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Please take a moment to read the Community guidelines and learn how to use the Community.
Love Scotland and want to share your stories – why not have a look at all the recent discussions and make a contribution or start a new discussion? Visiting Scotland and looking for some advice – why not ask a question or start a discussion or simply explore all the great content?
Join the conversation today and share your #scotspirit.
Love Scotland and want to share your stories – why not have a look at all the recent discussions and make a contribution or start a new discussion? Visiting Scotland and looking for some advice – why not ask a question or start a discussion or simply explore all the great content?
Join the conversation today and share your #scotspirit.
Using the Community - Quick Guide
VisitScotlandIntro
Administrator ✪
Hello Community members! Welcome to the new VisitScotland Community.
As we now have more and more members joining, we thought we'd create a new thread with a little guidance on how to use the Community and get the most out of it. Please ask any questions you might have about the forum software in this thread and we'll do the best we can to answer them. In the meantime, here's a quick guide to the main site features.
Main navigation
The navigation at the top of the page is specific to the Community.
Category list
The main way you will be able to find new threads and comments is to browse our main category listing. You will see this as soon as you enter the Community. You can select the title of the category to view that category, or jump straight to the latest post for each category on the right.
On the right of the main list you can see more navigation, including discussions that you have contributed to, draft posts you may have saved,
unanswered questions and popular tags.
Threads
A thread or discussion is where most of the interesting things in the Community happen. It's a conversation between members of the Community and you can jump right in and start commenting.
You can also post three different kinds of thread - a general post, a question (which allows you to mark responses as good answers) or a poll. Just click the arrow on the New Post button to choose the kind of content you would like to post.
Posting in a thread
To add a contribution to a thread, scroll to the bottom and use the comment window.
See below for adding files, images and links.
Adding images
There are two ways to add images. The simplest way is to simply drag an image from your desktop onto the comment window. The image will appear wherever your cursor was located. You will also see a small thumbnail of the image at the bottom of your post. If you want to move the image to a different position, click the 'X' next to the thumbnail, click to move your cursor to the new position, then click the thumbnail to reattach it.
The second way is to use the file/image upload button on your toolbar:
This allows you to drag a file or image, select it from your computer's file system, or link directly to an image on a hosting service such as Flickr, Imgur or 500px. Please don't link directly to images which don't belong to you.
Making links
To create a link, highlight the text you would like to make into a link, then click the Link symbol in your toolbar. Type or paste the URL you would like to link to and click OK to create your link.
Videos
To add a video to your post or comment, just paste in a URL from Youtube or Vimeo. It will be automatically converted into a video player. Click 'Preview' to check that your video is working before you post. Unfortunately we don't allow member's own videos to be directly uploaded to the Community as the file sizes are generally too large. But Youtube and Vimeo accounts are free to register, so feel free to share your videos of Scotland with us!
Responding to other users
To mention another user, you can use the @ symbol. Just type '@' and begin typing their username, then select the right one from the list. This will send them a notification to let them know you have mentioned them.
Managing your profile and favourites
Finally, don't forget you can upload a picture of yourself to help other member's identify you, as well as adding a signature to your posts, checking your bookmarked 'favourite' threads or just seeing what's new on the threads you've commented on. Use the menu in the top right of the screen to access your personal profile, favourites and more.
As we now have more and more members joining, we thought we'd create a new thread with a little guidance on how to use the Community and get the most out of it. Please ask any questions you might have about the forum software in this thread and we'll do the best we can to answer them. In the meantime, here's a quick guide to the main site features.
Main navigation
The navigation at the top of the page is specific to the Community.
- Home will take you back to the main forum index
- Discussions will show new recent posts
- Activity will show actions that you and other Community members have recently taken (like commenting on a thread or uploading a picture)
- Best Of will show you threads, pictures and comments that have been liked by other members or promoted by the moderators
- The Search box allows you to search the whole Community for specific things. You can search for combinations of words, or for specific phrases by putting your search term inside quotes, i.e. "Isle of Lewis"
Category list
The main way you will be able to find new threads and comments is to browse our main category listing. You will see this as soon as you enter the Community. You can select the title of the category to view that category, or jump straight to the latest post for each category on the right.
