Help

Secretaries monitor the message boards and ensure that posters follow the message board rules. Secretaries can ban players from the message boards for failing to comply with the rules - they can also lock, delete or 'sticky' threads.

Most importantly, they are here to help users post efficiently and productively and to keep the boards on topic.

All general questions about how the game works should be posted in the Outta Towners forum. Before posting, please read the Help Tutorial and check that your question isn't answered there.

Please note that flaming players in Outta Towners is not allowed. If you find the repetitive nature of questions frustrating, please do not post there.

Posts that add nothing to the thread conversation are often called spam or +1 posts. These include one word replies like 'woot' or 'LOL' and are generally made by people who like to increase their post count rather than contributing to the hobowars community . If you post like this, you are likely to end up with a message board ban for each offence.

More examples of these kind of posts are posted in a stickied thread called 'Spam Control' on the General Discussion Board.

Any picture that depicts sexual acts or shows genitals, pubic hair or female nipples is defined as pornography on Hobowars and will lead to a 7 day jail sentence. This includes cartoons, art, hand-drawn pictures and photographs. The judgement of what is or isn't pornography is at staff discretion.

If you are not sure if a picture is or isn't appropriate to post, the best rule is not to post it.

Flaming is the deliberate act of insulting or criticizing another poster on the message boards and is generally done to cause upset and arguments.

Moderate flaming on the message boards is acceptable and part of conversation within a diverse community. However aggressive bullying and intimidation, particularly regarding race, creed, sex etc, is not tolerated and will result in either a message board ban, or in extreme cases jail at staff discretion.

Going off-topic means posting something which has nothing to do with the subject the message board or thread is there for. It's annoying for people who are trying to follow a conversation and often results in threads getting locked or deleted.

Threads posted in the wrong forum will often be moved by staff to the correct forum. Posters who continually derail threads by posting off-topic are likely to receive a message board ban.

If you are not sure where to post something, mail a secretary or post on the Staff Contact board for help.

The Staff Contact board can only be seen by current donators. You can use this board to post questions directly to the game staff - only you and staff can read your thread so you don't need to worry about any other players being able to see what you are writing.

You are encouraged to bring personal issues here rather than posting them on the General Discussion board as answers can be given in confidence.

Please note that you can only see your thread if it is on the first page of threads in the Staff Contact forum. When your thread slips to page 2 or further you will need to ask a staff member to bump it back to page 1 for you if you wish to comment further. Also please note that only Governors or Ministers can delete a thread from the Staff Contact board.

A full guide to formatting text and codes for all available smilies are available in the HB-TML section of the Help Tutorial.

Here is a selection of the most frequently used:

Text Formating


Bold text Bold text
Italic text Italic text
Underlined text Underlined text
Strikeout text Strikeout text
Centered text
Coloured text Coloured text

You can add posters that irritate you to your Ignore List which will stop their posts from showing up.

Click on Message Boards from your left hand menu and you will see a blue link to [Ignore List] on the top right hand side. Click on that and add the ID of the poster you wish to ignore - you can also add a note to yourself here.

A full guide to formatting text and codes for all available smilies are available in the HB-TML section of the Help Tutorial.

Here is a selection of the most frequently used:

Smilies

:D Large Smile
:-D Grin
:) Smile
:P Cheeky Tongue Poke
:S Blush
;) Wink
:angry: Mad
:evil: Devil
:| Rolling Eyes
:( Sad
:lol: Laugh
<3 Heart

Open the thread and click on the picture of Binoculars on the top right hand side. The thread will now be a 'Watched Thread' and you will receive a notification in your Living Area when a new post is added.

To un-subscribe, just click the Binoculars again.

Note: If you have Watched Threads on your gang board and are leaving the gang, remember to delete them as you will still receive new post notifications.

Most common links posted below. Remember to remove the extra spaces when posting on the Message Boards.

Display Image [img]http://www.site.com/pic.jpg[/img]

Link to External Website [url=http://www.hobowars.com]Cool site[/ url]

Hobo Link [hobo=1]Andy[/ hobo]

Email Link [email=me@yahoo.com]Email me[/ email]

Thread link [Thread=123456]Thread[/thread]

Gang Link [gang=1]The Syndicate[/gang]

Signatures must be 10 lines or less. Some players are very skilled at making creative signatures for hobocash - you can find who can help you with this in the sticked thread called Sigs/Profile Pics in the Fun and Games Forum.

Firstly try reading the Help Tutorial which is linked on your left hand menu.

If that fails, you can post a question on the Outta Towners message board and somebody will try and help you out if they can.

Anyone can post on the message boards. If you are a donator your name will show up in orange. If you are a non-donator your name will show ip in black.

Yes, you have the opportunity to edit your own posts to correct any errors you may find or delete them. Click on the icons at the bottom of your post to make changes. Please do not delete your posts unless you have double posted in error or made a mistake.

Messages that have been changed since their original posting are indicated as such, along with the most recent modification date and time.

Please note that game staff can also edit or delete your posts but will only do so if you have broken the message board rules or made an error.

Yes you can search for posts by player ID or by particular words.

Click Message Boards on the left hand menu and you will see two boxes and a Search button at the top of the screen. In the first box type either

a) a keyword you wish to search for and select Topic and Body in the second box

b) a hobo ID you wish to see posts for and select Poster's ID in the second box

and then click on Search. You will see all available results that you can click on for more information.

Hobowars keeps track of how many message postings have been made by a player. This number is not significant other than as an interesting piece of trivia about the person who posted the comment. Posting simply to increase this count is strongly discouraged and abuse or '+1 posting' may result in a message board ban. Posts made on your gang board do not count towards this total.

Text speak such as 'M8' and 'U R Dumb'is very tiring to read and is not welcome on the message boards. Please type in proper grammatical sentences to make your posts a pleasure to read.

If you receive a message board ban, you will see the reason posted on your hobo profile.

Remember that posting to the message boards is a privilege, not a right. Posting is free, the only cost being your agreement to abide by the guidelines.

You can only post a referral link in your signature or your journal. Threads that contain referral links will be deleted and you may receive a message board ban.