The HyperNoobie Guide For Posting To The Fourm.

[rfancella]

Hello all and I hope this finds you well!

I wanted to take a few minutes to describe a few principles of posting to this Forum.

First and foremost, remember the people replying to your request for help are here because they love the scene and want to help out. I have seen harsh answers given to questions, but they are usually questions like: "hyperspin wont play any of my games whats wrong".

A few rules to follow:

1. Be polite.
   
2. Be descriptive in what the issue is.
   
3. Use sentences, punctuation and capitalization.
   
4. Describe what steps you have taken to produce the error or problem.
   
5. Briefly describe your setup.
   
6. Post in the correct forum.
   
7. Do not post multiples about the same issue.
   

The above example would have been answered better if the question was asked like this:

"I am having problems running games from HyperSpin. I am using all the new and updated versions of the available software and modules. I have the matching version of the emulator for the module also. My games will launch just fine through the emulator and through HyperLaunchHQ. But when I run HyperSpin and select my Daphne wheel, it jumps back to the Main Menu. Below I have posted my HyperSpin log, my HyperSpin Main Menu.ini, and my Daphne.ini files below."

With this information, we can probably answer your question with one post and you are up and running!

Let's talk about QUOTE and CODE tags. Many people don't use them, but that's probably because they don't know what they are and how they help.

The CODE tag:

A set of CODE tags allows you to post log and settings files so they do not fill up the page you are posting to. All of your text will show up in the post, but the box it shows in is only about 30 lines tall. So your log file may be 100 lines long, but your post will be short. The CODE tag will also not change any of the content between the tags. Without using the CODE tags, the content of your post may be altered. Most of the time, this will warrant additional questions.

CODE tags are easy to use, once you understand them. They consist of and open tag and a close tag shown below:

Everything in between them will be displayed in a CODE box. To use them, you can just type them into your post or use the editor tool bar. The default tool bar does not have the CODE tags available, so just hit the button "Go Advanced" right below your editor box:

This is the tool bar that is then displayed. I have highlighted the CODE button:

Two simple ways to use this button. If you have already pasted your text into the editor, highlight the text and hit the button. If you have not pasted the text yet, hit the button and then paste (the cursor will be between the tags if you hit the button with nothing selected).

The QUOTE tag:

QUOTE tags are used to reply to someone or something specific. When multiple people are replying in a thread, sometimes it gets mixed up who is talking to who. So use the QUOTE tag when replying or answering a question or comment. Some one posts "That's true." in a thread, without the QUOTE tags, it might be hard to know what they are replying to.

To use the QUOTE tag, instead of just typing your answer or question into the editor, hit the "Reply With Quote" button as shown below:

This will bring the QUOTE tags along with the quoted text down into the editor. Then just type your post below the quoted text. Here is an example of a quoted reply:

When dealing with quoting, sometimes there can be multiple quotes inside quotes. This is also a bit annoying for someone to read. The proper term for fixing this is called "Snipping". On this forum this is not needed as much as in others, but for Private Messages, sometimes it's very helpful to snip out stuff that's no longer relevant.

In your initial post or reply:

Just about every time you post or ask a question about a problem, your first reply will almost always be, "Post your logs" (inside CODE tags, of course). Many people don't know what logs are or where to find them. I hope this will help some.

Depending on where your having trouble varies which logs you should post. You should always follow these basic steps:

1. Make sure the game plays right from the emulator.
   
2. Make sure the game plays when launched from HyperLaunchHQ.
   
3. Make sure the game plays from HyperSpin.
   

So, if the game does not run from the emulator. There may or may not be logs to post from the emulator. If the game fails in HyperLaunchHQ, please post your HyperLaunch log. Before posting any HyperLaunch logs, be sure and set your Logging Level to Troubleshooting.

Bring up HyperLaunchHQ and be sure Global is selected on the top left. Select the General Settings tab on top and the HyperLaunch sub-tab below it. Also make sure the other options in red are selected:

Then select your system on the left, audit the games and try to launch one by hitting the rocket icon:

If the game fails to launch, be sure and turn fade off. Make sure Global is selected on the top left. Select the Settings tab on top and the Fade – General sub-tab. Check that Fade In – Enabled is set to false:

Report any errors displayed on the screen when you try to launch the game and post your "HyperLaunch.log".

