Compendium

Mata Nui Inc and Plast! Productions Forums
Compendium

You've just registered and got your job all set up. With all being said and done, you have to learn how to use the forums. Maybe you're coming straight from Bzpower, or you've never used a forum before. This is a simple, yet informative member guide that will help you better understand our forum. There's four different steps explored in this topic: which purpose each forum serves, how to edit your profile, submit a message and use the personal messenger. Also, don't forget to pay a visit to our forums rules. It is recommended that if you are new, you should read this topic. It is an easy way to get started on the forums.



Content

About the Forums

Editing your Profile

Submitting a Message

Using the Personal Messenger


Other Reference Topics

Rules and Guidelines

New Member Guide

So, let's begin. First, let's clear out the reason for each forum -- which topics go in which forum. A large forum such as ours needs to have an organized forum system; thus, we need to have a distinctive forum for each project, and organization, but also forums for the members to relax and have fun in. All forums are divided into four simple categories; each forum within these categories has a unique purpose. Here's a full catalog of all the forums, and their purpose. (Green symbolizes a category)


Mata Nui Inc | Plast!

Announcements & Administration

Forum Reference -- In here you can find information about the rules and guidelines of the Mata Nui Inc. and Plast! forums, including updates and service announcements.

New Member Q&A -- Here both old and new members can ask questions about any topic pertaining to the forums, and also receive help from admins and moderators.

Mata Nui Incorporated

Mata Nui Inc Discussion -- A forum dedicated to discussing all things Mata Nui Inc! Ask questions, propose ideas, read announcements and find out the latest info regarding projects like Ancient Chronicle. Discussion for a single MNI project should be re-directed to the relevant forum below.

Ancient Chronicle -- Discuss, plan writing and modeling ######, run auditions, and generally coordinate all aspects of Ancient Chronicle (formerly known as BIONICLE: Untold).

Origins -- Discuss Origins.

Altum Bellum -- Discuss Altum Bellum.

The Grand Creation -- Discuss The Grand Creation.

The Price of Jealousy (Locked)

Their Mistake -- All discussion about the voice acted podcast Their Mistake for Ancient Chronicle.

MOCing -- All MOCing-related discussion for Ancient Chronicle.

Conceptual Art -- All artwork-related discussion for Ancient Chronicle.

3D Modeling -- All 3D Modeling-related discussion for Ancient Chronicle.

Audiobooks -- Contains all the audiobooks to be produced for Ancient Chronicle.

Awakenings -- Here you can discuss everything related to Awakenings by Mata Nui Inc.

The MNI Soundtrack -- Discuss all about Solis Magna & Solar System, the comprehensive fanmade e-book guide to Spherus Magna and the other planets in its solar system.

Plast! Productions

Plast! Discussion -- A forum dedicated to discussing all things Plast! productions. Ask questions, propose ideas, read announcements and find out the latest info regarding projects like KanohiJournal Publications and BrickCraft.me!

KanohiJournal Publications -- Discussion related to KanohiJournal Publications, an ###### focused on publishing books, stories, games and all sorts of other stuff, for BIONICLE and LEGO fans alike!

Solis Magna and Solar System -- All discussion about Solis Magna and Solar System, the BIONICLE Universe atlas.

Worldscape -- Discuss Worldscape, the ultimate fanfiction RPG. Two separate worlds will be formed--a Lego-oriented world, and a general fantasy/science-fiction world. Note: These are not the forums in which Worldscape is going to be launched.

BrickCraft.me -- Discuss and coordinate work on BrickCraft.me, a brand new community and news website with a focus on linking LEGO Universe with Minecraft, along with general LEGO news items.

Community

General Discussion -- This is a "free-form" forum for discussing BIONICLE and LEGO in general, the wider community, and other things that don't fit elsewhere.

Off-Topic Discussion -- In this forum you can discuss anything (provided it meets our rules and guidelines).

BIONICLE RPG -- This is a community forum for BIONICLE text-based Role Playing Games.

COT RPG -- This forum is dedicated to completely off-topic text-based Role Playing Games.

Creative Outlet

Library -- A library for posting your non-BIONICLE and BIONICLE-related epics and short stories (as always content must be within our guidelines).

Epics -- Multiple chapter stories.

Short Stories -- Single chapter stories.

LEGO-Based Creations -- Here's where you can post your LEGO-based fan creations.

Artwork Gallery -- The highly requested forum for posting your artworks.

Music -- Got a song, poem, or some lyrics you wanna share? Then this is the creative forum for posting them!

Before we get into posting a message, we must first learn how to edit your profile; a profile is a representation of distinctive features / characteristics of a forum user. The user can choose to edit these written information at any given time; some of this information will be displayed on his public profile, on his / hers posts and personal messages. Such information may include Location, Birthday, Gender, Job, Interests, and other. A lot of these will be automatically generated when you enter fill out other information; such as your Age. There's also additional information you can choose to add, like your Bzpower / BS01 name, a Title, and the projects you work for (However, that space is only modifiable by a Moderator).

Keep in mind that you don’t have to fill out all the information to have a profile; you can choose to skip some, or all of them. However, if you want others to get to know you, it is recommended you fill them out.

