The Bullpen

[David]

We have recently been hit with a swarm of new forum members (and I speak for all of us when I say we couldn't be happier) and things are still running just fine, thank you all for that.

To get everyone situated, maybe throw a couple helpful pointers out there, we decided to make this a Welcome/Information/Request thread.

The Forums:

• If you?re reading this, you?re in The Bullpen.  This is the forum for 11 O?Clock Comics, Marvel Noise, anything related to those podcasts and general comic book talk.  You?ll also find the archives to the podcasts as well as Artists? Alley, the place where artists accept commissions and show of their wares.
• The Monkey Room is where the off-topic talks are held.  Off-topic generally means non-comic, and includes movie reviews, video game chat, television recommendations, and all-around conversation, but it's also the more (im)mature forum on the board (boobies, anyone?).
• The Drawing Board is all about art.  Convention sketches, fan art, pimpin? and promotin?, the lovely Art & Design thread... If you want to show it off this is the place.
• The End Cap.  This is where we talk toys and statues.  Action figures and busts and everything in between.  Plush, vinyl, it doesn't matter.  And even better?  Photos of your collection.  It's also where El Dave posts his kick-ass photos (other than his blog and , that is).
• Like prose books?  The Book Club is where like-minded individuals get together to discuss the latest selection, be it science-fiction, classic literature, or anything in between.
• The Traffic Report is the forum for you if you have books, movies, video games, or CDs that you want someone else to try.  If someone wants to try Proof, Lego Indiana Jones, or Serenity (or anything else) and these items (or any others) are sitting on your shelf collecting dust, why not pass them along?  It's a way for someone to try something and all it costs is postage.
• B.S.T. - Buy Sell Trade.  Sums that up.   If you're looking for something to buy, sell, or trade, this is the forum.

That?s Munden?s Bar in a nutshell.  Hidden gems scattered throughout this place, so much goodness that no one forum can contain it.  From time to time, if a thread was started in one place and moved to another it's most likely because of the subject matter, but it can also be done so more eyes are open to things they may have missed.

Which brings us to...

Forum Search:

There is a search box under the banner and to the right.  While it gets the job done, you can narrow things down a bit using the Search link between the Help and Profile links.

That search option lets you search posts, thread/topic titles, posts by users, by date, and even within certain forums.  Searching by topic subject is handy providing the thread starter offers an indication as to what the thread is about.  For example, Top Ten Comic Book Covers is more to the point than Here's a Cool List Idea!.  Not only will the former show up as a result if you're searching topic titles by the word cover, but letting other forum members know what the thread's about right off the bat is always a good move.  Might even promote discussion.  Maybe.  There's no scientific proof of that or anything.

Posting Images:

Have images you?d like to show off here on the forum?

We?ll tackle this two different ways:
   I have my own website.
   I have access to an image hosting service (such as Photobucket or ImageShack)

Adding an image in a post on the forum isn?t difficult.  This process requires the use of tags, or codes, designed for the forum.

• For those that have their own website images can be posted by using the ?[ IMG ]http://...??[ /IMG ]? tags (or the button above the comment box with an image of a framed picture).  The path would look like ?[ IMG ]https://bullpenbulletinspodcast.com/images/11occ/HercYouDidIt.jpg[ /IMG ]? (without the quotes and the spaces in the brackets).
• If you're using Photobucket the file still needs to be uploaded to their server.  However, this time the path labeled IMG is selected, which should look similar to [ IMG ]http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c126/dap9972/HercYouDidIt.jpg[ /IMG ]? (again, sans spaces and quotes).  ImageShack can also be used the same way as Photobucket, just select the ?Direct link to image? and remember to use IMG tags so it can be viewed in the thread. (ex: ?[ IMG ]http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5082/hercyoudidit.jpg[ /img ]? and you guessed it, leave the spaces and quotes for something else).

The image used in the examples above, after the spaces in the brackets are removed, would be:

You can also see how someone embedded images by quoting their post.

It came to our attention earlier today that a post was using images linked to another website.  The owner of that site wasn't pleased (rightfully so) and moved the images which pretty much nullified the forum member's reply.

Hotlinking

Hotlinking:

"Hotlinking" (also called "hot linking", "leeching", and "bandwidth theft") is a term referring to when a web page of one website owner is direct linking to the images or other multimedia files on the web host of another website owner (usually without permission, thus stealing bandwidth).  This not only causes the other person to pay for the bandwidth of the hotlinked file, but often is intellectual property theft.  The term is also used loosely (a misnomer) by free image hosts which allow you to store images on their server and allow you to direct link the hosted image files on forums or other websites (sometimes altering the image to have a watermark).  One of the most common occurrences of "hot linking" is when people are forum posting and they hotlink pictures from another website to use as avatars or signature images on the messageboards (forums).  Some disadvantages of hot linking worth considering are that the webpage generally loads slower when you link to images stored on a different web hosting server than the webpage is hosted on, and the owner of the image has full control to disable hotlinking, or delete, rename, or worse yet, do a "switcheroo" (i.e., switching the file name to be another image which is sure to cause the hotlinker embarrassment) of the hot-linked image.

