[FluffyBuffyWatwat]

This forum is fairly easy to use (has to be, 'coz most of the moderating team are computer illiterate!!) but it can be a bit daunting for people that are not used to the layout, so here are a few useful hints and tips to get the most out of your Rat Chat experience.
Posting in the correct forum
Rat Chat is divided into many different sections, covering most aspects of rat care and general rambleyness. Before posting a message, please read the description of each forum to make sure you are posting your message in the correct area. This will ensure you gain a much faster response as well as preventing the essentially lazy admin team from having to keep moving topics all over the place, and leaving shadows behind which look messy.

Posting Pictures
The majority of members use Photobucket (http://photobucket.com/) for hosting pictures, tho there are many available on the net.
To insert a picture in a thread you need to write [img]YOUR LINK[/img] if using Photobucket, it is possible to copy and paste the entire link with the [img] command already in place. Please try to keep pics as small as possible to prevent the need for scrolling across the forum, and to keep the forum running faster.

Avatars
You may want to have a small picture underneath your user name. Pics should be no more than 120 x 120 pixels and can be added by accessing your profile from the options at the top of the page. There are no set guidelines for what your avatar can contain, but we do ask that no pornographic or offensive images are used.

Signatures
In addition to avatars you may like to include a signature at the bottom of each post. You may have noticed that there are a wide variety of sigs on here already. Again these can be set up by accessing your profile. Pictures should again be within the 120x120 range and no more than five should be inserted in a row, as this makes the forum difficult to read.
Text should be no bigger than the LARGE option, and again should not be pornographic or offensive.
Only one banner per person please.
The signatures are a good way of expressing yourself so feel free to include whatever you like and above all have fun.
Text is now limited to 255 characters, and links in sigs should please be limited to one per person. You will find a links section at the bottom of the page in which to post any links.