The Win Forums: The Win Forums -> First Time Here? Read The Forum Guide

If this is your first time here, we strongly suggest that your read this guide about The Win Forums. You will find information about our rules and policy, relationship with Microsoft, the staff team, skins and more. Our mission here at TWF is to create a friendly environment for our members to discuss, troubleshoot and get the latest news about Windows Vista, Windows 7, Linux, OS X, and more...or to simply hangout.

1) The Win Forums? What happened to The Vista Forums?
Yes, we used to be called The Vista Forums. Because Windows 7 has since been released, and many more OSes will do so too in the future, we decided to change the name of the site to The Win Forums - ie, The Windows Forums. We're still pretty much exactly the same site, just with a different name.

2) The Win Forums and Microsoft
The Win Forums is NOT affiliated with, nor authorized or sponsored by Microsoft in any way. We are an independent community run by PC enthusiasts, and have been helping our members with Windows Vista and Windows 7 issues since January 2006 - long before Vista/7's official public launches. So please DO NOT complain or throw your frustration with us if Vista or 7 doesn't work for you. If anything, we're here to help you and for free too!

3) Where are my posts?
If you post a topic or reply to a thread on The Win Forums, but you can't find it the next day, you can very easily find any posts you've made within seconds. To do so:

• In the top right corner of any page on the site, you'll see a box with your username and a "Sign Out" link. To the left of this is a small image, which (if you've set one) will be either a photograph of you, or a small grey outline of your head. Click on this image.
  
• You'll be taken to your profile, where you can see a few things about you - your age, gender, URL and IM addresses, and so on (if you've set them).
  
• On the very left, you'll see two links. "Find Topics" and "Find Posts". These two links will show you all your topics and posts that you've made on the site.

Note that you can do this on other member's profiles too, and see their posts and topics. if you want to.

4) Forum Skin
We have a couple of different skins available that you can choose from. Simply scroll down to the bottom of any page on the site, and select a new skin from the skin selector menu.

• IP.Board: The "ad-free" version of the default skin. Only visible to Subscribers, Helpers, and above.
  
• IP.Board Lo-Fi: A lite skin, designed for use on mobile devices such as smartphones. This is a very basic version of the site, so you probably won't want to use it on your computer. In addition, if you visit the site from a mobile device such as the iPhone, this will be selected automatically.
  
• The Win Forums: The default skin. Most of the time, you'll want to use this for posting.

To change the skin, simply scroll down and use the skin selector on the bottom-left, in the footer.

5) Piracy and Warez
Discussion about pirate and/or warez content, whether downloading, using, distributing or instructing others on how to obtain it, is strictly forbidden. Anyone found doing so will instantly have a warning added to their account. A repeat offence will get you permanently banned - and yes, we know if you've created a new account. Why? We have to be strict because allowing this can get us (and possibly you) into serious legal trouble. All it takes is one Cease & Desist letter from a lawyer, and we could be shut down. So if you are unsure about something (e.g. posting a link to download beta software), please PM a staff member to check.

6) Community Rules
Please read this page for our community rules on acceptable behaviour, maximum signature size, etc.

7) Contacting The Staff Team
Please see this topic for more information on who to contact if you have a problem or question about the site. Don't worry, we won't bite!

8) Copyrighted Material
The group icons, designs, themes, and any related content/media on our forums are the copyrighted property of The Win Forums. Anyone found copying, hot-linking or using them in any infringing manner without prior written permission from The Win Forums and/or iEntry, Inc, will be subjected to legal proceedings. We are very serious about this!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact any member of staff via a personal message, or you can make a topic in the Suggestions and Bugs forum.

© Copyright 2009 The Win Forums. All rights reserved.

Updates:
22nd June 2007: Updated overall formatting of article and revised the User Groups section (William).
04th August 2007: Updates link to reflect link changes on the forums (Matt).
11th November 2007: Updated content (Tolkein).
23rd December 2007: Fixed formatting (Ultimate User).
29th January 2008: Tidied up old info, changed image paths. (William).
30th July 2008: Fixed formatting (superstrikertwo).
24th February 2009: Fixed formatting (superstrikertwo).
22nd August 2009: Updated to reflect recent changes to the site and domain name (William).
5th September 2009: Added section about finding your own posts, etc (William).