Forum Registration & How To Make The Most Of This Forum

Welcome again to this Forum. I have written the following information about Forum Registration, plus a few tips on Forum usage, to help all members to make the most of this Forum.

REAL NAMES:

I want to start by saying that I encourage members to use their real names as their displayed user name. Having observed how members respond to other members in the Forum, I have come to the conclusion that Forum members who post an avatar of themselves, and/or display their real names, get far better communication and feedback from other members. I think it is just human nature to want to feel you know who you are talking with when you take the time to post a message and/or offer some free information in response to someone's questions. By using your real name you will also be able to benefit from the networking aspects from member searches.

I realize that in a lot of internet Forums people prefer to remain anonymous, but those are generally forum environments where there is not so much meaningful communication going on. The Rob Galbraith photography forum, which used to be a free forum and is now a paid forum, only allows members to join using their full real names. And the newer "Open Photography Forums" only allows "Real Name" membership registrations and postings as well.

It is up to you though and I am not making this a Forum requirement or rule, but I can tell you that I myself tend to take more time to respond in a more detailed way to people when I can at least address them by their real names.

If you are presently registered with a nickname, and want to change your registration to show your real name without starting a new account, you can also do so. Simply click on the "Profile" button on the navigation bar, then click on the link for "Account Related Settings". In there you can change your "Name", which is the name that is the displayed name that people see when you post messages in the Forum. This will not affect your log-in name or password by the way, only your Forum displayed user name.

AVATARS:

Avatars are little photos which appear under your Forum user name when posting messages on the Forum. I guess I would like to encourage more people to post avatars to give the Forum a bit more of a personal feeling when posting messages.

The instructions are as follows on how to post an Avatar and, if you would like assistance with cropping and resizing a picture to use as an Avatar on the Forum, please feel free to send the picture to me at "ptf @ photography thailand.com" and I can assist you to resize it and upload it for you as your Avatar. To post your Avatar yourself simply click on the button for "Profile". Then click on the setting for "Forum Profile Information" under "Modify Profile". Within there you will see options for uploading your Avatar. The maximum sized Avatar allowed is a size of 65x65 DPI. Therefore, crop your photo to a square shaped image on a 1:1 aspect ratio and make it no larger than 65x65 DPI before uploading. Again, if you have trouble please feel free to email me at "ptf @ photography thailand.com" for help with this.

NEW MEMBER REGISTRATIONS:

When signing up for a Forum membership you will receive a verification email from the system automatically which requires you to click on a link to quickly validate your new Forum membership. It is best to click on the link immediately and verify your new membership account to make sure your registration is activated. For new members who do not validate their new membership within 3 days, their membership will automatically be deleted from the system. My intention basically is to build a community and encourage active participation. So this is the reason for putting emphasis on this seemingly small issue. Of course, deleted memberships can be signed-up for again for free with just a few key strokes, but its more work than simply taking a moment to verify your membership right away.

LIMITED GUEST USER ACCESS:

Unregistered guests are welcome to access most areas of the Forum, but access will be disabled on some of the more content-rich areas of the Forum message boards. These areas include the Photoshop Corner, the Articles Section, and the "How-To" Tips Section.

The reason for this is I would like to encourage people to sign up for a free membership and participate in the messaging areas instead of just taking a quick browse through the Forum message boards. Basically, I am trying to develop a photography community for everyone’s enjoyment and I feel the only way this Forum will continue to grow is if people participate on a regular basis.

MEMBER GROUPS:

When you post a message as a new member you probably noticed it says "Newbie Kahuna" under your user name on the left hand side of the message window. In case you are wondering what Kahuna means, it is an ancient Hawaiian word meaning priest, sorcerer, magician, wizard, minister, or an expert in any profession.

This is a system Title that is given out by the system and it is based upon the total number of posts a member has. So all new members with less than 10 message posts will be given the title "Newbie Kahuna" underneath their name when posting. Once you reach 10 or more posts your member Title will automatically change to "Baby Kahuna" on all past, present, and future posts. Once you reach 25 or more posts, your Title will automatically change to "Junior Kahuna", and so on. The list below shows all of the various member group Titles the system will give out to members at various levels. All member group Titles are message count based:

0-3 Posts: Newbie
4-24 Posts: Baby Kahuna
25-99 Posts: Junior Kahuna
100-149 Posts: Senior Kahuna
150-249 Posts: Big Kahuna
250-499 Posts: Big Kahuna 250+
500-999 Posts: Big Kahuna 500+
1,000+ Posts: Big Kahuna 1,000+

FORUM SUPPORTER MEMBER GROUPS:

There are also 2 new special Forum member group Titles given to Forum members who have made a small donation to help support this Forum. To read more about obtaining a Forum Supporter Title, and getting some additional Forum benefits, please click on the link below:

http://www.photographythailand.com/donations.html

NOTIFICATIONS:

I have also added a feature which allows the Forum to send all new message posts within the notification emails that you receive when the Forum notifies you that a reply that has been made to a topic that you are subscribed to. This allows members to read new message posts made to an existing thread via email without having to actually having to log onto the Forum web site to read the new post. In order to make sure this new feature is enabled on your member account, please click on the "Profile" button, then go to "Notifications and Email", and make sure the box is checked next to where it says "When sending notification of a reply to a topic, send the post in the email".

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Thank you again for joining this Forum and if you have any thoughts, comments, questions or suggestions on this change please feel free to add them to this post and I will answer them here.