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Author Topic: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums  (Read 86716 times)

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brenden

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How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« on: February 02, 2016, 03:49:46 pm »
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Hi there!

Whether you don't have an account, just made an account, or have had an account for a while without really knowing this stuff, I hope this guide gives you a few helpful hints on using the ATAR Notes Forum. I'm going to try my best to go from the absolute basics to perhaps the more 'complex' stuff. I'll cover all the small stuff like how to browse the forums, and also cover the more 'advanced' stuff like embedding images into posts and changing image dimensions. Hopefully it's helpful to you! Please let me know if you have any questions or if I've missed anything (which is almost certainly the case!)

But before I do anything else, I'll give a quick definition of the ATAR Notes forums for those of you who have clicked onto this thread from an email without ever having visited us before:

ATAR Notes is an online student community inhabited predominantly by Year 11 and 12 students and people in their undergraduate university degrees. There are some younger students, and some people who are doing postgraduate degrees like the MD.

We strive to give the best help possible to anyone who wants it enough to ask. That's all we require. Anyone who asks for help will get some of the best advice you could ever get given. We're a bunch of students just like you, so we're never going to bullshit you and we don't have an agenda.

On this site, we have insanely smart people - not always defined by ATAR. We have a lot of people who've scored 99.95 or 99+, and we also have a lot of people who didn't do that well numerically even though they know their subject's content better than anyone. All of these people are ready to help you at the drop of a button. We know about rankings, scaling, subject specific stuff, how to study, how to deal with extracurriculars in a busy year, what degrees might be best for your situation - together, we know a lot. We always, always want people to ask their questions and participate in the community. When that happens, it means we can help more people. So not only are you helping yourself by asking questions, but you're helping us show people what we have to offer. Be sure to introduce yourself!

Okay, now let's get started with the guide!


First, I'm going to talk about navigating the forums and notes to 'find' stuff you might like. Click the spoiler tags below if you're interested in this information.

Navigating the forums to see updated posts
There are a few different ways to navigate the forums, and different people develop different habits depending on what they find easiest.

One way to navigate the forums is by looking at "recent posts" on the Forum homepage. To do this method, go to the ATAR Notes Forum Homepage and scroll all the way down. At the bottom of the page, you'll find the "recent posts" section, which is featured in the image below:



Now, you'll notice that in this image, "UoM General Chat" appears four times, and "how to do well at physics" appears twice. That's because this method of forum navigation will show you every single most recent post, and not just the most recent threads. If you're a Guest on the forums, this is one of the best ways of seeing the updated posts. You'll also notice a few other buttons:

Messages of the week: Displays the three most upvoted posts of that week.
Forum Stats: Another place where you can see every single post on the forums that not many people know about. Also gives you an option to see forum statistics. If you take a look at the button below, you'll see two buttons. 1. View the most recent posts on the forums and 2. [More stats] .
The 'view most recent posts on the forums' is in my opinion the best place to navigate the forums as a guest if you want to make sure you see every piece of content.

Users online: Tells you who's been most recently active for the last 15 minute period.

Another way to navigate the forums if you have an ATAR Notes account is to click "show unread posts since last visit" under your username after clicking the "FORUMS" button to go to the forum homepage. That button is featured below:


This is my personally preferred method of navigation as a member of the site, although I know some people insist on using the 'recent posts' section on the homepage as I outlined above. The reason I prefer this method is because it doesn't show the same thread multiple times, and it shows you literally everything you haven't read yet. So for example, the below image shows a lot of the posts I haven't read yet since they've last been updated :


What's also really important about this method if that you can choose to see new replies ONLY from YOUR posts using this button:


This is super useful to see if your question has been answered or to see if someone has commented on something you've also commented on.
Navigating the forums to find something specific
If you're not interested in seeing the most updated posts, but just want to find resources or topics about a particular subject, then you navigate through the forum boards.

Small navigational hint
See the below image. All the arrows pointing up? That represents the "flow" of forum boards. You start at the Forums, go to the Board you want, then the Child board you want, into the specific subject. You can also use the buttons the arrows point to for navigation back and forth.

