For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

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MissK
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For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by MissK »

Hi Newbie, and WELCOME to the IndianRingneck.com Forum!
Most recently EDITED August 20, 2013.

Several topics follow: How to use SEARCH, POST, (including NEW TOPICS and PRIVATE MESSAGES) and EDIT, as well as how to get back to the BOARD INDEX. You can read the whole thing, or skip ahead to the colour-coded bit you need. Some parts rely on you having read the parts before, though.

You'll find lots of swell folks here, willing to share information or just be a pal when you need one. I was skeptical when I was new here, but it's really true! The community here is Fantastic and lots of care has gone into making the forum! Take a minute to notice how remarkably well the pages are done, even down to the helpful and appropriate colour highlighting. It's IRN Gold.

You may find yourself wanting to get a FAST ANSWER, and so you can use the SEARCH FUNCTION to see what has been said before. Many times a question has been discussed, sometimes at great length, already. You can read the old conversation (aka "thread") and get all that information at once! Also, sometimes people get tired of answering the same question over and over, and so they might stop answering. You don't want your question to sit unanswered because folks have seen it before! Let's say you want information on TAMING. TRY the SEARCH function. Here's how:

To use the search function you click the word "search" at the upper right edge of this page. It's where the background colour goes from medium green to darkest green. Then just put taming into the first box and press enter. You'll get about 600 results (today....), which is a lot to read. Don't be discouraged. To read one of the results, see the line (for that one) that says "post subject". You click whatever title appears after those words.

If you are bewildered by so many choices, you can also put in a poster's name, in the second box in the search screen. If, for instance, you put in taming to the first box, my name to the second, and then hit enter, you will get about 36 choices (today....). These will be posts I made that contain the word taming in the title or text. Notice that there are multiple entries for the same thread, called "post subject". If you just click one then you can scroll around and read the whole thing at once, everybody's comments, and follow the conversation. No need to click on each single post one after the other that way. Just read all the threads that seem helpful. If you notice someone has posted in that thread, and you like what they have to say, you just might want to search again, for posts by that person. This is helpful because certain people may have a special interest in certain aspects of keeping IRNs, making them a little more experienced or knowledgeable there. Those are the people who will have made the most numerous and helpful posts on their particular favourite topic! :wink:

When you read the thread, you may find you have a comment or question. You can post it into the conversation (as long as you have registered on the forum) by clicking "post reply". That is located at the bottom left of the page, just above the first narrow, light green stripe. If you want to start a new conversation, you would use the "new topic" button instead. Type what you have to say into the large white box, with a fresh title in the narrow white box (if applicable) and then click "submit". You will find "submit" in a small white box below the large one, just above the black bar.

Please note, New topics should be posted in the corresponding section of the forum. The best way to do this is to start at the Board Index Screen If you are not in that screen, you can find it by clicking "Board Index" at the left of the narrow green stripe at the top of any page. This is also the way to get back to the Board Index screen in the event you get lost wandering around the forum and want to go back to start. From this screen, select the section for your post by clicking the name of the section, which is hilighted in blue. Here you will be able to read all the posts in this section, or make your own by clicking "New Topic" and following the POST instructions above.

Careful study of the buttons around the white box for each post will show you can contact posters directly about each single entry. That's the "pm" (private message) button. Use it for more private communication, for example if you want to give them your phone number, or just gossip. :wink: This is also helpful if you have made a post to a really OLD thread (each post displays the date it was made) and the person has not read it. They may not know your post was there if they are no longer interested in the old thread. So you make your post on the thread, and if a few days go by with no reply, you can consider sending a "pm" to say "I posted on this thread - please check it out?" You would usually want to be making your posts right on the thread, of course, because there is going to be someone later on who needs the same thing, and THEY will be searching YOUR post! :D

Now, sometimes it will happen that you desire to clarify or reword something you posted. In this circumstance, you can EDIT your own post. To do this, go to the post as normal and read the post, deciding what you want to change. At the bottom of the post, on the right, you will see "edit" in a small white box. You should find it easily, since you have already seen "pm" and "submit" on a similar line. Click "edit" and your original post will appear in a large white box. Proceed with caution, as any changes you make will become the new version of your post. Simply retype the part you want to change. When you're happy with the new post, you can click "submit". If you have made an edit, there will be a tiny note made automatically at the bottom of the post, but I think it's a good idea to make specific note of it at the top or bottom of your text at the time you edit. That way, people will have a better chance of noticing a change has been made. An edit is of no use if nobody sees it.

