The Michigan Atrium

There are several reasons why this could occur. First, ensure your username and password are correct. Also check the status of your CAPS LOCK key. If you have verified your username and password are being entered correctly, contact the board administrator to make sure you haven’t been banned. It is also possible there is a configuration error on the message board and they would need to fix it.

While guests have read-only access to The Atrium Forum it is for security and spam prevention purposes that registration is required to participate with our community. Registration will give you access to additional features not available to guest users such as definable avatar images, private messaging, emailing of fellow users, usergroup subscription, etc. It only takes a few moments to register so it is recommended you do so.

If you do not check the Log me in automatically box when you login, the board will only keep you logged in for a preset time. This prevents misuse of your account by anyone else. To stay logged in, check the box during login. This is not recommended if you access the board from a shared computer, e.g. library, internet cafe, university computer lab, etc.

Within your User Control Panel, under “Board preferences”, you will find the option Hide your online status. Enable this option with Yes and you will only appear to the administrators, moderators and yourself. You will be counted as a hidden user.

Don’t panic! While your password cannot be retrieved, it can easily be reset. Visit the login page and click I’ve forgotten my password. Follow the instructions and you should be able to log in again shortly.

For security purposes, we require that new registrations be activated by an administrator before you can log in. If you were sent an e-mail, follow the instructions. Check your username, password and the status of your CAPS LOCK key. If you did not receive an e-mail, you may have provided an incorrect e-mail address, the e-mail may have been intercepted by a spam filter or your account not yet activated by an administrator. If you have any further questions, contact the board administrator.

Attempt to locate the e-mail sent to you when you first registered, check your username, password and check the status of your CAPS LOCK key and try again. It is possible an administrator has deactivated or deleted your account for some reason. Also, we may periodically remove users who have not posted for a long time to reduce the size of the database. Please contact the board administrator for further details.

COPPA, or the Child Online Privacy and Protection Act of 1998, is a law in the United States requiring websites which can potentially collect information from minors under the age of 13 to have written parental consent or some other method of legal guardian acknowledgment, allowing the collection of personally identifiable information from a minor under the age of 13.

The Atrium Forum is not designed nor intended for persons under the age of 13. We do not collect personally identifiable information except for email addresses which are required for the purpose of registering for membership. If you are unsure if this applies to you as someone trying to register or to the website you are trying to register on, contact legal counsel for assistance. Please note that the phpBB Group cannot provide legal advice and is not a point of contact for legal concerns of any kind, except as outlined below.

This can happen for many reasons. Usernames may only consist of Latin alphanumeric characters and spaces. It is also possible an administrator has banned your IP address, disallowed the username you are attempting to register or fallen into one of a few of the spam prevention or security features enabled on this message board. The Atrium Forum could also have new registrations disabled to prevent new visitors from signing up. Contact a board administrator for assistance.

“Delete all board cookies” deletes the cookies created by this message board which keep you authenticated and logged into the board. It also provides functions such as read message tracking. If you are having login or logout problems, deleting board cookies may help.

If you are a registered user, all your settings are stored in the board database. To alter them, visit your User Control Panel; a link can usually be found at the top of board pages. This system will allow you to change all your settings and preferences.

It is possible the time displayed is from a timezone different from the one you are in. If this is the case, visit your User Control Panel and change your timezone to match your particular area, e.g. London, Paris, New York, Sydney, etc. Please note that changing the timezone, like most settings, can only be done by registered users.

If you are sure you have set the timezone and Summer Time/DST correctly and the time is still incorrect, then the time stored on the server clock is incorrect. Please notify a board administrator to report the problem.

United States English is only supported on The Atrium Forum. There are no plans at this time to provide additional language support.

The image is known as an avatar and is generally unique or personal to each user. The maximum allowed size of the avatar on The Atrium Forum is 125 pixels by 125 pixels with a total file size of 6kB. It is highly recommended that the .jpg or .jpeg format be used for a smaller file size. Avatars must be uploaded from your personal computer as uploading images from remote servers is not allowed for security purposes. If you are having trouble uploading an avatar, contact a board administrator to seek further assistance.

