EDITING YOUR PROFILEThis section will help you go in and edit your profile, change your avatar and signature, set up your notifications, and add and social media information that you want to share (ie: twitter, facebook, etc.)
When we change over to the new site, all of your current profile settings will be moved over as they are the day of the change-over, so you won’t have to do anything to set up your profile unless you want to make changes or take advantage of the new features.
However, I would HIGHLY recommend that when we do switch over, you all go in and check your profile and settings to ensure that everything is as it should be / as you want it to be, just in case!!
Should anything not transfer over the way you want or you’d like help setting up some of the new features, feel free to contact me or Teel to help you get your profile in order the way you’d like it to be.
Or, follow these steps to make whatever changes you’d like to make on your own. We’re here to help you if you need us!!
To start, you’ll have to go to the “profile” tab on the main header bar at the top of the page. That will bring you to your main profile page where you can view the main details of your profile:
From here, just click on the “edit profile” button on the right-hand side of the screen and it will take you to the edit profile main page, which will start you off with selecting your avatar:
Creating / Editing Your Avatar or Profile PhotoYou now have different options for selecting your avatar and some fun new options you can try out if you’d like. It’s easier than ever to get the avatar you want!!
First, you’ll notice a display on the left of the screen that will show you exactly what your avatar will look like on the site, so you can decide if this is the one you really want or not.
Beside that, you’ll see four options for what type of avatar you would like to display. You can choose to use your created avatar (ie: a cartoony version of yourself that you can create), an uploaded or linked photo, a combination of an uploaded or linked background photo with your created avatar on top, select from a number of pre-loaded Castle avatars, or the default Proboards avatar (now Castle-related).
The following steps will walk you through each of these features and how to either create an avatar, upload/link a photo, or combine the two to create an avatar with a background image.
Creating An Avatar Using The Avatar MakerSo this will cover the first option on the list: “Use Only Your Proboards Avatar”.
To start, click on the “Edit Avatar” button below the cartoon face in the box on the far right of the screen. This will open up the Avatar Maker pop-up box:
Here, you can create your own cartoon version of yourself (or a character from the show!) to use as your avatar on your profile.
On the bottom left of the pop-up box, you can filter your options for male, female, or all to help you narrow down your options for creating your custom avatar.
Along the top of the pop-up box, you’ll see a row of different options including head shape, hair, eyes, mouth, nose, eyebrows, ears, facial features, clothing, hats, accessories, items, and backgrounds. Clicking on any of these will give you a number of different options in the main box to the left of your avatar that you can choose from to create and customize your face to however you want it to look.
Some of the options have a lock over them as they are not free options, but there are plenty of free and available options for you.
Underneath many of the options along that top row are colour boxes. If you click on here, you can customize the colour for those options, thus changing your avatar’s skin colour, hair colour, eye colour, etc.
Build your customized avatar face as you see fit and then click on the “Save Avatar” button underneath your created face when you’re ready to save it to your profile.
Once it’s been saved, close the pop-up box and you’ll see your custom avatar now in the “Proboards Avatar” box on the right of the main screen.
If you want to use this avatar, select the “Use only your Proboards Avatar” option from the list of four options and you will now see your Avatar displayed on the far left, meaning it is ready!! Here’s an example of that:
Make sure you click on the “Save Avatar Changes” button on the bottom (below the list of options) and you’re all set with your new avatar.
Uploading or Linking A Profile PictureInstead of creating a customized avatar, you can also choose to do what many of us have already done on the old site… set up a photo as your avatar. But now, it’s much easier than ever before!!
A wonderful new feature of this site is that you no longer have to link your photo through an online URL. Nope, you can just upload a photo directly from your computer! You can still use the URL method if you’d like as well, whatever your preference is.
The following steps will help walk you through how to upload or link your profile picture from either your computer or from a website.
From the main avatar setup page, click on “Upload/Link” link in the “Uploaded/Linked” box in the middle of the screen and this will open up a new pop-up box:
From here, you have the option to either upload a photo from your computer (1MB max) or enter a URL to link from a website photo.
To upload a photo from your computer, just click on “Select Image” and locate the photo that you want from your computer directory when it pops up.
ORTo link a photo from a website, just copy and paste the URL into the “Link An Image From The Internet” box and click on “Link Image” below that.
Once your photo is uploaded or linked, it will show up on the left-hand side of your avatar setup screen and the pop-up box will close. It will automatically select the “Use only the Uploaded/Linked” option for you. Just make sure the photo appears as you want it to on the left-hand side and you’re all set!
Here’s what it will look like when you’ve uploaded or linked a new photo:
Click on the “Save Avatar Changes” box on the main screen and you’re done.
Combining a Custom Avatar and a Photo BackgroundOkay, so this is a great option if you want to use the custom avatar face that you’ve created with a background photo of your own. To do this, you’ll have to create an avatar (if you haven’t already) and upload a photo as well.
Just follow the above steps to create your avatar and upload your photo. Be sure, though, that when you create your avatar, you select the blank background or the photo you want it to show up overtop will not be seen!! If you’ve already created your avatar, just go back into the Avatar Maker, click on the background option (far right on the top bar) and select “none” from the options in the main box. Save your avatar and you’re good to go!!