If you, like me, tend to make long posts, you might like to see how they are going to look before you submit them. That's part of editing, to be sure. You can click the "preview" button, which is located next to "submit", to see how your post will look. Be sure to scroll back down and hit "submit" before leaving this screen, however, or your entire post may be lost.

This should be enough information to get you making productive searches, posting, and contacting others as needed. Please remember, though, that everyone here is just like you, in the way they like IRNs, but are here for information and community. This forum isn't anyone's job. When someone helps you, they are doing it from the goodness of their heart, and no other reason.

Enjoy the Forum!
Last edited by MissK on Mon Apr 21, 2014 6:29 am, edited 8 times in total.
-MissK
Skyes_crew
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by Skyes_crew »

Very informative MissK. I wish this forum had a "like" button. :D
I am owned by my birds...and I wouldn't have it any other way :D

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willowisp71
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by willowisp71 »

^^^^^ What Skyes_crew just said :D :D :D :lol:
Regards Deb
InTheAir
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by InTheAir »

willowisp71 wrote:^^^^^ What Skyes_crew just said :D :D :D :lol:
I agree
ellieelectrons
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by ellieelectrons »

Thanks MissK. Well done. I've stickied the thread.

Ellie.
MissK
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by MissK »

Thanks everyone and thanks especially ellie! I was hoping for that!

-MissK
-MissK
Redzone
Posts: 108
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by Redzone »

Now we just need to make every new user have to read that before posting privileges are granted :P
Skyes_crew
Posts: 1946
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by Skyes_crew »

Maybe it should be moved to where introductions are so all the newbies can access it sooner.
Last edited by Skyes_crew on Sun Aug 18, 2013 10:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I am owned by my birds...and I wouldn't have it any other way :D

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MissK
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by MissK »

It should be very close to the first screen people see, since they are new. (edited)

-MissK
Last edited by MissK on Tue Aug 20, 2013 9:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
-MissK
Skyes_crew
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by Skyes_crew »

Edit: we'll have to ask Ellie about it :D
I am owned by my birds...and I wouldn't have it any other way :D

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Melika
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by Melika »

We can't forget the so very useful Edit feature for already existing posts! And perhaps a note about posting a new topic where appropriate so it will get a better response. Most of the time I surf the Diet forum- so if it's a diet question and it isn't in that sub-forum I likely won't see it. :)
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I've been called 'birdbrained' before, but somehow I don't think this is what they meant. say:hah-nay
MissK
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by MissK »

That was a very helpful comment. I have made some appropriate changes. Now my simple instruction is more of a Newbie Opus, and I'm a little concerned it might be too big and scary. Colour coding is intended to improve utility, however. Feedback is welcome - I'm sure this info is already on the forum (?) but I wish this had been here at login when I started.

-MissK
-MissK
Melika
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by Melika »

I find headers/titles with font sizes, changes (italics, bold, underline) and lists to be eye catching, and easier to read than too many colours. Also having enough blank space, as solid walls of text become difficult. A lot of people have difficulty reading the colours when it's more than just a few words.

While it might seem like a lot, topics like this are often extremely helpful. Like you said you wish it had been here when you began. Having it posted in the Introduce Yourself forum, as suggested, will also be good. And maybe a title more like- well like Kyria's title here would be better. I would recommend refining it here, and then posting it there when you are happy with it. Also when posted there it should probably be a Locked sticky to prevent a weird chain of introductions/questions posted within it that would be better in their own topics/appropriate places. I believe once it's locked you would need certain permissions to be able to edit it, or have a mod edit it for you if changes need to be made in the future. I know I'm always trying to improve the diet sticky. I think we need a separate Recipe sticky soon- yanno, catalogue and keep updated a list of recipes created by members here. :D

http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... f=7&t=4863 Was created a long while ago, but something more comprehensive could be helpful, now that we seem to have a higher volume of people and more information to sift through. So this would almost replace that. Ah and I see Lauren just locked that- you can see why that was a good idea.

Pictures, when appropriate, can be very helpful. Ellie did a good job of that, as an example, with her photo posting guide. Perhaps something similar to that for how to search?

And you can make things like "Board Index Screen" link to what they are using the URL tags.

You could also contain a list of helpful links for common questions that already have sticky topic answers, to make them easy to find, like http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... =4&t=15060 and the diet guide.

