Basic AFN Skills for Newbies on a PC
First of all, welcome new guy or gal!! We are super happy you could join the AFN family, and we look forward to shooting the breeze with you, and of course checking out your grows!!!! So now that you are here, here are some tips to help you out on the site a bit, especially if you are new to Forum websites.We know it can be very confusing. We were baffled and bemused once ourselves. And still are at times, so don't feel bad about it. It does take time. So, do take time to navigate around and get a feel for the layout of the site before you dive in, start drowning and feel like giving up.
We are here to help.
1. Navigating the site - Take some time and look around a bit. There is tons of threads amongst the many categories that cover an immense amount of topics. Get familiar with the categories and have a look around. Before long you will know where to go for the info you are seeking.
2. Post - What is a post? A post is a segment of a publicly displayed topic. Once you type in a message and hit submit you have created a post on a thread!!
3. Thread - What is a thread? A thread is a publicly displayed topic where several members type in their individual thoughts in the form of posts.
4. Titles - Titles of threads you create have a major impact on the traffic you get in your threads. Create an interesting title which describes components of your grow, strains ect. I often stumble into folks fine grows, by using the search function for strains that interest me. Sure you could put the title of your journal "Grow Journal", but i am certain you will get more folks stopping by if instead of "Grow Journal", you put "First Grow using Mars Mydro LED, Promix and Dutch Passion
5. Search Function - Can't find the info you need? The search function can if the info is here. At the very top of the screen is the Search Box. Lets say i am new, and wanting to use Promix HP, and would like to see some grows using the medium, not an easy task! But type in the search box "Promix HP" and hit enter and a whole slew of threads will come up. You can also narrow the selection by selecting "Search Titles only" and only Thread with Promix HP in the title will show up. Useful indeed!!!
6 Categories - A key thing to get responses to your threads is putting them in the right location so people will see them. Starting a first journal can be tough...especially when you don't know where to put it!! New growers category is great if you are a newbie grower, but even if its your first you might rather see it in the Hydro, Organics, or possibly even in a company specific category if you are growing mostly seeds from a single company.
7. Tagging - this is a term you will hear often. Someone will say "hey can you tag me to your grow?". This is a super easy task. All you have to do is located the members username(in this case i will use my username). All you have to do is add a @ symbol in front of the member you want to tag.....so if you want to tag me, all you have to type is @912GreenSkell , make sure spelling is correct, and only use spaces if the member you want to tag has spaces in their username. You might also notice when you use the @ symbol, and start to type a valid username, that the system drops down a list of members with the proper username.
Dropdown tagging menu pic
This is useful for calling folks to your grows, or asking for someone in particular help. When you tag someone in the upper right of the screen, they will receive a notification in the "Alerts" section at the very top of the screen. Once in awhile tags don't show up in the members alerts, so sometimes if might take more than one tag to make sure you get their attention, give it a day or two in between tags, so you don't drive other members crazy if they are away for a couple of days.
8 Quoting - This is also useful for getting someones attention. If you are having a conversation with someone in your thread or another thread at the bottom of the post that interests you, there is a series of buttons and one is marked "Reply". Hit the reply button and it will automatically quote the entire message. Type your response below the quotes message, and the other member you quoted will receive an alert. You can also do a fragment quote by highlighting the text you want to quote, and selecting the "reply" which will instantly quote a fragment of the message. This is useful for quoting small parts of a more complex message, to be able to reply to the message one piece at a time.
Full message quote pic. along with reputation, edit and other functions
9 PM or Private Message - (Also called "Start a new conversation) This is a private message initiated between you and the member you want to talk with in private. To initiate a message, all you have to do is locate a post from the member you would like to message. At the left of the screen in any one of their posts is their username. Click the username and a menu will pop up. Select "Start a Conversation" and it will take you to a message box. Enter a title and type the message. Useful for things you would like to be private between you and the member you initiated the message with. You can also invite other people into the message by using multiple usernames separated by a comma.
