The Newbie's Guide (Updated 5/21/12)

The first thing you will want to do is register for the forum. When you register for a forum, you are creating a place for you information to be stored in the database. Most forums require at least four fill-outs. These are:

I. Your Name (Which is not required to register for our forum)
II. Your Email
III. A Username
IV. A Password

You should always use an email that you check often when signing up for forums. The first reason for this is most forums require you to verify your email address before you can access the forum. However, we manually activate accounts to prevent spam and dupe accounts (I'm looking at you, TheAlex99 and Thiago). Also, as you will learn later on in the guide, using an email you check often can make your forum experience more productive.

Your username can be anything you want it to be. Most members use the same username whenever they sign up for something. If you do not have a username that you use, you can come up with one. Some people use goals for their username such as "FutureMillionaire" some use nicknames, you can make it easy and use your first initial and last name also. Whatever you choose make it something easy to remember as your username will be associated with you on the forum for as long as you are a member, even if you change your username later on.

Your password should be one you can remember easily but it is hard to figure out. It is recommended not to use personal details as your password such as names of current/previous pets, or, your interests, or, a family member's name, or...well, you get the idea. All of this information can be found out, and then someone can enter your account. If you want a great tool that will create passwords for you and save them so you don't have to worry about it, I suggest you check out RoboForm.

Okay, let's get started. I will now show you how to register. From the home page, you should see an orange navigation bar. Somewhere on that navigation bar, there should be text that reads "REGISTER". Click the text and you'll be redirected to the registration form. To register, you'll need to enter a username and a password. Everything else, you can leave blank for now; you'll be able to edit all of that later. Finally, confirm your password and correctly fill out the CAPTCHA code to prove you're a human, and then your request will be sent to administrators, who will then activate their account as soon as they can. Please be patient; we're not online 24/7.

Okay, now that you've registered, start with an introduction post.
Type your message in the white block. The smilies on the right are for you to use.
Click one to insert it.  :)

After you've introduced yourself, you can post. But, be sure to read the Forum Rules.
Good Luck with the forums, and have a great time!

If you have read the Forum Rules then you know the guidelines for posting. To make a post, go into a category you are interested in from the home page. Then, click "NEW TOPIC" at the bottom-left or "POST REPLY" on an existing topic. Press "SEND". Your post will be, well, posted. Members can reply to your post the same way that you did.

To PM (Private Message) a member, you will need to make 25 posts first. If you would like an easy 25 posts, try the Forum Games! Making 25 posts will make you an official member of the forums! You will be able to get your own signature and PM other members! (We have this system because a member sent a PM to everyone on the forum advertising his forums.) To PM a member, start by clicking the "NO MAIL" button at the top of the page. Then, once it says "Inbox" as the title of the page, click "NEW MESSAGE". You will need to specify a user to PM. For example, if you want to PM SuperFatCatNine, you must specify his full username. Enterting "FatCatNine" will not work.

To have a signature, you must make 25 constructive posts on the board. After making this many posts, click the PROFILE icon from the navigation bar. Then, click the "Signature" button. Type whatever you want in the box, and that will appear on every post you make. Make sure that your signature is well-thought out and has no spam or any other content that breaks the rules.

Of course you don't have to donate if you don't want to, but if you somehow feel compelled to,
follow these instructions.

1. Either click the "Contribution" link at the bottom of a page or click the link in MikeTheCat's signature.

2. Select either Allopass (which I'm not very familiar with) or PayPal.

3. Pick a currency and select and enter an amount.

4. Enter the required fields, and your donation will be validated.

I. Open SMBX and wait for it to open.
II. When you're at the part of the level that you want to take a screenshot, press F12 or "prt src"* on your keyboard.
III. You should find your screenshot in SMBX > "screenshots" folder after pressing it.
IV. Upload the picture to PostImage, TinyPic, or Servimg (Recommended)
V. When the link appears, copy it.
VI. Write this in your post: "
VII. Follow the example: (img)Paste Link Here(/img)*

Tip: Use the "Preview" button to see if your image turns out as you wanted.
*Replace with brackets, which look like this: [ ]

I. Have all of your graphics in a folder.
II. If you're using Windows/PC, right click and then select 'New.' From there, click "Compressed (Zipped) Folder".
III. Drag your graphic/folder into the file.
IV. Go to SendSpace or MediaFire to upload it.
V. Post the download link in a message you are going to post.