• Welcome to BGO! We know you will have questions as you become familiar with the software. Please take a moment to read our New BGO User Guide which will give you a great start. If you have questions, post them in the Feedback and Tech Support Forum, or feel free to message any available Staff Member.

BGO User Guide

Welcome to the new BGO!

With the new forum software there are some really great new features and also some new ways of doing things and we want to use this thread as a guide to walk you through everything.

Navigating the Forum Main page

New Posts
– You can click on the link in the navbar or the lightning button to view the latest posts that were made. If a thread is bold that means it is unread, if it is not bold that means you have already read that thread. If the thread title is bold and you click it, it will take you to the last unread post. If it’s not bold and you click it, it will take you to the first post in that thread. Also, if you hover over the thread title it will give you a preview of the first post. If you click on the date and time to the right of the thread title it will take you to the last post in the that thread. Lastly, the big avatar at the left represents the person who started the thread, and if you see your avatar a little smaller just to the bottom right of that it means you have a post in that thread. The avatar all the way to the right next to the date and time is the avatar for the person who last made a post in that thread.

Forums – This tab will take you to a list of all the forums and sub-forums on BGO. Here you can click the forum/sub-forum you would like on the left or see and click the last thread created in said forum/sub-forum on the right.

Post Thread – This is a button on the main Forums page (also present within a forum). If you click this it will bring up a list of the forums/subforums where you can start a new thread. Once inside a forum, there is a field at the top of the thread list where you can simply start typing the name of your new thread that will expand to let you start a new thread right there.

Navigation Bar

Your avatar on the right
- Gives you a drop down for your different profile settings. If you’re a 'Joe Gibbs Club’ member, you can change your current 'mood’ from here.

The mail/envelope image – This is where you will find your Private Messages which are now called Conversations. This functionality is similar to vBulletin with some extra bells and whistles (for example, you can invite someone else to join a conversation exchange. Remember that 'Conversations’ are private mail messages. You also have the ability to 'Private Chat’ with a member (unless they have disabled that feature) in a live conversation using our Siropu chat software.

The bell – This is your notification alert, and this is where you will see notifications/updates on threads/forums you are subscribed to, or if someone reacts to your posts, or if you receive a trophy.

Style Switcher – You will see a lightbulb icon at the top right of your navbar (also available in mobile view). This is a quick way to toggle between our two viewing styles, 'BGO Classic’ (a light visual style) and 'BGO Dark’, so you can now enjoy the forum either way. You can set your style choice in your 'Preferences’ but can always toggle between the styles. Style preferences are also honored in mobile view.

Media Gallery

From the Navigation Bar you will see an option with a drop down called Media. This is where you can view the Media Gallery, Upload to the Media Gallery, or create your own Album. You can upload pictures, videos, soundfiles, and social media posts as well as comment on them or share them to other social media sites. Just FYI – we have retired the 'Bang! Cartoon’ forum and all of John Tayman’s amazing videos are now located in our Media Library. One note – be aware that when it comes to posting Redskins or NFL videos, the NFL is extremely limited in what it will allow to be shared. In most cases, if you share Skins or NFL video, it will appear to upload, but when you click the play button, you will get a 'not authorized’ message. Please check that your Redskins/NFL videos will play (if not, please delete your submission). Video content from the NFL and Redskins Facebook and Twitter channels IS shareable (if you are looking to share Redskins official videos, try using the team’s official videos from Facebook and Twitter. The Media library allows sharing of videos from nearly 100 sources. Just paste in the URL, adjust the description if necessary, and submit.

Articles

The Articles section is where you can find our member-generated articles and blog entries, as well as official team announcements, press releases, and interviews. You can comment or reply to these items in the 'Discussion’ tab after you’ve read the item, or in the thread you 'll find in the 'Sons of Washington’ forum. No matter where you add your comment or reply, it will be visible in either place. Although any Registered Member can submit a thread on BGO, only BGO Staff can currently create articles. If you have an interest in starting your own personal blog, contact Boone and we can certainly make this happen. As with any content posted on BGO, we encourage you to share articles on your social media accounts using the easily accessible icons at the bottom of each post. You may also rate blog entries and articles using the '1-5 star’ rating scale, and even submit a written review if you like. All blogs and articles produced before we migrated to the new software will be in an archive section of the 'Articles’ area and can still be found and enjoyed.

Donate

The purpose of this area is obvious. To be transparent, one of the reasons we nearly shut this site down recently was the cost of operation. To continue going forward, we need ongoing member help. We will be running a donation drive every 6 months with a goal to achieve $1000 per drive. That would cover most of our operating costs. This feature makes it incredibly easy for you to donate a pre-defined or custom amount (either as a single contribution or a recurring one).

