Quotes: Click 
to produce a set of quote tags. Type the text you wish to quote between the tags. To specify whom you are quoting, use the following code:
[quote name='name here']sample text[/quote]
Images: Click 
and paste in the URL of your desired image as prompted. All images posted on BZPower must be less than 500 kB in file size. See the Pictures Topic for more information.
[IMG=image URL here]
Links: Click 
and paste in the URL as prompted.
To name your link, first highlight/select the text you want the link to appear as and then click and follow the above. Or, use the following code:
[URL=URL here]link text here[/URL]
To turn an image into a link, highlight/select the image and then click and follow the above. Or, use the following code:
[URL=URL here][IMG=image URL here][/URL]
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Posts:
The above is an example of a post by yours truly. The numbers in red correspond to important aspects and features that will be covered below.
1. Post Content: This is, quite simply, the content of the member's post. All posted content must follow the BZPower Rules & Guidelines and is subject to moderation by the forum staff should it not.
2. Post Number (Linking to a Post): This is the ordinal number of the post in the topic. Clicking on this will generate the post's URL in your browser, which you may then copy to your clipboard.
3. Display Name: This is the display name of the member who made the post. Hovering over this will pull up at-a-glance information about the member, such as his or her join date, whether or not he or she is online, and his or her time of last activity. (Note: Last Active Private means this member has chosen to sign in anonymously.)
Click on the member's display name to go to his or her profile page.
4. "Premier Member" Identification: A special identifier for BZPower's Premier Members. (Note: BZPower Administrators and Forum Administrators are considered Premier Members by default and will not display this identification.)
5. Avatar: This is the image with which the member has chosen to identify. Your avatar is a cropped selection of the personal photo that appears on your profile page. Please note that while animated .gifs will animate as a personal photo, the corresponding avatar as seen as thumbnails on the boards or in topics will not.
To change your avatar and personal photo, click here. Select "Change your photo..." and follow the prompts. Avatars of any dimensions should upload properly after the November 2nd software update; no longer should you need to insure it is larger than 200x200 pixels. After uploading a photo, you will be asked to crop it. The cropped selection will appear as your avatar; the uncropped image will appear as your personal photo on your profile page.
For more information, please see the Pictures Topic.
6. Member Group: The group that this member belongs to, displayed in its corresponding color. For more information, please see the "Member Groups" section.
7. Member Title or Post Rank: Unless given a special title by the administration, a member's title will correspond to his or her post rank, which changes according to how many posts he or she has made. These ranks are kept a secret! The title "Senior Staff" is given to staff members who have been on the team for three years and longer.
8. Rank Image: This image corresponds to a member's post rank and will be displayed for Premier Members only. The post rank and rank image correspond to how many counted posts a member has made. Forum Administrators get a special rank image of four golden gears; BZPower Administrators get six.
9. Post Count: This number shows how many counted posts the member has made. Posts will not add to your post count in the following forums:
- BZPower Q&A: We want posts here to be motivated by a willigness to help others, and not by post count.
- Voting Booth: Posts here are often one-word responses to the polls, making this forum a target for those seeking post inflation.
- Shops & Kits: This forum has a history of being a target for those seeking post inflation.
- Games & Trivia: Posts here are often one-word responses to the games, making this forum a target for those seeking post inflation.
- Completely Off-Topic: BZPower is a LEGO-related forum. We love COT; we really do - but we don't want every single post to wind up in there.
10. Warning Points: No longer displayed.
11. Yearly Masks: For each year that a member has been a part of BZPower, he or she will receive a different spinning mask to the left of his or her Proto bar. Please do not use these images in your signature or elsewhere unless you have earned them. They are as follows:
1 year: Vahi
2 years: Avohkii
3 years: Great Huna
4 years: Rahaga Norik head
5 years: Olmak
6 years: Faxon
7 years: Ignika
8 years: Ackar head
9 years: Hau
10 years: Hapori Tohu's disembodied-and-gloriously-spinning head
11 years: It's Rocka time
12. Proto Bar: BZPower uses a merit/demerit system known as Proto Energy (PE). The Proto Bar beneath a member's post count is a visual representation of his or her standing in the system. Each member starts out with a half-full bar, or neutral Proto. This corresponds to a level of "0." Each point of Proto lost subtracts one point from the level, down to "-5," or an empty Proto bar, and each point of Proto gained adds one point to the level, up to "+5," or a full Proto bar. Administrators, Global Moderators, and Forum Leaders (within their assigned forums) have the ability to alter a member's PE.
