Welcome to the Forum help guide. You’ll find the following sections in this guide

1. How to create a new Message (a.k.a. a new thread) on the Forum

  1. First, you need to make sure you have registered with Kovels.com and are logged in. Once you’re logged in, click on the blue “Forums” tab at the top right of the web page.
  2.  Now you need to select a forum. Currently, the only forum available is “Kovels Discussion Board,” so click on that.
  3.  You will see a green “New Thread” button. Click on this button.
  4. Enter a subject for your post in the white field next to the word “Subject.” The subject you choose will become the topic of your post that everyone will see when browsing through the forum.
  5.  Now it’s time to write your post. Click anywhere inside the large white field to the right of “Message” and start typing whatever it is you would like to say!
  6. Now that your new post has been created, you can either preview it to see what it will look like, or you can go ahead and submit it to the forum right away. Below the space you wrote your post you’ll find the “Submit” and “Preview” buttons. To publish your post immediately, click on the “Submit” button. To preview it, click the “Preview” button. If you are satisfied with your post after previewing it, select the “Submit” button to publish it.
  7. You’re done!

 

2. How to Post a Reply to an Existing Thread

There are a few ways to post a reply to an existing thread. The easiest way is to look for the green “Quick Reply” button at the bottom right of every post. Simply click on this button, click inside the white box that pops up, write your message, and select the “Submit” button. That’s it!

If you would like the option of including emoticons, files, pictures, etc., then click on the green “Reply” button at the bottom right of every post (it’s next to the “Quick Reply” button). Select this button and continue as if you were writing a new thread (the only difference between creating a new thread and posting a reply is that you don’t need to change the subject–because the thread already has a subject). See below for more details.

3. How Can I Customize My Posts? Add Emoticons, Use Colored Fonts, Add Pictures, Files etc…

First, you need to go to the “post a new message” screen. That’s the screen you come to when you create a new thread or reply to existing posts. If you’re confused about this, see “How to Create a New Post (a.k.a. a New Thread) On the Forum” or “How to Post a Reply to an Existing Thread.”

Changing the Appearance of Text
You can change the size and color of text, make it bold, italicized, or underlined … or even do all of these at the same time, if you like! Above the large white box that you type the text of your post into you’ll see a row of small, rectangular buttons. The button with “B” on it will allow you to make your text bold, “i” allows you to italicize your text, and “u” underlines your text. Below the buttons you will see two drop-down menus; these menus allow you to change the color and size of your text.

To use these functions, first type your text into the large white box. Now all you need to do is highlight the text that you would like to manipulate and press one of the buttons described above.

For example, let’s say you want to make some text bold. Type out your text:

Make this bold

Now, highlight the text and press the “B” button. Your text should now look like this:

[b]Make this bold[/b]

It’s the exact same process for changing the color, size, underlining, and italicizing. Just highlight your text, and press the desired button.

Adding Emoticons

If you’d like to add an emoticon (a smiley face icon), all you need to do is look for the rows of emoticons to the right of the white box you type your text into and click on the one you want. That’s it!

How do you add an image in the forums?

Directly below the rows of emoticons, you’ll see “Select Image file to attach.” To the right of those words will be a small white rectangle and a “Browse” button. Click on the “Browse” button and search through your computer for the image file that you would like to add. Select the image file, select “upload” and you’re all set.

To post multiple images complete the post and then do another post with the next image.

Note: Each image file can have a maximum size of 50 KB .

Why don’t I see the image I just uploaded when I try to preview it?

The image will not show when you hit preview. However, you will see the message you wrote. This is because when clicking on Preview, the image has not been uploaded to the server.

1. What Is a “Thread” and What Is a “Topic”?

If you have never used an Internet forum before, you probably aren’t familiar with these terms. Threads and topics are the same thing; they are a collection of posts regarding one subject. There can be an unlimited number of posts in a thread. For example, someone might create a thread called “Favorite Flea Markets.” Any user of the Kovels.com forum would then be able to create a post within that thread or browse through all the posts that other uses have already made.

2. What Do I Do If I See a Post in the Forum that Violates the Forum Guidelines?

For more information on what kinds of posts are acceptable and what kinds are not allowed, please read our Guidelines [link to guidelines]. If you see a post that violates our guidelines, please report it to a moderator immediately. To do this, look at the bottom right of the offensive post. You’ll see “Report to Moderator” written in blue. Click on this. You should now be brought to a message-reporting screen. Fill in the reason for your report, fill in your message, and press the “Submit” button.

