How to Navigate on FireflyFans.net by Astriana

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How to Navigate on FireflyFans.net

POSTED BY: ASTRIANA
UPDATED: Friday, September 10, 2004 17:01
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VIEWED: 4214
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Wednesday, June 23, 2004 3:08 AM

Thought it might be a good idea to post this here, too... This is the first in a series of posts explaining how to navigate the site.

This is for all those folks who'd like to come visit us on FireflyFans.net, but don't because they don't know how to navigate the site.

Okay, when you first land on the main page, you have several different sections (clicking the yellow text for any of these items will take you to that thread/discussion/filk/image/other item):

Latest Features (across the top) - specific items/articles that have been singled out by Haken for staying power. (For example, Saint Jayne's Firefly Personality Test...) There's a section at the bottom of the page with discussion threads for each of the features (Feature Articles).

Serenity Countdown (upper left) - countdown in days until the BDM!

What's New (upper center) - shows today's date and any admin messages from Haken at the top. Just under the date is "Latest Items" - new creative-type items in the Blue Sun Room (fanfic, images, filk, other media). And just under that is "Recent Firefly Logs" - these are the 5 most recent blogs put up by members. At the bottom of this section is some yellow text: "There's More! Display the top 100 recent items!" If you click this link, you'll be take to a page with links to the 100 latest non-thread items to be posted (blogs and all the stuff in the Blue Sun Room).

News Headlines (upper right) - Pretty self-explanatory... Firefly-related newsworthy items.

Support FFF.net (left, under "Serenity Countdown") - A link for those generous souls who have a buck or two to donate to help keep the site up and running.

Scrolling down the page, you'll find:

Firefly Taglog (left) - A little corner to chat in. Not quite real time, but close. Known as "the Tag" for short.

Latest Discussions (center) - A list of the last 10 most recent threads to have been created/posted to. At the top of this list is a link to "All Posts in Linear Board Mode." I would NOT suggest using this, because it basically shows all the posts for the day in the chronological order they were posted - not by thread. For each thread, you'll see 3 colors of text for the title. Grey is for the forum where the thread resides, white is for the date/time of the latest post, and yellow is the link to the actual discussion. At the bottom, there's a link to "There's More! Show the top 100 discussions!" This will do exactly what it says. The last 100 threads to have been created/posted to will be shown.

Browncoat Events (right) - Member-submitted list of upcoming shindigs and other Firefly-related events (Dreamcon is a good example).

Weekly Poll (left, under Firefly Taglog) - The polls really aren't quite weekly, but they do change periodically.

Episode Guide (left, under Weekly Poll) - Links to info about each episode. Clicking on a link will take you to the episode page, which gives review commentary and ratings, episode analysis, unanswered questions, speculation, and episode notes.

Firefly Database (left, under Episode Guide) - Searches submitted database info for references and information via keyword search. NOTE: This does NOT function as a search via thread.

Firefly Swarms on the Web (center, under Feature Articles) - Other Firefly-related web sites.

And for the piece de resistance:
Message Boards (right, bottom) - a list of the different forums in which the individual threads live. Clicking on any of the forums will give links to the last 100 threads created/posted to in that forum. (For example, "Firefly Universe" will bring up the last 100 role play-related threads.)

Under the Message Boards are some links hosted by Google that can be clicked to help donate to FFF.net (or rather, to encourage Google to pay FFF.net something like $0.01 per click...)

This is now an insanely long post, so I'll wait to post the info for in-forum stuff. Overall keep in mind that any yellow text is a link to another part of the board, and that Haken has done a pretty good job of making things self-explanatory.

~Astriana, Long-Winded Goddess of Board Interpretation~

...I'm still free,
You can't take the sky from me.

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Wednesday, June 23, 2004 3:55 AM

MEDUSA

Sorry, pushed a wrong button.

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Wednesday, June 23, 2004 9:08 AM

WYDRAZ

Very kind of you to go to the trouble to post directions, Astriana. But I work for an internet company, and it is my experience that if people are having problems navigating a website, either they are too stupid or lazy (and so wouldn't take the time to read directions), and/or the site is too difficult to navigate.

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Wednesday, June 23, 2004 9:12 AM

ASTRIANA

Thanks, I think...

This is a post I initially put together for the folks over at the OB. I wouldn't say that folks are usually too stupid to read the directions - I think most folks just get comfortable where they are and resist change. This was just meant to be a friendly nudge, since those on the OB seem to be pretty resigned to FOX shutting down the board once 'Versal either sets up their own or distributes the BDM. Figured I'd get a jump on the necessary info.

There will be more posts forthcoming with info about navigating in the individual areas, but those have to wait 'til RL leaves me some time.

~Astriana~
Long-Winded Goddess of Inter-Board Communications & Diplomacy

...I'm still free,
You can't take the sky from me.

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Wednesday, June 23, 2004 9:26 AM

LIZ

as one of those "too stupid or lazy" (i think i'll go with lazy) to figure out the OB i think that the directions are a great idea. i read the ones Astriana posted for the OB and am beginning to figure it out.

I work at an internet company too (not in support obviously). i am not a 1337 h4x0r, but i have friends who are and it is always much easier to be shown how to do something than by trial and error. and if someone is willing to offer help, why re-invent the wheel?

One other thing to keep in mind... many of our BDHs and Joss himself have admitted troubles w/computers and/or posting.

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Wednesday, June 23, 2004 2:53 PM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

I'm sure Astriana was going to get around to this as well, but I thought I would point out that the latest 100 threads in any forum is not the limit of what you can find there. At the bottom of the list of 100 you will see another link that says "Read Threads That Have Been Archived." As far as I know the archives go all the way back to the first ones ever posted here.

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

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Thursday, June 24, 2004 11:01 AM

ASTRIANA

Bumping this for the new folks...

I suppose now that browncoats.serenitymovie.com is up, I'll just have to write a new thread for how to navigate there, too...

~A~
El Jefe Magnifico's Mistress... of Communications and Harems...

...I'm still free,
You can't take the sky from me.

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Tuesday, July 13, 2004 7:28 AM

PEARLAT32

Do you know how to add a photo in your message on a thread? Thanks for any help, as I am a bit computer language illiterate.

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Tuesday, July 13, 2004 7:30 AM

ASTRIANA

The picture has to be hosted on a web server, then you can just post the URL and it'll show up in your message.

~Astriana~
~Long-Winded Goddess of Inter-Board Communication and Diplomacy~

and

El Jefe Magnifico's Mistress... of Communications and Harems...

...I'm still free,
You can't take the sky from me.

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Tuesday, July 13, 2004 9:56 AM

HAKEN

Likes to mess with stuffs.

Depending on what the photo is. If it's Firefly related, a member can always upload it to the Blue Sun Room and then make a link to that in their post. That way FFF.NET would be hosting the image.

I'm working on a photolog for individual members to do this sort of thing, don't know when it'll be done though.

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Friday, September 10, 2004 5:01 PM

GROMIT

Is there a way to search posts/theads for keywords and/or authors?

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