New to Using Forums? Check here for help!

[FANGS]

Forums can be intimidating and seem rather archaic and outdated, however, they remain the best way to logically share, store and easily retrieve information. However, until you are familiar with how to use forums and how to find the information you are looking for, it can be frustrating. Please see the below posts to hopefully help you more easily figure this out!

 

[FANGS]

RULES, POLICIES AND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

Along the very bottom of screen on the right hand side, you'll see links to all of the rules that cover this community. However, as of today (June 9, 2025) these are still a work in progress and reference other sites under the Movie Props LLC umbrella (The RPF, The Dented Helmet, and The 405th). We'll get all of this fixed up in due course, however the information will generally stay the same. Basically it all boils down to being kind to one another.



You might also be wondering about the lefthand side and the "Share". Yep....still working on that as well but we'll get there.

Below that is where you can choose what your Pit looks like - either Light Style or Dark Style. I use Dark Style which is why all of my screen caps will show up dark. Just note - I've noticed that hyperlinks when using dark mode are REALLY dark so that's on the list to fix. (June 2025)

 

[FANGS]

SEARCHING FOR INFORMATION:

The Pit is here to help you get the information you need, but that does not mean that anyone is going to spoon feed it to you. You need to try and search for it first and then absolutely ask if you can't find the answer you are looking for. While that likely sounds harsh, it wears on longtime members to constantly see the same question over and over again when the information is readily available. As well, repeatedly having that same question asked and answered clogs up the forum. So please, do your part to keep information accessible!

At the top of the forum you'll see a bunch of options that are there to help you navigate:



Yours might not look exactly like mine but for the most part it will be the same. Most importantly will be ability to search the forum either using the "Search Forums" tab towards the left hand side or the Search tab all the way to the right.

The Search tab on the right is a more basic version of the search capability of the site. For the most part, it will get you where you want to go:



However, if you're still not finding what you need, you can either use the "Search Forums" over towards the left OR just click on the "Advanced Search" in the dialog box above. Either way will get you to a whole lot of more options to help filter down what you are looking for by using tags etc. to assist. Below is a screen cap of just the upper portion of the dialog box just to give you an idea of how much you can use to search:

 

[FANGS]

PREFIX (Just like tags on Instagram)

Some of our forum areas have the option for you to be able to add a prefix to your thread title. You'll know this is available if you see the words (No prefix) beside the thread title. If you click on that button you'll get a drop down menu to select a prefix that best summarizes what your thread is about! Simple click on your option and that's it!



This is a way to search items in the above search options that can greatly help narrow your results so the more often we use them the better chance of the information being found again.

If you feel that further options need to be added, just let me know!

 

[FANGS]

DIRECT MESSAGES (DM's)

The forum has the ability for you to send direct messages (DM's) to one another. You are able to have up to 5 people in a DM. If you look at the below screen cap, you'll see an envelope beside my forum name.



Once you click on the envelope it will take you to your inbox. Then click on "Send direct message" on the righthand side. That will then open the below dialog box. In the Recipients box you'll put the names of the people that you want to send the message to. The site will auto fill in the name in most cases, but it isn't perfect. The more names that have part of the letters you are typing in will give you more options of who to choose.

The Title Box is the same as a subject line in an email. And the message is typed in that third box.



You can also click on someone's avatar in a post to open up their profile and then use the "Send direct message" button there:

 

[FANGS]

ADDING AN AVATAR

If you wish to have something other than the first letter of your forum name as your avatar, simply click on your forum name up beside the envelope icon (direct messages) and the screen posted immediately above this post will open. Where my FANGS avatar is, if I hover my house over it will open the following dialog box:



Here you can choose how you want to bring in an avatar and just simply follow the steps. Please note, this is a family friendly site so any offensive or rude avatars will be removed.

Admittedly I've never used "Gravatar" so I really don't know how that works. It will by default add the email address attached to your account here and it doesn't seem to let you change that soooooo......test that out if you're feeling adventerous!