At this time, The Atrium Forum does not use this feature. This FAQ entry exists in case this feature is enabled on this message board.

Ranks, which appear below your username, indicate the number of posts you have made or identify certain users, e.g. moderators and administrators. In general, you cannot directly change the wording of any board ranks as they are set by the board administrator. Please do not abuse the board by posting unnecessarily just to increase your rank. Most boards will not tolerate this and the moderator or administrator will simply lower your post count.

For security and spam prevention purposes, only registered users can send e-mail to other users via the built-in e-mail form. All email addresses are hidden from all users - registered or guests - and email is sent through the message board software.

Only registered members may post new topics. To post a new topic in a forum, click the New Topic button on the top of the forum page. A list of your permissions in each forum is available at the bottom of the forum and topic screens.

Only registered members may reply to topics. To post a reply in a topic, click the Post Reply button on the top of the topic page. A list of your permissions in each forum is available at the bottom of the forum and topic screens.

You can only edit or delete your own posts by clicking the edit button for the relevant post. If someone has already replied to the post, you will find a small piece of text output below the post when you return to the topic which lists the number of times you edited it along with the date and time. This will only appear if someone has made a reply; it will not appear if a moderator or administrator edited the post, though they may leave a note as to why they’ve edited the post at their own digression. Please note that normal users cannot delete a post once someone has replied nor can they edit or delete another member's post.

To add a signature to a post you must first create one via your User Control Panel. Once created, you can check the Add signature box on the posting form to add your signature. You can also add a signature by default to all your posts by checking the appropriate button in your User Control Panel. If you do so, you can still prevent a signature being added to individual posts by un-checking the add signature box within the posting form.

When posting a new topic or editing the first post of a topic, click the “Poll creation” tab below the main posting form. Enter a title and at least two options in the appropriate fields, making sure each option is on a separate line in the text area. You can also set the number of options users may select during voting under “Options per user”, a time limit in days for the poll (0 for infinite duration) and lastly the option to allow users to amend their votes.

The administrators have set a generous limit of 10 items per poll. You will need to edit your poll options if you have exceeded this limit. The administrators may change this limit as necessary without warning.

As with posts, polls can only be edited by the original poster, a moderator or an administrator. To edit a poll, click to edit the first post in the topic; this always has the poll associated with it. If no one has cast a vote, users can delete the poll or edit any poll option. However, if members have already placed votes, only moderators or administrators can edit or delete it. This prevents the poll’s options from being changed mid-way through a poll.

For security purposes, attachments have been disabled by The Atrium Forum administrators.

The Atrium Forum has a published Terms of Service. Warnings are a first step to let a member know they have acted outside of the ToS. Warnings will come with an explanation of the offending action in terms of the clause violated.

If you have any concerns or questions why a warning was received, please contact any administrator directly by email or private message. Do not publicly post any questions or concerns regarding any action taken by an administrator.

This can be accomplished by a couple of methods:

1. You should see a button for reporting posts next to the post you wish to report. Clicking this will walk you through the steps necessary to report the post.

2. Contact an administrator via private message. The current list of administrators can be found by clicking The Team link at the bottom of the page. Be sure to include the link to the reported post and your reasoning of creating the report.

3. Contact a board administrator by email. Be sure to include the link to the reported post and your reasoning of creating the report.

Please understand that the reported post will be compared to the Terms of Service (ToS) of The Atrium Forum. Any action taken will be within in accordance of the ToS. Administrators have final say about any moderation or the lack of moderation against a reported post.

The save function is currently not available at The Atrium Forum. This FAQ entry exists in the event that this feature is enabled.

This allows you to save passages to be completed and submitted at a later date. To reload a saved passage, visit the User Control Panel.

At this time, the administrators reserve this action for members who continue to violate the Terms of Service and have ignored warnings. There is no plan to institute this option against the members of The Atrium Forum.

By clicking the “Bump topic” link when you are viewing it, you can “bump” the topic to the top of the forum on the first page. However, if you do not see this, then the time allowance of 10 days between bumps has not yet been reached. It is also possible to bump the topic simply by replying to it. This is a feature that is available on a trial basis.