Here’s what that background screen in the avatar maker looks like. You want to select the first option, which is “none”:
Once you’ve created your avatar with a blank background and uploaded or linked the background photo you want, just make sure you select “Combine them” from the list of four options for how to display your avatar and now you should have something like this:
As always, click on “Save Avatar Changes” and you’re good to go!!
That’s everything you’ll need to know for how to change your avatar or profile picture. With the new upload feature, it’s going to be faster and easier than ever for you folks to change your photos and choose anything that you’ve got saved on your computer. So have fun with it!!
Please note that there is a new option called "Use a Forum Avatar" with a link saying "Pick One". This will allow you to select from a number of pre-loaded Castle-related avatars that we have uploaded to the site that you can use!
Click on the link where it says "Pick One" and a box will come up with a whole bunch of new Castle-related avatars that we've loaded into the forum for you to select from.
Simply click on the one you want and then click on "Save Avatar Changes" and your avatar will be changed!Next up, we’ll move on to the “Personal” tab on your profile editing screen…
Changing Your Personal InformationClick on the “personal” tab from any other screen in your profile editing area.
The screen will look like this:
Again, all of your personal information that you had entered at the old site will be transferred over, but here you can update information, change information, or add information. You can also change your signature here and you can now preview your signature before you actually change your profile, just in case it doesn’t look the way you wanted it to look!!
Just remember that this is information that anyone on the site can see, so only list here what you want people to see.
Starting from the top of the screen, you can change your Display Name, select your gender, add/change/remove your location, add/change/remove a personal or professional website (both the name of the site and the URL), add/change/remove your status message, add/change/remove a signature or banner (HTML coding required for images, folks, just as it was on the old site… sorry…), and add/change/remove any personal notes you want to share (ie: quotes, something about yourself, whatever you want to put out there!!).
If you need help with linking your signature through a URL, you can always ask either myself or your tech support people (Teel and TVAnne) for assistance!!
If you do take care of this yourself and you want to view what your signature or banner will look like, just click on the “Preview” link underneath the signature box and a pop-up will come up with a nice view of it.
Once you’re done making any changes to this screen, click on “Save Personal Settings” and you’re set!
Editing or Adding Your Social Networking InformationClick on the “Social” tab in the editing profile menu and this screen will come up:
Here, you can link your Facebook, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube accounts to let other people know who you are or how to contact you on these various social media sites (if you want to!).
Members will be the only ones with access to see this on your profile but it’s up to you how much you want or don’t want to share with people here. Don’t forget that you can always PM people your facebook info or twitter handles if you trust them and don’t want it to be public knowledge to everyone else. Only share publicly what you’re comfortable sharing, as privacy and the protection of our members is always our highest concern here!!
Simply type in your username/handle in the box beside the appropriate site and click on “test link” on the far right of that box to make sure it takes you to your proper profile page on that site.
You can also choose to share your Instant Messaging handles for various IM sites like AIM, ICQ, YIM, MSN, or Skype. Again, just type in your username/handle in the box next to the appropriate site.
Once you’re done making any changes to this part of your profile, click on the “Save Social Settings” button and you’re set!
Change Your Preferences / General SettingsClick on the “Settings” tab on the edit profile menu and the screen will look like this:
Here, you can change the basic settings and preferences for your profile and account. Whatever settings already existed on the old site will remain in tact. I would still recommend that you visit this page on your profile to ensure that all of your settings and preferences are what you want them to be!
The first option is to select whether or not you want to display the “Participated” button on the far right of the top of your screen (beside the navigation bar, which we’ll explain in a later thread).
I recommend keeping that button active as it’s quite handy. The participated button will allow you to see every thread that you have posted in recently. This way, you can easily and quickly follow any threads that you want to keep up on that you’ve posted in. At any time, from any screen, just click on the “Participated” button and a pop-up box will come up showing you a list of the threads you’ve participated in recently and when the most recent post was created in that thread and by whom:
Also with your settings page, you can toggle whether or not you want to be able to see other people’s signatures. For those of you worried about page loading times, this is a great option for you to turn the signatures off. I’m sure most of us enjoy seeing everyone’s fantastic banners but it does slow the page-loading process down for some people, so if that’s a concern for you, you have an easy way of changing it.
Again, this was a feature of our old site as well so whatever you selected there should transfer over. But please make sure you check it out to ensure that your preference is still correct!
Moving on, you can also select which background theme you’d like to use to view the site. As we had before, we will continue to have a selection of themes to select from which will change the background and some of the colour schemes of the site. You can select whichever you prefer or change it up whenever you feel like it.
You can toggle whether you want to save drafts of your posts as you work. If you post long posts and are prone to having crashes or problems with your computer, you can enable drafts to be saved periodically.
You can toggle your default posting option which will determine which type of posting options open up for you when you click to create a post or thread. For most of us, Visual is what should be selected.
You can also toggle your default for whether or not you want certain plain text to appear as a smiley or not. So if someone types a ; symbol and then a ) symbol, if you’ve enabled plain text smileys with this option, you’ll see it as a
symbol.
