- Posts:
- 5,677
- Group:
- Citizens
- Member
- #951
- Joined:
- Nov 3, 2016
- Nation in Balder
- New Fakeland
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Newcomers Guide To The Balder Forum
- Contents
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- Key Forum Layout Items
- Subforum Areas
- Symbols and Colours of the Forum
- User Types and Government Positions
- Making Posts
- General Forum Etiquette
| Key Forum Layout Items |
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| Navigating the forum can be difficult if you don't know where everything is. This is a list of some of the more useful/important items you can see on the forum |
| Description of item | Location | Description of Uses
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|---|
| Profile strip | At the very top of the page | Link to your profile (click on your name), logout, change your profile preferences, and view your inbox.
| | Location indicator | just about the "The Realm of Balder" text | This shows you where on the forum you are. You can click on names to go up a section.
| | Subforums | below "Realm of Balder" area | This is where you can read and post topics and messages. Read below for more details.
| | The very last orange bar | Bottom of page | Amounts other things, a list of replies to your topics, and a list of active topics.
| | Below the final orange bar | Bottom of page | Options to change the page theme, mark forum/topics as read, and a clock showing your time zone, which can be clicked on to change.
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| Subforum Areas |
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| The forums can be difficult to navigate, due to the unusual names for many areas, some areas being mostly abandoned, and some areas being only accessible by, or intended for, certain user levels. The Subforums, and key sub-sub forums are as follows Key: Black, bold - Area for all users Gold - Citizen area. Green - Government and other special area. Red - Area is effectively abandoned, as no one posts there anymore
There are some sub-sub-forums that haven't been included in this list, in order to keep it relatively short. Some these listed areas wont even display for you unless you're a high enough member level, and most wont display if you're not even registered on the forum.
- Newcomers Bay
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| Subforum | Description
|
|---|
| Newcomers Bay | An area for newcomers, and increasing basic member status
| | Introductions | Introduce yourself here. Members may apply for citizenship (if from Balder), or ambassador status (if not).
| | Citizenship Applications | Members may apply to become citizens. See the "user types" section below for more details.
| | Ambassador & Embassy Applications | Members who's main nation is not in Balder may apply for ambassadorship.
| | Balder civil service | Citizens may apply to become a civil servant
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- Nordic Square
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| Subforum | Description
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|---|
| Nordic Square | Government affairs for the region of Balder
| | Winter Palace | seems fairly pointless
| | Statsraadet (ministers) | Where government ministers do their work and make announcements
| | Storting (parliament) | Where MPs come to discuss policies, and vote. Citizens may ONLY post in the "Citizens Subforum" here
| | Nordic Hall | Where other matters relating to the region of Balder are discussed
| | Campaigning and Voting | Where citizens may stand for Storting (i.e. apply to become an MP)
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- External Affairs
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| Subforum | Description
|
|---|
| External Affairs | Government affairs for region other than Balder
| | World Assembly | Where people discuss the resolutions of NationStates World Assembly.
| | Embassy Row | Where allied regions have their own subforums.
| | Jomsvikings | The Balder military. Citizens may apply to join.
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- Norse Lif (life)
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| Subforum | Description
|
|---|
| Norse Lif (life) | General chat area for everything non-government related
| | Breidablik (Balder's hall) | General discussion area, for things unrelated to Balder government or NationStates gameplay
| | Valhalla | Password restricted area. Probably empty anyway. Don't bother asking for the password, you wont get it.
| | Ragnarök | Spam games (even thought it's "spam", you still have to stay consistent to the topic and not multi-post)
| | College of Arms | Fairly useless
| | Alkohol Markedet | Where all the drunks go to discuss their faviorite type of poison.
| | High Culture | For more intellectual discussions, arts, debates, etc.
| | Writing and Art | Exactly what it sounds like
| | Debates | debates not relating to NationStates or Balder government (which occur in previous supforums)
| | Games | discussion of games (e.g. computer games). See Ragnarök for spam games, and Mythos for role playing
| | Temple of the Gods | For stuff relating to Balder and the other Norse gods
| | Húsgørð njóta Fróðleikr (university) | Do the Queen's homework for her, because she's too lazy/drunk
| | The Nation of Balder | Not sure what this was for, but it's not used anymore
| | Mythos | Role playing games.
| | Austrvegr Kaupstefna (market) | Where citizens can set up a market stall.
| | Newspapers | Where citizens may create their own newspaper (if approved)
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- Norse Hel
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| Subforum | Description
|
|---|
| Norse Hel | For technical forum-related stuff, and forum storage archieves
| | Technical Office | Where the Admin who run the forum live. Go here to report problems on the forum
| | Laws of Balder | Archives of laws
| | Consolidated Archives of Balder | Where old unused topics are stored for prosperity
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For now, you'll probably want to stick to the black, bold areas (so mainly Norse Lif subforum and sub-subforums)
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| Symbols and colours of the forum |
|---|
| While not terribly important, you may be interested in what these mean |
| Symbol | Description | meaning
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 | Gold rune | new/unread posts in a subforum. Note: There are some areas that are hidden/off limits, so some areas may say there are new posts, even though you can't seen any.
|  | Grey rune | no new posts in a subforum
| / /  | Closed folder | New/unread posts in a topic.
| / /  | Open folder | No new posts in a topic.
| /  | Green folder | Topic has a poll.
| /  | Blue folder | Normal topic.
| /  | Red folder | Hot topic.
|  | Small padlock on folder | Locked topic (i.e. you may not post in it).
|  | A piece of paper with an arrow on it. On the right of a topic name | You have posted in a topic.
