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VisionFromFeeling Forum Management

Important:
When you register, your signature line is disabled by default! If you post a message before you enable and make the signature line, that post will not have a signature line in it. If you later activate a signature line and post again, that new post will have your signature line but it will NOT BE ADDED to your earlier posts! Before posting you should make, and activate, your signature line. You can always edit the signature line later and it WILL be updated in those of your posts in which it already appears.

Welcome to the VisionFromFeeling Forum (VFF Forum)! This page introduces you to the Forum and gives you an overview of its many features. Note that none of the content on this page involves Forum Rules and that you are not required to read or know anything written here before using the Forum. It is however highly recommended that you read this page first before you register and begin, so that you can make yourself familiar with the way the VFF Forum works, so that you are not confused by Forum features and so that you can take advantage of all the useful and fun features added into the Forum! This page describes the various features available with the Forum and which features are enabled to whom, and lists ways for Forum users to have an active role in the Forum Management together with the Administrator of the Forum.

USER TYPES

Guests
The VFF Forum has a slight hierarchy system with four levels of users. The first type of user are Guests. Guests are unregistered users, or users who do have a registered membership but while they are not logged in they have Guest status. Guests can read in the Forum but can not post in the Forum. Several other features are also inaccessible to Guests, such as seeing several of the facts about Members in Member Profiles, seeing the Member's picture Gallery, voting on posts, and much else. Guests can not see the Community Section of the Forum, which has Members participation on Forum Management, contests, and the Wall of Shame with posts moved to it that were in violation of Forum Rules. In short, as a Guest you are missing out on a lot of the Forum. I do this to create a sense of community in the Forum, and also to enhance posters' responsibility against who says what. More of what features Guests do and do not have access to will be listed on this page. Even Guests are welcome to offer feedback, comments and suggestions to the Admin about Forum Management. Guests can not report posts in the Forum but are welcome to e-mail the Admin if you find Forum content that you feel violates any rules.

Registered Members

Members are registered users and have their own username, member profile and can post in the Forum. To register to be a Member of this Forum simply go to Register and choose a username for yourself. As a Member you will have access to more of the features of the Forum and can now see the Community Section of the Forum, post messages, open new discussion topics, create a unique Member profile about yourself where you can write anything you like and put a picture of yourself if you want to. Members have access to private messaging, can add photos into our community photo gallery and can view the gallery. This is as much your Forum as mine, and Members can submit feedback, suggestions and complaints to the Forum Admin and take an active part in deciding over Forum settings. The VFF Forum works a little differently than most Fora elsewhere do, and I have added some extra features that will hopefully make it more fun. Forum Features are described below.

Moderators (Mods)

Moderators are Members who were asked by the Administrator, or who nominated themselves, for Moderator status. The Admin can choose one or several Members to become Moderators. Moderators have access to several of the editing features of the Forum, and it is the Moderator's task to assist the Administrator in watching over the activity in the Forum to ensure that its Members are following the Forum Rules. Moderators may move posts and edit out content of posts that are in violation of Forum Rules and can issue warnings to Members. Posts that are edited will be clearly marked as edited and notify what Moderator or Admin did the editing and why. A comprehensive list of Moderator and Admin moderating actions taken will be listed in a designated topic page in the Forum Management section. There are currently no Moderators, but as the Forum becomes busier and Members have shown that they possess admirable characteristics to be made a Moderator, Moderator status may be assigned. No Member will be forced to be a Moderator, and Moderators are not obligated to perform any certain set of designated tasks but will donate their time and attention by their own choosing. A Moderator that demonstrates themselves to be unsuitable for the task can be demoted and lose Moderator status, and can also ask to be relieved of the duty. The Admin has the choice of a variety of settings to decide what kind of power the Moderators will have over the Forum. A Moderator has their Moderator status in conjunction with their Member status. The VFF Forum tolerates opinions on either side of the Skeptic-Woo debate and may attract both Skeptics, Woos, and people whose skepticism is aligned somewhere in between or undecided. A Moderator must be able to deal impartially and impersonally in their tasks as a Moderator. Admin can disable Mods from being able to Moderate a certain Forum, and each Forum can be assigned with one or several designated Moderators.

One of the key roles of the Moderators is also to act as a second opinion since the Admin is also Member VisionFromFeeling and for the Admin to avoid bias in executive decisions of the Forum and in settling Member disputes in particular when those involve herself whether in the presence of Admin or as VisionFromFeeling. Part of the role of Moderators is to add democracy into the ruling of the VFF Forum; the Admin wishes not to make all Forum community decisions on her own. Decisions affecting posts and Forum members are best made as a group and not by one person alone. Members will also be invited to take part in Forum Management in the Forum. For the time being I have disabled users to see who the Forum Moderators are, but we have none yet. Moderators will be announced and will also be given the title visible.

Administrator (Admin)

The VFF Forum has one Administrator, also called Admin, whose username in the Forum is Admin. I am also the author of the website www.visionfromfeeling.com. As the Admin of the VFF Forum, I have access to all the settings of the Forum, ranging from choices of color, what questions Members are asked as they fill out their Member Profile, and much more. But apart from designing the Forum, I also have access to editing, moving or deleting posts, profiles, and all other Forum content. I will here carefully list what power I have as the Admin, and in each case what settings I have set and what actions I may take that affect the Members' experience of the Forum. There will be a Forum page that discusses the management of the Forum.

