About us |  Site Map |  Diesel Talk forum

 Home |  Product Categories |  Reconditioned and Used Equipment |  Services |  Special Deals

Diesel Talk Message Board System
Frequently Asked Questions

Here’s questions and answers to help you use Diesel Talk!  If you have a question and don’t see it answered here let the web master know.

1. Viewing and Posting Messages
1. What are all these windows, and what’s in them?
2. How do I view a message?
3. How do I post a new message, and what are all those fields on the post form?
4. How do I reply to a message?
5. The MB allows HTML, but I don't know any!  What can I try out?
6. Can I post a no-text message with a link or image?
2. Preferences and Profiles
1. What are Preferences?
2. Do I have to set up Preferences?
3. What’s a Profile?
4. What Preferences can I set? What Profile information can I set?
3. System Info, Privacy, and Cookies
1. My screen is all goofed up, what’s wrong?  I’m also getting server error messages. What’s up?
2. I’ve put in a lot of information here. What’s it used for?
3. What information is stored in cookies?

1. Viewing and Posting Messages

1.1 What are all these windows?

Here is the explaination to the various windows and fields:

1. Message List Window. This window has the list of all the messages in the forum.
2. Message View and Post Window.  This is where you view messages, post new messages, or reply to existing messages.
3. Menu Items. The contents of this bar will change depending on what you are viewing in the Message View and Post Window.  Possible menu items include “Post New”, “Post Reply”, Preferences”, and “FAQ”.
4. Message List Time Display Pulldown.  Message List Time Pull down allows you to limit the message list to certain time intervals from the current time.  You can use this pull down to set a time to view only more recent messages rather than all messages.
5. Message Subject.  This is the subject that the author of the message entered.
6. Message Thread.  These are all the ‘child’ messages that have been posted in response to the original message, which is all the way to the left and at the top of the thread.
7. Message Author.  This is the ‘handle’ of the user who posted the message and is always contained between the greater than and less than symbols (< >).  If they have set up a Profile, you can view information about them by clicking on the name.
8. Post Time.  This is the time the message was submitted and is always contained between brackets ([ ]).  If you have posted a message, the time can also be color coded to indicate messages newer than your last post. If you have never posted a message, these will not be color coded.
9. Numbers of Child Messages.  There are 2 numbers here contained in parentheses.  The first number indicates how many immediate children have been posted to this message.  The second number indicates the total number of messages posted under this message.
10. ‘No Text’ Message.  This is indicated by ‘(No Text)’ following the message subject. This is used to indicate that the author of the message did not include any text in the message and only posted the subject. See the FAQ on Posting Messages.

1.2 How do I view a message?

Just click on the Subject in the Message List Window and the message will appear in the Message View and Post Window on the right.  Depending on the Browser you are using, the message line in the Message list window will turn black and be underlined (particularly in IE 5).

1.3 How do I post a message, and what are all those fields on the post form?

You bring up the Post Form by clicking on the ‘Post New’ link in the menu bar. The Post Form will appear in the Message View and Post Window.  A New Post will appear all the way to the left in the Message List and creates a new message thread.  If you intend to reply to an existing message, then you should use the ‘Post Reply’ Menu Bar item that is available when you view a message.

Quickpost. The only fields required to post a message are 1.( User), 4. (Subject), 5. (Body), and 10. (the ‘Post’ button).

Fields:

1. User.  This is a required field. If you have posted a message before, the name you used then will be entered into the field. (The earlier name was stored in a cookie)
2. E-Mail.  This field is only required if you check the box under 9. and want to receive an e-mail when there is a response to your message. If you have entered an e-mail address in your preferences, this field will not be present.
3. IP Address.  The system automatically fills in this field.
4. Subject.  This is a required field. You should enter something meaningful so that people viewing the Message List can determine quickly whether or not they want to view your message.
5. Body Text.  This field is required unless you plan to post the message with the ‘Subject’ Message option (see 6.).  You can use HTML in your message; you should use the ‘Preview’ Post Option (see 10.) to make sure it looks as you expected! The Text Body can hold up to 500 characters.
6. Message Options.  The ‘Subject’ option allows you to post your message without Body Text. The ‘Save’ and ‘Retrieve’ options are only available if you have entered your preferences.  The ‘Save’ option will save your message so that you can ‘Retrieve’ it at a later time. If you have never saved a message, the ‘Retrieve’ option will not be available.
7. Convert to HTML.  When checked, this allows HTML to be used in the message body.  You need to be very careful when doing this through, because it is easy to mess up the window by not properly entering all the closing tags.
8. Optional Links.  You can optionally all a link URL, a title for the url and an image URL in these keyin fields.  for the URL. The URL’s must be ‘full’ URL’s, i.e. they must be of the form http://www.maesco.com for the Link URL and  http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/images/business_info.gif for the image URL.  The Link Title is the text that will appear as the link.  When you post your message, the image will be centered in the message with the link below it.  If you use these fields, please use the ‘preview’ Post Option (see 10.) to check the URL’s and make sure you are going to get what you expect.  You can enter up to 100 characters in each Optional Link field.
9. E-Mail Responses.  Check this box if you want to receive an e-mail when someone answers your post. To check this box, you must have entered an e-mail address above (field 2.) or in your Preferences.
10. Post Options.  Only the ‘post’ button will post your message to Diesel Talk. You can use the ‘spellcheck’ button to check your message and make changes to it. Although it’s not a great spell checker, it can help if you’re really a bad speller! The ‘preview’ button allows you to see what your message is going to look like and make changes to it.

