# Got any ideas or suggestions to improve RF? Post them here!



## Jaguar

Alright... onward and upward, right?

With the vB conversion, not a lot of our custom forum stuff was transferred over. We're currently using the vB default for just about everything, which is making our site look rather... plain.

So... if you've got any suggestions on how we can improve or better the site for its users, please let us know. No matter how big or how small, give us some ideas  vB is pretty flexible, but keep in mind it does have its limitations and some things just won't be possible to implement. We'll do our best though.


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## aurag2

I go on a few sites where they have a new banner every month ( the picture at the top of the screen). 

We could have a monthly banner that people could submit and the admin would pick one and post it. These could be artistic works, photos, or anything. Black and white. Sepia. Color. The only restrictions would be size and it would have to say "Rat Forum"

Thanks for reading!


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## halfmoon

I love the banner idea! The admins could even have themed contests every month and the winner would be featured until the next contest winner was picked.


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## JessyGene

I also like this idea


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## SamIAm

I really love the contest Idea! Maybe do some best how to pic on how to make toys or best cage set ups. This sounds like fun =)


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## Iheartroxyrat

could also pick a person randomly to highlight their rats, a random rat of the day  something like that. ive seen it on a horse game, they chose a horse at random to have on the main page. im not sure how it would be done lol.


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## halfmoon

Iheartroxyrat said:


> could also pick a person randomly to highlight their rats, a random rat of the day  something like that. ive seen it on a horse game, they chose a horse at random to have on the main page. im not sure how it would be done lol.


If you have a thread dedicated to the contest, people could post with a picture of their rat, and the mods could put their names into a random generator every month for the rat of the month. Daily might be a little much...


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## Maltey

There was a thread for ROTM at one point- I dunno if it's still going.

My only suggestion is perhaps in the details section under each username to have how many rats they own.

Like it would say
Maltey
Skritch lover
(Photo)
Join DateJun 2011LocationEgham, UKPosts302
Number of rats: 5


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## halfmoon

The contests are kind of on hold until further notice, or so I believe. I thought it would be neat for everyone to have an equal chance at it. Kind of like a featured member of the month/week.


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## Jaguar

We had a Rat of the Month contest but it was accidentally deleted at some point and we've all been too tight on time to revive it right now.

The unfortunate thing with reoccuring contests/features is that someone has to actually be around to manually set stuff up... only me and Kiko have rights to change the homepage banner right now and we've both been very busy lately.


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## Iheartroxyrat

how about just a featured rat of the week/month? no contest, just to highlight a cute rattie  then you guys wouldnt have to do much just post it for a bit then take it down to post a new one? i think it would be cool to see ppls rats and hear maybe a short story about that rat? maybe do a contest later on when you guys have more time or something but for now just do the Random Rat  it would be fun and simpler plus i think it would help bring our little rat community closer. (and make somebody feel important!)


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## Iheartroxyrat

my computer keeps double posting so sorry if i post the same thing lol


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## Maltey

How about a rat news section?
Like not news about people's pets but rats found in the news or articles you found online etc.


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## kamii

I like the ROTM idea. Would make people feel proud of their lovely ratties, haha  Would also get people more involved, methinks.


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## Maltey

Jaguar said:


> We had a Rat of the Month contest but it was accidentally deleted at some point and we've all been too tight on time to revive it right now.
> 
> The unfortunate thing with reoccuring contests/features is that someone has to actually be around to manually set stuff up... only me and Kiko have rights to change the homepage banner right now and we've both been very busy lately.


Hey Jaguar, I know you've got your stuff going on at the moment. I've just gained 5 whole days in my week! If people wanted a ROTM contest I'd be happy to assist and organise it


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## never-sleep

I love the rat of the month idea. Like maybe a cute pic of the rattie. Their age. Color. A little info about them. 
I think it would be great!


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## SillydogTheGreat

What about a chatbox? The Rat Shack forums has a little chatbox section where members can talk to each other.


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## Rodents=Love256

I love the rat of the month idea, imagine how famous the ratties will feel!


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## jollygeek

May some contest, rat of the month like some users said, picture, or drawing contest? 
Just something fun so everyone can get involved.
Maybe a page with some user made guides to rats and ideas as well.