Content posted by a Member are considered to be the personal property and private space of that Member. This applies to posts, private messages, the Avatar, signature line, and any other content produced by the Member in the Forum. The Admin can only delete sections of, or full content of, any content made by a Member, to delete parts of the content that are in violation of Forum Rules. Where content was deleted, the Admin must clearly mark that so was done. The Admin may not add any content or edit any content that would alter the content that was posted by a Member, unless this is done to enforce Forum Rules and is clearly marked as being added or edited content produced by the Admin. A Forum Member may ask the Admin to edit or delete some of their content on their behalf.

The VFF Forum is intended to being, and to be experienced as, a shared space belonging equally to all of its users, and not solely owned or ruled by the Admin alone. As the Admin I want to consider myself the Forum caretaker and housekeeper and not a one-sided ruler and it is my task to maintain the Forum as a productive, respectful community for discussions. The VFF Forum is a Democracy. Members can submit their opinions on Forum Management. I will never give my Admin rights to another user, but I will dispense more governance of the Forum to Moderators. If I am unfit as an impartial and effectice Admin, the management of my Forum will be subsided to hopefully better qualified Moderators. Although I hold the account of Admin I am also registered Member VisionFromFeeling. I see it as my obligation to hold my two roles of Admin and VisionFromFeeling separate and distinct from one another, so whereas VisionFromFeeling may disagree and fight with other Forum Members, Admin may step in and see to disagree with the behavior of VisionFromFeeling and apply the same impersonal evaluation of this user as is placed on all other users. As the Forum Admin, I pledge to respect the integrity and privacy of all of its Members and to not discriminate against individual Forum Members or opinions in my decisions and actions in Forum Management. I have enabled Members as much freedom and options to affect their experience of the Forum with their own settings and ability to add their own personal touch to their Membership and Profile. And Members are invited to engage with the Admin in discussions that affect Forum Management.

OUR VFF FORUM HAS FOUR AREAS

The VFF Forum has four areas: The Forum Management Forum posts the Forum Rules and other announcements involving the Forum itself, only the Administrator can post there. The Vision From Feeling Forum is where we discuss any topics surrounding VFF the claim, the person, the investigation. Since we are allotted unlimited posting space, we also have a Non-VFF Topics Forum where Members can discuss any other topics. And the Community Section Forum, only visible to Members but not to Guests, is where Members can take an active role in Forum Management, and where posts that are in violation to Forum Rules are moved to. Since we have unlimited posting space, if a Member would like us to add another Forum category to these four, ask the Admin to consider it.

The "Forum Management" Forum
Forum FeatureGuestsMembersModeratorsAdministrator
ReadXXXX
Post-- XX
Post/download attachments- - XX
Edit your own post-- XX
Delete your own post--XX
Vote-XXX
Open new topic-- XX
Create poll- - XX
Post-it message- - XX
Global announcement- - - X

The "Vision From Feeling Forum"
Forum FeatureGuestsMembersModeratorsAdministrator
ReadXXXX
Post-XXX
Post/download attachments- XXX
Edit your own post-XXX
Delete your own post---X
Vote-XXX
Open new topic-XXX
Create poll- XXX
Post-it message- - - X
Global announcement- - - X

The "Non-VFF Topics" Forum
Forum FeatureGuestsMembersModeratorsAdministrator
ReadXXXX
Post-XXX
Post/download attachments- XXX
Edit your own post-XXX
Delete your own post---X
Vote-XXX
Open new topic-XXX
Create poll- XXX
Post-it message- - - X
Global announcement- - - X

The "Community Section" Forum
Forum FeatureGuestsMembersModeratorsAdministrator
Read- XXX
Post- XXX
Post/download attachments- X XX
Edit your own post-X XX
Delete your own post---X
Vote-XXX
Open new topic-X XX
Create poll- X XX
Post-it message- - - X
Global announcement- - - X

And here is some of what access different users have to these different functions of the Forum
Access to seeGuestsMembersModeratorsAdministrator
Search Yes Yes Yes Yes
Help (FAQ) Yes Yes Yes Yes
List of Members Yes Yes Yes Yes
Groups (Usergroups) No Yes Yes Yes
View Member Profiles Partial Yes Yes Yes
Forum Statistics No Yes Yes Yes
Google Map No Yes Yes Yes
Gallery No Yes Yes Yes
See User IP No No Yes Yes
See User status Yes Yes Yes Yes

MEMBERSHIP SETTINGS (MEMBERS)

Profile Section
When you are a registered member and log in, you have access to the Profile tab. If you go there, the first page that pops up is the voluntary Profile information. Note that the other options in the Profile tab are easy to miss --- because they are written in small text to the upper right in your Profile section! Make sure you find them. The tabs there are called Information | Preferences | Signature | Avatar | Friends and foes | Topic being watched | Favourites | Drafts. You might like to spend some time getting to know the features available to you as a Member.

Important:
Once you register, please go to your Profile section and there enter the tab called Preferences! It lists a number of settings that you may want to set for yourself before doing anything else! Their default settings may not be what you want when you use the Forum! For instance, the signature line is disabled until you go there and activate it yourself! Spend some time in your Profile section to see what user options you have and how you wish to set them.