You can do this through going to the ATAR Notes forum homepage. Scrolling down, you'll see administration, blah blah blah. The quickest way to get to where you want to go is to use the navigation dropdown box in the toolbar.


After clicking VCE/HSC, you'll be shown one of these pages:

VCE


HSC


From these pages, you can navigate to subject-specific content and see all the most recent posts in, say, your favourite subject's board.
Navigating the notes
Okay, so - the notes are a bit easier to figure out than the forums, but I'm going to start from the ground up anyway.

ATAR Notes has thousands of student-submitted notes. Anyone can submit notes, but they all require moderator approval, which means that anything completely crap gets thrown out. Otherwise, you can see the date the note was uploaded in so you can check if it's super updated, and you can also see the star ratings and the comments of other students.

Have a look at the below image.

You'll see there's an option to change your "state". Make sure you choose the right state you're in.

Then, you can type in the subject you're looking for. If you'd like, you can use a key word in the 'search notes' tab on the right hand side.

There are also two different ways of viewing the notes.

FIRST WAY:


SECOND WAY:


You can change this navigational display using the little icons next to the "add notes" button:


Second, I'll show how to make a topic and how to make a post. If you've posted at least one time, this section is entirely skippable.

How to post things
See the below image.

You can see that this page is in the board for the HSC subject English Advanced. If I click "New Topic", you'll have a chance to write a subject line (just like in an email), and then write the body of the post (just like an email). This is how you know you're making a whole new topic just for you. Don't be intimidated or afraid to do this! It can make a lot of organisational sense just to make you're own topic instead of asking your question in someone else's. We don't mind you make a new topic just for you at all - sometimes that's the best way to get help.

One other option available to you is replying to an already existing topic/thread. All you have to do is actually CLICK into the thread you want to reply to, and then your options will change. I'll show you in the below image...

Do you notice how there's now an extra arrow up the top? It doesn't just stop after English Advanced - the navigational flow shows that you're in the thread itself. If you look down the bottom, the button now says "reply" instead of "new topic". If you click that button and type into the text box, you'll be writing a reply to that thread.

You'll need a forum account to see the "New Topic" and "reply" buttons - only people with an ATAR Notes account will see these.
"I know how to post things, but is there anything more I should think about?"
Generally, you want to go through a thinking process before posting. Once you've made a few posts, you never need to use this process, when but you're starting out, it might help to run through this checklist.

1. Make sure if you make a new "topic", it's in the relevant board. For example, if you're asking a question about VCE Maths Methods, don't ask it in the Specialist Maths board. It's easy to make this mistake - you might see people talking about a math topic and just assume that's where all the maths topics go. Double check the "navigational flow" so you know you're making the post in the right place.

2. If you want to make a topic, check there isn't already one of the same nature. For example, if you're asking "what pen should I use?" - check that there isn't already a thread "What pen should I use?" that people have already spoken about.

3. If you want to make a topic - make your subject line clear, so people have an idea of your question before they ever read it. Don't use capital letters - it always looks ugly.

Do: "Help with a World War 2 Question - Weimar Republic"
Don't: "URGENT HOLY SHIT I'M GOING TO DIE PLEASE ANSWER MY QUESTION!!!!!!!! PLEASE URGENT!!!!!!!##$$!@!#@"

4. If you don't want to make a new topic but just want to reply to a thread, have a quick read through that thread to make sure your reply will be relevant to the discussion. If you compare your reply to the replies people are making and they seem like they don't match, you might be in the wrong thread, or it might be time to make your own thread.

Third, I'm going to give instructions on using forum 'code' - i.e., how to embed images into your post, how to make your writing bold, how to make a sentence into a URL, etc.

Some good general advice in this regard would be to always click "Preview". Preview is your best friend. By previewing what you're about to post, you can see where you've made mistakes, and often you can figure out how to do it and you'll start to understand what's going on. Most people learn by "quoting" someone else who's used some basic forum code, then copy/pasting from there. Hopefully what's below will speed up this process for new users.

How to quote someone, and how to quote multiple people
So, quoting someone is pretty easy. You just click the "quote" button, as per the image below.