. . .

Hotlinking and Bandwidth Theft

Bandwidth is a bit like gas for a car. Every time you drive (or a file is loaded), a bit of fuel (or bandwidth) is used up. Now imagine if each night one of your neighbors siphoned out a tiny bit for their own car... then other neighbors thought "I'll just take a couple drops as well"... by morning your fuel tank is empty. Your neighbors each thought taking just a tiny bit would be unnoticeable.. but added all up it left nothing for you.

Serving up images is not only usually our biggest consumer of bandwidth, when others remotely link to them (ie. embed them in their websites from our servers without our permission), we have to pay... bandwidth is not free! Most websites have a limited amount of data transfer and the website owners either have to cough up extra money each month to pay the fees, or face shutting down.

Some things webmasters can do to hotlinkers:

• Rename the file and give the hotlinker a broken file.
• Replace it with a very nasty file (think of whatever you'd most dislike seeing on your page and I can guarantee the website owner with the original content can imagine something ten times worse.)
• Replace it with a notice that hotlinking is not allowed and an advertisement for their own website.
• Contact the hotlinker's website host and submit a copyright / terms of service abuse report. In most cases this will result in the hotlinker losing their website.

In the past I have sent forum members notes letting them know that I was unable to see an image they posted because it was linked to another site.  Unfortunately, and rarely, you won't see anything wrong when you post an image because it's in your cache.

In this day and age there's no excuse to not have a Photobucket or ImageShack or account.

We're mindful of others within the virtual walls of this message board.  Please extend that courtesy to those that reside beyond our home here.

Civility and Being Responsible

We?re all here because we love comic books.  A lot of us have no problems acting like kids, but we should be mindful of others.  Not everyone visits the board from the privacy of their home on their personal computer.  Some check the board while they are at school or work or the library on computers used and seen by others, maybe co-workers or family members.

We ask if your images are mature or skewed toward an older audience (and we do have members in their teens) in general that you hide them using the spoiler tags and prefaced with a NSFW (Not Safe For Work) label.  We?re not looking to censor anyone, just be aware not everyone frequents the forum with the same luxuries.

We'll update this thread when the need arises.  If you a particular request you can ask it here and we'll do what we can to accommodate you.

Thanks for playing,
Vince, Chris, David, and Jason

[David]

This thread was long overdue for a shakeup and a rewrite, so consider it a work in progress.

I think some will say we're not the same board we were a year ago, but we're still one big, happy crazy, dysfunctional family.

If a new member has any questions that the old-timers can't answer or just want one place for information about Munden's Bar, we'd like this to be that place.

[Farrell]

This thread was long overdue for a shakeup and a rewrite, so consider it a work in progress.

Cool.  Maybe throw a little search function tutorial/prodding hint in there? Save you some thread merging time. 

[David]

Maybe throw a little search function tutorial/prodding hint in there?

 

THAT's what I forgot to add!

Consider it added.

[Matt H.O.W.L.]

THAT's what I forgot to add!

Consider it added.

That's good and all, but I'm interested in reading Green Lantern? New thread?

[David]

That's good and all, but I'm interested in reading Green Lantern? New thread?

I think that has to be the most used topic starter here.

[David]

Maybe throw a little search function tutorial/prodding hint in there?

The seeds have been planted.  I'll tweak it when I can.  Maybe Doug can add his kick ass .JPG to the thread.

[Doug!]

The seeds have been planted.  I'll tweak it when I can.  Maybe Doug can add his kick ass .JPG to the thread.

Done and done.  In fact, I'll even provide the transcript from my video series called "so you want to be post on message boards".

"Hi, I'm Doug.  You might remember me from threads telling people why I dislike Twilight or making snarky comments about Marvel Comics"

"Hi Doug"

"Jesus... where the hell did the small child come from?"

"I've been here the whole time"

"Do your parents kow you read this message board?  Vince B. posts here you know."

"My Dad is asleep and Mom went to her 'girls club'".

"Ooookay... Let's get on with this then.  You're starting to freak me out here kid."

"Doug, where do I start reading Green Lantern?"

"Well, umm... Billy, you would know if you did a search."

"How do I do that?"

"Is this kid really that dumb?  Listen, all you have to do is look for the search bar at the top of the page, type in what you want and see if there is a thread for it already.  Easy as..."

"Pie?"

"Could you not interrupt me?"

"But what if I get a lot of search results?"

"Can you read?  Just look at the page and think about it for a second."

"Is there a picture I can look at to find the search bar?"

"It's at the... screw it, it's at the end of this."

"Thanks Mr. Doug."

"Go... Away..."

[Purple Rico]

What is this "karma" in between my username and status, and how may it be attained?

[JoeyN]

You get karma from members if they like your posts

[Purple Rico]

Oh, is that what that whole kiss/kick thing is about?

[JoeyN]

Yep

[SuperSpel]