This site is optimized for viewing with Internet Explorer and Mozilla (Firefox) on a PC in Windows.  If you are using another browser, such as Opera, please be aware that you may experience graphical anomalies and some minor problems.  While we are working to resolve these issues they will not be our top priority, since the two browsers we are optimized for are freely available, have virtually all of the available market, and are feature competitive.
Please report any browser issues you find to our Support user, especially if you find any difficult to read text.  Please report any Linux or Mac issues as well, though be aware that unless severe, we are unlikely to resolve them soon, as we cannot currently view the site from such platforms.

*Please note the site is designed to have javascript, image automatic display/downloads, and cookies enabled.*


While using this site please be aware that we are not a commercial enterprise and our (essentially free) service provider may on rare occasions be slow or experience technical problems (it is based in Europe and overseas users can expect intermittent delays loading pages - if this is a severe problem try using the subsilver theme).  Though it should not happen often, you may sometimes experience white screens, incomplete graphics, or submission errors on posting because of network problems or issues with our current provider.  If you are posting a long story we recommend either using the Copy to Clipboard function, located at the bottom of the post entry screen (some browsers may show this a Highlight Text button which (in Windows, shortcut keys in other operating systems may be different) after clicking you then need to hit CTRL-C (copy)).  Alternately you can hit CTRL-A with your keyboard (select all) and then CTRL-C.  This operation will result in the contents of your post being copied to your computer clipboard, and in the unlikely event of an error, you can simply paste your text into either a new post or an application on your computer for later submission.
Please note that you can frequently hit BACK in your browser if you see an error message on posting and your message/story will still be available - simply hit submit again.

Errors after hitting submit : The servers supporting this site are European and may be intermittently slow for overseas users.  Consequently you may see error messages occasionally when submitting posts or mail BUT this does not necessarily mean that your post was lost or wasn't submitted properly.  Often you simply didn't see the normal confirmation screen - to check this, click the Back button in your browser, copy your entire post, at the top of the screen open the site Index in another window, and check to see if your post / PM / etc. was actually submitted.  If it was you can close the previous window.


Issues with the Search function.  While searching you may sometimes come up with no results although the search appears to work, or the function may appear to hang up (display a screen with no information).  This is probably because you have used one or more very generic words which are restricted (because the resulting search takes too long).  Please change your search terms.  If you're still having a problem searching please contact the Support user and let us know what your looking for and the words you're using to try and find it.


Smileys (Emoticons) - Only a brief selection displays initially but you can see additional smileys by clicking on "View More Emoticons".
Please note that you don't have to click on a smiley picture to insert it, just enter the code for the smiley, in the event you have some you use frequently but they are not displayed initially.

If you have requests for smiley additions, changes, replacements from the initial display to the second page, etc. please let us know, and if there is enough demand we will make adjustments.


Inserting a smiley code directly :
Hover your mouse over a smiley picture and you will be shown the code to use at the bottom of your browser if you have the status line enabled (at the very bottom of the browser it will usually say javascript : emoticon and a description and colon code colon).  For example, to display the grin smiley, you would enter : grin : with no spaces (colon symbols included), and the result would be .  (ie the code for a smiley (emoticon) is between the : colon symbols, and it includes those symbols)


How to add spaces or a line to the start or end of a post:
This software automatically removes spaces or lines from the start or end of posts.  If you want to insert a blank line at the start or end of a post you can use the list bbcode (just click the list button twice, so it's a "blank" list).
If you want to add spaces - you can either use the indent formatting buttons OR you can use the bold bbcode.  If you click B twice to bold nothing, you can enter spaces after the empty bbcode and they will not be removed automatically from the start or end of a post.  (this post is an example - the 5 space indent on the first line was done by starting with the "bold" bbcode)

"read" vs "unread":

We have a nice feature installed called the UPI2DB mod, which, unlike other sites using this phpbb forum software, will remember which posts you have read or not read beyond your current logon session.

Initially this may seem a bit overwhelming, as your first login will show a lot of unread posts.  Although you could simply mark everything as "read" with the shortcut available, we suggest that you actually do view the posts and let the system do this "read marking" automatically.  There may be many older stories that you want to either participate in or perhaps bring back, or may serve to stimulate your imagination.  You don't have to worry about logging out and losing your personal read posts/unread information, as this is stored for 90 days.

There are controls for this feature located at the top and bottom of various pages on the site.  Once you have caught up on reading / viewing many of the posts you will find that the feature showing you the new posts is quite handy.  Please note that this feature also shows edited posts for your convenience.


If you wish to stop seeing notifications from some topics or even entire forums, you can click the leftmost icon on the topic or forum and mark these objects as "permanently read".  Until you change this these topics will not appear in the "unread" post count.  Please note that this occurs automatically if you are hiding forums in your profile.