MIMForum FAQ
What do I do first?
Am I required to login?
Why should I register?
How do I register?
I lost my password, what do I do now?
Why do you want my e-mail address?
Where is the Library and why can't I find it?
Why should I set my preferences?
How do I change my e-mail address on the Forum?
How do I let other people know about my own website?
How do I get the e-mail addresses of other members?
Can I use a "signature" after my messages?
Can I use a "handle"?
What do I do after I subscribe and register?
How do I post a message?
How do I post a picture?
How do I start a new discussion?
Adding a discussion on the top level page.
How do I subscribe to sections I'm interested in?
What happens after I subscribe?
What is the "Message Center"?
Links on the forum don't change color.
I posted a message a few days ago but now I can't find
it.
My question was answered. Should I delete it?
What do all of those acronyms mean?!
What's a FAQ, anyway?
What do I do first?
If you just want to check out the MIMForum, you don't need
to do anything more than read this FAQ and our policy statement, then click on the MIMForum button and enjoy the forum. Please be sure to read our "Read This First" message on the MIMForum top page, which includes Forum software bug reports, information about browser incompatibility issues, and other important information about participating on the MIMForum. And if you're new to building, please read our New Builders' miniFAQ for answers to many of the questions most frequently asked by new builders.
Am I required to login?
Why should I register?
How do I register?
I lost my password, what do I do now??
I don't like to give out my e-mail address. Why are you asking for mine, and what do you intend to do with it?
I see lots of references to the Library, but I can't find it. Where is the Library?
Why should I set my preferences?
How do I change my e-mail address on the Forum?
How do I let other people know about my own website?
How do I get the e-mail addresses of other members?
Can I end my posts with a "signature?"
I'd like to register to obtain full benefit of the
MIMForum amenities. Can I use a "handle" instead of my
full name?
What do I do after I register?
How do I post a message?
How do I post a picture?
How do I start a new discussion?
How come I can't add a discussion on the top
page?
How do I subscribe to sections I'm interested
in?
What happens after I subscribe?
What is the "Message Center"?
Links I've followed on the MIMForum don't
change color -- why is that?
I posted a message a few days ago but now I can't
find it.
My question was answered. Should I delete it?
What do all those acronyms mean?!
VSL - vibrating string length
<g> = Grin
What's a FAQ, anyway?
No. No one is required to login. But if you intend to be a
regular visitor you'll probably want to register as a member.
Registration enables features of the Forum software not available to guest users, and allows you to set
individualized preferences. This is only useful if you intend to
come back <g>. In addition, only registered members have
access to the MIMForum Library of archived discussion and our online auctions, and receive our quasi-monthly e-mail newsletter.
Choose the "register as a new user" link at the top of any Forum page. At the "Register" page
you'll be asked for your full name, password, and e-mail address.
These three fields are all required -- you may not leave any of
them blank. Type in your full name, a password (which you must remember), and your e-mail address, and click on "register." You then have the choice of returning to the
MIMForum by clicking "OK," or setting your preferences. You can set your preferences at any time by logging into the forum and then clicking on the "Preference" button, which is available on every page.
Click on the "Lost Password" button on the Login Page. You'll be asked for your login name, and you must type it in exactly the way you registered (capitalization is ignored). The server will then e-mail you a new password. Login with this password, then click on the "Preference" button, and change your password on that page to whatever you'd like. If you don't get your new password in a matter of seconds, use the "E-mail To Sysop" button on the Lost Password page to get help.
Your e-mail address will never be given, rented, or sold to any individual, group or business. Not even the MIMForum staff has access to it. The membership list is only used to send updates on our online instrument-building courses and other Forum-related events such as drawing and auctions, and to notify the membership of any problem that forces us offline for an extended period of time. We send e-mailings to the membership about once a month. We also use it to e-mail individuals if we have a question about a specific message they've posted, or to let them know they haven't visited the Forum in five months and will be dropped from the membership roster if they don't login in the next 30 days. Plus, your e-mail address is available to other registered users who may want to contact you (in the header of any message you post). Please note that your e-mail address is stored as part of a database, not as part of a static HTML page, which makes it more difficult for spiders and robots to get ahold of it.
The MIMForum Library is invisible to non-members, and members who haven't logged in. You MUST be a registered member and logged in to have access to the Library. Then you will find it as the first link in the link-block at the bottom of every MIMForum page; and on the Forum top page, it's the next-to-last link in the list down the left side of the page.