Member Username

When you register to become a Member of the VFF Forum you get to choose a username for yourself. The username does not have to be your real name, and in fact most Forum users choose something else other than their name. It can be anything at all, but if a username is offensive or in other ways in violation to the Forum Rules it risks being deleted or edited by the Forum Admin. Editing or deletion of a username will be announced to the user in private message and/or to the e-mail account they have provided to their membership account, but will not wait approval by the Member. Changes to a username will be made very obvious, for instance a username that was a bad word might be changed to "Username changed by Admin" or something to that effect. Users who find their member names changed need to contact the Admin and let her know what username you would like to choose for yourself, so you would not need to start making a new account for yourself. You might already have posts and other content and do not have to lose that if you just notify Admin of your new username.

Members who wish to change or edit their usernames can contact the Admin and this may or may not be awarded to you. For instance, someone might have a username with a last name and that last name changes, then you do not have to lose your posts and presence in the Forum, just notify the Admin for a username change.

Each username can of course only be registered once. If you feel that someone "stole" "your" username and registered the username you are elsewhere known as and you feel they are simply doing so to keep it from you or if someone is posting under a username that is elsewhere known as "you", please tell the Admin and I will look into it. There are ways to investigate whether a username is associated to a certain IP Address in other Fora and I for one would consider this kind of "username hijacking" to be a mild form of identity theft and working with Admins in other Fora we could identify your presence under a certain username and solve the issue and hand the username to you and delete their record while using "your" name. To try to enforce this rule I can check the IP Addresses of Members. For instance, if someone who is not Jim Carr registers the username UncaYimmy in the VFF Forum, and Jim tells me somebody is using his username, I would then send Jim a secret word that he then has to post in the other Fora, for instance at his stopvff Forum or in the JREF Forum, I would then see that he did post the secret word and that way the person making the complaint that somebody is using their Forum name has proven that they are otherwise and elsewhere known by that name. The Admin will then contact the person who took that username and ask them whether they might like another name out of courtesy to its former user. In cases with well-known Forum usernames, such as VisionFromFeeling, UncaYimmy, desertgal, Akhenaten, etc. I consider these to be somewhat of a trademark to the persons behind these names and them to have rights to these names even in the VFF Forum. It is unlikely that a new user by accident registers "someone else's name" and it would more likely have been done on purpose.

Members are asked to only register one username and account only. If you lose your password, do not despair you can retrieve it by normal means or by having the Admin re-set it for you. Re-setting of password will require that you are able to identify yourself as the account holder and to ensure that nobody gets their account hijacked by someone else, Members are sadly at risk of not having their password re-set by the Admin if they can not prove that they are the account holders. As long as you have access to the e-mail account which you provided with your account you will be able to change your forgotten or lost password without any involvement by the Admin. And if you grow really tired of your username, you might consider asking the Admin to change your username rather than signing up for a different membership. You are only allowed one membership account per person.

The purpose of one membership only, is to hold you responsible for your words - even though as a Member you are anonymous in the sense that you do not use your personal name - and to make you more recognizable as a Member. New Members register themselves and without approval by the Admin. The reason I chose that is so that as soon as you register you can start posting and not have to wait for my approval. Also that way it feels more like your Forum, which is the point. It is our mutual shared space, not mine alone. Your comments and opinions are as valuable as mine. When a new Member registers I receive a notification of that. Members can close their account by notifying the Admin of their decision to do so. Users can change their e-mail address.

Members per IP Address

The IP Address is a unique number that identifies your computer, kind of like how people each have a social security number or a fingerprint. As the Forum Administrator I can see the IP Address of all Members and even of Guests, who are unregistered, not logged in, and just browsing by and reading. A menu even allows me to see what pages in the Forum any user is viewing. I allow you to only have one Membership account per person. You can not have multiple accounts. The reason I say that is to hold you personally accountable for your behavior in my Forum and for you to not hide behind multiple accounts. I have had to limit the number of new Members from each IP Address to just one. This way one unique person is associated with one computer and IP each. Other family members using the same computer must register their Memberships at a different computer with a different IP Address, but once you have registered you can then log in and use your account from any computer. I am sorry for any inconvenience during registration arising from couples or family members using the same computer, but this way one is less likely to be held accountable for breaches of rules done by another person. The Forum provides a real place where real people meet and the Admin and any future Moderators are tasked with protecting the rights and well-being of all users in the Forum.

Avatars

An Avatar is your personal picture in the VFF Forum. It is seen by each of your posts and also in your Profile. You can upload your very own image, with a size limit of width 150 pixels and height 200 pixels. If you have a PC and Windows, you can go to Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> Paint, and there open the picture and do Ctrl+e and it tells you what the dimensions of the image are in pixels. In Paint you can also shrink or magnify an image with Ctrl+w, or crop the image to adjust its size. Images may be automatically size-adjusted when you upload them for your Avatar, so one need not worry too much about this. If you look up the Avatar used by Admin in the Forum, it gives you an example of the dimensions of a maximum sized 150 x 200 Avatar. Members do not have a default Avatar and begin with no picture. We have a small Avatar Gallery with some Avatars for you to choose from, but it is best to find one you like on the internet. Be mindful of copyright laws. You can of course change your Avatar image as many times as you'd like. Avatars that violate Forum Rules may need to be removed by the Admin. If you are unsure as to whether an Avatar is acceptable, you may send it to the Admin for approval first, or simply upload it and see if the Admin chooses to ask you to change it or removes it herself. Do note that the VFF Forum is an objective community and Avatars that may seem to display disbelief against VFF are not necessarily going to be removed, unless they are clearly a case of offensive material.

