How do you use the forums?

by far the most useful post on this forum

About DSGHQ: DSGHQ, standing for Damen Spike Games Head Quarters was created in late 2013 by Damen. This is the forum where you talk about all games on DSGHQ. Currently, DSGHQ owns and maintains Penguin3D, LeoRPG, and OldCP.
Rules
DSGHQ, its games, and the forum all have rules. Below are all the rules needed to be known for the forums, as well, a link to the community values which were made by Damen.
No making pointless discussions/replies. I.e) Spamming the forum.
No making moods with large size formatting or large images.
No bumping discussions that were published more than 6 months ago.
No swearing or posting inappropriate content.
No advertising unauthorized/official links or Discord servers.
No spam/revenge disliking.
No cheating reputation or gold. I.e.) Using other accounts to like your own content.
Be respectful when posting, no drama or discrimination is tolerated.
Ranks
The forum has ranks that you can earn, both by applying or simply just using the forum. Below are all the ranks, their meaning and how to obtain them.
Administrator: This is a very hard rank to earn, usually very trusted Moderators are given Administrator if deemed qualified.
Moderator: You can apply for this rank, these users watch over the forum to make sure no content breaks the rules.
News Reporter: You can apply for this rank, these users make News Reports about the games on DSGHQ, usually related to OldCP. These users are the only users authorized to post in the 'News' category.
Master: You can earn this rank by getting 500+ posts, and 300+ reputation points. This allows you to post in the hidden 'Masters' category.
Member: You can earn this rank by getting 100+ posts, and 50+ reputation points. This allows you to start making channels.
Rookie: Everyone starts off with this rank.
Badges
Badges are the little icons you may see under some user's profile pictures. Badges are usually earned by some sort of action, rank, or number of posts, rep, views, etc. Below are the generic badges. There are more badges you can get from making certain discussion titles, etc, however those are harder to obtain, and meant to be that way.
- You have made 100 posts.
- You have made 500 posts.
- You have made 1,000 posts.
- You have made 2,000 posts.
- You have made 3,000 posts.
- You have made 4,000 posts.
- You have made 5,000 posts.
- You have made 6,000 posts.
- You have 100+ reputation points.
- You have 300+ reputation points.
- You have 1,000+ reputation points.
- You have had 500+ views on your profile.
- You have reached level 10.
- You have reached level 50.
- You have reached level 100.
- You became a Master.
- You became a News Reporter.
- You became a Moderator.
- You became an Administrator.
Discussions
Discussions are where you start topics about anything. Below is all you need about posts, how to make them and how to format them.
Step 1: Making the discussion!
To make your own discussion, go to the front page of the forums.
In the upper left corner of the main page, click a button called "New Discussion".
Discussion Title: This is the display title of your discussion, you cannot change this once you submit.
Discussion Category: This is the place where your discussion will be located on the forum, make sure you place this in the right category! Moderators can move discussions in case you mess up.
Discussion Content: This is where the content of your discussion goes, you put all of the images, text, etc in here. This is also where you can put formatting (explained below).
Submit Button: Once you're done with your discussion, you have to press this before it goes up, you can always edit your discussion again, once it is on the forum.
Step 2: Formatting!
You see all the bright colors, images, etc in this discussion? Well you can do that to your own discussion! Using formatting. Below are instructions on how to do that.
As you may notice on your discussion creation page, there is a bar of a bunch of letters and words. That is there for you to format your discussions.
Here is a list of all the formats and how to properly use them.
Bold: Bold makes text bold. To use it, you click and put your text between the brackets; Now, "example text" will look like: example text.
Italics: Italics make text italicized. To use it, you click and put your text between the brackets; Now, "example text" will look like: example text.
Underline: Underline makes text underlined. To use it, you click and put your text between the brackets; Now, "example text" will look like: example text
Strikethrough: Strikethrough makes text stroke through. To use it, you click and put your text between the brackets; Now, "example text" will look like: example text
Center: Center makes text aligned to the center of the post. To use it, you click and put your text between the brackets; Now "example text" will look like:
Right: Right makes text aligned to the right of the post. To use it, you click and put your text between the brackets; Now "example text" will look like:
Image: Image displays an image using a link. You can get image links using imgur.com. To do this, you will click and place a valid image URL in the brackets;
Now, here is your image!
Video: Video allows you to post a video link, and display the video directly from forums. To do this, click and place a valid video URL between the brackets;
Now, here's your video!
Link: Link allows you to do 3 different things. It allows you to make clickable links, clickable words that have links attached (from outside websites), and clickable words that have links from the forum attached. To use it, click .
Clickable links from outside forums:
Type your link between the brackets.
Now the link will look like this;
https://penguin3d.biz
Clickable text with link attached (outside forums):
This is a bit different from the rest of the formatting you've seen. This is where you have to set a value INSIDE a bracket.
This will display;
Penguin3D
Clickable text with link attached (inside forums):
Much like the one above, you are putting the URL inside of the bracket, however, you are doing something different. When you see a forum URL that you want to make into some sort of text, you only have to put the end of the forum URL, you do not need to include "http://forum.damenspike.com"
Here is what I am wanting to display, I want to make my name have my profile ( https://forums.damenspike.com/profile/797 ) attached, so in order to do that;
Now, it will be;
Kara
Quote: Quote is used to quote someone. This is often used on replies, but if you want to quote someone without pressing 'Quote' under their post, this is how you do it.
Follow the following format;

