Quick Guide

The Quick Guide has been put together to get you up and running as quickly as possible on the AboveTopSecret.com forums with some speedy instructions for changing your password, uploading avatar images, how to make your first post and more.

Changing Your Password


Click on the Member Center button located in the button bar at the top of every page.

Click on Change Password on the left hand side in the member center.

Enter your current password and then the new one you would like to have twice.

Now press the Submit Password Change button. You will be logged out afterward. Just log in with the new password and you're all set.

Member Center (u2u)

You can find your u2u mesage center by using the Member Center Button from any page.

From here you will be able to read, send and save u2u messages. You will also find your upload space (for personal avatars) and the ATS Store (for buying colors and custom titles) and more.

When you recieve a u2u message from someone, you will see a message located in the brackets and the link will be red. Keep in mind that any staff action (moving a thread, giving applause, etc) will be accompanied by a u2u message.

Uploading Images

You can either load it to your ATS account (A Quick How To Upload an Avatar Post) or you can use a service like photobucket.com to host it.

To load something to your ATS account, go to the Member Center and on the left side click on the "Member Upload Space" link. This will show you a special window where you can upload images. As you can see below, I have 5 images in my member upload account.

To add an image, click the "browse" button, locate and select the file on your computer you wish to use, and then click the "upload" button. The file will be given an automatic prefix, so each upload has a different name even if they are the same file.

To find the URL of your image, you can actually click on the name and it will open the file in the browser. Copy the address at the top.

For example: http://uploads.abovetopsecret.com/ats29199_blah.jpg

By pasting this URL into the avatar field (see instructions below) it would look like this:

Profile Images (Avatar)

If you want an Avatar, DO NOT BUY ANYTHING IN THE ATS STORE. It's NOT the same thing.

Having an Avatar is FREE.
Backgrounds (the picture or color BEHIND the avatar) is not free. To get an image background, you need to load it to the web (see more below on this) and then go to the ATS Store and "buy" the background (color or image). I suggest looking at this thread for help: Avatar - The Ultimate Help

Click on the Member Center button located in the button bar at the top of every page.

Click on Account Settings on the left hand side in the member center.

Enter the url of the image you wish to use in the field. **

Scroll down and press the Edit Profile button.

**The url means you MUST load the image up to the web (it can't be located on your hard drive). You can either load it to your ATS account (A Quick How To Upload an Avatar Post) or you can use a service like photobucket.com to host it. Once you've done that, put the url in the field shown above.

There are some important guidelines to remember when selecting your personal avatar (the picture under your name) and the signature that appears in your post. Avatars must be in jpg or gif format, no larger than 160px wide by 320px tall, and a file size not exceeding 75k. No inappropriate content is permitted. For more information, click here.

A Dark Matter tutorial to help you is also available.

Helpful Threads

First Post

Look for this button at the top or bottom of the thread page.

Then in the form page, fill out the Subject (becomes a bolded title of your post), add an icon if you wish (visible next to your thread in the forum page), type your post, add smileys if you choose (just click on one to add it), and then hit the Preview Post button at the bottom.

This will show you what your post will look like (smileys show up in code form only here). Edit or check spelling and when you're ready, hit the Post Reply button at the bottom to submit your entry.

Reply Using the Draft Feature

After pressing "Post Reply" in any ATS, BTS or PTS thread you will find the "Save Reply as Draft" option just below the text entry box.

When responding to a thread this feature gives you the ability to save your incomplete post to your own filing system called “Draft Posts” located in your ATS "Member Center".

This is particularly useful when composing a long in depth post or when your online time is interrupted and you need to step away from the computer. After pressing the “Save Reply as Draft” button you can come back to the board at any time and open your unpublished reply in your “Draft Posts” filing system to complete the post. When finished press the "Post Reply" button to post it to the original thread.

Feature Announcement Thread:
New Board Feature: Save Reply As A Draft

Creating a Thread

Look for the New Thread button at the top or bottom of the forum page or the thread page.