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## unlikelyfather

Jaguar said:


> Alright... onward and upward, right?
> 
> With the vB conversion, not a lot of our custom forum stuff was transferred over. We're currently using the vB default for just about everything, which is making our site look rather... plain.
> 
> So... if you've got any suggestions on how we can improve or better the site for its users, please let us know. No matter how big or how small, give us some ideas  vB is pretty flexible, but keep in mind it does have its limitations and some things just won't be possible to implement. We'll do our best though.


Chat box would be good, like others have said... Also a games board, like word games (round robin, etc).


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## achackysac

What all can you change, exactly?


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## BasmatiRice

Could we have a chatbox please? It would be nice to talk to other rat people


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## zurfaces

I do not like the current image uploader. I think you should just remove that and make it so people have to upload on imgur or something and can link the image into the forums. I'd gladly make an easy to understand forum post about how to get the image linked into a post. 

My problem with the current one is people will delete their images so that they can upload new ones. So I'll be looking through a post and then click on an attachment that no longer exists and then I'm done with that thread. I know it's mainly the older posts that have this problem but still I'd like to read some of those older threads and be able to see the images. 

The other option would be to allow each user more image hosting space but then you'd probably need a larger server. That really isn't necessary though. 

If there is some way you can keep the current images hosted and linked and to still do away with the image uploader that'd be fantastic! 

Also an android app. I know tapatalk is a common android app and it supports Vbulletin. I don't know what the cost is to add it to your forum but you should look into it.


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## Jaguar

All these infrastructure things are out of the standard admin/mod's control. I have not been able to get in touch with Yungster lately


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## Mitsy

Ok so this has nothing to do with what is being talked about, but I do not understand this site at all and there is not a lot of instruction to how to do anything with the site. I can not figure out how to post any questions I have and when I click on settings next to the logout button it tells me that I may not be allowed on that link or page I am very confused and probably will not be using this site often when I can not do anything it also logs me out on it's own very often. If anyone has any tips or anything for me to understand this site more please message me.


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## ratsaremylife

Could we maybe have a summer Book Club? And some forum games? I have some game ideas if interested. They make it fun!


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## ratsaremylife

Oh, also, the book club books would be about rats. Of course.


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## abratforarat

Great idea!


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## AdequateRat

This is probably like, so far gone and I don't know.. Maybe there's a way to do it and I just don't know how to computer..

But, it would be cool if we could post pictures on our profile alone, as well as the forums. :x


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## AdequateRat

Okay, okay. I got 2 ideas:

Secret Santa (Kind of what they do off Pinterest.) Send a random gift to a person (rat-related) ^_^

Oh and. On the forums. Make the newest comment on the front page instead of the last page.


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## BlackZarak

Chatbox is a good idea. Spontaneous chat with other active members could be fun.


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## AdequateRat

BlackZarak said:


> Chatbox is a good idea. Spontaneous chat with other active members could be fun.


I second this!


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## Mannie'sMom

You may already have this available, or aren't interested, but recommended videos and books and such on rats, equipment, research, how to find a good vet and so forth would be great--all in one place.

A great author, for instance, is Debbie Ducommun; she has several books that have been around a long time but new rat people may know nothing of her. The same with great videos or such--any good, knowledgeable help is great, and if that could be shared in an efficient manner, instead of more willy nilly, that would be terrific.


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## BRIM

It could do with a more topics, more general topics to discuss. Maybe doing this would attract more members too?


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## NejiTheWorld

You should totally turn this forum into an app for Android and Samsung devices 
I would download it in a heart beat


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## razibpaul126

I love this idea.


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## Rattielover965

For all phones please


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## Rattielover965

And iPads/tablets


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## Grotesque

To agree with some of the previous ideas - phone compatibility, live chat room, and my personal suggestion is a prayer/good vibes request sub-forum where you can request prayers for sick rats. Maybe that wouldn't go over well.


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## Rattielover965

Grotesque said:


> To agree with some of the previous ideas - phone compatibility, live chat room, and my personal suggestion is a prayer/good vibes request sub-forum where you can request prayers for sick rats. Maybe that wouldn't go over well.


