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Message |
    
dean mccully (Dean)
New member
Username: Dean
Post Number: 187
Registered: 01-2003
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2003 - 04:09 pm: | 
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Welcome to EyeYak, the U.S. West Coast's Sea Kayking Mecca.
This website is not associated with any club, organization, or whatever, except for EyeYak.com.
The "BBS" (Bulletin Board System) is new to most people. But, BBS's are run all over the country as a great way to communicate about all sorts of fun stuff. In this BBS's case, Sea Kayaking.
BBS's are a bit tricky to get used to. But, believe me, you'll like what we come up with. Briefly, it's best to simply play with the BBS. Post stuff. Then try to add features (like bold, italics, etc.) Go to the "Testin" forum and bang on things ("Testing" posts don't go to anybody: the entire category is solely for playing around).
Try "Upload Attachment". You're already a whiz at uploading .doc and .pdf files. Try uploading a .jpg and/or a .gif file. Discus embeds the picture in the post. Preview your message and try to move the picture around.
For example, to upload THIS gif, I clicked:
Upload Attachment, then entered the file name (which happed to be D:\wsk\CLIPART\surfer.gif ) , then I followed the on-screen instructions to upload the file.
When I was editing the post, this command popped appeared at the bottom of my editing box:
\popgif{761,}
The command means little to human readers, but the Unix system uses the command to identify the "gif" file that I want to upload as the 761st "gif" file that I uploaded to the system. I highlighted the command in the "Post Editor" box, then cut it using the "Delete" button on my PC, then pasted it where I wanted it to go using the "Insert" button on my PC.
Play around with different fonts, colors, text sizes, etc. Manipulating the embedded commands to get the text to look exactly right isn't intuitive, but you get used to it quickly.
For example, to make something BOLD, simply surround the text with
\b{This Will Be Bold} in the "Post" message box and the text will show up as This Will Be Bold.
To make Your text bold surround the text with \b{Your text bold}
To make Your text Italics surround the text with \i{Your text Italics}
To make Your text underlined surround the text with \u{Your text underlined}
To make Your text BIG surround the text with \2{Your text BIG}
To make Your text tink surround the text with \-2{Your text BIG}
To make Your text RED surround the text with \red{Your text RED}
And you can mix commands to make text colored, large, bold, italics, underline, or any other combination.
Lots of Stuff
by entering this:
\red{\2{\b{\i{\u{Lots of Stuff}}}}}
Play! Trust me: you can't break anything!
Dean
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Webmaster (Admin)
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 13
Registered: 01-2003
Rating: 
Votes: 16 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 - 01:09 am: |
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Howdy!
Welcome to the
EyeYak
FAQ page.
- Where's the EyeYak Home Page Website?
- How to Register?
- Forgot your Password?
- Edit your profile.
- Brand new to Bulletin Board Systems (BBS)?
- Where's the Main Forum?
- Where's the Calendar?
- Where's the Events Forum?
- Where's the Member's List?
- Where's the EyeYak Fun Poll?
(you can only vote once per poll).
Q: Where in the heck AM I? 
A: Well, you're not in Kansas anymore, Toto! You've found your way to the EyeYak (EyeYak) Forum. It's an e-PARTY! This "Bulletin Board Service" or BBS was designed for eyeYak, a big group of kayakers mostly in the greater San Francisco Bay area. The club consists of fruits, nuts, whackos, slackers, surfer-dudes and dudettes, and even one or two misfits who actually bathe daily and hold down real jobs!  BBSs like this one are all over the Internet and are being used by literally 10s of millions of people. We hope that this BBS becomes popular enough to attract new members, and more efficiently notify existing members of upcoming events.
Q: Do I need a Login ID?
A: Yup! But anybody can get one by going to the Register screen and filling out some information. If you ever forget your password, you can ask the BBS to automatically send you a new Password. The password will automatically be sent to the email address that you use to register. Oh, by the way, the Site Administrator keeps a close eye on things and has been known to change, modify, or delete posts that he doesn't approve of for any reason. He's sortof a jerk, that way. So don't piss him off or he reserves the right to suspend or delete or lock out anybody's account for any reason.