The
preferences page allows you to do several things. You can over-ride some of the MIMForum defaults like the order in which messages are downloaded to your computer and the size of screen fonts. You can change your password, or your e-mail address if it changes, or your name if you registered as Thaddeus but prefer to be called Thad. And you can let your fellow MIMForum members know something about you by writing a brief biography about yourself, posting the URL of your homepage, listing some of your favorite webpage links, etc. Note
that any link you post, including a link to your homepage, must start with http:// or the link won't work properly. Please do not include your home address or phone number in your bio!! How do other members see this information? By clicking on your name in the header of any message you've posted on the Forum. Please note: as your e-mail address and homepage are stored by the MIMForum software and are available at every message you post to any member who clicks on your name, we ask that you not include e-mail and homepage links in your messages. You can alter your preferences at any time by clicking on the "Preference" button from within the forum proper (not with the "register" button on the "login" page). It's also a good idea to click on your name the first time you post a message, try out your links to make sure they work, and review your bio so you know it reads the way you want it to.
Simply login, click on the "Preference" button, and change your e-mail address on that page. Remember to keep your e-mail address up-to-date! If any e-mail to you bounces back with a "permanent fatal error," you will be removed from the membership roster.
You can use the "Preference" page to post the URL of your own website. Other participants can access this information by clicking on your name in the header of any message you post. Please do not use messages on the MIMForum to promote your business. For information on what is permissible, please read our Policy.
We do not allow any e-mail addresses to be posted in public for the security of our members following several spamming incidents, and restrict access to e-mail address to registered members of our Forum. To access the e-mail address of any member, simply click on their name in the header of any message they have posted AFTER YOU HAVE LOGGED IN, or the MIMForum software will not recognize you as a registered member and will not show you this information. If they have no messages currently on the board, their e-mail address will be unavaliable to you and we CANNOT provide it due to our privacy policy.
We ask our participants not to append a signature to their messages. Numerous signatures would take up a lot of space on the message board, and too often give the appearance of advertising. The proper place for information about yourself is the file you create when you fill out the "Preference" page.
One of the rules of the MIMForum is that full names, first and last,
must be used. We have found over many years of participating
in online communities that people tend to be much more civil
when they can't hide behind "handles" and post anonymous
messages.
Click on any link that interests you to get to the discussions on
that topic. If you're interested in building violins, click
on Bowed Stringed Instruments and Bows to see the list of
discussions, then click on any of the discussions to read what folks had to say.
Fill in the "post message" box, then click on "post message." It's really very easy! You won't see a "post message" box if you're not at the end of the discussion, or if the discussion is "read only." And the entire MIMForum is read-only from Friday night to Saturday night, in order to give the staff a break.
You MAY NOT post any image that is not your own original work! To post a picture, FIRST MAKE SURE YOUR IMAGE CONFORMS TO OUR SIZE LIMITS! All images posted to the MIMForum eat valuable server memory, and we need to conserve RAM. So BEFORE you post your picture make sure the file size is 50k or less, and the pixel size is 600 x 400 or less. Use the software that came with your digital camera or scanner to reduce the image or file size, if necessary. Type your message into the "New Message" box, then you may post your GIF or JPEG by using the "Browse" button just below the "New Message" box to browse to the location of the image file on your hard disk drive. Choose the correct file, and you'll see the location appear in the box next to the "Browse" button. Click on "Post My Message," and you're done! ONLY files in jpeg or gif format can be processed by our Forum software! Your file name cannot have any spaces in it, and must have the proper extension (.gif or .jpg or .jpeg) or your image may not show. The Forum software only allows one attachment per message, if you have several images you must post them in several separate messages. Note that a bug in our Forum software will drop the image if you use the spell-checker while trying to upload an attachment. The image MUST be your own original work for copyright reasons - do not upload an image you did not create or your message will be removed by the staff. We also ask all Forum participants NOT to post any pictures of in-progress instruments unless they must do so to illustrate a point. Hold your pictures until your instrument is finished, and post them all to one discussion. Please do not post images unrelated to instrument building or repair, or pictures of instruments you purchased except to ask for repair or identification assistance.
Click on
"add discussion." Fill in the top box on the "add discussion" page with your new discussion topic, enter a brief description in the next box if necessary, then scroll down and click on "add discussion." After it's been added the software automatically defaults to your new discussion and you can then scroll down to the message box to post the first message in your new discussion. Your new discussion MUST contain a message or it will be deleted by the staff. You cannot start a new discussion from within a discussion, you must navigate to the top page of the section you want to start your new discussion in and you'll find the "Add Discussion" button in the group of buttons under the list of discussions in the section. Please note that we have found 50 messages to be about the limit for discussions -- bigger than that they start to become unmanageable. When a discussion gets very long, the host will post a message asking participants to start a new discussion if they want to continue on the same topic.