BBCode is a special implementation of HTML, offering great formatting control on particular objects in a post. The use of BBCode is granted by the administrator, but it can also be disabled on a per post basis from the posting form. BBCode itself is similar in style to HTML, but tags are enclosed in square brackets [ and ] rather than < and >. For more information on BBCode see the guide which can be accessed from the posting page.

The phpBB Group has an excellent webpage dedicated to instructions and examples on how to use BBcode. Click here.

No. It is not possible to post HTML on this board and have it rendered as HTML. Most formatting which can be carried out using HTML can be applied using BBCode instead.

Smilies, or Emoticons, are small images which can be used to express a feeling using a short code, e.g. :) denotes happy, while :( denotes sad. The full list of emoticons can be seen in the posting form.

Yes, images can be shown in your posts. Because attachments have been disabled on The Atrium Forum, you must link to an image stored on a publicly accessible web server, e.g. http://www.example.com/my-picture.gif. You cannot link to pictures stored on your own PC (unless it is a publicly accessible server) nor images stored behind authentication mechanisms, e.g. hotmail or yahoo mailboxes, password protected sites, etc. To display the image use the BBCode [img] tag.

Global announcements contain important information and you should read them whenever possible. They will appear at the top of every forum and within your User Control Panel. Global announcement permissions are granted by the board administrator.

Announcements often contain important information for the forum you are currently reading and you should read them whenever possible. Announcements appear at the top of every page in the forum to which they are posted. As with global announcements, announcement permissions are granted by the board administrator.

Sticky topics within the forum appear below announcements and only on the first page. They are often quite important so you should read them whenever possible. As with announcements and global announcements, sticky topic permissions are granted by the board administrator.

Locked topics are topics where users can no longer reply and any poll it contained was automatically ended. Topics can only be locked by an administrator. Non-administrative members are not able to lock threads.

Topic icons are author chosen images associated with posts to indicate their content.

Administrators are members assigned with the highest level of control over the entire board. These members can control all facets of board operation, including setting permissions, banning users, creating usergroups or moderators, etc., dependent upon the board founder and what permissions he or she has given the other administrators. They also have full moderator capabilities in all forums.

Moderators are individuals (or groups of individuals) who look after the forums from day to day. They have the authority to edit or delete posts and lock, unlock, move, delete and split topics in the forum they moderate. Generally, moderators are present to prevent users from going off-topic or posting abusive or offensive material.

Usergroups are groups of users that divide the community into manageable sections board administrators can work with. Each user can belong to several groups and each group can be assigned individual permissions. This provides an easy way for administrators to change permissions for many users at once, such as changing moderator permissions or granting users access to a private forum.

At this time, The Atrium Forum only has two usergroups: registered members and administrators. This FAQ entry generally does not apply to the current status of this message board but will remain in the event the administrators decide to implement additional usergroups.

You can view all usergroups via the “Usergroups” link within your User Control Panel. If you would like to join one, proceed by clicking the appropriate button. Not all groups have open access, however. Some may require approval to join, some may be closed and some may even have hidden memberships. If the group is open, you can join it by clicking the appropriate button. If a group requires approval to join you may request to join by clicking the appropriate button. The user group leader will need to approve your request and may ask why you want to join the group. Please do not harass a group leader if they reject your request; they will have their reasons.

At this time, The Atrium Forum only has two usergroups: registered members and administrators. This FAQ entry generally does not apply to the current status of this message board but will remain in the event the administrators decide to implement additional usergroups.

A usergroup leader is usually assigned when usergroups are initially created by a board administrator. If you are interested in creating a usergroup, your first point of contact should be an administrator; try sending a private message.

At this time, The Atrium Forum only has two usergroups: registered members and administrators. This FAQ entry generally does not apply to the current status of this message board but will remain in the event the administrators decide to implement additional usergroups.

It is possible for the board administrator to assign a color to the members of a usergroup to make it easy to identify the members of this group.

At this time, The Atrium Forum only has two usergroups: registered members and administrators. This FAQ entry generally does not apply to the current status of this message board but will remain in the event the administrators decide to implement additional usergroups.

If you are a member of more than one usergroup, your default is used to determine which group color and group rank should be shown for you by default. The board administrator may grant you permission to change your default usergroup via your User Control Panel.