Signatures

Signatures are a little bit of space on the very bottom of each and every one of the posts you make in the Forum. You start out with having no signature and you can go to your Profile section to edit it. Here you can write anything at all. Most people like to put funny little quotes there, or jokes. You can also add links to other websites, perhaps your own, or one that you like. The signature line can be made to say a little bit of something about you, or bring attention to something of your choosing. Other users can see your signature line beneath your posts. You can edit the signature line as many times as you'd like. The Admin has the right to go in and edit your signature line if it violates Forum Rules. Admin editing of Member's signature line will notify Member of doing so and will also clearly mark in Member's signature line that content was removed, and say why it was removed.

Links in Signatures

When you want to post a link in your signature line, you can enter the URL as is and it makes it into a link. But when you want to name the link here is how you do it:

[url=Enter your URL address here]Name your link here[/url]

For example, if I want to link to this page http://www.visionfromfeeling.com/forummanagement.html but I want to name the link Forum Management, I would then enter the following code for that in the signature line as follows:

[url=http://www.visionfromfeeling.com/forummanagement.html]Forum Management[/url]

Fortunately, posting links in the messages/posts in the Forum has a special button that makes it all simple. It is only the signature line that requires this special procedure for links. If you are having problems, notify the Admin and she will help you construct the code for you.

Favorites Feature

We have a Favorites feature which allows you to bookmark your favorite topic pages (threads). While in a page, go to the upper right corner where you find the tab called Actions! and it allows you to bookmark a page to your Favorites. Your list of Favorites can be accessed in your Profile section. It appears one can not bookmark individual posts as Favorites, and that other users can not see your Favorites list, but if I am wrong about this do let me know.

MEMBER PROFILE PAGES

As a registered Member of our VFF Forum you have a Profile section that you can fill out if you choose to. All of the information in the Profile section is entirely optional and can be left blank. The questions that appear there were designed by me. If Members would like to see additional questions added to it, notify the Admin and your suggestions will be considered. I did allow a comments box there, where you can say anything you want (provided it agrees with Forum Rules). Fields left unanswered do not appear as questions either in your profile. You can post a picture of yourself, or any other picture too for that matter. Other Members can see your Profile. Guests can see only some of the content of Member Profile pages. All of the types of content of the Profile pages, as well as who can see what and who can not, is listed in this table below.

User Profiles
ContentMust fill in?Visible in your Profile?Visible in your Messages?Can Member edit this?Can Mods edit this?Who can see this?
My name Optional Yes No Yes No Members
Nickname Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Star (Status Update) Optional Yes Yes Yes No All users
Picture of me Optional Yes No Yes No Members
Self description Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Location Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Work Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Interests Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Gender Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Birthday Optional Yes No Yes No Members
Age Automatic if you enter your birthdate Yes No based on birthdate based on birthdate All users
Zodiac (woo!) Automatic if you enter your birthdate Yes No based on birthdate based on birthdate All users
Chinese zodiac (more woo!) Automatic if you enter your birthdate Yes No based on birthdate based on birthdate All users
Favorite Skeptics or other heroes Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Favorite color Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Favorite movies and TV Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Music I listen to Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Favorite food Optional Yes No Yes No All users
If I were an animal I'd be... Optional Yes No Yes No All users
If I could make a wish come true, it would be... Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Join date Automatic Yes No No No All users
Posts Automatic Yes Yes No No All users
Appreciation (Reputation) Automatic Yes Yes No No All users
How I feel about VFF Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Quote Optional Yes No Yes No All users
A piece of my mind Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Website Optional Yes Yes Yes No All users
Second website Optional Yes Yes Yes No All users
YouTube Channel Optional Yes No Yes No All users
E-mail address Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Skype Optional Yes No Yes No All users
ICQ Number Optional Yes No Yes No All users
MSN Messenger Optional Yes No Yes No All users
Yahoo Messenger Optional Yes No Yes No All users
AIM Address Optional Yes No Yes No All users

The Star (Status Update): When you go to your Profile to fill it out, there is a Star symbol. As it says, if you enter a little short statement of status update, what you are doing, how you are feeling, what you are thinking, or any little remark that you want to place here, this will appear underneath your Avatar picture in your posts, and also in your Profile page. It is separate from the signature line, so you can keep your signature line for weblinks, news, and other longer information, and put your moods and minds on this star line. The category had to have a name so I used the Star symbol. If you leave it blank, or later return to your Profile to delete it, no star and no line for it appears under your Avatar. And you can edit it as often as you wish. It has a 50 character limit even though you can type into the entry box as much as you want, characters beyond the count of 50 will be chopped off, so please check it after submission to make sure it fits and did not get chopped off.

The Appreciation (Reputation) line will be explained further below.