I still want Ellie to make a master Foraging sticky thread because we need it and it would be epic 'cause she's good at it. And a basic intro to trick training thread. 8)

So those are my ideas so far. Perhaps contact Kyria if you can and see if she just wants to update the current thread she has there, or replace it? :?:

It's awesome that you're willing to put this together for everyone. :D
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I've been called 'birdbrained' before, but somehow I don't think this is what they meant. say:hah-nay
ellieelectrons
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by ellieelectrons »

Hi MissK

With your permission, I thought I'd work on making some of the changes to this thread as outlined by Melika. I think she had some good ideas here. I've started taking screenshots to add but it may take me a few days (or longer) to get the edits done. I'll post it on this thread when I've done it and you can let me know what you think. Once it's ready we can post it to a new thread and we can unsticky this one and sticky the new one. It may also be good if we lock it.

Possibly, we could also consider adding it to Kyria's thread as Melika pointed out.

Also thought I should let you know that Imran mentioned updating the site soon to make it more mobile friendly as most traffic is mobile traffic these days. I don't know when this will happen though or what these changes will mean to the current site.

Ellie.
ellieelectrons
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by ellieelectrons »

MissK - I hope you don't mind, I've started having a go at it. If there is anything you don't like, please let me know... but don't judge too harshly it's a work in progress! Ellie.

Hi Newbie, welcome to the IndianRingneck.com Forum! :D
Several topics follow including how to use:
  • search
  • post including new topics and private messages
  • edit
  • the board index
You can read the whole thing, or skip ahead to the bit you need. Some parts rely on you having read the parts before, though.

You'll find lots of swell folks here, willing to share information or just be a pal when you need one. I was skeptical when I was new here, but it's really true! The community here is Fantastic and lots of care has gone into making the forum! Take a minute to notice how remarkably well the pages are done. It's IRN Gold.

Search
You may find yourself wanting to get a FAST ANSWER, and so you can use the SEARCH FUNCTION to see what has been said before. Many times a question has been discussed, sometimes at great length, already. You can read the old conversation (aka "thread") and get all that information at once! Also, sometimes people get tired of answering the same question over and over, and so they might stop answering. You don't want your question to sit unanswered because folks have seen it before! Let's say you want information on TAMING. TRY the SEARCH function. Here's how:
  • To use the search function you click the word "search" at the upper right edge of this page. It's where the background colour goes from light green to dark green.
    Image
InTheAir
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by InTheAir »

This site is pretty good from a mobile already. It's simple and doesn't drain the battery with silly flash and extraneous stuff!
MissK
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by MissK »

Ladies, I am totally happy for you to improve what I've done, so long as it can maintain my original intent.

The (primary) intent was to teach and entice the rankest forum beginner to conduct effective searches (freeing us all from a good bit of entry level repetition) and (secondary) gain enough skill to simply express himself. It's no exaggeration to say that when I first logged in I didn't even know how to read the messages. Honest. :oops: (Really, I kept clicking the section name instead of the post subject - it was ugly....)

It's not my forum or my place, but I would be most happy if this information would fall into the lap of the person as they first log in. I'd like it to be so user-friendly, and non-threatening, because if it's scary, nobody will use it. The catch, and I realize I'm not offering any solution, here, about putting it in "introduce yourself" is that, unless you actually DO want to introduce yourself, you aren't going there. I never did. I sweated it out, never having seen Kyrias's thing. It was only after I decided to join, after I didn't really need that post (for searching), that I read it.

I, personally, use colour coding in various areas in my life, and I like it, but I'm not tied to it for here. It IS helpful, when scrolling down a bunch of text, to have bits stand out as unique, for markers in an otherwise overwhelming sea of text. Maybe it can be downgraded to highlights, like this (or something):

********************
SEARCH
********************

I had not planned on taking my instructional any further, but, hey, I like to talk...... (shrug) And I do like to make a positive contribution. With a feedback system (Melika) and an editor (Ellie), I suppose it could go wherever needed.

-MissK
-MissK
Melika
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by Melika »

It's always possible, that when the topic is ready, Imran could make it show in ALL forums up at the top that way it can't be escaped. Some forums have it in place until you have so many posts etc.
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I've been called 'birdbrained' before, but somehow I don't think this is what they meant. say:hah-nay
ellieelectrons
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by ellieelectrons »

Hi MissK

Once I've had my way with it, I'll be happy for you to re-edit it if it has lost any intent. I like what you've done with the colour highlighting and will see what I can do. My intention was for the top set of bullet points to be links to further down the page, however I don't think the board allows such advanced coding. Every time I try to write something in code, it doesn't work.

