Welcome to Pinoy Cosplay! If you've just registered, and you're new to Invision-powered forums, here's a handy tutorial to get you started. :)

The My Controls Section
The first thing you want to do is create a profile so we know a little bit about you. Click the My Controls link, which is at the top right of all pages. The My Controls page contains all of your personal settings, including personal messages, profile info, signature info, and avatar settings. We'll go over all these in more detail later on. To start off with, let's edit your profile info. Click the corresponding link on the bottom left of the My Controls page.

Editing Your Profile
Here you can fill in your date of birth, messenger contacts, home page, location, and interests. Fill in any info you wish to give, then click Amend my profile. Remember that your e-mail address will not be shown to anyone in the interest of privacy, but will be available to administrators only. There's also a special feature that isn't immediately evident! When you make a post, a new box will appear in this area called Custom Member Title. This will allow you to have a phrase underneath your user name which will appear by all posts. For now, your title is "Gearing Up". As you post, you will also get badges () to denote your status. By the way, you can look at anyone else's profile by simply clicking their user name.

Editing Your Signature
Directly under the profile link is a link to Edit Signature. A signature is text or graphics that appears at the bottom of each message you post. For example, my signature includes a link to my website. Type in whatever you wish to use as a signature and click Update my signature.

Adding an Avatar
An avatar is a picture that appears next to your user name in posts. For example, my avatar is my picture. To upload an avatar, choose one of three options:

1) A pre-installed avatar. Simply choose the gallery you wish to select from, and click Go. Select the avatar you wish to use, then click Use Selected Avatar.
2) A picture from another site. Enter the web address of the picture you wish to use and press Add.
3) A picture on your computer. Click Browse to select a picture on your computer. Please note that there is a maximum dimension for avatars, which is currently 128 × 256 pixels. Avatars also have a maximum size of 25 kilobytes.

You may also choose to remove your avatar by clicking the last option button, I don't wish to use an avatar (remove all current).

Now your profile is complete!

Personal Messages
You can send a Personal Message (PM) to any user by clicking the button next to one of their posts. A personal message travels to the other user instantly; the next time they log in they will see their new message. You can use this as an alternative to e-mail. To see if you have new messages, simply look at the top right of the screen; next to the My Controls link you will see a link that says Inbox (x), where x is the number of new messages you've received. To write a new message, you can also click the link in your My Controls section that says Compose New Message.

Calendar
The board's calendar will have all special events and birthdays posted on it regularly. To access the calendar, click the Calendar link in the top right corner of the screen, above the My Assistant link. To view more information for an event, click its link. You can also quickly check all upcoming events on the bottom of the main page.

Posting on the Bulletin Board
To post a new topic in any forum, simply click the forum link and then click .
To reply to an existing post, make sure you are currently reading that post's topic and click .
To quote another's post in your reply, click .

You're off to a good start! Have fun here at Pinoy Cosplay! ;)

Cool! This will help persistent noobs from asking too many questions. Bravo!

Thanks, Chloebs! The tutorial is adapted from Seth Kinast's. Feel free to share tips and tricks in our Support and Suggestions forum. ;)

You should place this under "Announcements" rather than Suggestions.

It's not a suggestion, Chloebs. It's a support resource. :)

I see, but it would be better to put it where people could easily spot it. Dun na lang sa pinakataas na thread para maganda.

I agree that this resource should be easily accessible. That's why it's pinned.

We both have technical experience, Chloebs, so I also tend to give support resources high visibility. Breaking news, announcements, and conversations are of more general interest, and should be given maximum visibility above support resources. :)

Ok, it was just a suggestion anyway...

As a web designer, you're right that at least one support link should be near the top of the page. That's the Help link in the upper right corner. :)