Q: Aren't you concerned about hackers, spammers, and other security threats? 
A: Alas, security concerns affect everybody on the Internet. But safeguards are built into the site software to make it next to impossible to "hack" into this site and retrieve information. This site requires membership privileges to view member lists. Even so, email addresses are ALWAYS hidden and passwords are so secure that even the Webmaster doesn't have access to passwords.
Q: Why the change from the Listserv and old website? 
A: E-mail based Listserv's are great for limited usage notification of events. But they tend to fall apart or overwhelm users when massive numbers of messages are posted. Many users become frustrated when they receive hundreds of emails each day. Some users are so frustrated that they simply stop reading emails from the list or resign from the club in disgust. We certainly don't want that to happen! BBS systems limit the number of emails that users get. The BBS is smart enough to hold messages and only notify members once when a new topic is started. Members are only notified ONCE and further email messages on the same "thread" or "topic" are held until the user is ready to look at them. Further, BBS systems such as these are useful for automatically archiving lots of useful info that would otherwise be lost. AND, BBS's allows users to upload pictures, plan trips, blah blah blah without the need for a Webmaster to get involved. Even us Webmasters can't be everywhere at once, you know!
Q: You mean I won't be able to use the EyeYak listserv anymore?
A: Well, actually, the listserve will remain up for at least a while. BUT, eventually this forum will become the primary means of EyeYak communication. Never fear, the BBS automatically notifies you via email when new topics are posted to the EyeYak Forum. And the cool part: it only notifies you ONCE per thread. So if 50 people slam skegs, you'll only get one email notifying you to go and check the forum for a bunch of slams on skegs!
Q: Why this design? 
A: A bunch of Atlanta Kayakers came up with a very similar design and have hundreds of registered users. Ok, ok, I ripped 'em off and copied their code! But imitation is the sincerest form of plagarism, right? Besides, they're ok with it! I HOPE! RIGHT, guys????
Q: How is the Forum organized? 
A: The terminology can get a bit confusing. Basically, the heirarchy goes like this:
BBS >> Category >> Topic >> Subtopic
-->BBS = "Bulletin Board System" (in our case "EyeYak")
-->Category is on the main "Forum" page. Categories can only be created by Administrators.
-->Topic (aka "Thread") is underneath Category and can only be seen when you click on "Category". Topics can be created by clicking "Start New Thread".
-->"Subtopics" (aka "Posts") can be created by users.
Q: That makes UTTERLY no sense whatsoever! 
A: Don't worry about it. It took me a month to figure out the difference between a category and a topic and a post. Basically, just pick a category, and post something....
Q: I have a cool digitized picture. How do I upload it?
A: Simple. Just start a new thread, then click "Upload Attachment". Follow the instructions to select the correct file on your computer. Preview your message and try to move the picture around. When editing the post, a very mysterious command will pop up at the bottom of my editing box:
\popgif{761,}
The command means nothing to human readers, but the Unix system uses the command to identify the "gif" file that I want to upload as the 761st "gif" file that I uploaded to the system. I highlighted the command in the "Post Editor" box, then cut it using the "Delete" button on my PC, then pasted it where I wanted it to go using the "Insert" button on my PC.
Q: What are all these goofy looking jumping-around thingies on my screen?
A: They're called "emoticons" or "smileys". You can add them to any topic by clicking on the little smiling yellow thing in the "editing box". You can also change the Characteristics or even the Color of text or Size or even the FONT!
Q: How Do I manipulate text format?
A: By surrounding the text with commands.
For example, to make Your text bold surround the text with \b{Your text bold}
To make Your text Italics surround the text with \i{Your text Italics}
To make Your text underlined surround the text with \u{Your text underlined}
To make Your text BIG surround the text with \2{Your text BIG}
To make Your text tink surround the text with \-2{Your text BIG}
To make Your text RED surround the text with \red{Your text RED}
And you can mix commands to make text colored, large, bold, italics, underline, or any other combination.
Lots of Stuff
by entering this:
\red{\2{\b{\i{\u{Lots of Stuff}}}}}
Play! Trust me: you can't break anything!
