Mustardland FAQs

Thank you to Fire-Pig, Pat Clifton, Fee_2, et al for their hard work in putting these together

Welcome to new Mustardland, things may look a bit different but you will soon find you are among friends. Here are a few tips to help you get started, to help make your experience as comfortable as possible for you. Once you have read the FAQs you will be ready to post! Play Nicely!

The User Control Panel (UCP)
The UCP can be found by clicking on the down arrow beside your Username on the top right hand side of the screen, and clicking again on UCP.

Clicking on Profile
will allow you to add a signature to your post;

Edit account settings
will allow you to change your Username, email and password;

Clicking on Board Preferences
will enable you to really customise your experience.

Edit Global Settings
Here you can choose your board style, experiment to see which one suits you best, remembering to press submit each time you change it.

There is a number of 'skins' you can use to view Mustardland, and as more appropriate options become available, they will be added to the site to really enable you to customise your experience on the board. The default layout is mustard mode - called, confusingly, Milk V2 and thanks go to the software developer who made it so easy for us to remain 'Mustardland'. If you find that you have difficulty with this view, I am open to reasonable requests to tweak the display. Just use the 'contact us' form and if I can help I will. However, my coding skills are limited, I do have to consider the majority of users and you might find it more comfortable or easier to pick one of the installed extensions. There is the original 'Prosilver' which is a blue skin, and is the default for phpBBs. Also installed is a variety of skins that were developed for those with severe visual impairments. These are called 'Prosilver HiFiKabin 1 - 5' and each of them is slightly different but might be helpful and for those who just need the contents to be a little larger, you have the option to increase or decrease the font size.

Edit notification options
allows you to choose whether to be notified or receive emails in certain cases. Note you can change the notifications option by clicking on Options below the message box when making a new post.

All further FAQs are in relation to the Mustard skin, but posters should be able to extrapolate these instructions to the other skins.

Remember the Notes and Queries Forum is also there to ask questions about the board and how to use it, but please read the rest of the FAQs before you do.

Finding your way around
On the Mustardland Forum Index you will see a familiar list of Forum names, click on the one you want. As usual you will see a list of threads. Any new thread or thread with unread posts will have a green circle with a green tick to the left of the title. Finding the last post is the same as before, but you have two options for finding your first unread post
a) Click on the thread title - above the first post, on the right hand side there is a link marked First Unread Post - clicking will take you to it
b) Clicking on the red dot by the thread name will take you straight to the first unread post. When you get to the first unread post, it will have red dot on the left hand side - if there's no red dot, you've read the post.
Any thread that has a grey circle with a grey dash/hyphen in it has no new posts. Any forum that shows similar has no unread threads or posts in it.

If you have posted in a thread, then you will see a small dot on the green circle outline. If you haven't yet contributed or are just watching a thread there will be no dot.

Making a post
a) If you are answering the previous post, or tagging on, click on Post Reply then as ever write your post in the box and press submit - using preview especially if you have used an image, or formatted the text, etc.
b) Using a quote Click on the inverted commas at the top right hand side of the post you want to quote. As previously beware of the [ ] if you want to edit the quote.

There is no thread trail as in Peet's, so there should be no Kaboom! Posts will show a maximum of one quote but by using the up arrow next to the quoted poster's name you can follow a trail back as far as the beginning should you wish.

Editing a post
You get a 15 minute grace period to correct your typos - to do so click on the pencil at the top of your post. Note the 15 minutes may run out while you are correcting and then too bad! There is a preview button which will enable you to see what your post will look like when it's been submitted - this will allow you to spot any typos or formatting errors before your post reaches the board and will save having to edit your post later or not being able to edit in the time allowed.

You will get a period of 30 minutes in which to change your mind about a post and delete it. Unless someone has already replied to your post - then your delete button will vanish. Please be aware that requests to the moderators to remove posts because you've changed your mind will not be viewed favourably. You have all been online for long enough to know that you shouldn't post every thought that enters your head.

If you feel the need to Catpee a post click on the exclamation mark in that post and follow the instructions.

Quick links
This menu is at the top on the left and gives you various options for viewing the boards, similar to Peet’s.

FAQs
There are 2 sets of FAQs; those that relate to phpBB boards generally and Mustardland specific FAQs that have been linked and have their own page on the site.

Notifications
There is a bell icon at the top right of every poster's screen. The circle next to it will turn mustard and have a number in it when you receive a new notification indicating how many notifications are unread; clicking on the bell will show what notification it is. You will get notifications if there are emails or private messages sent to you (if you've allowed them in your User Control Panel) by other users or by board moderators or Site Admin/Host. If you've selected them you will also get notifications about replies to posts or threads in which you are participating. Clicking on the relevant notification will take you to the appropriate part of the board. Only moderators, Site Admin and Host can send pms (private messages), all registered posters have the option to send and receive emails in the same way as the original board worked.

Forum Rules
These are the Mustardland House Rules - please read them. They have been updated in recent weeks and may be updated again. Any updates will be brought to your attention via a global announcement. Failure to read announcements, global announcements or stickies will not be mitigation for not complying with the house rules or moderator requests.

In the list of Forums/Fora
Why do DtA and N&Q have little circles as well as the big one?
Spoilers are now in a sub forum which can only be accessed after entering DtA. Notes and Queries has been split into 2 parts so posters can ask about the board or about TA in the relevant section. Although the main N&Q is locked to new posts, it's possible to post in the sub-fora.
In the list of threads why do some circles have a dot in them
This means it is a thread where you have posted
I can’t find time order
No. Time Order or Latest Messages was a facility created by Peet and Bob. However on the forum index page, after the list of fora, there is a list of active topics which works as a reasonable alternative. Or you can use the 'Quick Links' to take yo back to either the most recent post or unread posts, should you choose.

Who are Peet and Bob?
Peet McKimmie and Bob Christie were our founders. They created the original Mustardland in 2005 and thus were able to accommodate numerous posters who had continued to post on the BBC Mustardland (aka The Archers' Message Boards) when the BBC shut down their message boards in 2013. Their memorial pages can be found here. These are a work in progress and will be completed in due course.

Who are the Moderators?
I'm glad you asked that question - we should like to point out that this site has nothing to with the BBC and has no 'staff'. The moderators are posters, just like you and they volunteer their time and effort, helping to keep things running as smoothly as possible. You can find who are members of the Mod Squad by looking here, but if a poster has a red name tag, they're a moderator. The list also shows what roles other members have.

If you have any questions about the moderation of this board, please either post a question in Notes and Queries (about the board) or you can email Site Admin directly by using the 'contact us' button.

and with special thanks to Pat Clifton

Mustardland on Mobile and Tablet
Welcome, phone and tablet users! The good news is that this site works just as well on your mobile device as it does on your laptop. No more scrolling across the screen to read everything! However, to get the best out of Mustardland on phone or tablet it is recommended that you view in landscape orientation.

Mainly the mobile site works the same as the laptop one, so you should read those notes as well. The page is narrower, so there are some detail differences:
* There is no mustard tin with the Prosilver blue skin - there are plans to rectify this when possible.
* The descriptions of the boards on the Board Index Page lack the detail shown on the computer version (eg latest post).
* At the bottom of the Board Index page, there are links to all the Active Topics. (This is on both versions of the site, but especially useful when I’m on my phone).

This site is easy to use. Enjoy yourselves. Play Nicely!