You can toggle which group you want displayed on your profile, if you belong to a specific group. Again, we have no plans of setting up groups outside of the admin group (which is a default and necessity on proboards) so this shouldn’t apply to too many people.
Lastly, you can select how you would prefer to see time stamps displayed on posts and PMs by using the drop-down menus to select the date format and time format you would prefer to see.
When you’re done making changes, click on “Save Account Settings” and you’re good!
Editing Your Privacy SettingsAgain, whatever your settings were before should be transferred over to the new site but PLEASE go and make sure that you check these settings, just in case. Your privacy and protection are our highest priority here and we want to ensure that your personal and private information stays that way here!
Click on the “Privacy” tab on the edit profile menu and your screen will look like this:
Here, you can adjust your privacy settings with many old options plus a couple of new ones that you may find handy.
You can choose whether or not to display your gender.
You can choose to make yourself invisible to other users (except for staff). Your posts will still be seen but you will not be shown as being online except to staff members.
You can toggle if/how you’d like your birthday and/or age displayed. Your options are to hide it all, show just your actual birthday (month and day), or show your birthdate (month, day, year, age).
You can also click on the box here that says “Change Birthday” to change whatever birthday you entered into your profile when you first joined. In other words, if for whatever reason you provided false information when you signed up and now you want to real information displayed, you can go here to change it now yourself.
You can allow either all users or just members to be able to view your profile. If you select members only, your profile will be limited to just registered members here. If you select everyone, your profile will also be visible to guests. Again, only the information that you’ve already selected to be made viewable will be viewable under this option, with the exception of your social networking information which is always only viewable to registered members.
In the same vein, you can also choose who will be able to view your recent activity from your profile page, with the options of everyone, registered members, friends and staff, or just staff. As mentioned earlier, “friends” are people who you select to follow and who follow you back.
You can also now add members to your block list. Basically, if you’re having issues with a specific member, you can type their username in and select them from the box that will pop up. You will then be given four options for blocking, of which you can select any and all that you want to apply. These options are to hide their posts from your view, do not let them start new conversations with you (ie: blocks any PMs they try to send you), do not let them follow you or follow your activities (ie: will block them from being able to follow you or see your recent activities on your profile), and block notifications from them so if they do reply to a post of yours, you won’t know about it.
And before anyone actually asks this question (believe me, I know at least a couple of y’all who are interested to know this…), no you can not block the administrative team. You can only block members with the same level of access to their boards, so moderators and administrators (and co-founders like me) are not blockable. You’re stuck with us.
If you ever have anyone blocked and you want to, for whatever reason, remove the block on them, just click on the little “x” beside their name and photo and they will be unblocked.
Please be respectful with this new feature and don’t go block-crazy just because it’s an option for you. If it starts to cause any problems on the boards or amongst members, we on the admin team reserve the right to remove this feature. At the end of the day, you should never have to block an individual or limit their interactions with you. If you have an issue with someone that has gotten to that extent, we expect you to bring that to our attention and let us handle the situation ourselves, as they may be causing the same issues with someone else as well and that needs to be addressed when it’s an ongoing thing.
When you’re done making your changes to your privacy settings, click on “Save Privacy Settings” and you’re set.
Adding/Changing/Removing Your Notification SettingsOkay, so this is a great new feature of the site that I know a lot of you have asked about in the past. Well, folks, now it’s available and it works wonderfully! You can now set up a whole host of notifications, either on the site or through your email or both. So if you want to know when someone replies to your post or “likes” a post (another fun new feature that we’ll discuss later!) or when someone follows you, among other things, now you can.
Click on the “Notifications” tab on the edit profile menu and the screen will look like this:
You will see a list of different notification options and two columns of checkbox boxes to the left of the list. One will be for forum notifications (will display a small number next to the “profile” tab on the main header when you have a notification to let you know that you have a notification and how many unread ones you have) and one will be for email notifications.
Your list will likely be slightly different from the list I have in the above screenshot, as there are some administrative notification options that won’t be on your list, but the point is still the same… simply click on a box if you want that type of notification sent to your email or the forum. You can click on both boxes if you want notifications sent to both or you can leave the boxes both empty if you don’t want notifications of that type at all.
You can also opt in or out of receiving any mass emails sent out by the administrative team. As far as we go here at The 12th, we rarely (if ever) send out mass emails. Mass PMs you will receive no matter what your email opt in or out setting is here. The only time we’ll ever send a mass email is if we’re trying to reach both our active members and any inactive members as well in the case of any major change being done to the site like wiping our inactive accounts or something of that nature. So you don’t have to worry about getting emails from us often, or ever, but you can still opt out of them with this option here anyway.
Once you’ve selected / changed your notification settings, click on “Save Notification Settings” and you’re good!!
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So that’s it for your editing profile options! You may see one last tab on your menu for “Badges” but they are available at the badge store which is not a free service and we’re not about promoting anything that costs you money, so we’re not going to cover that here. Lol.
I hope this guide has been helpful or will be helpful to you folks!! As mentioned, if you need help at any time with your settings or you try to use this guide and it doesn’t work out for you, just contact any of your admins at any time and we’ll be happy to help you out!!