Members can leave each other visitor messages that will appear in the Profiles. Members can add each other as friends or foes. Note that the Admin will issue warnings if your Profile content is in violation of Forum Rules, and if need be, Admin can edit your Profile to remove content that is in violation of Forum Rules. If the Admin has to remove Profile content, a notice that Admin has removed something will be put in its place. The Admin will not change the text in Members' Profile information, and does not delete content without good reason. Note that the Admin is not biased in favor of VFF the topic or the person and expresses impartiality when deciding on rule violations.

POSTING IN THE FORUM (MEMBERS)

Discussion Topics
Admin, Moderators, Members but not Guests, can open a topic. Topics title line is set to be between 1 and 100 characters. Topics description is enabled. Topics title color disabled. Modification of topic title enabled so that the author of the topic title, Moderators, or Admin can edit the title of the topic.

Time delay between subsequent posting

The time delay between any two subsequent posts or private messages by a Member can be set from anywhere between 10 to 9999 seconds. I have it set at 10 seconds: some people like to post a lot and we don't want to cut off somebody's train of thought.

Post Editing

Sometimes we post a message and then we realize we made a type-o, or that what we wanted to say could have come across better if phrased a different way, or for any reason we would like to edit the message we posted. That is why Members have 4 hours of time from when a message was posted during when they can still go back and edit it. The Admin could have set this time indefinitely, but since new posts are often based on the earlier ones, having Members go back and editing might scramble up the context of a topic. If a Member wishes to edit a post after the 4 hour duration has passed, please notify the Admin of what changes you wish to be made and it can be done on your behalf and by your design. If you make a post and it becomes deleted, it is no longer counted in your total number of posts made.

Smilies

Sometimes the message we want to make is too emotional for words, and that is why I have enabled smilies. Out of the 200 smilies allotted to the catalog of our Forum, I have saved plenty of space for Members additions. If you find a smilie that you need to use often, please do suggest for the Admin to add it into our catalogue for easy access. If you suggest an additional smilie you can also suggest the shortcut text for its access. The shortcut text is a few special characters that you type in the message box that instantly makes the corresponding smilie appear in your message. Smilies must be approved by the Admin before addition into the catalogue, trust me there are a few good ones out there but that unfortunately break some of our Forum Rules (in particular our rule that any content in our Forum must not be inappropriate for children). Members can add smilies to their posts even ones that do not appear in our catalogue, however Admin reserves the right to delete smilies from posts if those are in violation of Forum Rules, regardless of how funny they may be. Here are some sources for smilies:
www.planetsmilies.com
www.thesmilies.com
http://anchoredbygrace.com/smileys/smileys2.html
http://www.pic4ever.com/

Drafts Feature

If you are typing on a post and do not have time to finish it, you can save it to your Drafts folder and retrieve it any time later to finish typing it and posting it, or just deleting it if you change your mind on posting it. The Drafts folder appears in one of the right-side tabs in your Profile. Try it out before relying on it the first time when you need it, just to make sure you know how to use it before the time when it really matters.

Posting images

Here is how you post an image in the messages in the Forum: go to the button Host an image, Browse to select the picture from your computer, or URL if the picture is on the internet, choose an option for resize, and use Host it. You then receive three text lines. If you copy and paste the first line Thumbnail into the message box, it adds your image as a small thumbnail version. If you copy and paste the second line Image into the message box, it adds your image the same size as entered. The third text line Image url, could be copied and pasted into adding the image by its URL with the next button, but it is easiest to use method two.

Appreciation (Reputation)

The Appreciation score tells how many points you have been given by the other Members for your posts in the Forum. It is just for fun and it has no real consequences for anything. If a particular Member wishes to have their Appreciation score removed or hidden, please contact the Admin and I will see how this can be done for individual users, but by default we all have it activated. If you are familiar with Facebook, it allows readers to use the Like-button for posts that they like. Here, we have a Like-button and a Dislike-button that can be used for every post but your own. It is displayed as a line to the right with a + and a - on it. Only logged in Members can use this voting feature. We also have a Thanks-button at each post. When you really appreciate a post, you can use the Thanks-button to give the author some extra points toward their Appreciation score. Guests can not vote, but Guests can see the Appreciation score of Members.

It may be that each Member can only use the Thanks-button once in every page. We need to test this, so use it wisely until we know. A Thanked post should appear in a different color, but I do not know yet if that color is then seen by the Member who Thanked it only, or if everybody can see the color at that post. The Appreciation score appears in Member profiles. It is also displayed underneath the Avatars of each user, visible in all of our posts. The score begins at 0 value. I have set that a Member needs to have no minimum amount of messages made before being allowed to vote so you can begin voting as soon as you register and log in. Minimum Appreciation score before you can vote is set to 0. You are also able to vote a maximum amount of times, we will see how that goes and if that will need any change of settings. I have also removed the mandatory time delay between two subsequent votings. This is a fun feature that I am sure we will all enjoy. You can also read about it here Reputation. Thanked messages are set to appear in this color: (we can change the color if we don't like pink)
..........................
..........................