1.4 How do I reply to a message?

It’s easy. When you are viewing a message in the Message View and Post Window, look for the ‘Reply’ menu item.  Just click this link and the window will add the post form after the message display. See the FAQ on Post a Message for the rest of the story.

1.5 The MB allows HTML, but I don't know any!  What can I try out?

Well, here are a few HTML tags to try out (They can be in lower or uppercase.):

<b>Bold</b>	Bold
<i>Italic</i>	Italic
<u>Underline</u>	Underline
<font color="red">Red</font>	Red
<font color="#FF0000">Also Red</font>	Also Red
<font face="Impact">Impact Font (if available)</font>	Impact Font (if available)
<font size="+1">Bigger Font</font>	Bigger Font
<big>Also Bigger</big> <small>and smaller</small>	Also Biggerand smaller
<a href="index.html">A link</a>	A link
<img src="sample.gif" width=200 height=50 alt="Sample"> (Don't forget the width/height/alt stuff!)
<b><i><u><font color="red" face="Impact" size="+1">All together now!</font></u></i><br>Don't forgot to close your tags, else you might get attributes that stay on (like this boldface).</b>	All together now! Don't forget to close your tags, else you might get attributes that stay on (like this boldface).

1.6 Can I post a no-text message with a link or image?

Yes.  If you fill-in the link or image fields at the bottom and post it as a NT message, it'll post the message with the link or image (or both) in the message.  NT messages with links and/or images have a "Link/Image Inside" inside the tag.

2 Preferences and Profiles

2.1 What are Preferences?

Preferences allow you to adjust the message list display and set certain parameters for to make your visit to Diesel Talk easier.

2.2 Do I have to set up any Preferences?

No, Preferences are not required to view, post, or reply to messages on Diesel Talk. You are also not required to ‘sign in’ or ‘log on’ although this could change in the future.

2.3 What is a Profile?

A Profile is additional information that you can enter about yourself on the Preferences Page. It is not used in message display, posting or replying.  However, If another Diesel Talk user on clicks on your name in the Message List Window or while viewing your message post, your Profile will be displayed which contains this information. You should only fill this out if you want to share this information with other users of Diesel Talk.

2.4 What Preferences can I set?  What Profile Information can I set?

Here are the fields you can set for your Preferences:

1. User Name. This is your User name and is automatically filled in by the system.  Once you pick a user name, you cannot change it.
2. Passwords.  This is where you can change your password.  Please remember it as it is used for changing your Preferences.  If you forget your password, you can look in the cookie for www.maesco.com to rediscover it. Else, you will have to establish a new preference.  If this happens, please let the Webmaster know so that he/she can delete your old preference.  When you first set up your preference, you must set the password fields.
3. E-Mail Address.  This is your e-mail address.  Not necessary, but it is required for the e-mail reply functions.
4. Time Zone. You'll need to set your time zone to get the correct times, as everything is recorded in GMT.  Be sure to get the right daylight savings time, too. The default is EST so you will need to change this if you are in another time zone or if it’s daylight savings time.
5. Date Format. These various options control how dates are displayed.
6. Cookie Expiration. By default, your name and password cookies last for a year before they expire.  If you're on a public computer most of the time, you might want to change this to 10-15 minutes so that nobody abuses your nick and deletes your messages.
7. Thread Display. This controls whether you want to display threads in the View Message List Window, or just the main topics.
8. Footer Display. When you turn this off, none of the footers (sigs) will be displayed.
9. Automatic Message Save.  If turned on, the system will automatically save your messages every time you preview or post a it.  You can then use the ‘Retrieve’ Message Option later to get the message back.
10. Personal Footer.  You can enter message text (including html) that will appear at the bottom of all your messages here.
11. Profile Information.  This information is not used by the message board system but is displayed whenever someone picks your user name.

3. System Info, Privacy, and Cookies

3.1 My screen is all goofed up, what’s wrong?  I’m also getting server error messages. What’s up?

Diesel Talk uses frames to display the Message List and Messages.  If your browser is not frames capable then you might have problems. Diesel Talk was tested under Navigator 4.7 and IE 5. Diesel Talk also uses a minimum amount of JavaScript in it’s pages. Server side scripts are used for message storage and retrieval and message list creation.  Sometimes, if the server gets very busy you might get an error message “Server Too Busy” or the system might run slow. If this happens, just wait a minute or two.

3.2 I’ve put in a lot of information here. What’s it used for?

Diesel Talk is a public forum. The information can be viewed by others in your Profile. If you do not want others to have access to this information, then you should not enter it. The only information that is recorded that you do not have control over is your IP address.  Your IP address is not used unless you post offensive or inappropriate messages in which case message posting will be suppressed by using your IP address.

3.3 What information is stored in cookies?

If you have cookies enabled, a minimum amount of information is stored with the purpose of making Diesel Talk easier to use. The cookie is named www.maesco.com and includes the user name you entered, the password you set, and the last two message post times.  The cookie gets created only if you post a message or create a Preference.  When you access Diesel Talk, the cookie is accessed to set the default user name in any posts.  This name is also displayed in the top Diesel Talk Frame in the Welcome message.  If you create a Preference, the Password you set is also stored in the cookie (unencrypted).  If you post a message, the post time is saved so that messages in the Message List can be color coded.