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The Forum Tips and Tricks Thread

Antinos

Slut for Spinners
Every time CoasterForce upgrades to modern forum software, I tend to notice some habits (both good and bad) and also pick up some nifty tricks. I've recently observed an increasing number of members of varying seniority who aren't totally savvy with some of these quirks, so to speak. Although I would love to be snarky in every other thread (ok, I will probably get a bit snarky in here too), I figured it would be best to start a dedicated thread where we can all contribute and compile our tips and tricks.

  • Multiple replies in a single post - In my opinion, this is one of the most valuable features that this forum offers. If you are reading a thread and want to reply to a particular post, click reply and the screen should automatically jump down to the text box. Click the save draft soft key and scroll back up to where you left off. If you happen to find a second post that you would like to reply to, click reply. Your screen will jump down to the text box again, but you should notice that there are two separate quotes in the post to which you can reply. You can keep daisy chaining these replies together in one big post instead of double or triple posting and ultimately save you a tongue lashing.
  • Search function - it's one of the oldest functions on the internet but it seems to be seldom used. There is a search field in the upper right hand corner of the screen on both browser and mobile. If you want to start a thread regarding a bit of news or ride construction, or if you have an interesting question to ask, try searching some key words first and see what has been posted already. CF members are pretty quick to share things - there is a chance that your topic has been posted or your question has been asked before.
  • Toggle BB code - this one is more technical, but still useful. Although the forum is equipped with a lot more tools nowadays, it still utilizes BB code for quite a few functions. The right most soft key at the top of the text box has a depiction of a gear: this toggles BB code such that you can manually add, remove, or edit it how you please.
  • Insert... - numerous members have been embedding media, whether from Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, or elsewhere into their posts, which is a great way to share content. There are a few other useful functions included as well, such as a manual way to insert a quote box as well as spoiler boxes.
  • Reading - ok, yeah...full snark mode right now. I have noticed that quite a few people are heading straight to the reply box without taking any time to read the discussion that's taken place beforehand. There is the possibility that your question or your info that you're sharing or the point you're trying to make or argue against has already been posted, so I want to encourage those who don't usually do so to take the extra couple minutes to at least skim through the recent posts.


So does anybody else have any useful tricks up their sleeve?
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Go on then, I've got two that I like (that have both been around for several years, but still).

  • Quote only specific bits of someone's post - If you select a section of text in another member's post, a little "Reply" button will appear at the end of the selection. Clicking it will automatically create a quote of just that portion of text. Long gone are the days of having to quote the whole post and remove the stuff you don't care to reply to.
  • Link directly to a specific post - At the top right of each post is a little trio of icons. Share, flag and post number. Clicking on the share icon will give you a URL of that specific post, so you can be more direct when referencing an older thread. Clicking the post number symbol will reload the page (losing any unsaved draft post, by the way) but with the URL specific to that post.
 

davidm

Strata Poster
Reading - ok, yeah...

ha ha full on passive-aggressive post there Marc! :)
Reading ; the antithesis of the facebook-generation ; why read anything when all I want to do is add a comment (the same comment that has been made several times already, if only I'd read the 'thread'!)

Grrrr; grumpy old man syndrome I know.

Anyway in keeping with the tips theme rather than a <rant> theme...

I bookmark this link ; https://coasterforce.com/forums/whats-new/posts/ which takes me straight to what I want to see - i.e. stuff I have not seen.

the "trick" with it is that you can't just bookmark that link directly within the browser as the forum software adds some "stuff" to it when you navigate to the link (to do with how it manages what you have seen or not I guess) - so you just have to edit the bookmark after saving it to remove the "stuff" (it'll just be a number tagged onto the end of the URL) - if you don't remove it and return to the bookmark then the "whats-new" will be out of date.
 
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