Q: Do I REALLY REALLY REALLY need "Cookies" turned on?
A: Yes, you REALLY REALLY do! A "cookie" is a small amount of information that a web site copies to your hard disk. Discus uses cookies to verify that you are YOU.
For Netscape 4.x:
Edit, Preferences, Advanced, Accept all cookies
For Netscape 7.x:
Edit, Preferences, Privacy & Security, Cookies, Enable all cookies.
For Internet Explorer:
Tools, Internet Options, Security, Custom Level, Cookies = enable all.
Q: I heard there's a calendar! How do I get to it? 
A: You can add any event that you'd like to the EyeYak calendar Calendar
PLEASE, if you update the calendar ALSO update the description of events Events Forum
Q: How do I post a picture? 
A: You can post a picture to any subject and thread. Start a new thread in any subject Main Forum or reply to an existing thread. Enter the file name (sorry, .jpg or .gif only at this time) and click "upload file". The picture should show up in your post. EVENTUALLY, the Webmaster might get around to copying pictures into the EyeYak Photo Album. But they'll always be on the forums.
Q: How do I report abusive posts?
A: ABUSE will NEVER EVER EVER be tolerated. Let us know by clicking here: Webmaster or by sending an email to "webmaster@dmccully.com". All users are subject to having their accounts locked at the sole discression of the site administrator. 
Q: How do I add a "smiley" (aka "emoticon") to a post?
A: Easy. Click on the  , then select your icon. The icon will be coded into the END of your message. To move it, cut and paste the entire code. By the way, the code for is \clipart{happy}
Q: How do I edit a post?
A: You can ONLY edit a post that YOU made. You can't change anything that anybody else posted. Click the  icon. If it's your message, you should be able to edit it.
Q: What if I need to edit something that somebody else wrote?
A: Let us know by clicking here: Webmaster or by sending an email to webmaster@dmccully.com. I'll take care of them.
Q: How do I delete a post?
A: You can only delete a post that YOU submitted. If you own a post, click 
Q: How do I send a post to a printer?
A: Easy. Select the post, then click on 
Q: How do I "Start a new thread?"
Simple, pimple.
First, look thru the existing posts and see if you can put your post in something already existing. For example, if you have a follow-up to a post about a trip to Monterey, post your follow-up under the original trip report.
BUT, to create a new thread or a new trip report, do the following:
-Enter the desired info. Add "Emoticons" or whatever you'd like.
-Funky format codes are a bit tricky but you'll figure it out....
-You'll have a chance to preview your post BEFORE you post it.
-Make sure that all is good. Edit if you wish before posting.
-When you're satisfied, click "Post this message" and you're done...
-That's it, that's all. Your new thread should be up and running...
Q: Why do I get only 1 email per topic, even though there could be dozens of posts to a topic?
A: The Forum software is configured to send 1 email notification when a new thread is started, or when a user hasn't yet seen a "thread". There could be thousands of responses to any thread, but users only get 1 email notification to check the Forum. Sending 1 email prevents everybody's in-box from getting cluttered by mindless chatter/clutter (I don't mind email clutter because I know how to use filters. But chat/clutter seems to bug some people????)
So, when you get an email notification that a new series of topics are waiting for you to read, you gotta click on the "Jump to this Page" link to get the rest of the pictures and to see the thread. When you click the "Jump to this Page", the Forum is smart enough to remember that you have viewed a topic. Any further posts to that topic will trigger a new email notice to a user.
Q: Why don't pictures show up in my email notifications?
A: The Forum email server holds all humungous pictures, and only sends tiny pictures. For a 200 or less person Forum, big pictures probably wouldn't present too much of a problem. But imagine what would happen to a 10,000+++ person Forum if somebody posted a humungous 1megabyte+++ picture. The email server would have to send 10,000 copies of the humungous picture. And that would bring the server to its KNEES!
ALSO, your email reader might be configured to reject large files. Check your reader's preferences (email the EyeYak Webmaster for help.)
Q: How do update the calender, so when you click on the calender event, it will take you to the description in the forum.