Once you click the quote button, this appears in your text box:
Code: [Select]
[quote author=brenden link=topic=164618.msg866105#msg866105 date=1454325496]
Just because YOU didn't write a low-scoring but fun creative piece!
[/quote]

And obviously, that makes this happen:
Just because YOU didn't write a low-scoring but fun creative piece!

That's pretty easy, but what if you want to quote multiple authors?
Well, one way to do that (and I did this for a while because wooooow I was a noob) is to actually just open multiple tabs of the same thread. Quote Person A, and you get their quote. Then, in another tab, quote Person B, and you get their quote. Then you copy the text from one tab and paste it into the other. All of a sudden, you have both quotes in your textbox.

However, if you didn't want to be ridiculous and you want a good way to quote multiple people, here's how you do it:

See the little "insert quote" buttons?
If you click those, it'll just quote that post. All you have to do is quote the first person, then scroll down and it will show you other recent posts that you're able to "insert".

If the quote you need doesn't appear on that list after scrolling down, you'll have to use the double-tab option outlined above.

How to use bold, italics, underline
Code: [Select]
[b][/b]
Code: [Select]
[i][/i]
Code: [Select]
[u][/u]You'll see above that I've written B, I, and U inside square brackets. That's how you use bold, italics, and underline. You just type between that code like this, or like this, or like this. If you want to use all three at the same time like this , then you can just use:
Code: [Select]
[b][i][u][/u][/i][/b]
Remember that as you reply, there are actually icons for this:

How to change font style, size, colour
Code: [Select]
[font=arial][/font]
Code: [Select]
[size=14pt][/size]
Code: [Select]
[color=purple][/color]The code is above. Same principle, you just type in the middle of the code. As always, there are icons, as per the image below:

How to use spoilers
Code: [Select]
[spoiler][/spoiler]The code for spoilers are above. Or you can click the "Sp" icon that's right under the "change color" dropdown box.

If you want to use spoilers and give them a name like I've been doing, then you do this:
Code: [Select]
[spoiler=PUT YOUR NAME HERE][/spoiler]You just put "=" after the first 'spoiler', then type in what you want to name the spoiler, then close it off with a ' ] '.
How to use LaTex for typing Maths
Code: [Select]
[tex][/tex]Using the tex code is easy to learn. For those of you who are interested, visit this thread:
List of LaTeX Resources
How to attach URLs to different words
So any ATAR Notes URL you post will automatically attach the URL to the name of the thread. For example, the URL for the English advanced thread is: http://atarnotes.com/forum/ index.php?topic=164556.0, but when I paste that URL in without editing it, it simply becomes 93 in Advanced English: Ask me anything!.

If you want to link someone to an English thread by making the whole sentence blue like I've just done then you can use this code:
Code: [Select]
[url=www.link.com] <whatever you want the link to say> [/url]
So for example:
Code: [Select]
[url=facebook.com] Click here to go to Facebook! [/url]Would just appear as: Click here to go to Facebook!  
How to embed images into your post
You'll notice that throughout this entire guide, I've been using images as if I just pasted them in. The way you do that is with the below code:
Code: [Select]
[img][/img]You can also get this code from clicking the Mona Lisa icon, which is directly below the button for Italics.

The steps are as follows:
1. Locate whatever image you'd like to use.
2. Put it on a site like imgur.
3. Once it's on the site and you're viewing it, right click the image and "open in new tab".
4. You will notice that the URL changes.
5. Get the changed URL (the correct one), and paste it in between the [/code]
Now look what happens when I use that URL in the image code. Notice that the image URL is just "/1P9lcY8".

The image is broken?! What gives?! The URL looks like the right one, doesn't it?

Wrong.

We'll need to open the image in a new tab.

STEP 1:


Now that we have opened the link in the new tab, you'll see that the URL has changed and you'll see that the only thing on the webpage is the image:

FINAL WEBPAGE:


Notice how on that webpage, the URL is different from the one I showed you before.

The URL used to be like this:
Code: [Select]
[img]http://imgur.com/1P9lcY8[/img]But now the URL is like this:
Code: [Select]
http://i.imgur.com/1P9lcY8.png
Notice that the url now has .png on the end of it. It's changed. Now, when I paste it in, instead of getting a broken image, I get an image like this:



So that's how you embed images into your post.

