So I noticed a while ago that v3's still using that FAQ I wrote for v2 in its twilight months. A surprising amount of it is still applicable, but it doesn't explain new things like the shop and the QDB.

I've spent a little bit of time tweaking it and I think it's basically ready. Tell me what you think, correct any errors you find, and then when everyone's happy with it, someone with access can (please) put it up.

–

<strong>Q: What does everything on the homepage do?</strong>

A: What it should. Most of the time. The recent blog list with the avatars that takes up much of the screen shows all most the recent "fronted" (we'll get to that in a minute) blogs. Similarly, the recent games showcase shows off four of the site's most recently accepted games (complete and work-in-progress) and examples.

The activity feed, on the other hand, works on comments and forum posts. It shows what games, examples, blogs, and forum posts were most recently commented on (not in all cases, though – but more on that later). It also shows you whether you've read something's most recent comments/posts or not, by making the entry bold if you haven't, and putting it in standard text if you have.

<strong>Q: What does "on the front page"/"fronted" mean?</strong>

A: This versatile statement can apply to games, examples and even blogs - a game or example is on the front page when its preview appears in one of the six "Recent Submission" boxes, and a blog is on the front page when it's listed in the recent blog list in the middle of the screen. You can use "fronted" as an adjective to describe these types of blogs, but don't apply it to games. No-one does that.

Bear in mind that if you want your fronted blog to stay fronted (and unedited), you need to abide by some rules.

<strong>Q: What rules are there regarding fronted blogs?</strong>

A:

1. Don't swear in the title, or in the first paragraph or so. This also goes for unfronted blogs that appear on the activity feed. We don't want swearwords on our homepage, thank you.

2. Make it long enough. The official rule is "fronted blogs must be at least 300 words", but mods tend to be okay with your blog being on the frontpage if it has a decent amount of "content". Sadly, "content" isn't really objectively measurable - you'll have to use your discretion.

3. You're only allowed to post one fronted blog every 24 hours.

4. Remember, these rules are subject to change at the staff's whim. Life's more exciting that way.

<strong>Q: What's the dropdown box on the blog entry page for?</strong>

A: It allows you to decide whether or not you'd like your blog entry to appear on the front page (and therefore on the activity feed), just on the activity feed, or on neither of the two.

While a non-fronted blog is not as likely to be seen as a fronted one, it is exempt from the rules that govern fronted blogs, so you may want to consider not fronting hourly tweets.

<strong>Q: What is the checkbox under the comment box for?</strong>

A: Pretty self-explanatory - check the box if you don't want the activity feed notified of your comment.

The box is checked by default when commenting on blogs/games older than 2 weeks. This is to prevent necroposting, so don't uncheck it without a very good reason.

<strong>Q: Tell me about custom hitcounters. Why isn't mine working?</strong>

A: It used to be that special counters were a special privilege, but these days anyone's hitcounter text can be changed in Preferences. The change will only show up if you pay for "Custom Hit Text" in the shop.

The tag "[HITS]" needs to be in your hitcounter text, to show the site where you want the actual number. For example:

"[HITS] Pageviews"

"Hits: [HITS]"

"[HITS] + [HITS] = 2([HITS])"

If you don't put the "<HITS>" tag in your counter, your hits won't be displayed there. Which might be what you want, in which case, feel free to leave it out.

<strong>Q: What was that you said about a shop?</strong>

A: The 64Digits shop is where you spend those funny member point things you can see on the side panel of your blog page. You can buy a variety of user account pimps, such as custom hit text. All shop items expire after a given time, or have only one use - this is to keep everybody from buying everything as soon as they have enough member points and then never using the shop again.

<strong>Q: what's the QDB about?</strong>

The QDB is where you earn member points (or give them to other users). It works like this: one user asks a question and offers a reward of X user points, and then everyone can try to answer the question. The question asker can then distribute the points between answerers depending on the quality of their answers, or which one he likes the most as a person.

Once you've put your user points into a question, there's no way to get them back, so you should probably give them away somehow once people stop trying to answer your question, even if none of the answers are satisfactory.

<strong>Q: What's v3?</strong>

v3 is the short name for 64Digits Version 3 - the site's latest complete layout and functionality overhaul. It was introduced in January 2011, after a short downtime, and many, many years in development, during which it was seen as vapourware comparable with Duke Nukem Forever (which, amusingly, was released about six months after v3). 64Digits's motto is "Driven by laziness", so v3 is sadly unfinished, but it works well enough.

Historians interested in v2 and v1 should look up 64Digits.com on the Wayback Machine. v2 was in use from 2006 to 2010, and v1 during 2005. The site before v1 could technically be called v0, but v1 introduced the blogging system, which is arguably the whole point of 64Digits. Also notable is KaBob799's rejuvenation of the site in late 2010 (he's responsible for the frontpage blog layout and the recent activity feed).

<strong>Q: What do the badges do?</strong>

A: They sit on your page, and if you hover your cursor over one, you can discover its name and what it's for.

Badges are given out for a lot of different things.

There are the automated statistics badges - things like number of hits, number of games submitted, number of friends, old bean (given to users who've been here for three years or more) etc…

There are the badges given out by specific people - Arcalyth's Seal of Awesomeness, Ace02's cool banner badge, etc… Obviously, getting one of these is dependent on whether or not the giver is online much, and more dependent on whether or not the giver likes you.

There are also the game badges (for achievements in ColumnsX and Twisterghost's LOLOMGWTFBBQ series) but it's not currently possible to get one of those. Anyone who has one has had it for a very long time.