By making a donation, you'll demonstrate your love and commitment to our site. One of the best ways to contribute is to join our Joe Gibbs Club each year. A $30 donation allows you to join our 2020 Joe Gibbs Club. As a member you'll be recognized with a special banner on your user profile. You'll also receive special site privileges, including:
  • an ad-free site experience
  • the ability to add a 325 x 125 pixel signature to your posts
  • rights to add a large cover photo of your choosing on your profile page
  • the ability to use our custom 'Moods' system (a fun add-on that allows you to let everyone know how you're feeling at the moment)
  • the ability to create your own custom user title.
Most importantly, we'll know you care enough to contribute. When you join us in the JGC you can feel good about yourself - because a portion of your contribution will go to fund national brain disease research through NINDS (the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke) in order to help fight the kind of illness that tragically took the life of J.D. Gibbs. If you have made a donation to us already in 2020, you’ve already been added to this year’s Joe Gibbs Club. You can also 'gift’ a member a Joe Gibbs Club membership for the year. Just put their member name in the donation comment. To thank you for your generosity, when you gift someone a membership, we will double the donation % to NINDS. JGC membership is annual and requires renewal every year in order to continue using extra site privileges.

NFL Pickem

NFL Pickem contests will now be integrated directly into our BGO forums. You’ll be able to make your picks, see weekly results, and talk smack all in the same place. More to come on this new feature! We have a fictitious NFL week set up currently so you can join and make selections so you are used to the software when it comes time for the real 2020 Pickem Contest.

Members

This area will allow you to find any BGO member, their profile, and even see where BGO Members are located geographically throughout the world via our 'Member Map’. All BGO members show up on our map by default, but you can 'opt out’ of being visible on the map in your personal user settings if you desire. You may also click and drag your location (some members show up based on their hosting company location, so you can correct that if you like). One friendly suggestion – before you opt out, consider simply dragging your location to the general town or state you are located in so that we can still see where our membership generally comes from.

Chat

We’ve invested in a brand new (and much more feature-rich) chat software from Siropu. You can view and join our Chatrooms by clicking on the 'Chat’ tab in the navbar, or more easily on the chat bar at the bottom of every page. If you want to 'leave’ a Chatroom – click on your own name in chat and select 'Leave the room’. To exit the chat software, just click on the chat tab that runs across the bottom of every page. If you want to have a private conversation with a BGO member, you can hover over their member name anywhere on the site, and select 'Start Chat’ (you’ll also see an option to 'Start Conversation’ but remember a 'conversation’ is a private message exchange). If you have previously had private chats with a member, that option will not be there and you simply open chat, click on 'Private Conversations’ and you can chat from there. You may notice other member names in the right hand column of your private chat (those are simply folks you’ve previously had private chats with). Only members with green icons next to them will be included in your private chat. You can end a private chat with a member by hovering over their name and clicking the 'X’ to end the conversation. You’ll know you have a private chat request when the chat bar blinks (you’ll also get a notification at the top of any page). Chat is also fully functional from any mobile device. There is a learning curve with the chat software, but once you get comfortable with it, it’s wonderful software.

BGO Shoutbox

The shoutbox is located in both the Forums and the Home page sidebar. Another Siropu product, the Shoutbox is not 'chat’. Think of it like a tweet – you’re sharing a quick and simple thought, mood, or observation with the community. Your 'shoutouts’ can include images, tweets, videos, anything you like. You can also tag members there although currently that does not generate a member notification.

BGO Oracle

BGO Oracle
is a special 'Answer Forum'. Post a thread in this forum posing any question of your choosing, from 'What is the meaning of life?' to 'How can I remove blood stains from the trunk of my car?'. Members can vote 'up' or 'down' to identify best and worst answers and our software will pronounce the ultimate winner.

Posting on the Forum
Posting a New Thread
– You can do this from clicking the Post Thread from the Forum Main Page OR at go to a Main Forum Section and just above the first thread in that section there is a blank box with your avatar to the left and it says Thread Title, you can start a new thread from this empty box as well. Notice that the person who starts a thread is easily identified throughout the thread by the 'feather’ icon next to their avatar. When you submit your new thread, you will find you are taken to a 'Promote to Article’ screen.

What is 'Promote to Article’?

You will automatically be given the option to 'Promote’ your new thread when you hit 'submit’. If you want to attach your avatar to your article, select that option (but do not make any other changes). Then all you have to do is click 'Save’ on the 'Promote to Article’ screen and not only will your thread be posted, but your 'article’ will be posted on our Home Page. This allows more folks to see that you’ve created a new discussion. You can even post a video that can be played right from our Home Page by putting it in the top of a thread and posting as an article.

Reply Button – If you click this, it will quote the post you clicked the reply button on, so it’s basically for single quoting a specific post.

