How to access your account pages

[Mike]

If you are wanting to change something associated with your account, those pages are all easily accessed from one, central location. And that location exists on every page of the site.

By hovering your mouse over your username, in the right side of the NavBar, you will see a similar, drop-down menu. And there are an incredible amount of options available to you, from this single menu. Let's take a look at everything you can do from this point.

Let's look at the Profile Page -

On the Profile Page, you can see when a member was last active, when they joined the forums, how many messages they have posted, how many Likes they have received, how many Trophy Points they have and how many Warning Points they have. You can see the members they are Following and the members Following them. You can see their age, their location, their most recent Status Update and where they were on the forums, when they were last active. You can then see a list of Visitor Messages posted to the members Profile Page, as well as the most recent Status Updates the member has submitted. There is a lot of information to be found here.

Let's move on to the Personal Details page.

On this page, you can make a Status Update, you can view and change your avatar (just click on the avatar to change it), you can specify your Gender, view your Date of Birth, edit your Location, your Occupation, add a link to your own Web site and even fill in some addition biography information, if you choose. This is where you can choose what you want others to see about you.

On your Signature page, you can edit what is in your Signature file.

On your Contact Details page, you set up the various ways people can use to contact you. Here you can change your e-mail address, determine whether or not you want to receive site mailings, who you want to accept Personal Conversations from, and whether or not you want a notification e-mail when someone sends you a PC. You can then add in various Instant Messenger addresses, as well as the address of your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

On your Privacy page you can set up options on whether or not you want to log in as "invisible" (bear in mind the forum staff members will still see you are logged in", whether or not you want to receive site mailings, whether or not to show your Date of Birth details, what details you want to appear on your Profile Page and who can start Personal Conversations with you.

 

[Mike]

On your Preferences page, you determine what style you want to see when you are logged into your account, what time zone you are located in, whether or not you want to automatically watch threads you've posted to, whether or not to use the Rich Text editor to compose your messages, whether or not you want to see the signatures of other members and whether or not you want other people to see what part of the forum you are currently viewing.

On the Alert Preferences page, you can determine what options you want for forum alerts.

Clicking the Avatar link will open this AJAX dialog, which will allow you to set up your avatar or change it to something new. Or, if you prefer, you can have the forum use the Gravatr you use on other sites. Please note, in order to use a Gravatr image, you will need to set up a Gravatar account.

The Facebook Integration will allow you to set up a connection between your forum account and your Facebook account. Please be aware you will be required to enter your Facebook password, so Facebook will recognize material coming from this site. You will also be required to enter your forum password, so the forum will recognize material coming from Facebook. You can disassociate your Facebook at any time, from either end.

On your Password page, you can change your password. The page will require you to enter your current, existing password, before you will be able to enter a new one. I highly and strongly recommend you change your password on a regular basis, a period not to exceed 6 weeks. Use strong passwords that consist of upper-case letters, lower-case letters and numbers. Visitors to the site obviously see your username on your posts, so if they want to crack your account, they only need to come up with your password. And phrases like "password", "qwerty" and "123456" are the most popular passwords out there, so those will be their first, three guesses. As an example, I use passwords like vKSCBsm9, which can still be cracked, but not without a ton of persistent attempts. Use something strong and change it often.

Your News Feed will bring you to a page where you can see all the recent posts from the members you are following.

 

[Mike]

On the Latest Alerts page, you will see a full list of all your most recent alerts. As you can see, I did not have any unseen alerts, so nothing appears.

Watched Threads is function I do not use, as you can see above. But if you are watching multiple threads, this page will allow you to see which ones have new and unread posts in them.

Your Likes Received page will allow you to see the most recent Likes you have received and the posts that were Liked.

Viewing Your Content will show you list of the most recent posts you have submitted to the site.

People You Follow will show you a complete list of all the members you are currently following. As you can see, I don't follow very many members, something I should catch up on.

And the People You Ignore page will allow you to set up members whose posts you want to ignore. Since I am responsible for everyone's posts, I do not have anyone entered, but if I had chosen to ignore a member, their name would also appear here. Actually, there are some people I've chosen to ignore, so I use a tool you do not have available to you - I ban them.

I hope this tutorial will help you become more familiar with the tools available to you.