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| User Types and Government positions |
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The different colours that user names are displayed in, indicates different member types, which have different colours, and abilities Note: Some of these member types are occupied by a single person, and have a (1) to indicate this
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| Member type | Description | How to attain this level
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|---|
| Members | Standard users. Some area will be non-accessible | Join the forum
| | Citizens | Can access more, but not all areas. May vote in political polls (unless non-voting) | Apply for (and receive) citizenship in "Newcomers Bay->Introductions->Citizenship Applications".
| | Ambassadors | Similar to Citizens, but has main nation in another region (i.e. not Balder) | Apply for (and receive) ambassadorship in "Newcomers Bay->Introductions->Ambassador & Embassy Applications ".
| | Banned | Former users who may no longer post, or access all areas | Break the rules (please don't do this)
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| Government Positions |
| | MP (Members of Parliament) | May vote on certain issues, and gain higher positions | Voted into power from, and by, citizens, in "Nordic square -> Campaigning and Voting" once every legislative term (2 months).
| | (1)Lawspeaker | Coordinates voting and debate amongst the MPs | Elected by, and from amongst MPs by vote.
| | (1)Statsminister(prime minister) | Appoints and organises Statsraadet(ministers) | Elected by, and from amongst MPs by vote.
| | Statsraadet(ministers) | Each has power over a different ministerial department (Foreign Affairs, Integration, War, Culture) | Appointed by Statsminister(prime minister) from MPs
| | Deputy minister | Assists minister, and fulfils duties of absent minister | Appointed by minister
| | (1)Monarch | Is the WA delegate, and therefore has power over the realm of Balder. Also has various governmental and forum powers. Currently Queen Solorni. | A new monarch is voted for when the previous monarch abdicates. Reigns may last many years.
| | (1)Crown Royal | Vice WA delegate, and has slightly less power than the monarch. | Is appointed by the monarch at their digression.
| (1)Admin Administrators | People with absolute power over the forum |
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| Making Posts |
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At the bottom of a topic, on the right after a last post, there is an "AddReply" button. Clicking on this button goes to the reply page. On the reply page, there is a list of style options, clickable emoticons, and preview button. To see more info on the various code you can use in replies, how they work, and where they work, see this page http://w11.zetaboards.com/Balder/keys/?c=1
Some topics will also have a "fast reply" box at the bottom, where you can simply type your reply, then click the "Add Reply" button to do so. This "fast reply" box doesn't have the clickable styles or preview of the reply page, but you can get to the reply page after typing in the "fast reply" box, by clicking the "full reply screen" button underneath it.
Images added to posts must be online images. If you have an image that is not online, you must upload it to a site such as imgur.com, and then put a link to your uploaded image between an [img] and [/img] tag.
In the lower right hand corner of posts that others have made, there are options to "like", "dislike", "report", and "quote" In the lower left of your own posts, there is also an option to "edit"
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| General Forum Etiquette |
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- Don't spam. Spam includes multi-posting (i.e. making multiple consecutive posts shortly after eachother), going completely off topic, and posting short unhelpful comments
- Don't insult, abuse, deliberately offend, intimidate, etc. other users. Some leeway may be allowed during debates and roleplaying.
- Don't post any links to offensive or illegal material, nor to spam.
- Don't misquote (i.e. take quotes out of context) or edit a post of your own to make replies to change the apparent meaning of others that have replied to your post.
- Don't post messages in old topics that have run their course, or no longer have any relevance. If, for example, you wish to debate an issue that had already been debates a year ago, create a new topic for the debate. If, for example, you created a topic to share a story you are writing, and have a new chapter, it's okay to post it in that same topic, even if it's been a year since you last posted there.
- Don't deliberately provoke, encourage, or trick other users into breaking forum rules, or behaving badly.
- Don't argue with the Modmins (on issues of conduct or regarding the forum). There word is law.
Straying from these guidelines may result in warnings, loss of user-level, or even banning. You will also be seen as a bit of a d*** by other forum members.
If you like, or dislike someone else's post/comment, but have nothing to contribute to the conversation, click the "like" or "dislike" button in the lower right hand corner of their post.
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Ver 1.0 - 24/11/2016
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