What about a sub-forum for cool/cute/funny true rat stories?


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## motheroffive

So maybe you can help me...I need to make a post but it's saying I don't have permission. I don't understand why. I need to post about my rat's leg, I think it's broken.


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## motheroffive

Posting to hopefully be able to make a real post.


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## motheroffive

I need to post about Granger's broken leg.


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## Rattielover965

Post it in the health for forum


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## AmbientWanderer

Late night and I can't sleep, so here's some ideas I've come up with:
- I know competitions have been mentioned (rat of the month/banner etc.) you could include other competitions such as: most creative toy/funniest rat pose/most active member or daft things like that
- A product review section, where all the threads are different products and everyone puts their thoughts and feelings about said product in comments
- Maybe a good way to reach out to more new users would be to encourage a few people to write blogs (on their own websites?) about rats/rat health care etc. (or approach people who already have a successful blog?) as there's always people googling it... and then ask them to mention RF as a great base for information and support


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## Jaguar

I like the idea of a review section, it'd probably be difficult to keep organized without addons for the forum though. Maybe a testimonials sticky would work better? Just a place where we can post short 2-3 sentences of comments about popular products.


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## Rattielover965

Jaguar said:


> I like the idea of a review section, it'd probably be difficult to keep organized without addons for the forum though. Maybe a testimonials sticky would work better? Just a place where we can post short 2-3 sentences of comments about popular products.


That or a sub-forum in the marketplace would be nice


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## Asiposea

Really like the ideas of reviews/testimonials and competitions. I know the activity on this forum fluctuates but I feel as though when I was browsing on here ten (ish) years ago, it seemed so much more active. Maybe little competitions could help with that. In the sticky thread "post your critter nation picture" I find a lot of people mentioning that they 'couldn't wait' to finally post their picture, they were really excited about it.

In another forum I'm in, they have a simple 'photo challenge'. It's a motorcycle forum...one person challenges the forum to take a picture of your motorcycle "next to a waterfall", or "at a local diner", etc. The first person to post that photo gets to choose the next challenge. Silly game, really, but for some reason it took off like wildfire.


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## Heatherl

Asiposea said:


> In another forum I'm in, they have a simple 'photo challenge'. It's a motorcycle forum...one person challenges the forum to take a picture of your motorcycle "next to a waterfall", or "at a local diner", etc. The first person to post that photo gets to choose the next challenge. Silly game, really, but for some reason it took off like wildfire.


My first thought was I wonder if anyone got hurt or killed yet trying to get to the spot and back really fast to be the first person to post the pic. Anyway if we do a challenge here please make sure it is super safe.


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## sammyterror

3 a.m thought. Could be bad, could be good. 

My rats like to interact with my other animals (kitties and doggos) How about a tab? that is how everyones rats react to other creatures or vise versa.

My 110lb dog insists on licking the babies as soft as he can and is not satisfied until he has kissed every last one. He never tries to bite down (minus one time when he first got to see them, but I think he was trying to hold it because he was not violent or anything) Now every time I clean the cages, someone has to sit there until he makes sure they all had puppy kisses


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## Asiposea

Is there a sticky on why rats should be kept in at least pairs? If not...can we make one and put this in the Health section?


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## Rattie_love

I love this site the way it is, but honestly, what about a pop of color? You know, make it a little prettier.... just an idea.....


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## Rattie_love

Maybe just a little bit of color? This Club is great! But maybe a little bit of decorating and color to kind of spruce up the forum a bit? Let me know if you agree and anyone feel free to email me at [email protected]


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## Rattie_love

I will surely do that if i am able!!! I have a ton of information on that!


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## Rattielover965

While I love color,I like the blue that the forum has


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## Rattie_love

I did a blog about it


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## infieldg

Guys I followed your rules - three intro posts - and I still can't post. I understand the need for precautions, I really do I've been a programmer for three decades, but right now I just want to take my amazing contributions and never come back.

For the record... this is what I wanted to post, the reasons I posted THREE introductions, and whatever this is - I hope you'll agree that I only signed up to entertain but GOD YoU MAKE IT HARD ;

Rat dip

Last night while sharing Maggi onion dip with Bourbon rat, inspiration hit me like a premature hangover. 