Unlike gives -1 Appreciation points
Like gives +1 Appreciation points
Thanks gives +3 Appreciation points

Polls

Members can create a Poll with a maximum number of poll options set to 30 (the Admin could extend this to up to 50 but not more). Guests can not post a poll. Here is how to make a poll:
1. Select the Forum you wish to post the Poll in (we have four fora: Forum Management, Vision From Feeling Forum, Non-VFF Topics, and Wall of Shame)
2. Go to New Topic, it has the image of the yellow sheet to the top left
3. Scroll down to find the bar below the message box that says Add a Poll. Click on the small + on the right corner of this bar to expand the Poll menu. This little + is easy to miss.
4. Simply list each choice option on its own line in the Poll option textbox. Don't forget a Title and a description in the normal textboxes up above where we usually type a message. The Preview does not show the poll, but when you submit it is there. You may follow the instructions here Creating Polls. If you are having problems, questions, or wish to edit your Poll in ways that you can not with its settings, contact the Admin and she will help you out.

When you create a Poll you have the option "Vote cancelling is allowed". If you enable it by setting it to Yes, all it means is that once a Member has voted that Member can then go back to the Poll and undo their vote, perhaps to change their answer. You have the choice whether to allow undoing of votes or not. Each Member can vote only once, and voting is done anonymously, no one can see who voted what. (The Admin may or may not have access to a list of who voted what and can find out which is the case when our Forum has our first Poll.) To create a sense of community, only Members, but not Guests, are able to vote on Polls. Should we make Guests able to vote on Polls?

Note: If you submit your poll and made a mistake on it, since I have disabled Members from deleting their messages, so if you are unable to edit your poll here is what I suggest: simply start a new page and post the poll again, this time hopefully without mistakes, and go to the page with the faulty poll and post a reply where you explain the error and forward Members to the other new poll instead. Admin or Moderators will clean up the mess. You can also notify Admin and Mods and suggest what they should do about it. And just like all content of the Forum, Polls may not contain offensive material and must abide by the Forum Rules.

Private messages

Enabled. Minimum posts before being able to send a private message is set to zero, so as soon as you register membership you're good to go. Maximum posts in each of your inbox, sentbox, outbox and savebox is 50 and it can not be extended beyond that. At this time I do not know whether I have potential access to Members' Private Messages, so until I know for sure, do consider your PM's as not private to the Admin unless I find out that it is first. And even if I have access to see your PM's I consider it none of my business as the Admin to read Members' private messages. But it is my obligation as Admin to notify you of what privacy you have as a Forum Member. Other Members can not read your PM's. Please note that if Admin can read your PM's then so can Member VisionFromFeeling since they are the same person, even though Admin and VisionFromFeeling post in different characters in the Forum.

Reporting function

When you see a post that you believe is in violation of Forum Rules please report it so that the Admin and Moderators can be notified and have a look. Only Members (which of course includes Moderators and Admin) can report a post, and Guests can not be made able to in the settings although I would have wished for that. I do not yet know what content can be reported, probably posts, pages, private messages, but I need to find out before I assume what content can be reported. Members can report their own posts too, would they wish to. I have disabled allowing users to edit their reports, because I want you to think carefully first before reporting something, and so if you do it you stick with it. And if turns out you reported a post and there is no real good reason, it is ok. If you wish to challenge your own report, just let the Admin or Moderators know (we have no Moderators yet). If a user abuses the report function, individual users can lose their reporting function. But don't worry about this, if Admin or Moderators feel you are mis-using the report function, this will be carefully explained. The VFF Forum will prefer to inform you of a rule violation rather than punish you for it too soon. It will take repeated disrespect of warnings to lose the report function. Interestingly, this Forum enables the Admin to set specific users to be immune to receiving reports from other users. This feature will only be used if the Forum community as a whole agrees that it needs to be used for a particular Member. In other words, by no means will user VisionFromFeeling receive this immunity, and to avoid bias, Admin (who happens to be the same person as VisionFromFeeling) will not award this user such immunity unless Moderators and the Forum Members in majority would come to agree to doing so. The VFF Forum is Democracy. Not Communism or Dictatorship. :)

As the Admin I need to enter several different reasons for a list from which a Member chooses one reason when reporting a post. I would appreciate suggestions from Members for reasons to add to the list. The ones listed so far are: Off topic, Abusive content. Please suggest more options for our report list!

OTHER FORUM INFORMATION

Photo Gallery
We have a Forum community Photo Gallery. Guests have been disabled from seeing the Gallery. The Gallery is only accessible to Members, and all Members. The settings have been made to enable Members to upload pictures without requiring approval of the picture by the Admin or Moderators, and as long as Members do not repeatedly violate this rule we can keep it this way. The same Forum Rules apply to the content of the Gallery. The Admin reserves the right to remove pictures that are in violation to Forum Rules. If you are unsure about whether a picture will be approved feel free to send it to the Admin to find out first, or you can upload the picture into the Gallery anyway. Do not fear any punishments or consequences if a picture ends up being against the Rules. Only repeated and seemingly deliberate mis-use of the photo Gallery will lead to consequences against the responsible Member. Think of it as our community Gallery and as part of your own space in the VFF Forum.

The maximum picture size was set by the Admin to being width 800 and height 500 in pixels, but could be changed by the Admin to up to 1280 in width and 1024 in height if we need to. Filesize limit was set by Admin to 1.00 Mb. We have a shared 20,000 Mb storage limit for the Gallery. If you want to upload an image that exceeds these limits of dimensions or file size, please notify the Admin. If the file you are trying to upload is too big, you can often change a .bmp format to a .jpg format, it reduces the file size but also reduces the quality of the image.