You can also change the size of the image, which I'll show you now.


See in the below code, how there's "width=500" and "height-250"? You can change those to change the display dimensions of the image.
Code: [Select]
[img width=500 height=250]http://i.imgur.com/1P9lcY8.png[/img]If I wanted the width to be smaller I could just make the code like this:
Code: [Select]
[img width=250 height=125]<link>[/img]If I wanted it to be bigger:
Code: [Select]
[img width=1500 height=750]<link>[/img]
So yep. That's how you change the size of your image if you'd like to do that.


Now, I'll talk about how to set up your own personal forum profile and  the personal messaging system

Setting up your personal profile
So, if you go to your profile, you'll see all of your information, including your email and stuff like that. If you locate the "modify profile" button, it will give you a list of options, as per the image below:


Account Settings is where you can change your email and password if necessary.

Forum Profile is where you can change things up.

You can change your profile picture - which is a great thing to do, and I recommend you guys give yourselves one:


You can change your personal text and signature:


To get code in your signature, there are no 'icons' for you to click, so if you want to use bold, italics, and things like that, you'll have to prepare your signature in another post, as if you're replying to a thread, and then copy the writing and paste it into your signature. There's also no preview, so you'll have to just make the changes, go back to your profile, check if you're happy, and make changes if you're not.

People often display their subjects in their signature, but you can choose to have a quote that you like or even a small portion of personal text that you want displayed at the end of every single post. It's an awesome thing to have, and makes your profile a little more personal.
Personal messaging system
The PM system is good if you need to communicate with someone privately or just want to have a general conversation. We usually prefer that if you have a subject-specific question, that you ask on the forums so that everyone can receive the answer and benefit. Sometimes, more prominent forum members will receive 20+ personal messages in a day, often about similar topics - it can be extremely onerous to answer all of them personally, which is why making a new topic can be beneficial :)

You can personal message someone by going to their profile and clicking "Send pm".

Or you can personal message someone by going to the personal messaging icon, then clicking "send a message", then typing in the username of the person you want to talk to.

You can also save all of your own sent messages  by going to the message icon and changing your settings/preferences and clicking "save my sent messages".



Do you have any questions that weren't answered by this guide? Please reply and let me know, I'm sure there's things I've missed! If you haven't yet made an ATAR Notes account, get onto it! You can register for an ATAR Notes account here and start getting free help from people the same as you!
« Last Edit: August 18, 2017, 08:46:34 am by Joseph41 »
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Hydroxyl

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2016, 08:10:03 am »
+2
Hi!! I found this very helpful — Thank You very much!

I have a few questions:

1. How do you display your School and Grad Year?
2. Is there any way to change your username?


Thanks once again!
2016: Biology [41] | Further Mathematics [42]
2017: Chemistry [36] | Mathematical Methods [38] | English [44] | Psychology [50 + Premier's Award]
ATAR: 98.25
2018 - 2020: Bachelor of Science (Psychology) — The University of Melbourne
2021-2024: Doctor of Medicine — Griffith University (Gold Coast)
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heids

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2016, 08:20:25 am »
+4
1. How do you display your School and Grad Year?

This is currently a feature that isn't working.  If you go to Profile - Modify Profile - there should be a blue button near the bottom with 'Edit User Details' which would let you change this, but if you click on it it doesn't work.  This is on the developer's to-do list, however :)

2. Is there any way to change your username?

We don't change usernames for people, however, if you have a good reason (such as it's revealing private details you wish you hadn't revealed) feel free to PM a national moderator (like myself) or admin and we can change it for you.

