Main FAQ
- Why did you start Kiwi Writers?
- Is Kiwi Writers really free?
- Do I have to be a New Zealander to join?
- How do I format my posts in the forums?
- Why is content half way down the page in My Pages?
Q: Why did you start Kiwi Writers?
Kiwi Writers was started as a place for writers in New Zealand to chat and support each other. We also want to provide a central place where writers can find opportunities available to them in New Zealand.
Q: Is Kiwi Writers really free?
Yes! We are dedicated to keeping it free.
Q: Do I have to be a New Zealander to join?
No. There is a heavy New Zealand focus to the site so we figure you should at least be able to locate New Zealand on a world map.
Q: How do I format my posts in the forums?
The Kiwi Writer's forum uses BBCode. Wikipedia has a great article on BBCode or a simple list that shows you the basic formatting.
Q: Why is content half way down the page in My Pages?
This is a known bug when using Internet Explorer 6 and occurs on the dynamic pages: Edit Account, Edit Profile and Forums. If you are experiencing this problem and aren't using IE6 please Contact Us. To fix this error you can upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 or use Mozilla Firefox.
Forum
- How do I change my signature to the Forums?
- Why can't I tell which forums/topics/posts are new?
- None of the forums/topics/posts look new but I know there is some. What gives?
- I have signed in but I can't post a new topic or reply to a current one?
- Do you have any guidelines for what I can put in my signature?
- How do I get one of those progress bars in my signature?
Q: How do I change my signature to the Forums?
You may change your signature via your Forum Settings. Please click on the edit link underneath your information.
Of course, you may only edit your information if you have already signed in.
Q: Why can't I tell which forums/topics/posts are new?
When you Sign Out of KiwiWriters.org, we store the time you logged out. This way, when you log in again later, we know which posts are new.
There are always circumstances where you might miss a post since a new one might have been posted, which you didn't see, before you logged out last. Unfortunately, there are many variations on this and it is a very hard problem to solve :-)
This can also happen if you never log out of the site. If you find that almost every forum/topic/post is new, then make sure you sign out.
On most personalised pages, this will appear as a link at the top of this content, or as an item in the menu bar on the left hand side.
The forums do keep up to date with the last time you logged out, so you shouldn't have any worries.
Q: None of the forums/topics/posts look new but I know there is some. What gives?
Are you sure you are signed into the site. If you have not signed in, then we can't guess which posts are new and therefore, everything looks the same.
Trying Signing In and go from there.
Q: I have signed in but I can't post a new topic or reply to a current one?
Some browsers cache pages they are not supposed to. If this happens, you have probably browsed that page, then signed in and have gone back to it. The browser may show you the non-signed in version of the page instead of the personally customised one.
This is known to happen in IE6.
If that's the case, try refreshing the page from your browser. Depending on which browser you are using, you may have to try a few techniques. Either click 'Refresh', press F5, Shift-F5 or Ctrl-F5.
If none of these work, there might be a problem with a caching proxy, possibly at your ISP.
Q: Do you have any guidelines for what I can put in my signature?
In reality you can choose whatever you like, we won't force you to do anything, but we do ask you be considerate of others.
In general, more than 3 or 4 lines of text would be considered a little too much.
Graphics are also allowed, but please keep these reasonably small (both physically and in filesize). The height of 3 or 4 lines of text and no wider than the area the forum posts are contained in should be okay.
Remember, that if everyone has many graphics, it may slow the page down drastically so please be considerate of others.
Q: How do I get one of those progress bars in my signature?
There are a few of those you can get. First you need the link to the one you want. Usually you'd right click the progress bar you want and then click 'Copy Link Location'.
Then, head over your profile page and click "Edit your Forum Settings".
To get an image, you need to use the [img] tag from BBCode. Here are two examples you might like to copy and use.
[img]http://kiwiwriters.org/d/challenge/site/progworm:socnoc-2007:andychilton.png[/img] [img]http://kiwiwriters.org/d/challenge/site/progkiwi:socnoc-2007:andychilton.png[/img]
As you can see, you can choose between the 'progkiwi' and the 'progworm' progress bars. Then you need the name of the challenge and finally your username. If you copied the link from the image earlier, just paste it as it is between the [img] and [/img] tags.