I may have to add albums into the Gallery before pictures can be added into it. The settings I have placed on our Gallery are as follows: Members can edit their own photo albums. Members can rate and comment on pictures in the Gallery. Slideshow feature is disabled. "View full pic as a popup" is enabled. We have to choose a picture sorting mechanism for the galleries. Either sorted as "When Posted", by "Picture Title", "Username", "Views", "Ratings", "Total comments", or "New comment". I set it as "When Posted" and in Descending order, bringing the newest pictures first. I may have to manually add photo albums for Members, it will become obvious when we start using the Gallery. If you are having problems with using the Gallery, please notify the Admin and we will figure it out.

Birthday Greetings

If you enter your birthdate in your Profile, then starting from 30 days before your Birthday your username will be listed in the bottom half of the first page of the Forum as one of those that has a Birthday approaching. A Birthday message is automatically sent to you on your Birthday. I would like for Members to add a little line to it each. Send your contributions to the Admin and they will be added to our Birthday card!

Poster Ranks and Titles

Ranks: We can enable a function that gives Members an increasing number of stars based on how many posts they have made, but I have disabled this function. I think Members are better awarded by the quality of their posts and by the Appreciation score, than simply by how many posts were made. Quality should be more important than quantity. But if we later choose to enable this ranks system, Members may contribute to the competition to see who can think of the best (meaning, funniest) five ranks! And once implemented, it can always be replaced by an even better (even funnier) suggestion.

Titles: The Admin can also place a unique custom title for each Member. We can have fun with this. I will open a discussion page where Members can nominate friendly and playful nicknames for other Members. You can also suggest or ask for one for yourself, but it is more fun if others make one for you. Something like "Ultimate Woo", or "Meanie(TM)" for instance. No offensive or insulting ranks or titles will of course be implemented, and a Member who opposes a title for them can ask to have it removed by Admin.

Forum statistics and Google Map

Members but not Guests can see the Forum Statistics. It is accessible at the very bottom of each Forum page.

Members, but not Guests, can see the Google Map that shows where our Members who are online are approximately located. If you go to the bottom half of the first page to the table that has the white feathers to the left of it, in the header it says Who is Online?. If you click on that it takes you to a Google Map that shows approximately where our Members are located and who's online. Note that the location is entered into it perhaps from your IP Address and automatically and that it is not based on the location you may or may not enter in your Profile section. There is no way for individual Members to exclude themselves from the map. If Members would like us to disable the map, Admin can make it unavailable. Note that the location listed in the map is only approximate. I live in North Carolina, and it has put me in Kansas. Jokes about The Wizard of Oz might be appropriate.

Find the link to the map here:

The map should look something like this:

Chatroom

Chatroom disabled for now. Let's just talk in the Forum for the time being. I might not activate the chat room. If there are special events and if the chat log can be saved and later posted, the chatroom may be opened at those certain times.

Advertisement

The Forum Provider places advertising in the top of the Forum. I am trying a setting that only shows advertising to Guests, but not Members. If the Forum becomes popular I will consider buying off the advertisement for an ad-free Forum, always more pleasant.

Password Re-set

If you forgot your password, you may receive instructions on how to re-set it by clicking on I forgot my password in the log in window. If you are still having trouble, for instance if you can not access your e-mail address, you will have to prove to me somehow without a doubt that you are the account holder, and I can then re-set the password to you by giving you a temporary password which you then must change in your user profile once you have successfully logged in. Do not try these tricks to get someone else's account hijacked, it won't work. Re-setting of passwords for a Member account will be announced in a designated page in the Forum Management Forum. To prove your identity I may send you a secret word which you then have to post in another Forum on another website.

Forum settings

Here are some additional Forum settings placed by the Admin: automatic log in is disabled. It is best if a Member logs in on their own, or that you check the box for automatic log in. The time before inactive use places a Member offline is set to 60 minutes. Display users connected within the last 12 hours. The amount of time was adjustable, I chose 12 hours for it.

Newsletters

As the Admin I can send out a newsletter, which is a group message, to any group or all users of the Forum. Most messages will be posted in the Forum itself and this feature will be used rarely. If another Member of the Forum would like to make an announcement via newsletter to be sent to everyone, or to a particular group of members, you may contact the Admin at forum@visionfromfeeling.com and ask for this to be done on your behalf. As a Member you can go to Profile --> Preferences --> Allow newsletters to choose between yes or no. Since some Members may not wish to receive newsletters it is also best for Admin to post community messages in the Forum itself so that everyone has access to the information.

Post-its and announcements

Admin and Moderator but not Members or Guests can create a post-it message. Only Admin can create a glocal announcement. If Moderators or Members wish to have access to either of these features, notify the Admin.

Member Groups

Usergroups (also referred to as Groups) can be made to connect several Members together. So far its only purpose as I can see, is that Members can easier be identified as having a certain role in the Forum by their Group designation, and so that private messages can be sent to all of the Members of a Group at the same time, but perhaps also to form a sense of community and friendship in the Forum.