If you absolutely abhor your badges, there's a checkbox in Preferences that allows you to stop them from being displayed.

<strong>Q: What languages can I write my submissions in?</strong>

A: We used to accept only "Game Maker"-made submissions, so you'll find that our archive is largely made up of GM games and examples. However, we've recently lifted that restriction, and are in the process of building a more varied collection of programs.

For games: Anything you care to make them in, so long as they're easy to download and play.

For examples: A good number of different languages:

Game Maker (versions 5-8)

Unity

C/C++

C#

Java

Python

Like everything, this is subject to change at the staff's discretion.

<strong>Q: I submitted a game/example but it's not on the site! What gives?</strong>

A: If your game/example submission hasn't gone through, it's probably because of one of these reasons:

1. It's a Game Maker 6 EXE and won't work on newer versions of Windows. Please convert all GM6 submission with <A href=wiki.yoyogames.com/index.php/Making_games_work_under_Windows_Vista>the Vista convertor available here</A> before submitting them. The game mods are not going to do it for you.

2. It wasn't up to standard. All site submissions are tested for quality by our game moderators, ensuring our archives don't become bloated with garbage no-one wants to download.

("Up to standard", in this context, is as dependent on your submission's objective quality as it is on the personal opinions and moods of the game mods. Some things are bad in an entertaining way - remember that before complaining about any submissions we have accepted.)

3. No game mods have got around to playing it yet. Check your queue.

4. The title contained swearing. Blog title swearing rules also apply to game titles.

<strong>Q: What is the file size limit?</strong>

A: It's 100MB. It was 2MB for a long time, but it wasn't supposed to be. We fixed that though.

<strong>Q: So-and-so's page looks really awesome! It has a custom background! How do I make my page like that?</strong>

A: There's a field for applying custom CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) to your user page in your preferences. If you don't know any CSS, look up a tutorial - it's really easy!

<strong>Q: Your site layout is a rip-off of some other site!</strong>

A: That's not really important to us. We like to consider the blog system as a more relaxed alternative to regular forums - and hey, you don't hear pre-built forum sites getting chewed out for being ripoffs of other pre-built forum sites. If you really love forums so much, you can just think of blogs as threads, and the whole site as one big off-topic subforum where going "off-topic" is not only allowed, but encouraged.

<strong>Q: Why are the forums so empty and full of bugs?</strong>

A: The 64Digits forums have a long history of being abandoned for years and then revived on a whim, only to be forgotten about again - and so the cycle continues. There's been a revival of the forums recently, but they're not an official part of 64Digits v3, so there are obviously going to be some issues.

There's no direct way to get to the forums at the moment, so you'll just have to go to http://64digits.com/forums until someone decides to do something about that. Or you could just ignore the forums - that's the cool thing to do.

<strong>Q: Why am I warned and/or banned?</strong>

A: You probably broke the rules, or irritated one of our staff members just a little too much with your blogs/comments/games. Just behave, and maybe you'll have your warn removed, or be unbanned (keep in mind that the latter is very unlikely). The mod who warned you should have PMed you about the details of your offense.

Keep in mind that making a duplicate account is a quick way to get both your accounts banned.

<strong>Q: Can you host my site?</strong>

A: 64D has hosted a few sites and given out subdomains in the past - just be pleasant, and appeal to site-owner FirestormX's better nature - by offering to help pay the bills, for example.

<strong>Q: How do my file manager download counters work?</strong>

Clicking on the little down arrow next to each of your files will bring up a field with that file's download URL. Link people to it, and watch your download's increase by mousing over that same little arrow.

<strong>Q: Can I be a mod/admin/person with access to the site code?</strong>

A: The laws which govern who gets what privileges and responsibilities are based on how active the site is, how active the staff is, and how trustworthy the staff judges potential new staff to be. Basically, don't ask, and you might get. If we need you.

People with access to the site code are a slightly different story, but don't expect to be granted access the day you join.

<strong>Q: What are the "[whatever]" tags in front of blogs for?</strong>

A: Time for a history lesson. Long ago, the site we all know and love had a slightly different format. There was no activity feed, and the recent blogs and news lists had their places swapped. Seeing as a recent blog's only presence on the front page was its title, some people used these tags to let others know whose blogs they were about to read:

For example:

[Ciri] Title goes here

could've been a blog by a user named "Ciribot".

The site's redesign has made this titling convention obsolete, but you may see it pop up again occasionally.

<strong>Q: Such-and-such a feature doesn't work/is different! Why?</strong>

A: 64Digits will always be a work-in-progress. There are always bugs to fix or more features to implement. Also, many of our users use/have used the site's creation as a way of learning more about web programming, so mistakes can be made. Be patient, either it'll be sorted out soon, or it'll become an essential part of your 64Digits experience.

<strong>Q: Are there really that many lurkers?</strong>

A: Yup. The counter used to show "1 guest" (back when they were guests) almost constantly, then someone fixed it, and we found out the surprising truth. If you're a lurker and you're reading this, would you consider joining? The site's much nicer if you're a member.

<strong>Q: So is this site actually gonna stay up for a few months?</strong>

A: We'd like to think so, yes. We've had some very lengthy downtimes (Q1 2009 comes to mind), but now we've got reliable hosting, downtimes should be the exception rather than the rule.

If you do come here one day and find it down, see it as an opportunity to go outside. Sunlight makes you happy.

<strong>Q: I'm so tired of eating, all my food tastes dull and awful.</strong>

A: Add some cheese! It goes with everything.

<BBCode lists go here - I didn't rewrite them because why?>