There's two ways to edit your profile; one is by going to your public profile, and hovering over any information you would like to change. A symbol will appear; , click it, and the information will become modifiable.







Once you are ready to submit it, simply click the green button that has appeared next to the text box.







Nevertheless, the best way to edit all your profile's information is to click on the "Profile" tab seen in the menu bar, on top of every page. This page has a variety of info boxes you can edit at once. However, remember that once you register, most of these boxes will be empty. It will be up to you to choose if you want to fill them up or not. You can also click any of the other tabs, and go into detail about editing your profile's features. We'll review these tabs quickly:


Information -- Edit the key information presented in your Profile
Preferences -- Here you edit several settings of your profile.
Signature -- Modify your signature.
Attachments -- Manage all the attachments (small images) you have uploaded on the site.
Avatar -- Change your Avatar
Friends and Foes -- From this tab you can accept or decline friend requests, and manage your friends and your foes.
Topic(s) Being watched -- All the topic you are currently watching, A.K.A. notified by email when a reply is made.



Now, that you know how to modify your profile, we'll review the basics of submitting a post to a topic.

Let's brief explore the basic function of the forum: submitting a message to any topic. We will explore in detail the whole load of information you're faced with once you open any topic. Every topic has a series of repetitive messages, or posts. One of these is shown here. The collumn on your left is a user profile. There, a member's information is presented. Let's go over the various features of the User Profile:



User Profile:


Name -- A member can chose his / her name when registering the forums; this name can be changed to anything at anytime by clicking on the "Profile" option in the menu bar.
Avatar -- The member can also associate an image with his profile, which will most of the times being shown below his / her username. You can also change this image at anytime, and its dimensions can be up to 200x4000 pixels.
Rank / Image Rank -- Below any user's avatar is a special title given to them, usually depending on their position within Mata Nui Inc. or Plast!, accompanied by an image.
Info -- As shown here, a certain load of information about the corresponding user in presented on the rest of the column. Most of these information are modifiable by the member, while some can only be changed by administrators. These information can vary from Location, Birthday, etc. to their name on Bzpower or BS01.
Contact Details -- The last part of the user profile is a selection of sites in which you can find this member and contact them. Remember that these details can only be provided by the member, and thus, he / her can choose to not share any of this information.



Now that we've learn what the user profile is, we can move on to the main body of message:


Message:


Post Title -- You can add a small title to your post when you are replying; otherwise it will be auto-generated.
Message -- The message you have submitted is showcased in this small box above your signature. In this case, the member has chosen to write "GLOORIOUS". There's no actual limit to the characters you can use.
Signature -- A signature, or "sign-off" is a additional message that will always be present when the user makes a post. This message can be edited anytime by going to the "Profile" tab on the menu bar. The user can choose to write, show off, or advertise any site / creative work he has created himself or wishes to promote, provided it follows our rules.



We've almost got a grasp of the basics, but we haven't yet learned how to interact with a message, or even how to add reply to a topic. This can be done using several buttons, that will be auto-generated on any message, or on the topic itself.


Buttons:


-- Using this button you can quote multiple posts at once. Simply press the button on all the posts you want to quote, then press the "Post Reply" button.

-- Directly quote the post you are viewing.

-- This is a button exclusive to messages you've submitted. You can edit them at anytime.

-- If a member's post breaks the rules, you can report his / her post. You will be requested to state the reason the post doesn't comply with the rules, and the moderators will be notified.



-- Using this button you submit a new topic in the current forum you are at.

-- Add a new message to the topic by using this button.

-- If a topic has been locked by a moderator, this button will replace the "Add Reply" one. You will not be able to interact with it.


Thumbs Up "+" Button -- A small voting system has been installed into the forum. Using the + button, you can thumbs up any message another user has posted, or thumb it down.

Thumbs Down "-" Button -- Using the - button, you can thumb down a post; remember you can't thumb up / down your own posts.

There's still one very crucial function of the forum we haven't yet talked about -- the Personal Messenger. Using this function, you can talk to any member of the forum privately, quick and easy. Just like any other messaging site, you can send messages to other members and they can reply. When you need to access your messenger, simply click on the "Personal Messenger" button in the menu bar of the forum. You will see this exact screen; there are four folders above your messages you can click on. Each folder has specific purpose; you can also quickly jump to these folders by going into your menu bar.







All folders are for the messages you have sent / received:


Inbox -- All the messages you've received from other members.
Sentbox -- All the messages you've sent and the other user has read.
Outbox -- All the messages you have sent, but the other user has yet to read. You can still edit them before the other user reads them.
Savebox -- Got some important messages you need to keep? You can mark a message, and choose to "Save Marked". They will appear in this folder.


There's several things you can with your messages; you can delete some of them, save them into your Savebox, or delete them all. All you have to do to select one message and click the box next to it.







To send a new personal message, simply click the button "New PM", and you can start composing your message. If you open a message someone has sent you, you can either choose to reply it without quoting it by clicking "Add Reply", or directly quote it with the "quote" button.



This is all the basics you will need to use the forums. If you have further questions, please direct them at the Administration.