Basic Navigation
-From the homepage of the forum you can view all of the forums within message board. Each forum contains a variety of topics pertaining to that forum. Each topic contains a series of post discussing that specific topic.
-To see the list of topics contained in a forum click the forum title
-To see a discussion within a topic click the topic title
-To see the most recent post in a forum or topic click the small icon to the right of the username of the most recent poster.

Posting
Creating Topics
-Topics or "Threads" are discussions within a forum. For exampe if you were to go into the "Hot Topics" forum you would see a list of different topics, each having its own series of posts discussing that particular topic.
-To create a new topic (thread) simply enter the proper forum (i.e.-Talking Smack) and click the "New Topic" icon. Give your topic a title and write your post.

Replying to Topics or Individual Posts
-To make a post in a particular thread simply go to the thread and click the "Post Reply" icon and write your post.
-To respond to a particular post, find the post that you would like to respond to and look in the upper right corner of the post for an icon that says "Quote". Click this icon and a quote of the post will show up at the top of your post.
-You can edit quotes to show only the parts that you want to resond to after you have hit the Quote icon.
-To quote something from a different site, use the quote button in your toolbar (See "Toolbar Items" below for more info).

Using Emoticons
-Emoticons or Smilies are small images used to express an emotion (or, more often, to give an insult).
-To use the emoticons simply look to the right of screen while making a post and find the box with the smilies. Click the smiley that you want to use and it will appear wherever you have the cursor set in your post.
-You can use the drop menu where it says "View More Emoticons" to view different categories of smilies.

Private Messages (PM)
-To send or view private messages, click the envelope icon in the navigation bar at the top of the page below the SMX/AFL Forum header. Or you can go to a post written by the user that you want to PM and click the "MP" icon below the users avatar.

Your Profile
-This is where you can set your preferences, enter personal info, upload your avatar, etc.
-This is also located in the navigation bar at the top of the screen.

Toolbar Items (When Making a Post)
-When making a post, you will see a toolbar at the top of the post box. Scroll over the icons to see what each does.
-When you click on an icon the PHP script command will appear in your post and you must click the icon again to end the command. For example, if I wanted to type the words "For example" in bold print I would click the icon for bold print (B) before typing the words and then click the icon again to end the bold print. So, in the post box, it would look like this: [ b ]For example[ /b ]

Posting Images
Image Hosting
-To post an image it must be hosted online. I prefer Photobucket. Simply register for a free account and upload your images directly from your computer to your account.
-Once you have uploaded your image you will have a list of links below it. Click the URL beside the words "Direct Link" beneath the image you wish to post. This will automatically copy the URL for you.
Posting an Image
-Once you have copied the URL, go back to the forum and your post box (it's much easier to use separate windows or tabs for the two sites) and click the image icon in the toolbar and paste the URL. This will show up in your post box as: