FAQ

Please read this FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) before emailing us. Thank you.

New FAQ on Registered Users and Security word!

How do I remove banners and popups from my message board ?
I lost/forgot my password, what do I do ?
Why am I getting frames within frames ?
How do I add an image ?
Why aren't my images showing up ?
Why is my background image not showing up ?
How do I put my message board in a table ?
How do I password protect my board ?
What fonts can I use ?
How do I change the color of my message board ?
What is the "Registered Users" feature ?
How many messages can I have ?
When I reach 300 messages, does it automatically delete the old ones ?
Why does the changes I saved not show up on my message board ?
How much does this service cost ?
How do I delete posts ?
How do I ban someone ?
What is HTML ?
What is the address for my message board ?
How do I link to my message board from my website ?
What is Text Color ?
What is Link Color ?
What is Active Link Color ?
What is Visited Link Color ?
Can I use .css files with my board ?
How do I use the header and footer ?
Can I remove the Banners at the top of the page ?
What does "Allow HTML in Posts" mean ?
What does "Allow users to search your board" mean ?
What does "Allow users to leave optional links" mean ?
What does "Allow users to leave optional images" mean ?
What does "Show IP address on Posts" mean ?
What is an IP address ?
What does "Highlight New Posts" mean ?
Can I upload Images to your server ?
What does "Show date and time on index" mean ?
What is "Bad word filtering" ?
What is the "Allow Users To Edit Posts" Feature ?
How do I put a counter on my page ?
My question is not in here, what do I do ?


How do I remove banners and popups from my message board ?
Please go to http://www.boards2go.com/adfree.html for more information.
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I lost/forgot my password, what do I do ?
Please go to http://www.boards2go.com/forgot.html and enter in your username. It will email your password to the email account you signed up with (the program will tell you which email address it sent to).
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Why am I getting frames within frames ?
This problem is easily overcome by following these steps:
1) Login to the admin area with your username and password.
2) Click on "Set Preferences" from the menu bar.
3) In the field "Your Site URL", enter in only the page that displays content and NOT the frames page. For example, if I had a frames page which was called frames.html, and in that frame I had left.html and right.html (where left.html was a navigation bar), I would enter in right.html instead of frames.html. If you do not understand this please contact us :).
4) Click "Save Preferences".
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How do I add an image ?
In the header and footer section, add in the HTML code for an image. Keep in mind that you cannot upload images to our server. You must upload them to your own server and link them remotely. If you are looking for a place to find images for use on your board, try topstockphotosites.com. You will find sources for free and paid images.
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Why aren't my images show up ?
This may happen for the following reasons:
1) You have entered in an invalid URL. You must enter the FULL URL including the http:// . Simply entering www.yourdomain.com/image.gif will NOT work.
2) The server the image is located on does not allow "leeching". This means that you must find a server which does allow other servers to link to the images. You can find a comprehensive list of free web space providers at FreeWebSpace.net.
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Why is my background image not showing up ?
This may happen for the following reasons:
1) You have entered in an invalid URL. You must enter the FULL URL including the http:// . Simply entering www.yourdomain.com/image.gif will NOT work.
2) The server the image is located on does not allow "leeching". This means that you must find a server which does allow other servers to link to the images. You can find a comprehensive list of free web space providers at FreeWebSpace.net or check out these cheap hosting offers.
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How do I put my message board in a table ?
In order to put your message board in a table, you must have a pretty solid understanding of tables. You can accomplish this with the header and footer fields provided in the "Set Preferences" section (in the admin area).
Header HTML Code :
<TABLE BORDER="1" COLOR="#0000FF">
<TR><TD>

Footer HTML Code :
</TD></TR>
</TABLE>

If you understand tables, it should now be clear on how to incorporate tables into your message board.
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How do I password protect my board ?
1) Login to the admin area with your username and password.
2) Click on "Set Options" from the menu bar.
3) Check off all the options you want to apply. *Make sure to check "Password Protect Your Board"*
4) Click "Save Options".
5) You should be prompted for a username and password.
6) Enter in a desired username and password you want to use. *Do NOT use the same username and password as your admin username and password*
7) Remember, This is CaSe SeNsiTiVe, which means uppercase and lowercase letters do matter. "CaT" is not the same as "cat".
8) Click Save again and you are all done :).
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What fonts can I use ?
You can use any fonts that are on your system, but if people viewing your page do not have the font, it will display a default font. It is wise to select 3 or 4 fonts. You can do this by separating the font names with a comma (,). (ex: verdana, helvetica, arial)
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How do I change the color of my message board ?
The color of your message board can be changed by editing the Colors in the "Set Preferences" section in the admin area. Simply enter in the "hex" values of the colors. If you do not know hex values, then click on the Question Mark (?) right next to the field, a new window will pop up and give you the hex values of most colors. You must add the Pound sign (#) in front of the 6 alphanumerics.
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What is the "Registered Users" feature ?
The registered users feature can be turned on from the "Set Options" section in the admin area by checking off the "Only registered Users may post" box. Basically what this feature allows for is that once a name is registered, no one else may post under that name unless they have the password. So if you wanted to register your own name before you open your message board to the public, then ONLY you would be able to post with that name. For example, if your name was "Randy" and you register "Randy" then no one else could post using "Randy". This way there is no confusion to who posted the message.
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How many messages can I have ?
You can have up to 300 messages. When your limit is reached, the messages on the bottom get deleted automatically.
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When I reach 300 messages, does it automatically delete the old ones ?
Yes, the oldest thread will be deleted first.
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Why does the changes I saved not show up on my message board ?
This may happen for one of two reasons:
1) You did not click save after you made your changes.
2) You typed in your board URL wrong and accessing a non existing board. For example if your username is myboard, and you goto http://www.boards2go.com/boards/board.cgi?user=MYboard, you will be accessing the wrong message board. In other words, your username is CaSe SenSiTiVe.
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How much does this cost ?
This is a free service. We generate revenue by the banners we place at the top of your page. Sometimes we remove banners for an extended period of time just to let our users know that we care.
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How do I delete posts ?
Follow these steps:

1) Login to the admin area with your username and password.
2) Click on "Delete Posts" from the menu bar.
3) Check off all the messages you want to delete.
4) Click "Delete Posts"
5) Simple heh?
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How do I ban someone ?
Easy Answer:
In order to ban someone, you must first copy their IP number from the Post. (It's the number that looks like 123.45.67.891) *Make sure the "Show IP Address" option is on. You can turn this on in the "Set Options" section in the admin area.* After you have the IP address login to the admin area and paste that number into the ban IP number field and press "BAN".
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Complex Answer:
We have an added feature which lets you ban a wide range of IP numbers. For example, if the person you want to ban does not have a static (non changing) IP address, it will be hard to ban that user because the last 3 digits of his IP address are always changing. To bypass this, you can enter in the first 3 sections of the IP address and in the last section enter in an "X". (293.39.34.X) This will ban him for good, BUT it might ban a lot of other people also. Be weary when using this feature because America Online Users all have the same first 3 portions of the IP address.

What is HTML ?
HTML is Hypertext Markup Language duh?!! HTML is the "programming language" (not really) that makes up a website. If you have no idea what HTML is you can still use our message boards. The only trouble you might encounter is linking to your message board (Which is covered in this FAQ).
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What is the address for my message board ?
Your web address for your board is: http://www.boards2go.com/boards/board.cgi?user=<USERNAME> Where it says <USERNAME> enter in your username. If your username was "Joe", enter in: http://www.boards2go.com/boards/board.cgi?user=Joe
Notice the use of same casing (upper and lower case).
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How do I link to my message board from my website ?
If you login to the admin section, the first thing you will see is a text box with some HTML code in it. Cut and paste that into your HTML file. Don't know how to do that ? Follow these steps:
1) Download the html file from your server. If your server won't let you download then use an Online Editor of some sort they provide you with, but make sure that you will be able to see the HTML coding which will have lots of less than (<) and greater than (>) signs. If you are using an online editor skip to step 3.
2) Open the html file with a text editor or a program such as NotePad. To do this in windows : In Windows Explorer or My Computer, Find the file you just downloaded. Hold down SHIFT and RIGHT click on the file. A menu should pop up and you should select "Open with...". When a screen pops up Choose NotePad **Make sure the "Always use this program..." box is UNCHECKED** Now press OK.
3) Paste the code into the file. If you are unsure of where to put it, follow this one simple rule. Put it below the <BODY> tag (it might be <BODY BGCOLOR=....>) AND above the </BODY> tag.
4) Save the file.
5) Upload it to your server (if you used an online editor simply press save)
6) Your done :)
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What is Text Color ?
Text color is the font color all your normal type will appear.
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What is Link Color ?
Link Color is the font color all your HyperLinks (Links) will appear.
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What is Active Link Color ?
Active Link Color is the font color all your HyperLinks will appear when they have acquired the focus (try pressing shift and you will notice some links change color)
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What is Visited Link Color ?
Visited Link Color is the font color all your VISITED HyperLinks will appear.
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Can I use .css files with my board ?
As of right now no. We will be adding this feature very soon.
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How do I use the header and footer ?
If you know HTML, imagine the messages as "Content" and in the code, everything above your content is the header and everything below it is the footer. If you don't know HTML well then HEADER is TOP and FOOTER is BOTTOM.
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Can I remove the Banners at the top of the page ?
No, you cannot remove the banners.
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What does "Allow HTML in Posts" mean ?
This lets your guests leave HTML in their POSTS, be weary when using this feature because people can use javascript on your message board and everyone visiting the board may be harmed.
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What does "Allow users to search your board" mean ?
This feature lets your guests search your message board :).
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What does "Allow users to leave optional links" mean ?
This lets your users to leave a link. This way you can turn off the "Allow HTML in Posts" feature and be safe :).
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What does "Allow users to leave optional images" mean ?
This lets your users to leave a picture. This way you can turn off the "Allow HTML in Posts" feature and be safe :).
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What does "Show IP address on Posts" mean ?
This feature shows the "Posters" IP address on his posts. You can turn this feature off if it bothers your users.
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What is an IP address ?
An IP address is like an address for your computer.
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What does "Highlight New Posts" mean ?
This feature makes the new posts (Today's Posts) appear in a different color. You can choose the color you want to use (Red Is Default).
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Can I upload Images to your server ?
No. You must upload them to your own server. You can find a comprehensive listing of free web space providers at FreeWebSpace.net
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What does "Show date and time on index" mean ?
This shows the date and time on your main message board page. If this feature is turned off only a name would be visible.
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What is "Bad word filtering" ?
Filters out bad words to "!#$@". Currently we have our own "Dictionary" file of bad words.
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What is the "Allow Users To Edit Posts" Feature ?
Enabling this feature will allow your users to set a password for their posts so that in the future they may edit them. If you have the registered users feature on, they do not need to enter in a seperate password. It will just use the one they use to post.
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How do I put a counter on my page ?
You can't do this just yet but in around a month you will be able to put a text counter on your page.
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My question is not in here, what do I do ?
You can contact us here.
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