Quote Button – This is how to multi-quote. You can click as many quote buttons as you want across as many pages, and even threads as you want, and then when you go to the reply box at the bottom of the page. You will see on the bottom left it says Insert Quote, click that and all your quotes will be there and you can click quote messages, or delete some of the quotes if you didn’t want to quote them anymore or clicked it by accident. You can also de-select a quote you previously selected by simply clicking the quote button again for that post.

Select Text to Quote – If you highlight a portion of text a pop up will appear to reply to that selected test.

Posting Pictures - There are several ways to post a picture. You can simply drag and drop, you can click the attach files button at the bottom left or you can click the insert image button as seen in the Rich Text Editor section below. A cool feature is that if you drag and drop your image, you can resize it by clicking on the corner and making it bigger or smaller.

Like Button – If you hover over the like button in any post you will see there are different reactions you can choose from.

Bookmark or Share a Post - At the top right of each post you can click to share that posts or bookmark that post which will then save that post to your bookmarks so you can reference it later. You can access your bookmarks from your User Settings at the top right of the forum.

Rich Text Editor (toolbar at the top of the reply box)

Posting a Tweet 
- Click the Insert Video/Media Box shown above and insert the Twitter link.

Posting from Instagram - Click the Insert Video/Media Box shown above and insert Instagram link.

Posting from YouTube - Click the Insert Video/Media Box shown above and insert the YouTube link.

Posting a Gif File – There is button (see picture above) that will allow you to select gif right from Giphy so you never have to leave the site. If you prefer to find gif’s elsewhere then you can simply Click the Insert/Video Media Box shown above and insert the gif link.

You can also use the Insert Video/Media Box to insert links from Apple Music, Dailymotion, Facebook, Flickr, Giphy, Imgur, Liveleak, Metacafe, Pinterest, Reddit, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tumblr, Twitch, Vimeo, and more than a hundred other social media sites.

Subscribing to a Thread (Watch Threads) – This is now called watching, and when you first register you will automatically watch every thread you participate in. This setting can be easily changed in your User Settings at the top right navbar when you click your avatar.

How to “Go To Top” – When browsing a thread if you want to go back to the top start to scroll up and an up arrow will appear at the bottom right, click that and it will take you back to the top.

Inserting Smilies – If you click the smiley face a smilies bar will appear at the bottom of your reply box. Your most recently used smilies will appear to the left. You can click the down arrow to reveal all the rest of the smilies. If there is a smilie you would like to use, but don’t see it there, let us know, we can most likely add it.

Marking a Forum Read – You have a few options here. In each individual forum you can click to the top right that says Mark Read, or from the main forum page click the Forums drop down box from the Navigation Bar and click Mark Forums Read.

Email Notification
If you would like to receive a notification email when someone quotes or mentions you (meaning they do @ your username), you will need to go click your name/avatar at the top right and go to preferences, and select the check boxes to receive email when mentioned and receive email when quoted. See below.

Member Tagging

You can draw any BGO member’s attention to a post or comment by typing the '@’ symbol before their username. This will result in their name becoming a link. The member will receive a notification that you mentioned them. Clicking on that notification will bring them to the post they were referenced in.

Signature Pictures
Joe Gibbs Club Members can upload a signature picture. You can do so by going to your name/avatar at the top right and clicking on Signature. Then you will see your signature box and a spot below that says upload signature picture. First you need to put
sigpic.png
into the signature box and then you can upload your picture. You will not see it appear in the signature box, but if you go to any of your posts it will be there. To remove the picture, just remove the words
1582160344517.png
. Your picture is limited to 300 x 125.

Cover Photo

If you’re a Joe Gibbs Club Member and want a cover photo added to your member profile page, simply hover over your user name and select 'cover photo’ or navigate to your profile page and you’ll see the option to add a cover photo. You can change your cover photo anytime you like, as many times as you like.

Moods

In addition to rights to have a signature, and cover photo, JGC Members can use a fun new plugin that allows you to share your mood. It will show up in your profile and under your name when you post on the forum (FYI that area is called a postbit). There are over 125 Moods to choose from.

To set or change your current 'mood’, click on your name at the top of any page. Click on the 'mood’ dropdown. From there you can pick any of the moods you see, and you can change it as many times as you want.

Avatars

All members are able to select their own avatar. Your previous avatar may remain the same on the new site, although some avatars may not have migrated. To change or select a new Avatar image, go to your profile page, hover over your current avatar and click 'edit’. You have 3 options when selecting an avatar, but we would prefer you utilize one of our BGO Avatar gallery images. You do have the option of uploading your own image (you may need to move the image around in the avatar window to center it as desired). You can also utilize a 'Gravatar’ avatar you may have uploaded on another website. If you choose one of these other two options, please try and select images in keeping with site standards. You may also submit an Redskins-related avatar image in the 'Media’ section and we will be glad to look at it and approve it for use if it is acceptable.