Current groups are Administrator, consisting only of one Member, Admin. Another group is Moderators, which currently has only Admin as the Member and will consist of all the Members who are assigned Moderator status. Note that membership in the Moderators Group is not the same as being a Moderator, but only Moderators will be made Members of this group. Each Group is assigned one of its Members as its Group Moderator. A Group can choose a color for themselves, and has the option of whether usernames of its Members will appear in that color or not. If you would like to form a Group, notify the Admin. Make up a Group name for yourselves, and choose a color if you wish. The other options of a Group will be explained to you then. I know that our JREFF lifers might love to make a group for themselves called "Lifers", or "Meanies(TM)" or something such as that. And, again, Forum Rules apply with the usage of Member Groups as well. A new Group needs to first be created by the Admin and assigned a Member. From then on its Members and its Group Moderator can have it to themselves. There are three types of admissions to choose from for a group:
"Opened group": users can ask to join the group and the Group Moderator accepts or declines requests
"Closed group": users can not ask to be made part of the group, Group Moderator can add or remove members [unclear whether this means one can add members without member's permission]
"Hidden group": does not appear to the users
I would set all groups to "Open group" unless a Group Moderator asks otherwise.

Current Groups
Group name
(subject to change)		Group Moderator
(subject to change)		Members
(subject to change)		Group Member color
(subject to change)		Group status
(subject to change)		Who can send group PM to them
(subject to change)
Administrator Admin Admin None specified Closed Members
Moderators Admin Admin Blue Closed Members

Forum Maintenance may happen

The Forum may be deactivated sometimes for short amounts of time for Admin doing Forum maintenance. By courtesy, the maximum expected duration of the shut-down should be included in the shut-down message that will appear when a user tries to access the Forum during shut-down. Note that the Admin will perform most of the maintenance without shutting down the Forum. Only maintenance operations that might disrupt the use of the Forum will require an actual shut-down of the Forum for that time, so it is for your convenience.

Forum Rules

Forum Rules will be posted here in this Forum Rules page and also in the Forum Management Forum. The Forum Provider is http://www.forumotion.com/ and offers Fora free of charge. As users we must all abide by their rules and by the general rules and laws that govern internet usage. The Forum is not on my own server. The Forum Provider is located in France so seems that we are abiding by French laws which seem more elaborate than laws in the United States. Harassment for instance is not permitted.

Posts and pages that violate Forum rules will be moved by the Admin into the Wall of Shame Forum. Members can not post in this Forum, and Guests can not read the Forum. Only Admin and Moderators can post there. And only Admin and Moderators can edit and only Admin can delete their own posts there. If a Member wishes to edit or delete a post in this Forum they can request that by the Admin. Members can also request a post to be returned to its original Forum or wish to add an explanation to their breach of the Forum rule posted beside theirs, to be added there by Admin or Moderator. The Admin is more likely to issue a warning of breach of Forum rule than to pull posts or pages into the Wall of Shame Forum.

Censorship

As the Admin I can censor any words from being posted or from being used in Membership names. So far I have not had reason to add any words to the list, and I hope to not be given any reasons to either. Repeated use of inappropriate words will lead to censorship of those words because otherwise it'd be likely they'd be used again. User who deliberately uses inappropriate words risks being banned with their IP Address from further use of the Forum.

Banning

When Members frequently and persistently break Forum Rules it may become necessary to not let such Members have access to the Forum for some time. The VFF Forum does not seem to have a Suspension feature, but it does have a Banning feature which may be set for a particular Member and for any given amount of time. Temporary Banning is to be considered just a form of suspension. A Ban sounds harsh but a temporary Ban is just a Suspension. Permanent Banning is also possible. The time set for Banning can be shortened or extended by the Admin once issued. A permanent Ban can be undone.

Currently only the Admin can Ban a Member and Moderators can not. We want to avoid having to Ban a Member, and so by not allowing Moderators to do so we are less likely to end up having Members Banned for any amount of time. Banning may be made into a community decision involving even the Members. Admin will definitely consult with Moderators about temporary or permanent Banning in order to better be able to arrive at decisions that are more informed and objective. Members risking being Banned for any amount of time may defend their behavior and are encouraged to explain themselves if they feel that the issue is a misunderstanding or a misinterpretation of what their intent was. The Admin is very reasonable and compassionate, but will make decisions that defend all Forum users and enforce Forum Rules. There will be a discussions page where Members can discuss Admin actions. The Admin hopes to learn from the community's opinions and it may even lead to changes in Admin decisions regarding Forum Management. Not necessarily to imply that the Admin is unsuitable for her role as Admin, but that she realizes that our Forum is a community consisting of many different types of people and to enforce the best interest of that group, it is necessary to come to understand that group and its needs well.

A Member can be banned by username, e-mail address, or IP Address. The reason for being Banned will be given. Members that have been Banned can be un-banned by the Admin. E-mail address can be banned and un-banned whether it belongs to a username or not. IP Addresses can also be banned and un-banned whether associated to a username or not, and a range of IP Addresses (hostnames) be banned or un-banned simultaneously.

I listed the VFF Forum under the topic Society and Culture, Phenomena of societies, as I think above all this VFF Project has shown a lot about the distinct cultural niche of skeptic-woo interaction in the handling of paranormal claims.

Please send feedback, suggestions, comments, criticism, and questions on the VFF Forum to the Admin at forum@visionfromfeeling.com

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