Eurobricks: A Visual User Guide

[Darkdragon]

NOTICE: This guide is outdated as of the Sept 21, 2016 upgrade. The guide will be updated to the new site once the rest of the bugs are squished.

Note for Smartphone Users: On most smartphones, even in "Full Site" mode, you will not see skins other than the default skin. This is not an error, it's just the way the software works.

Everywhere
There are a few features that will be on the screen no matter where you go on Eurobricks. This includes the Notifications, Control Panel access, and Site Search.

Forums: The Basics
Learn how to view the Most Recent post in a forum or thread, how to preview a post, and how to navigate around forum listings.

Posting
The number one thing you'll do on Eurobricks - posting. Learn about the editor window and how to control the edit mode.

Profile & User Settings
Fine tune your experience on Eurobricks by making sure your settings are the way you want them.

[Darkdragon]

Everywhere

Top Right Header

Anywhere you go in the site, the top right banner has some items that will always be there. Depending on the width of your screen, they may be shifted slightly, but this is how it will look for most people.

1. Private Messaging
   Use this button to access the most recent 10 PMs, create a new message, and go directly to your complete message list.
   If you have a new message waiting, you will see a red badge with the number of new messages waiting to be read.
   
2. Notifications
   There are many different types of notifications that you may recieve. These notifications can be turned on and off in your User Control, anything that is turned on will generate a notification which you can view quickly using this icon.
   Clicking the icon will show you the 10 most recent notifications as well as links to view all of your notifications.
   As with PMs, if you have an unread notification, you will see a small red badge with the number of new notifications waiting for you.<
   
3. User Control
   Use this menu to access all of your User Controls including profile management and board user settings.
   

   

   
   

4. Sign Out
   This link will sign you out and send you to the Portal.
   
5. Site Search
   This search box will search the whole site for the terms you type in. You only need to fill in the box and click the magnifying glass button
   The default search type is to search forum messages, but if you click the button labeled "Forums" it gives you a menu to choose other options.
   

   

   
   You can refine your search even more by clicking the Advanced Search button
   

6. Set Index - has been removed for now.
   
7. View New Content
   Clicking this button will take you to the list of the 25 most recent posts.
   
8. Quick Navigation
   The icon opens up a panel for quickly navigating around the site to other areas.
   

   

   
   

Member Popout

Anywhere you see a username, you can hover your cursor over it and this popout window will appear. From here you can see and access various items related to that member without having to go into a post or profile to do it.

1. Find Content
   Click this button to see a subset of the topics and posts by this user.
   
2. Send Message
   Click this button to pop up a panel for sending the user a Private Message.
   
3. Status Message
   If the user has set a status message, it will be displayed here.
   
4. Member Information
   Some general information about the member. If the member is looking at or posting in a topic or forum you can click that link to go directly to that topic or forum.
   
5. Add as Friend
   If this member is not already a friend, you'll probably see this icon. Click it to add the member as a friend (or request it if they have approvals required).
6. View Gallery + others
   The icon pictured here is to view the member's photo gallery. This may be present, there may be other icon buttons in this area, it all depends on member settings and your own security level. Hovering your mouse over a button will usually give you an idea of what it's for. Clicking it works even better.
   

[Darkdragon]

Forums "The Basics"

Community Index

1. Read or Unread?
   On the community index, you can tell if the forum has any posts you haven't read by three different indicators.
   
   • The 2x2 brick icon - if this is yellow, there are new posts. If the brick is light gray, there are no new posts.
     You can click this icon to mark all posts in that forum as "read".
     
   • The Forum Title - if the title is bold there are new posts, otherwise there are not. You can click the title of the forum to brows that forum.
     
   • The Row Background - a forum with unread posts will be somewhat darker background on this list than a forum without. The actual colors depend on the skin though, so it may not be the same colors pictured here.
     

[*]Last Updated Topic Title

The last updated topic in that forum will have it's title here (or partial title if it's too long). You can topic title click the link to go directly to the first unread post in that topic.

[*]Latest Post User

Here is the tiny avatar and username for the user who made the most recent post in that forum. You can click the image to go directly to the user's profile page. The username link works like all other username links and you can click it to go to the profile page or hover over it for the user card popout.

[*]Last Updated Topic Date

The date and time for the most recent post in that forum will be here. You can click the date link to go directly to the first unread post in the topic.

Forums

1. Brick Icons
   A blue 1x1 brick means there are new posts since you last read the topic. If the brick is a Technic style (hole in the middle), it indicates you have posted in the topic. You can click the brick icon to be taken to the first unread post in the topic.
   
2. Topic Titles
   If the topic title is bold, the topic has posts you haven't read yet. You can click the topic title to be taken to the first post in the topic.
   
3. User Info & Date
   Just like the Community Index listing, the user information is for the person who last posted to the topic.
   
