having trouble navigating the forums

[mintelope]

I am new, and am having trouble finding my way around the forums. Everytime I search for a topic I am interested in, it doesn't seem to work for me, and a lot of the time I get sent to page that says I don't have access. But most importantly, there seem to be soo many threads that I don't know how one keeps track of where they have posted and how they find their way back, after drifting off to other forums. Did anyone else have similar problems?

[tinti]

Hey, Mintelope. You'll have to have 25 posts to search the forum and wiew profiles and bloggs and all that stuff. Check out this thread, you'll find out what you can and can't do :) http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=1657

[brokenchains]

I have had that same problem which is frustrating because I am not much of a 'talker' and posting nonsense just to get my posts numbers up is not a good idea either. It is frustrating for me.

But welcome nevertheless! :)

[sansd]

I agree! Is the minimum posting requirement this forum's way to deal with advertisers?

[Silvey]

If I had to guess, I'd guess the requirements are sort of a privacy feature? Some boards hide things from people who aren't registered but once they register they can see everything. I obviously don't know their reasons, I am new here as well but seems like it's a good way to keep random joiners away. We aren't just creating accounts and getting full access to more "personal" information and more of an access to peoples photos and things, we are getting to know everyone here and (i feel) like we're proving ourselves.

It's a little hard when people are talking about certain things and you seem kind of like an outsider and can't join in, but I don't mind because I like that when I'm able to post not everyone who would like to could have access to my photos and other things.

[mintelope]

I think it definitely creates more of a dedicated community atmosphere. You have to earn your membership, so to speak.

So for those of you that are fuller members, after 25 posts, will there be a tool that allows me to track what forums I have posted on so I can follow up?

[misstwist]

Does the "thread tools" tab show up at the top of this thread for you? It should be the tab farthest to the left.

Open it up and click on the "subscribe to thread" option. Follow the dialog boxes.

When you come back to the forum you can click the "user cp" button on the banner after you sign in. It's the second button from the left. That will take you to your user control panel and you will see if any of your subscribed threads have new posts. They will show up right in the middle of the screen.

If you want to browse new posts since your last visit, click the new posts button. I forget just where it is, muscle memory clicks it for me at this point.

Before you leave the forum go to the forum index page and click the button that is 3/4 of the way to the bottom that says "mark all posts as read." When you hit the new posts button on your return you will get only threads that have been active since your last visit.

Welcome to the boards!

If you are looking for a thread to post in to raise your quality posts go check out the curly and whurly thread where lots of the wavy 2s hang out.

[mintelope]

wow misstwist, that was a super helpful post. However, the thread tools tab doesn't show up for me just yet. I will have to hang out with the curly whurlys for a while before I can put your advice to use. :)

Thanks!

Nevermind! I found the thread tool button. It's just below to the right.