Inviting Your Friends

We’ve made it fun and easy for you to help us grow our membership. Our referral software allows you to send a super quick invitation email directly from the site. Click on our 'Members’ tab and you’ll see the option to 'Invite your friends’. Click on that link and complete your email invite. In the 'Members’ drop-down, you can also copy your 'referral link’ which your friends can use to visit the site and register as new members. You will automatically be listed as their 'referrer’. You’ll also notice a 'Referral Contests’ option in the 'Members’ drop-down and will also see contests promoted on our Home and Forums pages. Recruit friends as members and you can win some nice prizes.

Mobile BGO Use

Although the desktop version of BGO is really amazing, we know many members primarily use their phone or tablets to access the site. The vBulletin mobile skin was terrible and almost all of our mobile users have utilized Tapatalk in the past. Tapatalk has served us well but we will be retiring Tapatalk option soon. There are a couple reasons for this. First of all, Tapatalk subjects our members to Ads that we have not approved of, and that we do not receive any benefit for. Secondly, using Tapatalk bypasses the security features of the Xenforo software and exposes us to hacking and other risks. Finally and most importantly, we offered Tapatalk to our members because other mobile options were poor in quality and user friendliness. Xenforo’s mobile style is amazing. There is literally nothing you can do on our desktop version of BGO that you cannot do on your mobile device. Simply go to our URL on your phone or tablet and you are ready to participate in BGO from your phone or tablet. You can navigate the entire site by using the menu next to the BGO logo at the top of the page. If you click the lightning bolt icon in the very top navbar, that will take you to a list of all new posts. Note that once you’re in the 'new posts’ section, there is also a button to read just unread new posts, or all new posts. And if you want to toggle between our two style options, 'BGO Classic’ and 'BGO Dark’, there is a style chooser in the bottom left corner of any page (we are trying to move this to the top of the mobile screen – stay tuned). If you want to see the more 'usual’ view of the forum, just turn your phone sideways to landscape mode. That will allow some other options like selecting the date of the last post to go directly to it. We think you are going to absolutely love our new mobile site and that’s why we are saying goodbye to Tapatalk.

Push Notification Option

You may be able to enable 'Push Notifications’ for your phone so that, even if you are not logged in, you are notified in certain instances (when you get a private message, someone quotes your post, etc…). Unfortunately, because Apple has not approved the standard push notification standard other tech companies have, this functionality is not available on iOS phones (iPhones) or phones that use the MacOS. We hope at some point Apple will make push notifications available for Xenforo website use.

User Ranks/Titles/Trophies/Reaction Score

You may notice you have a 'User Title’ and image under your name when you make posts. Your User Title is based on your number of career posts. When you achieve new post # milestones, you will be 'promoted’ to a new User Title. You may also receive 'Trophies’ for certain milestones (hitting a certain post total, or having a certain number of posts 'liked’ or received 'positively’. Earning new trophies will earn you 'Points' that show up in your Post-bit (the area under your username in posts). You’ll also notice a 'Reaction Score’ under your name in posts. 'Reaction Score’ is determined by posts being received positively or negatively. When you react to a member’s post using the 'like’ button, if you choose a positive response, a member receives points. If you choose a negative response, a member loses points. There are some responses such as 'Wow’ or 'Mindblown’ which are neutral responses. Having 'Points' (trophy points) and a visible 'Reaction Score’ is just a fun way of tracking your BGO posting career. It's your BGO 'street cred'. The higher the number, the more legendary you become 😊

Learn it. Know it. Love it.

This is just a very basic introduction into the new site and our new Xenforo software. The best way to learn all of the feature-rich options and aspects of the site is to dive in and start playing with it. We are confident you will find it incredibly easy and fun to use, and a vast improvement over our previous software. As you stumble across things you have questions about, functionality you want but don’t have (remember, we may HAVE certain functionality but it may not be turned on either in error or by design for you), and glitches/bugs – post them up in this thread and we will do our best to address them. And if you just want to chime in to tell us how much you love the new place, well – that’s fine too!
 
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I love what you guys have done with the place. A lot easier on the eyes. You know, one of those things you start to notice pretty suddenly when you hit a certain age.
 
Whew. Feel like i'm in school again. Thanks for the instructional post. helpful.
 
I’m surprised there haven’t been more questions. I don’t know if that means folks are overwhelmed or if we’re just messageboard fanatics and can figure it all out on our own :)
 
I think the basics are pretty easy and your guide is pretty darn good. I imagine you'll get more questions people try to do more complex things or experience the site longer. e.g multi-quote, inserting other types of media.
 
Quoting takes 3 clicks. I’m sure there’s a reason for it but I’ll confess it’s the only thing I’ve found that vBulletin makes easier...
 

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As we enjoy today's conversations, let's remember our dear friends 'Docsandy', Sandy Zier-Teitler, and 'Posse Lover', Michael Huffman, who would dearly love to be here with us today! We love and miss you guys ❤

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