   • Avatar - clicking the picture will take you to the user's profile.
     
   • Username - clicking will take you to the user's profile, hover the cursor over to see the member card popout panel.
     
   • Post Date - clicking will take you to the first unread post in the topic.
     

Topic Preview

1. Preview Button
   If you place your cursor near this area, the little round button will become visible. Click the icon to open the preview pane for the topic.
   
2. Preview Pane
   The top area stays the same except for the round button changes from a down arrow to an X. You can click this icon to close the preview pane.
   
3. First and Last Post
   The first few lines of the first and last post are show here with the user information for each. Sometimes, if you've missed quite a few posts, there will also be a snippet of the first unread post as well as the thread's first and last post.
   
4. Go to this topic
   This button will take you to the first post of the topic.
   
5. X new post(s)
   This area will show you how many posts in this topic since the last time you read it.
   
6. View latest unread
   This link will take you to the most recent unread post of the topic.
   
7. Mark As Read
   This link will mark the whole topic as read for you.
   

[Darkdragon]

Posting

1. Topic Title
   Enter the title for your topic. Follow the guidelines for the forum you are posting in and the site guidelines for topic titles. Topic titles will display a maximum of 66 characters, this number includes spaces. Short descriptive titles are preferred.
   
2. Topic Tags
   You can enter up to 10 keyword tags for your topic. These can be single or multi-word tags, each tag must be separated by a comma. Tags are useful for search results and for research by users to find all the topics related to a specific term or phrase.
   
3. Content Editor
   Here is where you will write the topic itself. The default view is a Rich Text Editor, meaning you will see all the formatting and images as you insert them. You can use the buttons along the top to format your topic contents.
   If you'd like to handcode BBCode instead of using the RTE, you can use the button at the top right of the area. This will toggle between RTE and plain text. Note: You can use BBCode in RTE mode without using the buttons, once you save it will correctly display your content.
   
4. Attach Files
   You can attach files which will then be hosted on EB, but there is a maximum number of files and file sizes based on your account rank. These limitations will be displayed next to the Attach This File button.
   
5. Manage Topic Poll
   If your rank has the ability, you can add a Poll to your topic. You'll do that by clicking this link.
   
6. Post Options
   You can manage some post options here, depending on what your rank allows.
   
7. Posting Buttons
   The last step is to click the Post New Topic button, but it's highly recommended that you use the Preview Post button first to make sure the post is set up as you expected. Using the preview will give you a chance to fix any problems before you submit your new topic to the board.
   

Topic Tags & Social Networking

When you enter Topic Tags for a new topic and then post the topic, the tags show up at the top right under the title. Each tag is click-able and will bring up a search results screen for all topics with the same tag. This can be a quick way to find related topics.

At the end of each page of a topic, the board does all the work for you by showing you the related topics based on the tags. From here you can preview the topics and do all the other things you would expect from a topic listing.

The social media icons are located just above the related topics section. They can be used to send the link for this topic to your favorite social media stream, as well as print and download the whole topic.

[Darkdragon]

Profile & User Settings

From your user menu, you can get to a number of different controls for your account. One of the most useful sections is the My Settings sections where you can tailor quite a few things for your own account.

Clicking the "My Settings" link displays another menu of links. We won't go through everything but there are two sections that you'll want to pay specific attention to for setting up your account.

Profile Settings

These are your general settings for your account and profile. It's all fairly self explanatory.

• Photo
  Change your photo (aka Avatar). If your photo is not square, you will have the chance to select a square area for use as your avatar. There is however no way to resize the area.
  

  

  
  

• Timezone
  You can set your own timezone here. This way the post timestamps match your local time. Automatically detecting DST doesn't work very well and should probably be left unchecked.
  
• Comments & Visitors
  Control if people can leave comments on your profile and see who's visited.
  
• Friends
  A couple of controls for showing and approving of friends.
  
• Profile Information
  Set your birthday, and this is where you access your About Me page to update it.
  When you click to update your About Me page, it opens up an editor that looks and works just like the post editor:
  

  

  
  

• Contact Methods
  If you want to give people ways to contact you other than Private Messages, you can enter those details here.
  
• Profile Information
  This is your basic demographic info.
  
• Extra
  Being a global forum, it's very helpful for other users to see what country you are in. This way they have an idea what timezone you are working with. It just makes communication a lot smoother if you enter your country.
  

Notification Preferences

The system can keep you notified of many events that happen on the board. This is where you'll set up what and how you are notified.

• Notification List
  I already talked about the icon at the top-right of the board. This is the page that controls what items generate notifications that are shown there. Checking a box in this column will add the notifications to that queue.
  
• Email
  If you want to be emailed notification for some events (it's not recommended that you check this for everything), you can check the box in this column. The email will be sent to the email you have set up in the Email & Password settings.
  