Starting discussions on the top page is reserved
for staff. If you have a question for the staff, please post it
in the Soundhole section.
Only registered users may use the "subscribe" feature.
Use the "subscribe to all" button at the (bottom of the) top page
of the MIMForum to subscribe to all of the sections. Then
visit any section you're not interested in and choose the "cancel
subscrs" button to cancel your subscription to that particular
section. You may also use this feature to unsubscribe to
individual discussions by clicking on the "cancel subscrs" button
from within the discussion. Please do not cancel your
subscription to the Soundhole so you don't miss
announcements by the MIMForum staff. Note that unless you start the subscription process by clicking on "subscribe to all" from the Forum top page, you will miss the creation of new sections and the messages posted there because they will not be added to your subscription list automatically.
Once you
have subscribed you will be able to use the "check messages" button at the
bottom of your screen. When you enter the
MIMForum, choose that option and the software will cycle
you through all the new messages in the sections to which you
have subscribed. It works quite well, taking you directly to the
page with the option of posting a reply. You have to hit the
"check messages" button for every new message until you get the
"no new messages" page. Please note that you can bookmark the
"check messages" page so you enter the forum at that page and the software automatically starts to serve you new messages.
The message center is a page that lists all the new messages in the sections to which you have subscribed. This can be a useful page on which to enter the MIMForum, as it shows you all the discussions that have had new posts, and you can read them in the order you choose. The Message Center also stores Forum bookmarks. If you want to make sure you don't forget about a specific message or discussion, you can bookmark it by clicking on the "Mark" button next to that discussion or message, then click on the link back to it from your Message Center page.
It's a deficiency of the software. You can get your followed links to
change color by using the "back" button on your browser. It's a
good idea to use the "back" button as much as possible unless you
are using the "check messages" feature, as this is a much quicker
way of navigating around the MIMForum if you haven't
subscribed to those sections you're interested in.
The way the software works is to show you
only the most recent messages in any discussion. If you remember
which discussion your missing message is in but still don't see
it, it probably hasn't been downloaded to your computer. Click
on the "to top" button near the top of your screen to get to the
start of the discussion and read it through for your message. Still can't find it? It's possible that your message was moved
by the staff to a new discussion or a more appropriate section. Use the "search" button near the bottom of every MIMForum page to search the entire
MIMForum for any word or string. Searching on your own
name will probably be most effective. Be sure to choose "search
whole site" in case your message isn't where you remember. The
search will provide you with links to any message that meets your
search parameters.
NO!!!! Please don't delete your messages!! We archive discussions of lasting value to our Library, and if you delete your messages after they've been answered you'll leave big holes in the discussions. Please leave housekeeping chores to the staff.
Here's a translation of the most common acronyms and abbreviations, some of them specific to instruments and/or building. For more, see this online Acronym Dictionary.
PU = pickup (sometimes "pup")
HG = hurdy gurdy
ABG = acoustic bass guitar
HD = hammered dulcimer
GHB = great Highland bagpipes
FP = French polish
Nitro = nitrocellulose lacquer
BRW = Brazilian rose wood
EIR = East Indian rosewood
WRC = western red cedar
CYA or CA = cyanoacrylate glue (Krazy Glue, Super Glue, Hot Stuff, etc.)
KOIG = knock-off import guitar
MIM = made in Mexico
Reso = any kind of resophonic instrument
MDF = Medium density fiberboard
MDO = medium density overlay
MOP = mother of pearl
MOTS = mother of toilet seat (celluloid imitation mother of pearl)
HSS = high speed steel
MYOEG = "Make Your Own Electric Guitar" by Melvyn Hiscock.
TIA = Thanks In Advance
LOL = Laughing Out Loud
AFAIK = As Far As I Know
IMO = In My Opinion
JMO = Just My Opinion
IMHO = In My Humble Opinion
IMNSHO = In My Not So Humble Opinion
IDKS = I Don't Know Sh*t
OTOH = On The Other Hand
IIRC = If I Remember Correctly
YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary
ISTM = It Seems To Me
DAMHIKT = Don't Ask Me How I Know That
LMAO = Laughing My Ass Off
ROFLMAO = Rolling On Floor Laughing My Ass Off
AKA = Also Known As
BTW = By The Way
BRB = Be Right Back
FYI = For Your Information
DIY = Do It Yourself
GD&R Grinning, Ducking, and Running
ISTM = It Seems To Me
A FAQ is a file of Frequently Asked
Questions. Didn't answer all of yours? Post any we missed in
the Soundhole section.
