Public Forums

The Public Forums are a community focused section of PokéFarm Q. It is a place where the community of the game can communicate with one another, and holds many functions. It is not part of the game itself, so users may ignore it entirely if they desire. It can be accessed from a link at the top-right corner of each page.

Users should make sure to read and understand the Rules before posting. The Stickied threads of a given forum should be read as well, as they may have more specific rules pertaining to that forum.

Navigating the Forums

The Public Forums operate as a public message board for all users. In order to help coordinate topical discussions, the Public Forums page is divided into a number of collections, and furthermore into unique forums and subforums within each collection. Each forum has its own range of acceptable topics to discuss. If users attempt to discuss untopical things in a certain Forum, the Forum Moderators may move the discussion to the proper location, while also alerting the poster to such actions.

Forum Sections

Each forum collection is designated for a certain range of topics for users to discuss. These topics are broad in scope to allow for further categorization within into individual forums.

• Core: This collection contains Forums to interact more directly with the PokéFarm Staff. Site announcements can be found here, as well as other Forums to discuss the site’s development. Users can seek help or report bugs here as well as suggest new features or improvements to the game.
• PokéFarm: Forums geared specifically toward community game features are found here. Users can discuss features of PokéFarm within, keep track of happenings in the game, and find other users to play with.
• Pokémon: Topics not pertaining to PokéFarm, but still within the realm of the Pokémon universe can be discussed here. Discussions range from anime to video games to anything else within the Pokémon franchise.
• Other: Miscellaneous forums that do not belong in other Collections belong here. Non-Pokémon related topics and forum games can be found within.

Reading the Forums

A given forum is made up by a number of discussion chats known as threads. Each thread has unique titles to help in finding specific discussion topics that already exist. Users on the site may leave messages on these threads, known as “Posts”. Threads within a Forum are listed by title in reverse chronological order of the time the last post was made within, with the exception of Stickied Threads, threads 'stuck' to the top of a Forum for visibility. Clicking on a thread title will direct to its initial post. Clicking on the time since last post will direct to the last post of a thread.

When visiting a thread, the posts making up that thread will appear ten at a time, spanning multiple pages if there are more than ten posts. All posts are listed in the order they were posted, with information about their authors alongside. To navigate between pages, links exist at the top or bottom of the thread page that may be used to travel to another page. Links that provide a topic-path as well as a link to subscribe to a thread are present atop each thread page.

Occasionally, a user may find a post with a Gold Star posted alongside it. This is used by the PokéFarm Q Staff to signify a helpful post of quality that many users might find useful to read. Only a member of Staff may award a Gold Star to a post, and only to a post written by a user with a lower Staff Rank. For example, a Moderator can not give a Gold Star to an Admin or another Moderator. The only exception to this is when one Admin awards another Admin's post.

Subscriptions

A notification system exists to alert users to posts in forum threads they have taken an interest in. Users may “Subscribe” to a specific thread by clicking the “Subscribe to this thread” link found on the thread of their choosing. A user may view and edit their Subscription list by clicking the number link above the Public Forums link in the top right corner of the webpage (the number displays the number of subscription alerts the user had when the page was loaded) or via the Subscriptions link at the top of the main Public Forums page.

Posting on the Forums

A forum thread is made to have users contribute to the discussion. Users have a library of features available for posting on the forums. While users may post in any open, unlocked thread, they must remain courteous to the site and forum rules.

Writing a Post

A text field is available to quickly make a post at the bottom of any unlocked thread’s page. Any text entered when the Post Reply button is clicked will be made into a new post on that thread, with any BBCode formatting used being implemented. The new post will contain the written content, and show the author’s information alongside for others to see. A full version of the post editor is available through clicking the “Switch to Full Editor” button. The Full Editor includes some additional features such as a post preview, useful for viewing a post before it is submitted. New posts will not be posted to a thread until the “Post Reply” button is clicked.

Other options available from a thread are those that allow the user to start a post by quoting another post in the thread automatically, as a reply to that user. (An option to reply to a user’s post via a Personal Message is also available.)

A thread may say “you do not have permission to post in this thread”. This typically indicates either the thread is locked, or the user viewing it is Muted/Forum Banned, meaning they are not allowed to make posts.

Post Editing

A user may edit any of their own posts on an unlocked Thread at any time by clicking the “Edit this post” button. This will open a Quick Edit field that can be modified in the thread. A button to switch to the Full Editor is also made available when editing a post. Any revisions or edits to a post will not be saved unless the “Edit Post” button is clicked.

Creating a Thread

Users may author their own forum threads by clicking the “Start new thread” link located atop most individual forums' pages. This link will open a page similar to a Full Editor for a new post, but will have an additional text box for a thread name. The main text box may be used to write the first post of the new thread, usually to introduce the topic of discussion. The new thread will not be saved or visible unless the “Post Thread” button is clicked.

Thread Options

The original author of a thread has access to a few options for their thread.

• Lock Thread - This will close the discussion, disallowing new posts or post editing within.
• Delete Thread - This will delete the Thread from the public forums.
• Rename Thread - Can be used to edit the name of the Thread.
• Add Poll - This will open a Poll creation menu for the author to make a Poll for readers to vote in.