The log is located in...\HyperSpin\HyperLaunch:

Open up the log and select every thing in it. Paste it into your post. The HyperLaunch log already puts CODE tags at the top and bottom, so be sure and include everything in your post.

Posting ini, cfg or other log files require a little more. For them you may have to dig a little to find them and be sure and put CODE tags around them.

There are various posts and sticky threads about these exact subjects, I just thought it might be good to have this post to suggest to new posters.

Notable threads:

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?29322-New-and-old-users-must-read

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?21696-Site-Rules

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?26025-HyperLaunchHQ-Read-Before-Posting!

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?25898-Official-HyperWiki-Thread

Your input and suggestions are always welcome.

Thanks,

Ron

[Polemicist]

Any chance this can be pinned djvj?

[sandman7793]

It would be nice if it was stickied. But then again, who am I kidding. We can't get people to read stuff at top of forum, about the new ftp, and it's on every page. Thanks for the guide Ron.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[THK]

It's now stickied.

[gigapig]

Good work all round guys.

[Agrajag]

Truly excellent post, Ron! One of best guides for newcomers I've ever read on any forum, and should probably be required reading for ALL members. I fear sandman is right though, the people who need it most are the ones who are least likely to read it of their own volition. I have just pointed one first-time poster with a vague question to it and hope everyone else does this from now on instead of ignoring such posts or starting the usual "logs & more info please" routine.

Just one thing... you might want to fix the typo "3. Use sentiences". Now should that be ""Use sentences" or "Use sentience", I wonder? Both would help!

EDIT: Ah, also just noticed the thread title has "Fourm" instead of "Forum"

[sic]

Great guide Ron!

[rfancella]

Truly excellent post, Ron! One of best guides for newcomers I've ever read on any forum, and should probably be required reading for ALL members. I fear sandman is right though, the people who need it most are the ones who are least likely to read it of their own volition. I have just pointed one first-time poster with a vague question to it and hope everyone else does this from now on instead of ignoring such posts or starting the usual "logs & more info please" routine.

Just one thing... you might want to fix the typo "3. Use sentiences". Now should that be ""Use sentences" or "Use sentience", I wonder? Both would help!

EDIT: Ah, also just noticed the thread title has "Fourm" instead of "Forum"

Awww... Heck..... (blush) Thank your for your kind words of encouragement!

LOL. I will fix the typo's ASAP. I cannot spell to save my life. And apparently my Spell check is very broke.

EDIT: Wow... In the thread tile? That sucks, that one can't be fixed.

Thanks again,

Ron

[Polemicist]

Awww... Heck..... (blush) Thank your for your kind words of encouragement!

LOL. I will fix the typo's ASAP. I cannot spell to save my life. And apparently my Spell check is very broke.

Thanks again,

Ron

Think you may want to get a new spell check that one does have some issues. Can't complain about the content though.

[goofers]

So if everyone just left why are they taking donations still this should be free to download now ?

[Agrajag]

I don't know what on Earth that has to do with this thread, but since you ask, the donations pay for the server costs. All the themes and artwork have to be hosted somewhere, and that isn't free.

[kingearl]

speaking of themes and artwork... whats the process on uploading? I put together about a dozen PC game themes that I couldnt find anywhere online, and if it helps out a few people then they might as well be posted here on your site.

[relic]

speaking of themes and artwork... whats the process on uploading? I put together about a dozen PC game themes that I couldnt find anywhere online, and if it helps out a few people then they might as well be posted here on your site.

lets see the results post some images up so we can take a browse upon them thanks

[kingearl]

On this topic? Alrighty. Here are most of them:

Side note... Im heading out of town skiing in a few hours and wont be back till Thursday.

[kingearl]

no dice? Well even if you dont want them on the site it would be nice to know what the uploading procedure is

[Agrajag]

They look very good to me, but they shouldn't really have been posted in this thread at all. I suggest you go to the Theme Announcements part of the forum and read the sticky threads. Then create a new thread for each theme, wait for people to critique them, make any changes if necessary then go to the Downloads section of the website and upload the finished themes for approval.

Also, remember this is all done by volunteers in their spare time and it's a bank holiday weekend in the UK (not sure about elsewhere) so people may have other things to do for a few days.