ZCrew Online Help :: Understanding Profile Preferences

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Understanding Profile Preferences

When you first register for the forum, you complete a form that defines your member profile. (If you are unsure of what a profile is, see What Are Profiles?)

After you activate your account and log in, you can change your profile information at any time by clicking Profile at the top of any page and entering or selecting alternate information in a form that is nearly identical to the registration form. (How?)

You can also click Preferences at the top of any page to change some of the same options, as well as some additional preferences that are not listed in the registration or profile form. The purpose of this feature is to give you quick, user-friendly access to some of the more common member preferences, instead of changing them in the longer profile edit form. It also enables you to adjust a few additional forum features that are not actually a part of your profile, such as the way in which topics are sorted within forums.

The list below explains every preference. Each preference appears in the order that it is listed in the profile edit form. Those pertaining to forum options that appear only in the Preferences part of the forum appear at the bottom of the list.

Notes:

•	The only profile preferences that are required are the ones in the Registration Information section (username, e-mail address, and password). All remaining text boxes and options are optional.
•	Preferences can only be changed by forum users who have registered (How?), activated their account (How?) and logged into the forum (How?).

Registration Information

Username	This is the name that identifies you in the forum. It appears next to your message posts, in the membership list, on your profile page, in the Author and Last post columns (whenever your messages are the last ones posted in a topic), and so forth. Note: To avoid confusion, members cannot change their usernames after registering.
E-mail address	This is the e-mail address to which all forum e-mail messages are sent. If you choose to display an e-mail icon in your profile, messages from other members are sent to this address, as well (for more information, see Always show my e-mail address below). Note: Only administrators of the forum can view your e-mail address; your privacy is protected at all times, even if people send you e-mail messages from the forum. !!! Warning: If the e-mail address in your profile becomes invalid, enter your new one in your forum profile right away. If we send you a message and it "bounces" back or is otherwise revealed to be invalid, your account will be deleted and you will no longer be able to log in.
Current password	If you are changing your e-mail address or your password, enter the password you used the last time you logged in to the forum in this text box. If you are not making either one of those changes, leave it blank.
New password	If you are changing your password, enter the new one (the one you will use the next time you log in to the forum) in this text box.
Confirm password	If you entered a new password in the New password text box, enter it again in this text box.

Profile Information

Note: All forum members can see this part of your user profile. For more information, see Viewing a Member's Profile.

ICQ Number AIM Address MSN Messenger Yahoo Messenger	If you have a registered account with any of these services and you want members of the forum to be able to contact you that way, enter your account contact name or number in each of the corresponding text boxes. An icon for each account that you include appears inside your message posts and in your profile, which people can click to contact you. Note: The forum staff does not provide any support for these programs.
Website	If you have a personal web site and you want members to be able to visit the site by clicking a Site icon (shown below) inside your message posts or a link in your profile, enter it in this text box. Note: The forum should not be used simply to promote unrelated businesses. For more information see the forum policies page.
Location	If you want the area where you live to be displayed underneath your username in all message posts and in your profile, enter it in the Location text box. Examples: Cary, Illinois; northern Virginia; New Jersey; San Francisco.
Occupation, Interests	If you want to display your occupation or interests in your profile, enter the information in the corresponding text boxes.
Signature	If you want a particular block of text to appear at the end of all your posts, enter it in this text box and select Yes in the Always attach my signature option (see explanation for that option in the Preferences section below). Note: There is a 255 character limit in signature blocks, including spaces. Examples: Your name, nickname, a quote that you like.