A member may lose Proto for excessive violation of BZPower's Rules and Guidelines, including, but not limited to:
- Frequent flaming
- Frequent spamming
- Illegal advertising
- Disrespecting the staff or any member
A member may gain Proto for the following reasons:
- Helping members in Q&A and elsewhere around the forums
- Consistently sending in valid reports
- Providing an exclusive news tip
- Proposing an idea that is implemented on BZPower (all board suggestions should be made in the Tracker)
- Becoming a Premier Member
Buying -Windrider- a latte
Should a member reach full Proto, and should he or she notify a Forum Assistant, he or she will be placed in the Outstanding BZPower Citizens group.
Aside from purchasing Premier Membership, there is no guaranteed way to earn Proto! It varies from moderator to moderator, but it helps to display your best to them in whichever forums you frequent. Even if your Proto bar remains half-full, this is fine; it means you have done nothing wrong. See the Official Proto Energy Topic should you have any questions, or just for more information.
13. Group Masks: These mesmerizing mask images to the right of certain members' Proto bars are assigned to those in certain groups. Please do not use these images in your signature or elsewhere unless you have earned them. They are as follows:
-- Outstanding BZPower Citizen Copper Mask of Victory
-- Retired Staff Komau
-- Reporter Kakama
-- Forum Mentor Noble Rau
-- Forum/Blog Assistant Noble Huna
-- Forum Leader Akaku
-- Administrator/Global Moderator/Blog Leader Hau
14. Mantine Signature: This is the member's "sign-off" and will appear beneath his or her posts. To change your own signature, click here. Signatures are subject to a set of rules and guidelines that is summarized here:
- The total dimensions of your signature must not exceed 800x300 pixels. There is a reference box included on the signature edit page.
- You are allowed up to 10 images that must collectively fit within the 800x300 dimensions. Allowed file types are JPG, GIF, PNG, and SWF (Flash animations).
- The filesize of all of the images in your signature and your avatar, when combined, must not exceed 100 kilobytes (kB).
- Your signature is subject to BZPower's global Rules and Guidelines as well.
Should a member's signature violate these guidelines, it will be removed and the member will be directed to the topic containing the guidelines.
15. "Report": Use this link to report the post should it be in need of review by the forum staff. More on reporting can be found here.
16. "Blog This": Using this link, a Premier Member can create a blog entry containing the content of the post, including a link to the topic.
17. "Edit": This simply allows the member to edit his or her post, or a Forum Leader (within his or her assigned forums), Global Moderator, or Administrator to edit the post.
18. "Delete": Disregard this. :P
18. Quote Tools: Click "Quote" to generate the code for a timestamped quote of the post in the reply field at the bottom of the topic. Use "MultiQuote" to select more than one post to quote.
Not Shown Here: If you hover your cursor over a member's signature, you should notice an 
appear in the upper right-hand corner. Click on this to be given two options: "Ignore [the member's] Signature" and "Ignore All Signatures." Selecting "Ignore [this member's] Signature" will cause that member's signature not to be shown in topics. Selecting "Ignore All Signatures" will have no signatures be shown in topics. You can also set these ignore preferences up in your Control Panel.
You cannot individually ignore the signatures of Global Moderators, Blog Leaders, Forum Administrators, and BZPower Administrators using the , nor can you do it through the Control Panel.
An online/offline indicator is now displayed to the left of a member's display name. When using the "BZPower" skin:
marks a user who is online.
marks a user who is offline or signed in anonymously.
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