• Special Settings: Topics & Posts
  

  
  

  On each post and topic you create, you can choose to be notified or "follow" the topic. If you always want to follow topics you are posting in or creating, you can simply control it with this dropdown instead of having to check a box every time.

  
  

• Special Settings: Private Messages

  
  
  

  If you'd like the message window to pop up in the middle of your screen when you get a new Private Message, instead of just adding a notification on the
  
  icon, you can control that with this checkbox.

  
  

Be sure to save the changes before navigating away from this page or you'll have to start all over!

[Big Cam]

This is great darkdragon. I'm pinning this, at least for a while, until folks get used to the new layout.

[Bob De Quatre]

Wow very good and usefull job... It's like an "EB for dummies"

[Superkalle]

Excellent job darkdragon

[Kristel]

Topic Title

1. Enter the title for your topic. Follow the guidelines for the forum you are posting in and the site guidelines for topic titles.
   

Thanks for putting this together darkdragon, it's been really useful.

I went in search of the site guidelines for topic titles mentioned above, but was unable to locate them. Could you point me in the right direction?

Edited October 21, 2012 by Kristel

[soccerkid6]

Thanks for making this guide, a few of things I still didn't know about

[Darkdragon]

I went in search of the site guidelines for topic titles mentioned above, but was unable to locate them. Could you point me in the right direction?

What I meant here is the site guidelines in general, we don't specifically have guidelines for topic titles. The part of the guidelines that is most related is the part about proper grammar and punctuation.

English skills and Clarity: Try to be clear and precise when posting and use correct grammar, spelling and punctuation. We do tolerate bad English as we are a site that welcomes users from all around the world, but we don't tolerate laziness. No l33t sp34k or "texting language". We don't criticize international users who are non-native English speakers, but are trying to post in English. You probably couldn't do as well in their language. Bear this in mind.

[ahughes]

Thank you! I just signed up yesterday and I was foundering trying to figure out how to do some of the basic things. This was very helpful.

[TheBrickPal]

This topic (and quite a few others) has helped me find my way around the forums a lot since I have joined. I very much appreciate you doing this.

[Maniac4Legos]

Thank you for the help! I had two questions though.

My notifications aren't sent to my email, even though I have my email set up. Why can't I receive email notifications?

I do not comprehend the Vassal, Citizen, Knight and other rankings. As a Citizen, am I the lowest of the members on this site? What does each order signify in terms of abilities? Is there a way to advance or is it a caste system?

Edited March 25, 2014 by Maniac4Legos

[Darkdragon]

My notifications aren't sent to my email, even though I have my email set up. Why can't I receive email notifications?

I do not comprehend the Vassal, Citizen, Knight and other rankings. As a Citizen, am I the lowest of the members on this site? What does each order signify in terms of abilities? Is there a way to advance or is it a caste system?

Make sure your email address is accurate in your profile and check your email spam folder, doublecheck your notification settings here as well.

from: Eurobricks FAQ

Eurobricks user groups and tags

- the reference

Ranks discussion

– for all questions

[Maniac4Legos]

Make sure your email address is accurate in your profile and check your email spam folder, doublecheck your notification settings here as well.

from: Eurobricks FAQ

Eurobricks user groups and tags

- the reference

Ranks discussion

– for all questions

I checked that my email is accurate and I tripe checked my notification settings here. I'll check the spam folder. Thank for your help!

[Blondie-Wan]

Hi. I have a technical question to which I've been unable to find an answer. I've been browsing on a mobile and switched to the full version of the site, and now would like to switch back. How can I do this?

[Darkdragon]

Hi. I have a technical question to which I've been unable to find an answer. I've been browsing on a mobile and switched to the full version of the site, and now would like to switch back. How can I do this?

Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, on the left you will see an RSS feed button (it's orange) and next to that is a link "Use Mobile Version". Click that link

[Blondie-Wan]

Thanks! Much appreciated. :)

[Ex cinno]

Anyone can help me?

How can i restore the original fonts size? I reduced their size by mistake and now i don't know how to restore them. Thanks in advance.

Edited December 2, 2015 by Ex cinno

[Darkdragon]

Anyone can help me?

How can i restore the original fonts size? I reduced their size by mistake and now i don't know how to restore them. Thanks in advance.

If you are on a PC, hold down the CTRL key and press the + key. For specifics on doing it through a menu, we would need to know what browser you are using.

[Ex cinno]

Resolved. I am using Google Crome and i found the menu with the font size options inside. Thank you Darkdragon anyway.

[dtoerien]

Thank you for this - I have spent a fair bit of time navigating my way around the Site, inefficiently as it turns out.

[Vaionaut]

Due to the new version of our forum software IPB4 it would be great, if this guide could be updated and adapted to the new design.

Thanks in advance!

[VaderFan2187]

Wow. I've only been here since the new forum. The old style really looks different. I think I prefer the new one.