How Do You Make a Post a "Favorite Topic"?

I get tons of e mail asking me questions, and it's helpful to me to be able to point out what I've already written, somewhere.

I asked yesterday about Favorite Topics, because I get asked about that alot. I've answered that, and more, here!

One of the questions I get asked alot is, "Where did my topic go? It's gone!" Actually, what happens as ifish gets busy, is that if no one responds recently to that thread, it goes off the front page and onto page 2 or 3, bumped down by new topics that get posted.

First off, I reccomend that as a registered user, you go to MY HOME and get to know what's going on around there. Your home is a cool place! There are alot of options available to registered users to make your experience more personalized!

Remember that NO CHANGES will take place unless you finish the cycle by scrolling down and hitting "SUBMIT". This tells ifish that you want the changes to take place. If you tick some boxes that you aren't sure of, while you are there, just don't hit submit. Back out, and you'll be back where you started.

Alright, let's do a practice run.

Do you see the gold bar, second to the top of the page? You must be registered and logged in to see and use these options:

My Home · Main Index · Search · Active Topics
Who's Online · FAQ · User List · Calendar · Gallery · Chat

Let's begin.
Left click on MY HOME.

Are you there? Let's check.

On the top, you will have your private message index. It is called "Message Box". Let's talk about that, a while.

To send someone a private message, please click on your friends name anywhere on ifish.net. All of the member names will be links on ifish, when you are registered and logged in.
You will see these options on the bottom.


Send a private message | Edit this user | Add to address book | Show all user's posts | Return to Forum

Click on "Send a private message". Fill out the title, and the text box, and hit submit. Bingo! It's just like e mail, but more personal, and instant if they are presently on ifish.
When you go to send a pm, you have several options available to use, for your convience.
Three tick boxes under the text box you write in, say:

I want to keep a copy of my message
I want to receive a read receipt
I want to preview my message

If you want to know WHEN the person reads it, click "Read Receipt". That's a neat feature. You will receive a pm that tells you that they have indeed, read your message.

If you want to keep a list of sent messages, you have to check the box that says "I want to keep a copy of my message". If you don't check that box, it doesn't save them.

Oh yeah, if you have a flashing icon in the upper left hand corner of ifish, click on it. You have a private message to read!

Back to MY HOME... to the right of message box, you have "Friends online" (Which tells you which friends are online right now.)

To add people to this list, please click on your friends name anywhere on ifish.net. Then, click on "Add to address book". Next time you click on MY HOME, if they are online then, they will be listed there. That's a neat feature, often overlooked! BUT NOTE THIS: if your friend chooses not to be seen on ifish, or not to show what he's doing, he can uncheck a feature in

MY HOME/
Personal information, email, password, etc./ REMEMBER THAT THE "EDIT" button that you need to click to access this area is CLEAR over to the right. Left click "EDIT", not the words "Personal information, email, password, etc."!!!

and at the bottom,
Do you want users to see the actual forum/post you are looking at?/

and check "No". Then, no one will see what forum you are looking at. Likewise, with "Do you want to be visible on the "Who's Online" screen?" Again, please remember that changes will not take place, until you scroll down and hit the Submit button, before continueing.

ALRIGHT! This brings us to Favorite Topics (...view all)/
the topic of this thread!

On every topic page, when you click on any thread, way down at the very bottom of this page in the "Extra Information" box (on the green line in white print), you'll see the following:

Favorite Topic! (toggle)
Print Topic

Click on "Favorite Topic! if you'd like to save this thread and follow it closely. Alot of people lose their topics, as they go off the front page. This is a good way to keep track of where it is.

Click on it! It doesn't hurt, and you can always remove it in the "MY HOME" area, by clicking delete, after you check that thread.

You'll see this text on the next page:

The selected post/topic has been added to your list. You will see this entry in 'My Home' until you remove it if you added it as a Favorite. You also will get any replies to your Favorite topics emailed to you if you have this option enabled in your profile. Reminders will not be emailed to you and will go away once you make a reply to the post. Don't set the hook! You will soon be returned to the ifish forum!

OK. Alot of people do this and nothing happens after that! Well, they WILL show up in MY HOME, and you can click on them from there, but this is neat! There is yet another step of total convenience! This next step actually REDUCES bandwidth on ifish, because you don't have to go there! You just read your e mail!

Back to MY HOME, and finally to:
'Subscribe / Unsubscribe from receiving forum posts by email, change message notifications, etc. '
To the right of those words, click the word "edit" by the pencil icon.

Once on the "Email Notifications / Subscriptions" page, (Are you there?)
click "YES" to
"Do you want all replies to your favorite topics emailed to you?"

And again, scroll down and hit SUBMIT to make those changes.

Now, every time someone replies to a thread you have toggled to be your favorite, you will receive an email with their reply! COOLNESS!

There are several options on each page of the MY HOME area. Have fun clicking buttons, but remember, there is no "Back to default" button, so make certain you write down what things were at, before you change them. If there is a problem, you can always go back that way.

One of my favorite changes that I always do with new accounts is to display more threads per page. People not registered only get 15 topics per page. A benefit of registering is that you can change this.

Go to

1. MY HOME
2. Display preferences, number of shown topics, languages, colors...
3. Find "Total parent posts to show per page: (default is 15)"

I have mine changed to 40, instead of 15.

and then also change the next one:
Total posts to show on one page when viewing a post in flat mode (default is 20)

to 40.

So, both of those will help you to see more topics and more threads, per page! That means LESS CLICKING!!!!!

If you have trouble reading because of vision loss, please try this feature (at the top of the Edit display preferences :smile:

Which style sheet (skin) do you want to use for your display?
When you choose a different style, there is a preview button, so you can see what it looks like, before you decide. Try some of those!!!!!

Anyhow, those are but a FEW of my favorite things to change on ifish.

I hope I didn't confuse you. I tried to write it as simply as I could.

Is there anything else I can help you with? Problems? Confused? Let me know! I can help! (Or, at least I'll try!)

I will keep a copy of these instructions at the top of LIFE IN GENERAL. Please look for them there. (Unless you marked this one as a favorite!!! :smile: )

Jen