If this is your first time on Geekzone, this post will help you with some of the features around the site.  And if you have been here for a while you might still find out some interesting things you didn't know.

We tried to keep everything in this post, but in some cases you will see a link to a longer post with a more detailed explanation of a feature.

Your profile and privacy

The first thing you might want to read is the Geekzone Privacy Policy.

When you register on Geekzone we ask you for some information - you can give as much or as little information you feel comfortable with. The only personal information we need from you is your email address, which is used to communication between the site and you, as well as some maintenance messages.

You can opt-out of receiving any non forum-notification emails from Geekzone by changing options in your profile page. Also in your profile page you will find a Privacy option that when set will prevent other users from contacting you directly via Private Messages inside the site. Geekzone Administrators and Moderators can still contact you privately if needed.

Our servers automatically switch to the correct DST, but we do not change accounts. If your posts seem to be "one hour off", change your time settings in your profile page.

Posting in our forums

Once you have registered with Geekzone you can start posting in our forums, except for a couple of Special Forums (see below).

If you are asking for help in our forums always make sure you give lots of information but be sure to keep your personal information private. For your safety do not post full name, account numbers, address and phone numbers. Most people here don't have a crystal ball so it helps if you provide as much detailed information as possible. You might want to learn how to ask a question.

To post in our forums you have to agree with the Forum Usage Guidelines (a.k.a. FUG).

From time to time we may change the FUG, and you will know something has changed because you will be prompted to accept it again.

Your post should show on the front page and other places within the site as soon as soon as you click the button to post - there is no wait for posts to go live.

Geekzone forums are moderated and our team will make sure users follow the FUG. If for any reason you receive a warning consider the context and make sure you understand why. If you have questions you can ask any of the other moderators.

Depending on how serious the breach of FUG moderators' actions could be a warning or instant account ban. If an account is banned please do not register again. If anyone is caught evading a ban, the new account will be banned without warning. In some cases we might contact you via your registered email address to notify your access to the site is not welcome. 

Make sure you post in the correct sub-forum as this will help people see your questions or comments with the proper context. Moderators will move or delete your discussion if posted in incorrect forums. It is also not good form to create multiple discussions on the same subject, even if they are in different forums.

Users can only edit their posts in the first 60 minutes after adding to the discussion. Moderators and Trusted users can edit their posts at any time.

Discussions are automatically locked after 30 days of inactivity. This rule does not apply to the Original Poster (OP) who created the discussion or moderators, who will see those discussions as unlocked. If you want to contribute in an old discussion and you are not the (OP) or a moderator click the Unlock Request button and you will be able to notify a moderator to unlock the discussion. Every time a reply is posted the 30 days countdown resets again.

Special forums

We have a few Special Forums that serve a specific purpose. Always read the forum descriptions before posting, and make sure you post in correct sub-forums. For safety reasons we only allow long time users to post in our "Offers and Wanted" forum.

We also have Private Forums, created by Subscribers or Administrators. Access to Private Forums is by invitation only. If you can't see a forum in the Forums page, then you don't have access to it.

Moderators, Trusted Users, and Industry Tags

Moderators are users who have special management powers and can use these to act on behalf of Geekzone. Moderators make sure users follow the FUG and are selected from our community based on contributions, knowledge and behaviour.

These are our moderators:

bighammer
freitasm (Administrator)
gehenna
jarledb
michaelmurfy
nate
rscole86
scottpalmer
Stu

Geekzone users can be "Trusted" by our moderators. When you see a post with the "Trusted" icon you know we either met that user in person, or consider that user to have special skills and knowledge.

We also have "Industry Tags". Those are users who work for a company and have asked us to add that special icon to their account. We do not add "Industry Tags" without a user request and we will ask for confirmation of employment throug other channels.

Read more about Geekzone Trusted Users.

Keeping Geekzone safe

If you find any post breaking the FUG use the Report button and our moderators will be alerted. Action will be taken and recorded against the user profile in our database. 

Keep on top of discussions

We have RSS feeds for almost every bit of information available on Geekzone. Look at the footer of all our pages for links to RSS feeds. 

By default you will receive an email notification when someone replies to a discussion you have replied to. You can choose between different notification types in your profile page. Those email notification options include receiving one email for every new reply, or a notification email every hour when new replies are posted, or a single notification email only for each discussion. All those options reset once you visit the discussion.

We offer "Watch" options for both forums and discussions. You can click "Watch Forum" on a forum page to receive an email when a new discussion is created. Similarly, you can click "Watch Topic" on a topic page to receive an email when a new reply is posted, even if you have not replied to that discussion yet. You can click the "Auto Watch" button in a forum and automatically subscribe to receive notifications of replies on all new discussions created in that forum.

Every email notification from our forums comes with instructions on how to stop receiving them.

Advertising on Geekzone

Our site is supported by advertisement. If you are using an ad blocker, please allow us to deliver our ads by adding Geekzone to your ad blocker whitelist.

Geekzone subscriptions

Geekzone Subscriptions allow users to help our site by paying a small monthly or annual fee. To thank our subscribers we offer the option to disable advertising on the site - plus other neat features.

Multimedia in forum posts (images, videos, links)

Every Geekzone user can upload images to our server and use those in our forum posts. This is convenient when you want to post images that will complement your post, or use these in a blog entry.

Images are limited to up to 2 Megabytes each. Subscribers have larger limits.

Every discussion will have a Quick Reply box that allows you to enter a reply to a thread and quickly post it. You can however use a full rich text editor by clicking the Compose Reply button.

With the rich text editor you can easily enter images, hyperlinks, and videos (including YouTube, and other sources). If you find the rich text editor causes problems with your browser you can disable it in your profile page.

We support some BBCODE (BBCODE instructions here), but you should use the buttons on the rich text editor toolbar for full functionality. 

You can enter a Signature in your profile page and this will show under your forum posts. Signatures are only visible after you have contributed with ten posts in the forums.

You can also upload a small image to be used as your Avatar. Avatars show up next to your forum posts and other activities around the site. Avatars can be deleted if deemed inappropriate by the community.

Private messages

You can contact other Geekzones using a Private Message (a.k.a. PM). Just click on the email button you can see on that user's posts or public profile page. You can search for users if you are logged in and visit the Geekzone User List.

You can choose not to receive PMs by changing your privacy settings in your profile page. User with the Privacy setting on will not appear in the Geekzone User List and will not be able to send PMs either.

We do not monitor private communications between members, but if someone complains about a Private Message we will act on information received.

It is not okay to contact other users with unsolicited commercial offers (spam). Your account will be banned with no warning.