This page provides you with a list of board staff, including board administrators and moderators and other details such as the forums they moderate. Any of these members can field administrative questions.

Private messages are available only to registered members. If you are a registered member, then you're not logged on, the board administrator has disabled private messaging for the entire board, or the board administrator has prevented you from sending messages. Contact a board administrator for further information if you can login but not private message.

You can block a user from sending you private messages by using message rules within your User Control Panel. If you are receiving abusive or harassing private messages from a particular user, inform a board administrator immediately; they have the power to prevent a user from sending private messages and take further actions.

The administrators take spam and abusive posting very seriously and make all attempts to prevent this activity on The Atrium Forum. First thing: do not reply to the abusive or spam email! Your email address is nonpublic and is not revealed to anyone using the message board email system. Replying will reveal your email address.

The e-mail form feature of this board includes safeguards to try and track users who send such posts, so e-mail the board administrator with a full copy of the e-mail you received. It is very important that this includes the headers that contain the details of the user that sent the e-mail. A board administrator can then take action.

You can use these lists to organize other members of the board. Members added to your friends list will be listed within your User Control Panel for quick access to see their online status and to send them private messages. If you add a user to your foes list, any posts they make will be hidden by default.

You can add users to your list in two ways. Within each user’s profile, there is a link to add them to either your Friend or Foe list. Alternatively, from your User Control Panel, you can directly add users by entering their member name. You may also remove users from your list using the same page.

Enter a search term in the search box located on the index, forum or topic pages. Advanced search can be accessed by clicking the “Advance Search” link which is available on all pages on the forum.

Your search was probably too vague and included many common terms which are not indexed by phpBB3. Be more specific and use the options available within Advanced search.

Your search returned too many results for the webserver to handle. Use “Advanced search” and be more specific in the terms used and forums that are to be searched.

For security purposes, The Atrium Forum administrators only allows registered members to access member information. Registered members can visit the Members page for a listing of our current members. Only information made publicly available by the member will be visible to registered members.

Your own posts can be retrieved either by clicking the “Search user’s posts” within the User Control Panel or via your own profile page. To search for your topics, use the Advanced search page and fill in the various options appropriately.

Bookmarking in phpBB3 is much like bookmarking in your web browser. You aren’t alerted when there’s an update, but you can come back to the topic later. Subscribing, however, will notify you when there is an update to the topic or forum on the board via your preferred method or methods.

To subscribe to a specific forum, click the “Subscribe forum” link upon entering the forum. To subscribe to a topic, reply to the topic with the subscribe checkbox checked or click the “Subscribe topic” link within the topic itself.

To remove your subscriptions, go to your User Control Panel and follow the links to your subscriptions.

For security purposes, attachments are not allowed on The Atrium Forum.

For security purposes, attachments are not allowed on The Atrium Forum. This FAQ entry remains in the remote chance that attachments are possibly allowed.

To find your list of attachments that you have uploaded, go to your User Control Panel and follow the links to the attachments section.

This software (in its unmodified form) is produced, released and is copyright phpBB Group. It is made available under the GNU General Public License and may be freely distributed. See the link for more details.

This software was written by and licensed through phpBB Group. If you believe a feature needs to be added, please visit the phpbb.com website and see what phpBB Group have to say. Please do not post feature requests to the board at phpbb.com, the group uses SourceForge to handle tasking of new features. Please read through the forums and see what, if any, our position may already be for a feature and then follow the procedure given there.

Any of the administrators listed on the “The team” page should be an appropriate point of contact for your complaints. If this still gets no response then you should contact the owner of the domain (do a whois lookup) or, if this is running on a free service (e.g. Yahoo!, free.fr, f2s.com, etc.), the management or abuse department of that service. Please note that the phpBB Group has absolutely no jurisdiction and cannot in any way be held liable over how, where or by whom this board is used. Do not contact the phpBB Group in relation to any legal (cease and desist, liable, defamatory comment, etc.) matter not directly related to the phpBB.com website or the discrete software of phpBB itself. If you do e-mail phpBB Group about any third party use of this software then you should expect a terse response or no response at all.