A: We're working on an automatic method of adding events to calendars. Stay tuned. Banging on the UNIX code to automate calendar-to-forum links isn't as easy as it sounds. Basically:
1) Post the event in an appropriate forum. Add as much or as little detail as you'd like.
2) Cut the URL of the forum entry describing the event (click the "http://www.dmccully.com/bloahblahblah" thingie at the top of your web browser and "cut" it by pressing the "delete key).
3) Go to the calendar (either thru the EyeYak demo home page or thru the main forum links or simply by going to "http://www.dmccully.com/webcal/webcal.cgi". You can even click here.
4) Add a new event to the calendar. Enter the date or date range. In the "URL" box (where it says "http://") paste the URL of your forum entry. NOTE: You can EITHER enter the URL into the URL box OR you can type a simple description. The calendar will take one or the other but not both.
5) Refresh the calendar to verify that all links are correct. If they aren't, you'll have to delete your event and try to add it again!
Q: How do you change your username online?
A: Sorry, you can't. Once you register, you are tracked by your user name. If you contact the Webmaster I might be able to manually edit your account name, depending on how many posts you've made.
Q: How do you change your password online?
A: Easy. Click Edit Your Profile.
Q: How do you change ANYTHING in your profile?
A: Easy. Click Edit Your Profile.
Q: How do you upload a picture of yourself into your profile?
A: You can only upload gif and jpg (jpg are preferred because they're easier for the server to automatically resize as nessary). Make sure that your digitized picture is stored on your computer. Then click Edit Your Profile.
Q: What if I don't have a digital picture to upload?
A: If you've ever attended a group event, chances are that Dean McCully has taken a digital picture of you. Ask him to help. If you want to post a paper picture, ask Dean and he can probably scan it and upload it for you.
Q: What does "URL" mean?
URL means Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is basically the "Internet Address" of web pages and such.
For example, this is the EyeYak site URL
http://www.eyeyak.com/
You could cut and paste that URL into your browser's URL window to go to that page.
Or you can play a trick and use special codes inside a message to activate "hypertext links" or click-able text that will allow users to go directly to sites instead of having to cut and paste URLs. This is a hypertext link to the EyeYak URL EyeYak website.
To turn a URL into a hyperlink inside a BBS message, you simply surround the URL and a description with \link{http://www.whatever.com , Description}
To make a link to the EyeYak site, you'd type this:
\link{http://www.eyeyak.com/,EyeYak website}
Which would show up like this:
EyeYak website
If "Enable HTML code in message" is checked, then special codes like smilies, character attributes (bold, italics, underline) etc will show up.
If "Automatically activate URLs in message" is checked, then URLs can be made to look like hyperlinks.
Q: What about URLs with commas (like Mapquest map links?)
A: URLS to map links are tricky because they often contain commas. Cutting-and-pasting lines with commas goofs up the standard BBS interpreter. Basically, instead of adding URLs with single commas, every comma needs TWO commas instead of one.
In links that include URLs with commas, you must replace the "," with "\," Duh! Why didn't I think of that.
Of course a REAL programmer would parse to the left of the close } and treat the first comma to the left as a delimiter. But, NO, these turkeys parse from the left of the { and find the first comma. Duh! Of course, "my" method of parsing from the left of the close bracket would screw up if URLs contained }. Too bad, so sad!
For example, this goofs up because Yahoo returns a comma in the URL:
+NC+28403&slt=34.222400&sln=-77.828450&zip=28403&country=u s&BFKey=&BFCat=&BFClient=&cs=9&name=&desc=&poititle=&poi=&uz=28403&ds=n&mag=8&ml t=34.218616&mln=-77.833026&off=e , this one doesn't work
But this works perfectly because I replaced the "," with a "\,".
this one works
Q: Your explanations make no sense whatsoever!
What planet are you from, again? 
And where can I go for some REAL help!?!?
A: Heh, a writer I ain't, ok? But the excellent Discus help screens can be found here:
Discus Help Pages
Q: What if my kayak has a rudder?
A: Don't tell Jim Westcott!
Q: What if I find a bug or have a problem or a question? 
A: Contact the Webmaster
 See yah on the water!
Don't forget to keep the hull side down!
Dean
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