In life, I use colours a lot too. I have multi-coloured ballpoint pens all around my house and all throughout my handbag. I started doing this after going to a brain theory workshop that explained that colour coding can help our brains learn.

I'll try to do some more work on this soon.

Ellie.

Melika - The idea of having a post at the top of every forum is a good one. Once we've got it all sorted about how we want it to look, we can ask Imran. Ellie.
MissK
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by MissK »

Just give me a heads-up if you want me to do anything further. :D

-MissK
-MissK
MissK
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by MissK »

Actually, ladies, I have changed my mind!

I had a look at my little post on somebody else's computer, and I thought it looked just as I wanted - informal, friendly, not tooo, toooo long (ok, maybe a little long). I thought the colour achieved the goal of making it easy to ID the right section, and hilighted key concepts.

I'm pleased with it as it is, and so I've decided to leave it alone. I don't think there is any need to sweat over making it the ultimate of what it could be as long as it gets the job done. I really thank you for your enthusiasm and helpfulness, though! :D

-MissK
-MissK
ellieelectrons
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by ellieelectrons »

You don't want screen shots? That's the main thing I was thinking about doing to improve it. Sorry I dropped the ball a little - had a busy weekend.

Ellie.
mJacobsenel
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For Total Newbies How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by mJacobsenel »

Aood info for me to use. My lovie is only 6 months old, so I was wondering about the teething stage mentioned that they go through. How long does it last? My bird still bites when he is angry.
Erik.R.25
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I'm scared to handle my new baby indian ringneck

Post by Erik.R.25 »

I'm scared to handle my new indian ringneck
B4 u read it
Accept my apologies my English isn't that good I'm European thanks

I don't know he's sex yet but I got feeling he's a boy lol
He's 4 monts old never been handled or handfeed. I got him on 13th of January so it's been 2 days now.
I'm absolutely new to this I had 2 cockatiels before and 2 budgies male and female which I'm planning to breed this year so whish me good luck with that haha .

Anyway let's get back to my beautiful ringneck
I'm Scared to teach him to step up on my hand I'm scared of him biting me It might sound stupid I know lol but does it hurt ? How bad does it hurts? And how can I tame him I started with a stick he stepped up few times but then just carried on ignoring me and climbing up and down the cage and biting everything he could . At first I thought he's happy that's why he's doing this but when I try to give him a treat he screams and biting he's toys or just flying up and down I was worried he will hurt him self I backed up straight away and leaft him to calm down. I played some relaxing sounds for birds and walked out of my bedroom. When I came back after about 20 min he looked very calm he was eating he's vegetables I cut for him earlier on can tell he did enjoy it because he eat all of it lol so around 9 pm I covered the cage i could hear him playing with his toys and biting the cover then he stopped i thing he went to sleep.......... and me too haha
This morning he woke me up as he was climbing inside he's cage and making banging noises with he's toys took the cover off and he was even more happier I offered him a monkey nut as a treat he took it and threw it on the bottom of he's cage then climbed down to eat it i was continually talking to him for about 10 min. He paid attention to me and made one little nois like he tried to copy me saying hiii then after like 5min. I think he had enough and he just ignored me and he went to sleep that was around 12 noon I made sure he's got food I gave him parrot food but he didn't eat it so around 9pm I took it away and gave him sliced apple I put it on bbq stick and tried to feed him he ate like 5 slices plus i put some more apple and other fruit in hes tray but he's still not moving I'm so worried about him
Can anyone help me and advice me with what to do please
sanjays mummi
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Re: For Total Newbies: How to use SEARCH and make a POST

Post by sanjays mummi »

They bite for two reasons, fear or anger. Your bird is very scared, you need to bond with him/her, so that he/she trusts you. So you sit next to the cage and talk and sing to your bird, offer treats through the bars, until you bond with each other Nothing will induce your bird to step up. Yes bites hurt, and Yes, the bites bleed.
You cannot compare a Ringneck with a budgie. A ringneck is feisty, independent and likes to do things in it's own time, it's own way.
Sanjay was aviary hatched and parent reared, only now, after seven years is he landing on my wrist and sitting for several minutes. But then, I've never wing clipped, and I've Never pushed the boundaries.
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