Off-topic PS: I like the quote in your personal text - I hadn't really thought of it that way before!  Thanks :)
VCE (2014): HHD, Bio, English, T&T, Methods

Uni (2021-24): Bachelor of Nursing @ Monash Clayton

Work: PCA in residential aged care

Hydroxyl

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2016, 08:29:32 am »
0
Thank You! I've tried that but it somehow keeps changing it back to 2013! Hopefully they fix it soon :)


Off-topic PS: I like the quote in your personal text - I hadn't really thought of it that way before!  Thanks :)

THANKSSSS!!! I just changed that before I posted this. It's good to know, especially around now with my 1/2 exams :)


Cheers :D
2016: Biology [41] | Further Mathematics [42]
2017: Chemistry [36] | Mathematical Methods [38] | English [44] | Psychology [50 + Premier's Award]
ATAR: 98.25
2018 - 2020: Bachelor of Science (Psychology) — The University of Melbourne
2021-2024: Doctor of Medicine — Griffith University (Gold Coast)
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danielan2016

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #4 on: July 22, 2016, 10:29:12 am »
+1
This is a really good system!!! Well done to who ever thought of it

brenden

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #5 on: July 22, 2016, 11:14:36 am »
0
This is a really good system!!! Well done to who ever thought of it
Let us know if you need a hand with anything!
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studybuddy7777

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #6 on: July 30, 2016, 08:51:14 am »
+2
Not sure whether this is the right place, but i am just wondering how "respect" works on the forums? At first i thought it was the +1's on the comments, but then i saw a comment with +2 and only 1 respect.

Any help would be splendid ;D ;D

pi

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #7 on: July 30, 2016, 09:12:55 am »
+4
:)

Although I don't have any myself lol, I think you get a respect point if 3 of your posts get +3 votes. Mathematically, the formula is
(n-2)x0.4, (with n being the number of positive votes given to your post) provided that n is greater than or equal to 3. So, +3 votes on a single post garners you 0.4 overall respect points.

studybuddy7777

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #8 on: July 30, 2016, 03:32:06 pm »
0
:)
Quote from: abc12345j on January 13, 2016, 07:51:39 pm
Although I don't have any myself lol, I think you get a respect point if 3 of your posts get +3 votes. Mathematically, the formula is
(n-2)x0.4, (with n being the number of positive votes given to your post) provided that n is greater than or equal to 3. So, +3 votes on a single post garners you 0.4 overall respect points.

Could you try and make this just a tad clearer? I get that its 1 respect point for every 3 posts that get +3 votes, but the part where it says +3 votes on a single post garners you 0.4 respect points confuses me. Would 5 posts with +3 posts equal 2 respect points (0.4 x 5) or would 6 (6 posts +3 votes)?

Thanks for clarifying ;D

pi

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2016, 03:40:58 pm »
0
Would 5 posts with +3 posts equal 2 respect points (0.4 x 5)

That's correct.

HighTide

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #10 on: July 30, 2016, 03:54:53 pm »
+4
That's correct.
To make what he says clearer, he means:
For every +1 you get above 2 votes, you will get +0.4 respect.
+2 = 0.0
+3 = 0.4
+4 = 0.8
+5 = 1.2
This applies to each post.
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studybuddy7777

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #11 on: July 30, 2016, 04:22:23 pm »
0
That's correct.
To make what he says clearer, he means:
For every +1 you get above 2 votes, you will get +0.4 respect.
+2 = 0.0
+3 = 0.4
+4 = 0.8
+5 = 1.2
This applies to each post.

Thank you both for that! Makes it much easier to understand now ;D

amina_98

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #12 on: August 20, 2016, 05:46:46 pm »
+1
I hate to sound...nooby...but how do I insert my ATAR goal on my profile?
ATAR Goal = 91.00

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RuiAce

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #13 on: August 20, 2016, 06:21:06 pm »
+5
I hate to sound...nooby...but how do I insert my ATAR goal on my profile?
Most people usually do things like this via their forum signature, which is under "Forum Profile" in the settings.

jamonwindeyer

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Re: How to Use the ATAR Notes Forums
« Reply #14 on: August 21, 2016, 12:08:11 am »
0
I hate to sound...nooby...but how do I insert my ATAR goal on my profile?

Looks like you got it!! If you want to get creative and make it a different colour, copy and paste this into the same spot:

Code: [Select]
[color=blue]ATAR Goal = 91.00[/color]
Replace the colour 'blue' with any of the easy colours (red, blue, green, yellow, purple, orange, navy, maroon, etc ;) )  There is more info on using the BB Code markup system in the first post ;D