After pressing Waira's username another screen comes up. Pressing the "Start a Conversation" will initiate a message between waira and myself.
PM Alert Location pic in the upper right. Oh I have a PM in my box!!(showing highlighted red)
10. Reputation - Reputation is given and received to/by other members. I like to give rep for a number of reasons. Really nice grows receive rep, great information receives rep, being kind also gets rep, as well as being helpful. Other things I give reputation for is strain reviews, contest winners. I like rep as you get to type a message that only you and the member you give it to can read on their profile. To give rep, locate the post you want to rep. At the bottom of the post in the buttons select "Reputation". This will bring up a menu allowing you to type a small message and an amount of reputation. Regular members are limited to giving out a maximum of 100 Reputation in a single time, and you can only rep a single member once before having to give rep to another 4 members before you can give the original person Reputation again. This is a term called "Spreading the Rep".
Pic of rep being given
11. Trophies and Trophy Points - There are a number of trophies you can acquire by doing a bunch of different thing. Some examples are, grow and review a strain from sponsored companies, and you will get a Company supporter badge. Write a cool article and you will receive a "AFN Author badge". When you receive a badge, you also get Trophy Points which vary depending on the badge you receive!
To see all the badges available, check out the list made by @Rebel our badge master https://www.autoflower.org/threads/afn-badges-master-list-2017.58846/
When you qualify for a badge head to the Current Live Stoners Thread and tag in Rebel, and the badge master will get you set up.
12. - Upload pictures the easy way...at the bottom of a thread, below the message box where you would type a post, there are 3 buttons. The button "Upload File" is the one we are looking for. Hit it and a menu will come up. Load the picture you want to upload from your system, double click it(left mouse button), and it will begin to upload. Once uploaded it will show at the bottom of the screen. You can either do nothing with it, and it will show as a small attachment at the bottom of your post(once you hit "Post Reply"), or you can select Thumbnail or Full Image. Thumbnail put up a tiny pic of the image that expands when pressed, or the one I use all the time is Full Image which will put the full image into the post.
First of all, welcome new guy or gal!! We are super happy you could join the AFN family, and we look forward to shooting the breeze with you, and of course checking out your grows!!!! So now that you are here, here are some tips to help you out on the site a bit, especially if you are new to Forum websites.We know it can be very confusing. We were baffled and bemused once ourselves. And still are at times, so don't feel bad about it. It does take time. So, do take time to navigate around and get a feel for the layout of the site before you dive in, start drowning and feel like giving up.
We are here to help.
1. Navigating the site - Take some time and look around a bit. There is tons of threads amongst the many categories that cover an immense amount of topics. Get familiar with the categories and have a look around. Before long you will know where to go for the info you are seeking.
2. Post - What is a post? A post is a segment of a publicly displayed topic. Once you type in a message and hit submit you have created a post on a thread!!
3. Thread - What is a thread? A thread is a publicly displayed topic where several members type in their individual thoughts in the form of posts.
4. Titles - Titles of threads you create have a major impact on the traffic you get in your threads. Create an interesting title which describes components of your grow, strains ect. I often stumble into folks fine grows, by using the search function for strains that interest me. Sure you could put the title of your journal "Grow Journal", but i am certain you will get more folks stopping by if instead of "Grow Journal", you put "First Grow using Mars Mydro LED, Promix and Dutch Passion
5. Search Function - Can't find the info you need? The search function can if the info is here. At the very top of the screen is the Search Box. Lets say i am new, and wanting to use Promix HP, and would like to see some grows using the medium, not an easy task! But type in the search box "Promix HP" and hit enter and a whole slew of threads will come up. You can also narrow the selection by selecting "Search Titles only" and only Thread with Promix HP in the title will show up. Useful indeed!!!
6 Categories - A key thing to get responses to your threads is putting them in the right location so people will see them. Starting a first journal can be tough...especially when you don't know where to put it!! New growers category is great if you are a newbie grower, but even if its your first you might rather see it in the Hydro, Organics, or possibly even in a company specific category if you are growing mostly seeds from a single company.
