Posting How To's

[Helene]

Posting

We hope one of the first posts you make is to introduce yourself to Ballet Talk in our Welcome Forum! If you're a fan and balletgoer, we'd love to know what companies you see.

To post, you must be logged in. To introduce yourself, create a new thread.

Creating a Thread

1. Select the forum in which you want to post by clicking the link to that forum from the Ballet Talk home page. To post in the Welcome Forum, click here.

2. Towards the upper right hand side of the screen, click the New Topic button.

3. Please fill in the "Topic Title," which is required. You can get ideas from the list of topics on the Welcome Forum page.

4. "Topic Description" is not required. If you fill this in, it will appear underneath your topic link in lighter type.

Creating a Post

1. Type your post or response into the input box.

2. To "preview" what it will look like, click the Preview Post button under the input box.

3. If you want to make any edits, you may make them in the input box.

4. Click Preview Post, and repeat steps 2 and 3 until you are satisfied.

5. When you are ready to post, click the Post New Topic button (when you start a new topic) or Add Reply button under the input box. Only one of these two buttons will appear; the software will display the appropriate button.

Editing a Post

1. If you find a typo after you've posted, or realize you left out a point, you may edit your own posts. Only Moderators and Administrators can edit any else's posts.

2. To edit, open the thread with your post.

3. At the bottom of your own post, click the + Edit button.

4. You can then edit your post in the input box.

5. If you want to leave an audit trail that shows you've edited, click the checkbox next to "Add the 'Edit by' line in this post?" before you submit the post.

6. When you are finished, you may choose the Preview Post or Submit Modified Post button.

Please note:
* if you click the "edit by" checkbox and then preview, it will uncheck the box. You must re-check the box before you "submit" the post.
* If someone else has already quoted your original post, you can't edit it out of his/her post.

Replying to a Post

Please note that in actual formatting, no spaces appear between the "[" and the "quote" or "/". They are shown in the examples because correct formatting cannot be displayed; the system formats instead of displaying correct formatting examples.

1. There are three ways to reply to a post:

a. To start with an empty input box and all of the formatting options, click the Add Reply button at the bottom of the page.
b. To start with an empty input box and no formatting options, click the Fast Reply button at the bottom of the page. This is a good option if you don't need to quote, create a link, or do intricate formatting. If you later decide to format, you can click the More Options button, and you will be in the standard "reply" screen.
c. To quote a post, click the Reply button at the bottom of the post to which you want to reply.

2. If you've quoted, you may:

a. Edit the quote between [ quote=postername, date, time] and . Please do not delete this formatting, including the brackets.
b. Delete the entire quote, beginning with [ quote=postername, date, time] and ending with .
c. You may delete the line [ right][ snapback]number[ /snapback][ /right] above without doing any damage.

3. Please choose Preview Post if you quote, to be sure it looks correct.

4. If your post looks like any of these:

I loved Gedeminas Taranda's Abderakham (Problem=missing end [ /quote]

or

I loved Gedeminas Taranda's Abderakham

(Problem=missing beginning [ quote=etc.]

or

quote=Helene, Jul 8, 2005, 10:25pm]I loved Gedeminas Taranda's Abderakham (Problem=missing "[" before "quote=etc.")

please check to be sure that there is both an "open" quote ([ quote=Helene, Jul 8, 2005, 10:25pm]), a closed quote , and that there are square brackets [ ] at the beginning and end of each.

For nested quotes (quotes within quotes),

1. Be sure there is one set of "open quote"/"closed quote" for each quote.
2. All of the "open quotes" will appear at the top of the reply input box, not at the top of each quote.
3. Each set of "snapback" and "close quote" format tags will appear at the end of each quote.
Example:
[ quote=Helene,Jul 10 2005, 02:41 PM]
[ quote=EvilNinjaX,Jul 10 2005, 02:34 PM] goro's quote
[ right][ snapback]161732[ /snapback][ /right]
[ /quote]
Helene's quote
[ right][ snapback]161734[ /snapback][ /right]
[ /quote]

A "snapback" is a reference to the original post in which the quote appears. It appears in the quote as a little red left arrow on the right hand border of the quote box. When clicked, it navigates to the original/quoted post.