On the right of the main list you can see more navigation, including discussions that you have contributed to, draft posts you may have saved,
unanswered questions and popular tags.
Threads
A thread or discussion is where most of the interesting things in the Community happen. It's a conversation between members of the Community and you can jump right in and start commenting.
You can also post three different kinds of thread - a general post, a question (which allows you to mark responses as good answers) or a poll. Just click the arrow on the New Post button to choose the kind of content you would like to post.
Posting in a thread
To add a contribution to a thread, scroll to the bottom and use the comment window.
See below for adding files, images and links.
Adding images
There are two ways to add images. The simplest way is to simply drag an image from your desktop onto the comment window. The image will appear wherever your cursor was located. You will also see a small thumbnail of the image at the bottom of your post. If you want to move the image to a different position, click the 'X' next to the thumbnail, click to move your cursor to the new position, then click the thumbnail to reattach it.
The second way is to use the file/image upload button on your toolbar:
This allows you to drag a file or image, select it from your computer's file system, or link directly to an image on a hosting service such as Flickr, Imgur or 500px. Please don't link directly to images which don't belong to you.
Making links
To create a link, highlight the text you would like to make into a link, then click the Link symbol in your toolbar. Type or paste the URL you would like to link to and click OK to create your link.
Videos
To add a video to your post or comment, just paste in a URL from Youtube or Vimeo. It will be automatically converted into a video player. Click 'Preview' to check that your video is working before you post. Unfortunately we don't allow member's own videos to be directly uploaded to the Community as the file sizes are generally too large. But Youtube and Vimeo accounts are free to register, so feel free to share your videos of Scotland with us!
Responding to other users
To mention another user, you can use the @ symbol. Just type '@' and begin typing their username, then select the right one from the list. This will send them a notification to let them know you have mentioned them.
Managing your profile and favourites
Finally, don't forget you can upload a picture of yourself to help other member's identify you, as well as adding a signature to your posts, checking your bookmarked 'favourite' threads or just seeing what's new on the threads you've commented on. Use the menu in the top right of the screen to access your personal profile, favourites and more.
5
Comments
Hi @VisitScotlandDave - I just signed up to share my passion for the wildlife and wild places of Scotland. This sounds like a great idea.
I have a question about adding photos to comments.
I can drag a photo into a comment, but when I try to post the comment I get feedback saying that I have not been a member long enough to add links.
When I delete the photos from the post and resubmit, the comment is published with links to the photos even though I thought I had deleted the photos before publishing. I would prefer my photos to be shown inline if I submit them, or not at all.
Is there a process to ask for ability to post inline photos and url links?
To protect our community from devious spammers, we have a couple of restrictions in place. You need to be a verified member before you can post links and images, which usually takes three comments and 24 hours.
I've altered your permissions to speed up the process, so if you try now, you should be able to use all of the features. Please give me a shout if you have any more difficulties.
Check out the tinberry travels - sharing stories, adventures and travel related nonsense as I explore the world bit by bit
Find me on twitter & instagram
@Cakegirl - there isn't a way to change the type of a discussion after it's posted I'm afraid. However, I've deleted your original post (as it didn't have any responses yet) so you can repost it as a Question discussion.
@Zubenelgenubi - you can edit your comments or your posts for 15 minutes, but you can't switch them to another type, sorry!
@thetinberrytravels - some of our badges are awarded automatically, usually for a certain number of points or comments (if other users like or promote your comments, you get points for it). Other badges are awarded manually by moderators, for really good comments and if you're engaging a lot with a particular topic.
The Ambassador and Contributor badges are reserved for members who joined the Community during our closed Beta phase. These members helped us to start many of the discussions on the Community and have agreements with VisitScotland to engage with us and with other members. We're open to recruiting more Ambassadors and Contributors in the future - if you would like more information on this, jump on our live chat to have a talk with one of our admins.
Check out the tinberry travels - sharing stories, adventures and travel related nonsense as I explore the world bit by bit
Find me on twitter & instagram
how long do you have to be a member before you can post links?
Sensible precaution against spammers though I must say.
Welcome to our community!
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MDHardingTravelPhotography
Twitter: @Deansphotog
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