MSWorld - Patients Helping Patients

What is the Public Profile Page?

Every member has a publicly viewable profile page. This page includes information provided by the member, either during the registration process or later on via the User Control Panel.

There are a number of ways to view a member's profile. Whenever you see a member's name, clicking on it will usually take you to view their profile page.

The members list allows you to browse all registered members, and quickly click through to public profiles.

When logged in, you can also view your own public profile by logging into the forums and clicking on your username shown in the header at the top of the page.

You can also go straight to a profile if you know the username of the member by typing in the following into your web browser: http://www.example.com/member.php?username=<username of the member>

What's on the Public Profile Page?

The public profile lists information about the member under the 'About Me' tab. It also includes statistical information, such as the number of posts they have made and their registration date. This information is shown under the 'Statistics' tab.

Other information includes a list of Friends (?), their profile picture (if set by the member), and a list of members who have recently visited the profile page.

A list of the members' albums (?) and social group (?) memberships are also shown.

What are Visitor Messages?

Visitor messages are publicly viewable messages posted on member profile pages. To post a message, click on the 'Visitor messages' tab, and use the form at the top of the section. You will only be able to use certain formatting in these messages, as described underneath the edit box. This message will be viewable by all visitors to this profile, including guest users and search engine robots if the administrator has allowed this. To communicate privately with a member, send a Private Message instead.

Visitor messages can be edited or deleted by site moderators or the member who owns the profile. If you see a visitor message that is not appropriate, you can alert the moderators by clicking on the 'Report' link. The 'View Conversation' link allows you to view all visitor messages between the member and the owner of the profile.

The User Control Panel (also known as the User CP) is where you control your personal settings, options and preferences. To visit the User CP, you must have first registered on the forums. Once logged in, click on 'User CP' in the header bar near the top of the page.

The User CP main page will list any new notifications, including new private messages and pending friend requests. Additional pages and forms allow you to control:

• Your email address and password
• Custom public profile settings
• Private messages
• Subscribed threads and forums
• Contacts and friends
• Social groups

How do I change my user details?

You can change your account information using the User Control Panel. For basic profile details (including your email address and password), click on the 'Edit Your Details' option from within the User CP. This page allows you to set a number of required and optional details, some of which will be displayed on your public profile. With the exception of your email address, do not enter information that you do not wish to be publicly viewable.

What do the other settings do?

In your User CP, there is a section under Settings & Options named 'Edit Options'.

• Login & Privacy: set your
  • 'Invisible Mode' - sets whether or not other members can see if you are online and what page you are viewing
  • 'Show Reputation Level' - shows your reputation level on posts if this option is enabled by the administrator
  • 'Allow vCard Download' - sets whether or not to allow other members to download a vCard containing your email address and username.
• Messaging & Notification - options include:
  • 'Receive Email' - whether or not you want to receive emails from other Members and administrators
  • 'Default Thread Subscription Mode' - how you want to be notified about new posts in threads to which you have subscribed
  • 'Private Messaging' - control how you want Private Messaging to work for your account
  • 'Visitor Messaging' - control how you want Visitor Messaging to work for your account
• Thread Display Options - these include:
  • 'Visible Post Elements' - whether or not you want to be able to see Signatures, Avatars and Images in posts
  • 'Thread Display Mode' - how you want to view threads by default (more info available here)
  • 'Number of Posts to Show Per Page'
  • 'Default Thread Age Cut Off' - the time period for threads to be displayed - threads older than this age will be hidden
• Date & Time Options - these include:
  • 'Time Zone' - your local geographical time zone offset from GMT/UTC
  • 'Start of the Week' - for the Calendar.
• Miscellaneous Options include:
  • 'Message Editor Interface' - This option allows you choose what kind of editor you will use when posting messages. Your choices include a basic text-only editor, a standard editor with clickable formatting controls, or a full WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor that will show your formatting as you type.
  • 'Forum Style' - only available if there is more than one style (or 'skin') available and the administrator has enabled this selection
  • 'Forum Language' - only available if there is more than one Language enabled. This will change the language in which all controls and board messages will be shown. It will not translate members' posts

What are subscriptions?

Subscriptions are a way of keeping track of different threads or forums. You can choose how you are notified about updates - for example by having them listed in your User CP and receiving email updates for each one.

How do I subscribe to a thread or forum?

To subscribe to a forum, click the 'Forum Tools' link above the list of threads then select 'Subscribe to Forum'. You will then have the option to choose the subscription mode for this forum. If the forum that you are subscribing to has any child forums (forums within a forum) then your subscription will be extended to these automatically.

To subscribe to a thread, click the 'Thread Tools' link at the top of the list of posts then click 'Subscribe to Thread'. You can then choose the subscription mode that you wish to use for that thread.

What subscription modes are available?

There are a number of different forum subscription modes available.

• No Email Notification - lists the subscription in your User CP only. You do not receive any notifications about new posts or threads in the forum.
• Daily Email Notification - sends one email a day with the new and updated threads in the forum and any sub-forums. If there are no new or updated threads in the forum or its sub-forums then you will not receive an email.
• Weekly Email Notification - sends one email per week in the same way as the Daily Email Notification.

Thread Subscriptions have the same options as forum subscriptions with the following additional option:

• Instant Email Notification - sends an email as soon as a new post is added to the thread. This is not sent for every reply and will only be sent once until you revisit the forums.

How do I manage Subscriptions and Folders?

Thread subscriptions can be sorted into folders for easy management. You can create as many folders as you wish by going to 'Edit Folders' in the 'Subscribed Threads' section of your User CP. To add a new folder, enter the folder name into one of the blank boxes and save the page. To delete a folder, delete the folder name. Editing a folder is done by simply editing the folder name in the list.

You can also manage your individual subscriptions by clicking 'List Subscriptions' under 'Subscribed Threads' in your User CP. Here you can select which subscriptions you wish to manage and delete them, move them to another folder, or change their subscription type.

Forum subscriptions are not managed through the List Subscriptions page and are shown on the User CP page where they contain the option to unsubscribe from the forum.