USERNAME wrote on DAY MONTH YEAR, 00:00 PM:

quote you are quoting

For example;

Kara wrote on 4th February 2019, 01:00 PM:

I'm epic

This would display;
Kara wrote on 4th February 2019, 01:00 PM:
I'm epic
Code: Code is used to write literal statements without applying any formatting to it. It is often used for programming/code, so that the website does not mistake it for actual code. It is rarely used, but here is how to use it.
Click this,
Now place whatever code/phrase you want in between the brackets.
This displays;
<b>this is some epic code</b>
Size: Size is used to resize text. Either to make it bigger or smaller. Default text size is 3.
Click this,
Now if you want bigger text, you will use 4-7, if you want smaller you will use 1-2.
Small text;
Teeny weeny
Bigger text;
Large Marge
Color: Color is used to recolor any text. To use it, click;
Inside the brackets, you will place a hex code. Below is an example.
Red color;
Red text
Displays;
red text
List: List allows you to list things, using bullet points. To use it, click;
What comes up is a bit confusing, which is why I space it out, like so;
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/542121101723959296/542156954295074827/unknown.png
This displays;
Divider: This isn't shown in the top of your discussion bar, however, it is something very useful when dividing up your posts. A divider, that comes with the forum allows you to separate parts of your post with a line.

---

If you use this, or similar amounts of "-", you will have a divider that looks like this;
Your Profile
Your profile shows everything about you, you can edit your profile and customize it just to your liking!
To access your profile; go here --> https://forums.damenspike.com/profile OR click;
Here are all of the assets of your profile.
About Me: You can set your profile to share as much or as little information about yourself!
Title: You can set your title to be whatever you want. This is what you see above your profile picture in posts.
Nickname: You can set your nickname to whatever you want, as long as it isn't already taken. This does not change your login details (your username remains the same).
Want to edit these? Go to your profile, and then click on 'Edit Profile'.
Here, you can edit your nickname, title, and about me. Once you have finished your changes, make sure you click 'Save Profile', which is in the top left-hand corner.
Something else you may have noticed, is the 'Edit Addons' section. If you are new to the community, you most likely have no addons. To get addons, you have to go to the Addons Store and buy some! If you have no gold right now, do not fret, you can get it by being active and posting on the forum. You can also choose to buy gold from the store as well.
Mail
Something else you can do here is send private mail to your friends. To do this, click the envelope icon in the top right-hand corner of your screen.
Now you can see all of your old mail, and even be able to send new mail straight from here.
To send new mail, click 'Send Mail' at the upper left-hand corner of the panel.
Now, you can fill out your new mail! One thing you have to be sure of; you have to use a user's username NOT their nickname. Mail will not send unless you use proper usernames.
Channels
Channels are like little hubs where people can post information, and users can follow the channel to get updates on that certain subject/topic. Members+ can make a channel, but anyone can subscribe to a channel! Channels are located here --> https://forums.damenspike.com/channels
You can make your very own channel, by clicking 'Add Channel'! (YOU HAVE TO BE A MEMBER+ IN ORDER TO DO THIS).
Notifications
The little bell at the upper right hand corner of your screen is where you get notifications. This is where you are notified when someone likes/dislikes your post/discussion, where you see when someone replies to your discussions & moods, where you see updates on channels that you have subscribed to.
The red icon means you have new notifications, so keep an eye out for that!
Contact Core
As the DSGHQ tries its best to keep the community up-to-date and make sure staff are easily accessible, we have a Discord dedicated to communication between staff and users. This server is made for you to report any content on the forum that breaks the rules, it is made for you to get help from any forum moderator/staff member you may need.
Invite: https://discord.gg/PR9z5qa (This is set to never expire.)
I think this concludes this tutorial! If you have any suggestions on what I should add, or anything I need to fix, please let me know!
Kara
Forums Moderator

Let me see if I've got this right:
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