7. Tagging - this is a term you will hear often. Someone will say "hey can you tag me to your grow?". This is a super easy task. All you have to do is located the members username(in this case i will use my username). All you have to do is add a @ symbol in front of the member you want to tag.....so if you want to tag me, all you have to type is @912GreenSkell , make sure spelling is correct, and only use spaces if the member you want to tag has spaces in their username. You might also notice when you use the @ symbol, and start to type a valid username, that the system drops down a list of members with the proper username.
Dropdown tagging menu pic
This is useful for calling folks to your grows, or asking for someone in particular help. When you tag someone in the upper right of the screen, they will receive a notification in the "Alerts" section at the very top of the screen. Once in awhile tags don't show up in the members alerts, so sometimes if might take more than one tag to make sure you get their attention, give it a day or two in between tags, so you don't drive other members crazy if they are away for a couple of days.
8 Quoting - This is also useful for getting someones attention. If you are having a conversation with someone in your thread or another thread at the bottom of the post that interests you, there is a series of buttons and one is marked "Reply". Hit the reply button and it will automatically quote the entire message. Type your response below the quotes message, and the other member you quoted will receive an alert. You can also do a fragment quote by highlighting the text you want to quote, and selecting the "reply" which will instantly quote a fragment of the message. This is useful for quoting small parts of a more complex message, to be able to reply to the message one piece at a time.
Full message quote pic. along with reputation, edit and other functions
9 PM or Private Message - (Also called "Start a new conversation) This is a private message initiated between you and the member you want to talk with in private. To initiate a message, all you have to do is locate a post from the member you would like to message. At the left of the screen in any one of their posts is their username. Click the username and a menu will pop up. Select "Start a Conversation" and it will take you to a message box. Enter a title and type the message. Useful for things you would like to be private between you and the member you initiated the message with. You can also invite other people into the message by using multiple usernames separated by a comma.
After pressing Waira's username another screen comes up. Pressing the "Start a Conversation" will initiate a message between waira and myself.
PM Alert Location pic in the upper right. Oh I have a PM in my box!!(showing highlighted red)
10. Reputation - Reputation is given and received to/by other members. I like to give rep for a number of reasons. Really nice grows receive rep, great information receives rep, being kind also gets rep, as well as being helpful. Other things I give reputation for is strain reviews, contest winners. I like rep as you get to type a message that only you and the member you give it to can read on their profile. To give rep, locate the post you want to rep. At the bottom of the post in the buttons select "Reputation". This will bring up a menu allowing you to type a small message and an amount of reputation. Regular members are limited to giving out a maximum of 100 Reputation in a single time, and you can only rep a single member once before having to give rep to another 4 members before you can give the original person Reputation again. This is a term called "Spreading the Rep".
Pic of rep being given
11. Trophies and Trophy Points - There are a number of trophies you can acquire by doing a bunch of different thing. Some examples are, grow and review a strain from sponsored companies, and you will get a Company supporter badge. Write a cool article and you will receive a "AFN Author badge". When you receive a badge, you also get Trophy Points which vary depending on the badge you receive!
To see all the badges available, check out the list made by @Rebel our badge master https://www.autoflower.org/threads/afn-badges-master-list-2017.58846/
When you qualify for a badge head to the Current Live Stoners Thread and tag in Rebel, and the badge master will get you set up.
12. - Upload pictures the easy way...at the bottom of a thread, below the message box where you would type a post, there are 3 buttons. The button "Upload File" is the one we are looking for. Hit it and a menu will come up. Load the picture you want to upload from your system, double click it(left mouse button), and it will begin to upload. Once uploaded it will show at the bottom of the screen. You can either do nothing with it, and it will show as a small attachment at the bottom of your post(once you hit "Post Reply"), or you can select Thumbnail or Full Image. Thumbnail put up a tiny pic of the image that expands when pressed, or the one I use all the time is Full Image which will put the full image into the post.