Then fill out the Subject (becomes the title of your thread), add an icon if you wish (visible next to your thread in the forum), type your post, add smileys if you choose (just click on one to add it), and then hit the Preview Post button at the bottom.

This will show you what your post will look like (smileys show up in code form only here). Edit or check spelling and when you're ready, hit the Post New Topic button at the bottom.

How to Quote

There are now several methods of ''quoting'' on the ATS boards, each of these tags are designed to show the type of quote, whether it be a quote from a member, an external news story quote or simply an external quote.

Just put these BBcode tags around the text you wish to quote.

[quote]text goes here[/quote]
When to use: Use the normal quote tag when quoting other members.

[news]text goes here[/news]
When to use: When quoting an external news source such as a online newspaper.

[ex]text goes here[/ex]
When to use: When using an external source such as an online Encyclopaedia

Important Note: Always remember to put where you got your quote from, and remember to include the url of the source, as this gives the proof that it is indeed a 'real' source and secondly it credits the owner of the source.

See the Quoting Reference Thread

Using the ATS Store

Mini-Profile
First, let's look at your mini-profile is what appears next to all of your posts, for example JohnDoe's looks like this:

Located in the Member Center, the ATS Store (not to be confused with the ATS Gear Store) is where you get to spend some of those hard-earned points to customize your member mini-profile, as well as enjoy a few other member perks.

The ATS Store:

Uhh...What Does This Button Do?

Custom Title, first line: Add your own custom text under your member name in your mini-profile. JohnDoe's is "Random Noise".

Custom Title, second line: Add another line of custom text under your member name. JohnDoe's is "Funky Fiend".

ATS Member Blog: buy your own blog after making 50 posts.

Add 100 to U2U quota: Add 100 to your U2U inbox/outbox capacity. The default starts at 50.

Secret forum 1 month fee: Record your retinal, fingerprint, and voice pattern data to gain access to the Really Above Top Secret forum (RATS) for a month.

Custom mini-profile background color: Change the background color of your mini-profile. JohnDoe's is black.

Custom mini-profile text color: Change the color of the text in your mini-profile. JohnDoe's is green.

Custom mini-profile background image: Upload an image to be used as the background for your mini-profile instead of a color. This should not be confused with avatars (like JohnDoe's smiley face picture) which sit on top of your background and can be uploaded at no point cost from your Edit Profile screen. You can have an avatar and a background image together if you want. Background images must be less than 50kb in size, and at most 180 pixels wide. For guidelines on avatars and signatures, see here.

Increase upload quota by 10k: Increase the maximum file upload space in your center by 10kb each time.

Turn on low-bandwidth mode: Switches ATS to Low-Bandwidth Mode for you. This causes many cosmetic effects such as profile background and text colors to be disabled. If you are on a slow connection, this may speed up your browsing on ATS. After low-bandwidth mode is activated, this button will change to "highband". To return to normal bandwidth mode, press the "highband" button.

OK, I'm Ready...

When using the options in the ATS Store, be sure to take your time and read all of the instructions carefully - there are no "refunds" if you make a mistake. When you press any of the buttons, the display will change to a confirmation screen:

1. Input your data:

a) If you are adding or changing a custom title, type the text you want into the input box shown in the confirmation screen.

b) If you are changing a color setting, type or copy-paste the six-digit code of the color you want into the input box. For help with color codes, click the [color help] button for a handy color picker pop-up, or use a color picker on the web like this one. Make sure you only input the six digits/letters of the color code. Do not enter the # symbol, and do not simply write color names, such as "red".

2. Choose which points to spend: From the drop-down menu, select where you would like the store item point cost deducted from - ATS, BTS, PTS, or all three combined.

3. Hit the enter button: Check your mini-profile to view your changes.

Important Note: Setting your mini-profile background color to the same as your text color is not allowed, since it effectively makes your member name and status invisible.

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