Cola is one big arse rat. He spends most of his days on top of the cage eating whatever flies past and making excuses for not joining a gym. And now I knew how to make him exercise.

At the time the plan seemed flawless. Liberally coat Bourbon with dip, watch Cola chase her around the lounge.

Huge mistake.

There was clearly nothing wrong with the bait - Cola was delighted with his furry feast. Unfortunately the plate didn't share his enthusiasm. Bourbon was mortified, letting out a few choice squeaks before vanishing, leaving only a faint aroma of onion. Cola went back to bed.

Now I had a confused, distressed and extremely delicious rat running around smearing dip everywhere and doing everything possible to avoid being fed to “Jabba the Rat”.

In hindsight the decision to turn her into the rabbit at a greyhound race wasn't the worst decision of the night. That honour goes to the decision to catch and wash her.
Rats are fast. Rats fit under couches. Neither of those applies to me - I'm Eric Cartman to Cola's James Cordon. 

I'd been down this road before with Sterling Mousie Archer, and the catching part ended the same way. Couches flipped over, coffee table missing, every potential hiding place neutralised.

I knew I'd win, it was only the cost I was unsure of. 

Rat finally in hand and deceptively calm, I crawled out of the rubble and ran a bath/sink.

Apparently rats love water but they take a while to trust it. I've done a lot of research on this and have been planning to install a pool, by which I mean buy a paint roller tray.

My "John The Baptist" style did not suit Bourbon. One inch of water. Rat in hand. Gentle waves of soothing warmth washing over furred flanks. I would have swapped places in a heartbeat. Bourbon turned full bat-**** Tasmanian devil.

The shrieking was incredible. With the smell of steak still floating on the air and the taste lingering on his lips, Cola probably thought I was cooking her alive, to medium rare perfection. The fat ******* was probably excited. 

Enough. Wrap shiny rat in towel. Massage. Soothe. Flip couch upright. Carefully blow dry rat in front of a low fan heater... from where I was sitting the entire evening was nothing short of a high end spa treatment. To her it was Guantonamo Bay.

The noise was so horrific I eventually gave up, pulled everything out of the cage and tossed devil-rat in to dry in the bedding, covering the cage for warmth and so I didn't have to see her sad eyes and cute paws gripping the bars like a death row inmate.

You know you're in trouble when the cage door closes behind you. These guys are free range. This morning she cheerfully nipped out and ran up her torturer's arm like nothing happened, but the memory of last night will live with me forever. 

As for Cola, he was so scared of me after listening to Bourbon shrieking for 20 minutes straight he climbed down the cage and sprinted off at full waddle, only returning for a scrambled egg breakfast. Rats respond to food like I respond to alcohol.

So technically, I won. Some might say the plan was unnecessarily elaborate, but I actually achieved my objective. Mr Creosote got some exercise. 

If anyone wants to coat me in onion dip then bathe and blow dry me, I would probably be open to that.

Talk about ungrateful.


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## infieldg

Oh... apparently #2 didn't post... oops. Sorry! This makes four


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## Shadow <3

infieldg said:


> Guys I followed your rules - three intro posts - and I still can't post. I understand the need for precautions, I really do I've been a programmer for three decades, but right now I just want to take my amazing contributions and never come back.
> 
> For the record... this is what I wanted to post, the reasons I posted THREE introductions, and whatever this is - I hope you'll agree that I only signed up to entertain but GOD YoU MAKE IT HARD ;
> 
> Rat dip
> 
> Last night while sharing Maggi onion dip with Bourbon rat, inspiration hit me like a premature hangover.
> 
> Cola is one big arse rat. He spends most of his days on top of the cage eating whatever flies past and making excuses for not joining a gym. And now I knew how to make him exercise.
> 
> At the time the plan seemed flawless. Liberally coat Bourbon with dip, watch Cola chase her around the lounge.
> 
> Huge mistake.
> 
> There was clearly nothing wrong with the bait - Cola was delighted with his furry feast. Unfortunately the plate didn't share his enthusiasm. Bourbon was mortified, letting out a few choice squeaks before vanishing, leaving only a faint aroma of onion. Cola went back to bed.
> 
> Now I had a confused, distressed and extremely delicious rat running around smearing dip everywhere and doing everything possible to avoid being fed to ?Jabba the Rat?.
> 
> In hindsight the decision to turn her into the rabbit at a greyhound race wasn't the worst decision of the night. That honour goes to the decision to catch and wash her.
> Rats are fast. Rats fit under couches. Neither of those applies to me - I'm Eric Cartman to Cola's James Cordon.
> 
> I'd been down this road before with Sterling Mousie Archer, and the catching part ended the same way. Couches flipped over, coffee table missing, every potential hiding place neutralised.
> 
> I knew I'd win, it was only the cost I was unsure of.
> 
> Rat finally in hand and deceptively calm, I crawled out of the rubble and ran a bath/sink.
> 
> Apparently rats love water but they take a while to trust it. I've done a lot of research on this and have been planning to install a pool, by which I mean buy a paint roller tray.
> 
> My "John The Baptist" style did not suit Bourbon. One inch of water. Rat in hand. Gentle waves of soothing warmth washing over furred flanks. I would have swapped places in a heartbeat. Bourbon turned full bat-**** Tasmanian devil.
> 
> The shrieking was incredible. With the smell of steak still floating on the air and the taste lingering on his lips, Cola probably thought I was cooking her alive, to medium rare perfection. The fat ******* was probably excited.
> 
> Enough. Wrap shiny rat in towel. Massage. Soothe. Flip couch upright. Carefully blow dry rat in front of a low fan heater... from where I was sitting the entire evening was nothing short of a high end spa treatment. To her it was Guantonamo Bay.
> 
> The noise was so horrific I eventually gave up, pulled everything out of the cage and tossed devil-rat in to dry in the bedding, covering the cage for warmth and so I didn't have to see her sad eyes and cute paws gripping the bars like a death row inmate.
> 
> You know you're in trouble when the cage door closes behind you. These guys are free range. This morning she cheerfully nipped out and ran up her torturer's arm like nothing happened, but the memory of last night will live with me forever.
> 
> As for Cola, he was so scared of me after listening to Bourbon shrieking for 20 minutes straight he climbed down the cage and sprinted off at full waddle, only returning for a scrambled egg breakfast. Rats respond to food like I respond to alcohol.
> 
> So technically, I won. Some might say the plan was unnecessarily elaborate, but I actually achieved my objective. Mr Creosote got some exercise.
> 
> If anyone wants to coat me in onion dip then bathe and blow dry me, I would probably be open to that.
> 
> Talk about ungrateful.


I believe that you need to post 3 replies in the "Hello" section, not 3 intro posts. At least, that's what I did when I joined.


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## Jaguar

The "approved" list updates hourly. You just have to wait for that...


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## RatSqueak

I'd like to see notifications whenever someone replies to your posts. I saw in an old "help" thread that it wasn't an option yet. Wondering how people can see new replies without having to constantly recheck the new posts area in the meantime! I set "instantly, using email" as my default thread subscription mode, but I only got one email, and would have missed other replies had I not checked the thread itself.


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## TheRattieRespite

This would be helpful to me as well as a new member


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## TheNameIsWater

A more thorough guide on formatting code when your 'standard' text editor somehow gets turned off. I didn't know how to break paragraphs with < b r >

On a related note, it would be nice if there was an option to edit your post much later if a mistake or problem like this popped up and you had to go searching for help. Perhaps late edits only allow formatting changes, or require an addition of stand alone text, so you could say like "Edit: (paragraphs as intended)"


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## Rusty7

I agree with TheNameIsWater. At first, I didn't know how to break paragraphs either until someone told me about the standard editor and how to turn it on.

Editing after the ten minute restriction would also be nice, so I don't have to post again to make my corrections. There could be something like this at the bottom of a post when a user edits:

- EDIT - 

(Text here)


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## a1phanine

The formatting problem with the line breaks is utterly off putting to a new member and took me a while to find how to fix it even though I am a very tech savvy person. The best way to improve a forum is to improve the community and bring it closer together. Perhaps a discord server and a FB group would be nice.


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