New Users's Guide To Spymac.com Pt. 3
In a five part series, we will be outlining Spymac.com and how to use its system and services. New users to the website have issues when it comes to posting, navigation verifying settings and features they are not tapping. The Web Operating System (WOS) is amazing and full of features that completely immerse the user. When used properly you can take control of the system and make it work for you. The five part series will consist of:
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Day-3:
This is considered your day of rest as we cover some simpler aspects of Spymac. Meeting people is an important aspect of the experience. You will need to know how to use Notes to contact individuals personally, create an interesting signature in your posts and navigate the forums like a pro to find and meet new friends. You will be surprised how many share your opinions, beliefs and are even in the same town as you. Lets begin with part 3.
The Note system has been on Spymac since I began using it in January of 2003. It gives alternate ways to contact members when you are not sure if they use their Spymac mail. You can send notes in a few ways. One is send notes by manually typing out the name of the person sending a note in Note Manager. Note Manager is a system that displays received, sent, and gives the ability to compose notes. If you have friends already, Note Manager has a drop down listing your friends, which makes composing a bit easier. If you receive a note and dont know of the sender, just click their name in the inbox and it brings up their profile. Click the subject to view and you can reply, or forward the note onto a friend. You will be notified of how many notes in your inbox with the numerals in a button right beside the Note Manager icon at the top of the Spymac website.
You can also send notes to users directly from the forums or gallery. If you see an interesting post that deserves a personal response, just click their avatar (image) under their user name and the list that pops up has Send Note near the bottom. Click that and you are brought to a pre-addressed note to that person; all you have to do is add content and a subject. Hit Submit to send the note to that person. Composing notes is similar to replying to a thread in the forums. You have smilies, links, and image buttons to make the composition process easier. You can also attach a file or image.
Spymacs Alliance system has great features and Note manager was one of those features. There are a few small things included in the system and tips you should use to meet your new best friend. In a Forum room or thread you can click anyones username and be taken to his or her profile. From there, you can see that users info, gallery, blog and other personal pages to tell you more about them. Like what you have read? Send them a note or if their AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) ScreenName is listed, you can send them an IM to get even more personal. Speaking of AOL, each users avatar has a running man icon signifying their AOL Status. Online users have the running man lit up and offline users have the button grayed out. If you are running AIM, just click their button and a new message is addressed to them. Dont forget you can also send am email to the person with theirname and add @Spymac.com at the end.
If you become friends with them, you can add them to your friends list (explained in a previous entry). The friends list is a great way to keep track of who is online. If you go to the Forums root directory (Spymac.com/forums) you will see at bottom a list of online moderators / staff and online buddies. You can see your friends that are currently online and by clicking their name send them a note or instant message. Anywhere you see a username, it is clickable and takes you to that users profile. If you request a friendship or send a note to someone and do not receive a reply; dont fret. Typically a user wont respond if they do not know of you and wont accept a friendship unless you are actually friends.
You know the basics of getting around the forums, but there is still much to learn. Click the Forum tab at the top of any Spymac.com page and you will see the main directory of all rooms and categories. There are hundreds of member forums and about 10 secret forums that you find by using Spymacs Wheel services, Hosting, being 18 or over and staff areas. Most hidden forums should not concern the new user anyway; there is plenty to keep you busy. There are quite a few ways to browse the forums. One way is just going to the root of the forums at /forums and browsing there. You can click a category or specific forum room to visit that area. One the left hand side of each room, there is a list of top posters and hottest topics of that room. Another way to navigate is a drop down menu. Each Spymac room has a drop down menu to the left of Start Topic This menu goes to each forum and also to member forum categories. At the bottom, there is a list of subscribed member forums you have joined. This same menu is also located at the top and bottom of each page.
If you have the left sidebar open and the forums tab selected, there is a list of the four main Spymac categories, which may be helpful in navigation if you in a place that does not have navigation drop down. This same sidebar comes in handy with the gallery as well. Finally, you can manually visit a forum category or room. This is a pro section but comes in handy for those that like to use bookmarks. If you are a fan of a specific room, you can load it and look in the address bar to see the room CatID. For example, the Lounge is CatID 9. If you lost me at CatID, just move on to the next paragraph.
A final tidbit that helps members learn more about you with a quote, link to your blog or something little about you is the signature. You may have seen the signature in the Options area from Part-1 of our article. Options is located in the top of the Spymac website in the black bar. After loading Options, click Profile and fill in your signature. After completion, hit submit and each post in the forums will have your few lines. Beware what you put in your signature. There are some dont dos when it comes to signatures. Do not put long URL (Web Links), include profanity or offensive material, things about other members, or make your signature longer than 3-5 lines. Anything more is annoying and in a thread, becomes obtrusive to general conversation.
Stay tuned for Part-4: learning more about gallery, member forums and the news trackers system.