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Forum Help

The forum is commercially hosted in Network54. It has a great piece of forum software which is ideal for our purposes.
 

Network54 Membership

Although this site does not currently require membership, you are advised to take up the offer of free membership from Network54 and to use that wherever possible here. Here are pages that show you how to create a login and how to login. As a member you get a few extra benefits, like the ability to host and post pictures from within a Network54 Realm space (2MB minimum, free) which you can set up. You also get to be able to revise your postings and to use HTML in them, something which is denied to people who post without being registered.

If we have trouble here, whether caused by Moody Blues fans or from outside, it may be necessary to make posting conditional upon Network54 membership, either permanently or temporarily. 
 

Site Membership

Presently there is no intention to introduce site-level membership. If Network54 members cause trouble then it may be necessary to create a membership list drawn from Network54 members. So, in all cases, it is in your best interests to sign up to the free membership scheme, even if there are currently no plans to make it a condition of posting here. We hope to keep the site free and open, but reality may dictate otherwise.
 

Browser Choices

You can use any browser released after about 1998 to access this site. Browsers as old as Netscape 4 and iExplorer v3 should work here. However, you may find some features are easiest to access using Internet Explorer to at least v5. I know it's generally an inferior browser to Netscape, but Network54 have included a few convenience facilities in the forum which can only be accessed using iExplorer. Netscape and other users are not seriously disadvantaged, though.
 

Posting Pictures and Making Links

The site allows you to post pictures and html links just by using their addresses (starting with http://) without any additional code. The image must be located on the Internet at a site which permits remote loading of images to another site, or the image must be located here within Network54.

Auto-converting links is OK for limited purposes. However, you are recommended, if you can, to learn and use the HTML links for these features. That is because editing a post with auto-converted addresses is a bit of a nightmare, and using the proper codes gives you much more control over how your link or image is displayed. The Site Links page gives you the address of the MiniWeb, a useful tool towards helping novices learn and use HTML codes. Only those who are logged in with a Network54 identity will be able to use the more advanced HTML codes, to protect the forum from anonymous vandals.

If you are logged in to Network54, and if you are using iExplorer as your browser, you can put a picture into a temporary space here in Network54 and then post it to the forum from there. This is called using the ‘Temporary Realm’ space. Any picture you put there must be less than 500kb in size, and may disappear within 24 hours when the Temporary Realm space is cleared out (automatically by Network54), or may stay there for weeks if they forget. It is important to note that you are only permitted a maximum of three such temporary images at any one time, and that you cannot delete the images yourself from the Temporary Realm space.

In all cases it's much better to create a Realm space of your own, and then your images are 'permanent' and wholly within your control. Realms of 2MB are free, and more space can be purchased with Premier Membership (not worth it for space alone). If the Realm is free, any images you put there must be loaded to pages within Network54, such as forum 'pages' or other pages you have created in your Realm space. You cannot use a free Network54 Realm to remote-load images to pages on an Internet service other than Network54.
 

Using Your Personal Profile

You get to this area by editing your Login Name. Your Personal Profile is where you can choose to load an avatar (Personal Photo), change your password and email address, choose to hide or display that email address, and enter and display (at your choice) a range of other things about you when someone clicks on your Network54 name to read your Personal Profile.
 

Page View Counts and Pop-Up Advertisements

The site operates under a Premier Membership scheme. A certain number of Page Views have been purchased. If these become exhausted before the next billing period is due then the site reverts to 'regular' status and pop-up ads appear. These are intensely annoying. Even immediate upgrading of the site can mean they stay around for days and re-occur at every month end. Network54 is not the most advanced business organization in the world so things go wrong sometime (probably more accureate to say 'routinely'). They are dreadfully slow to respond to support requests so, sometimes, we just have to grin and bear it. 

It costs real money to run this site. You are asked not to waste Page Views unnecessarily. A Page View is counted whenever a page from this forum is sent to your browser from Network54. By all means use the site for chat, to read around, and to have fun, but please don't click mindlessly in and out of threads. That activity burns up the Page View quota and can bring pop-up ads to make everybody's life a misery. Anybody doing this with the express purpose of damaging this site can be traced and will be excluded from the site. It's the kind of anti-social activity that might make us change the site to a membership-only status.