3. How Do I Change My Profile Picture (a.k.a. My Avatar)?

Make sure you’re logged into Kovels.com, then select “My Profile.” It’s on the same line as the “Help” link that you selected to get to this guide. This will bring you to a page with three columns. In the column on the far left, you’ll see a blue “My Avatar” button. Click on this. Under the section “Submit a new Avatar for Upload” you’ll see a white “Browse” button on the right. Click the “Browse” button and select the picture from your computer that you would like to be your profile picture. Now click the “Upload” button below. After the file loads (which may take a minute or two), you should be all done!

Please note that the maximum upload size is 2048 KB. So if your file does not upload, it’s possible that it’s too big. If that’s the case, you will have to make your picture smaller or choose another picture.

If you would like to use one of our default pictures as your profile picture, click on the “My Avatar” button in your profile, then scroll down until you see the Default Gallery (it has pictures of a soccer ball, a flower, a guitar, etc). Click on the small white circle to the right of your desired picture, then click the “Confirm Choice” button below the pictures. You have now successfully changed your profile picture.

4. How Do I Change the Information in My Profile?

Select “My Profile.” It’s on the same line as the “Help” link that you selected to get to this guide. You will be able to fill in details regarding your birth date, location etc. After filling in as much information as you like (you don’t need to fill in any of it if you prefer not to), scroll down the page and select the “Submit” button.

5. How Can I Navigate Between Different Sections of the Forum?

If you go to the forum homepage you’ll see a list of all the forum sections, Pottery and Porcelain, Glass Jewelry, etc. Click on any of these to visit that section of the forum. If you want to visit a different section of the forum, go back to the forum home page. Do so by pressing the back button on your browser, or look for the “Forum” button and press that.

6. How Do I Quote Another User’s Post in My Post?

Navigate to the post of the user you’d like to quote. Press the orange “quote” button. A new message screen will pop up with the quoted text. Add any extra text that you’d like and then press the “submit” button as usual to post the message.

7. What is the Topic Icon?

When posting a new message to the forum, you may have noticed a row of Topic Icons below the Subject line. If you choose to select a Topic Icon, the icon will be displayed next to your post in the forum.

8. How Do I Send an Email to Another User in the Forum?

First, click on the name of the user you would like to send an email to. You will find the user’s name at the top left corner of a post that he or she has made. This will bring you to the user’s profile page. Above the user’s picture, you will see a gray “Messages” button. Hold your mouse over “Messages.” A new “Send Email” button should appear below the “Messages” button. Click on the “Send Email” button. You may now fill in the “Subject” field with whatever you would like the subject of your email to be and fill in the “Message” with whatever you would like the main body of your email to be. Press the “Send Email” button below the message field and your email will be sent! Note that the receiver of your email will reply to the email address that you provided to Kovels.com when you registered.

9. What’s the Difference Between Quick Reply and Reply Topic?

The only difference between Quick Reply and Reply is that you do not have the options of adding text, adding images, changing fonts, etc to Quick Reply. But if you just want to type normal text in reply to a previous post, then Quick Reply is a bit faster and will do the trick.

10. How Can I View Only the Most Recent Posts?

Select “Show latest posts.” It’s to the right of your profile picture at the top left of the page. You will be brought to a new screen that shows all of the posts in the last 4 hours. You can also choose to see all of the posts in the last 8 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, the past week, and since the last visit by pressing the corresponding buttons.

11. How Can I View All of My Posts?

Click on “My Profile,” it’s white and on the same line as the “Help” button you pressed to get to this guide. You’ll now see three columns. On the far left column you’ll find a “My Posts” button. Click on this and you will be able to view all of your posts.

12. What Happens When You “Favorite” a Post?

If you find a post that you would like to make sure you can easily find again, you may “favorite” it. At the bottom right of every post on the Kovels.com forum, you’ll notice an orange “Favorite” button. Press this if you would like to “favorite” it. To view your favorites, first click on “My Profile,” a white button on the same line as the “Help” button you pressed to get to this guide. In the left column of your profile page, you will see a blue “My Favorites” button. Press this and you will be able to view all of your favorite posts.