Preferences

Always show my e-mail address	In our forum, this preference does not actually show or hide your e-mail address, which is always hidden to everyone except the forum administrators. It displays or hides an e-mail icon (shown below) in your message posts, in the Memberlist, and in your member profile that other members can click to send you an e-mail message. Click Yes to display the icon; click No if you do not want it to appear. Note: When members click this icon, an e-mail form appears, which they use to send a message directly to your e-mail account. However, the members cannot see your address unless you reply to them directly from your own e-mail software. If you reply by sending them a Private Message from the forum, they will not know your e-mail address.
Hide your online status	A Who is Online box appears at the bottom of many pages throughout the forum. This box shows the number of registered forum members, their usernames, and the number of guests currently browsing the forum. If you click Yes for this preference, other members will not see your username in the Who is Online box after you log in. Instead, you will be referred to as "Hidden." If you click No, other members will see your username after you log in. If you visit the forum page but don't log in, the box will indicate that you are a Guest, regardless of whether you choose Yes or No for this preference. An example of this is shown below. Note: If you choose to hide your online status, you will see your username in this box; but it will appear in italics, and no other member will see it. The information in this box is updated every 15 minutes; therefore, it is not always completely accurate at any given moment.
Always notify me of replies	If you want the forum to send you an e-mail notification when a message is posted in a topic that you have started or replied to in the forum, click Yes for this preference. If you do not want this e-mail notification, click No. Note: You receive only one e-mail message notification between visits to that topic, regardless of how many new messages are posted. Tip: This preference can be changed whenever you post a message, whether you are starting a new topic or replying to an existing discussion. For more information, see Creating & Posting Messages, Subscribing to Topic Message Notifications, and Unsubscribing from Topic Message Notifications for more information.
Notify on new Private Message	If you want the forum to send you an e-mail notification whenever someone has sent you a Private Message, click Yes next to this preference. If you only want to check for Private Messages manually and/or via the pop notification window (see Pop up window description below), click No.
Pop up window on new Private Message	If you want the forum to display a pop up message, informing you that you have a new Private Message while you are logged into the forum, click Yes next to this preference. If you do not want the pop up messages to appear, click No. Notes: Pop up alternatives: If you click No, you can check your private messages manually (How?). You can also click Yes next to the Notify on New Private Message preference and monitor your e-mail Inbox. JavaScript: JavaScript should be allowed in your browser so that Private Message notices and other forum features can work properly. Pop up blockers: If you click Yes and you have a pop up blocker on your computer system, you might need to turn it off while you are logged into the forum or add ZCrew.net to sites you pre-approve for pop ups. Otherwise, it might block your pop up Private Message notifications. Please note that our administrators cannot offer support for the use of pop-up blockers. If you are having problems, feel free to ask for assistance by posting questions in the Help forum (How?); another user might know how to assist you.
Always attach my signature	If you defined a signature in the Profile Information section and you want it to be attached to the end of all your posts, click Yes next to this preference. If you do not want your signature to appear, click No. Tip: Provided that you enter text in the Signature text box, you can turn signatures on or off via a check box in the message creation form, allowing you to override this preference each time you post a message.
Always allow BBCode	If you click Yes next to this preference, then each time you post a message, BBCode will be turned on automatically, and you will be able to use it to format messages. You won't have to turn it on manually in the posting form that is used to create messages. If you click No, BBCode will be turned off automatically whenever you open the form (however, you can turn it on manually inside the form at any time). For more information, see Formatting Messages-Overview and BBCode Help. Note: If you do turn BBCode off, the messages of other forum members who use BBCode to format words and phrases are likely appear odd. You might see the actual codes in their messages, rather than the formatting that those codes display. For example, instead of seeing bold text, you might see [b] and [/b] codes around the words that they are intending to display as bold.
Always allow HTML	This preference enables members to format their messages in HTML. HTML formatting has not been enabled on this forum. If it is ever added, we will allow only some limited codes. For this reason, we recommend that you select No for this preference and use the friendlier BBCode to format your messages.
Always enable Smilies	If you click Yes next to this option, then each time you post a message, the ability to insert Smilies (emoticons) into your message will be turned on automatically. You won't have to turn it on manually in the posting form that is used to create messages. If you click No, Smilies will be turned off automatically whenever you open the form (however, you can turn it on manually inside the form at any time). For more information, see Formatting Messages-Overview and Inserting Smilies (Emoticons).
Board Language	English is the default language for the forum. If other languages are installed in the future, you will be able to select them from this drop-down list.
Board Style	The board style is the basic appearance of the forum pages. If more than one board style is available for the forum, you will be able to select any one of them from this drop-down list.
Timezone	Select your time zone from this drop-down list. Each time you post a message, the time and date that coincide to your selection appear at the top of your message. Tip: Central Standard Time is UTC - 6 Hours. Use this as a gauge when selecting your time zone. Or click here to get help from a very handy web site (simply click your state on the map). Note: The forum system does make automatic adjustments for changes to Daylight Savings Time, if this option is enabled in you Profile.
Date format	The current date is listed on some forum pages, and this preference determines the format in which it appears. Unless you are a very experienced computer user, leave this setting as it is. If you want to change the format, you can consult the PHP date page by clicking on the corresponding link in this section of the profile edit form. Or, you can use the user-friendly drop-down list on the Preferences>Internationalization page (see description below).
Submit	This button saves and activates any changes you made to the information in the profile edit form. Your changes become effective immediately.
Reset	This button resets all the information in the profile edit form to the way that it was when you last submitted it. It enables you to "erase and start over" if you made changes in the profile edit form that you would rather not keep.

Additional Options in the Preferences Area of the Forum

Note: If you change any of the options below and it does not take effect, it means that the forum administrators have set a fixed option for that preference for all forum members; you cannot override it. Also, all options labeled "Default" are set by the forum administrators and are subject to change at any time. The best way to determine what they do is to select them and view the results.

Smart date	Click Internationalization in the Preferences section to locate this option. If you select Yes, then "Today" or "Yesterday" appears throughout the forum, instead of the actual month, day, and year for the current day or day before. If you click No, then the actual month, day, and year appear for those two days, instead.
Date format	Click Internationalization in the Preferences section to locate this option. You can open the user-friendly drop-down list to select the date format that you would prefer to see throughout the forum. If you are a very experienced computer user, you can enter the date format codes in the corresponding text box, instead. For assistance, you can consult the PHP date page by clicking on the corresponding link underneath the Date format label.
Keep messages unread	Click Reading topics in the Preferences section to locate this option. If you select Yes, all the topics containing messages that you have not yet read continue to be marked as unread when you log out and then log in again. Also, these topics continue to appear in your View posts since last visit list. If you click No, all topics containing unread messages are marked as already read when you log out. When you log back in, only those topics that received new posts after you logged out appear as unread messages and are displayed in your View posts since last visit list. Tip: Topics that contain unread messages are preceded by the New Posts icon; a yellow open folder. Topics that are marked as read are preceded by a blue closed folder icon. Both are shown below. The New Posts icon and View posts since last visit list serve as visual cues for topics that you might want to revisit. In addition to this, small icons appear in front of sub-categories and sub-forums, letting you know whether or not they contain unread messages. They are as follows: Sub-category containing unread messages Sub-category containing no new messages Sub-forum containing unread messages Sub-forum containing no new messages A legend appears on each page, explaining the icons that you see.
Sort topics by	Click Reading topics in the Preferences section to locate this option. This enables you to set your own "default" topic sorting option for all specific forum and topic pages. Use the left drop-down list to select the way in which you want to sort the topics. Use the right drop-down list to select either Ascending or Descending order. Sort options include the following: • Last Post - the date of the last message posted in the topic. • First Post - the date of the first message posted in the topic. • Topic Title - the first letter of the topic title (name). • Replies - the number of reply messages in the topic. • Views - the number of times the topic has been viewed. • Author - the member that created the topic. • Default - Any of the above, depending on the what the administrators have set. Note: No matter what preference you choose, you can re-sort topics in another way on specific forum or topic pages.
Display Board Announcements box	Click Board layout in the Preferences section to locate this option. The Board Announcements box is the list of primary announcements that appears at the top of pages throughout the forum. Select Yes to display this box or No to hide it. Note: The administrators might override this option, preventing members from hiding the box, when important announcements need to be shared with members.
Pack sub-categories	Click Board layout in the Preferences section to locate this option. If you select No, each forum title (name) is listed separately in on the forum index page, and any existing sub-forum names are listed directly underneath it. If you select Yes, the forum names are grouped together as sub-forums under global forum categories, instead; this is a more "compact" way of viewing the forum subjects. Note: If you select Yes for this preference, you will not see any of the actual sub-forums that have been assigned to some of the forums on the index page. You will have to visit the various forums to see which ones have corresponding sub-forums and view the sub-forum names.
Split sub-categories	Click Board layout in the Preferences section to locate this option. This option changes the visual layout of forums that contain sub-categories or sub-forums. The display that appears when you select Yes is only slightly different than the display that appears when you select No. Therefore, we recommend that you try both different settings to see which one you prefer.