Guide to using Invision forums:

- Quoting multiple posts:

At the bottom of each post there are two buttons, one is reply and one is quote, check the boxes of all the posts you wish to quote, (you 'll see them change color) and then press the "addreply" button at the bottom of the page to find all those posts in that new post of yours. Some forums have a limit to the number of posts you can quote at the same time, for The Elder Scrolls forums this limit is 10. So you cannot quote more then 10 posts in one of your own posts.

- Using bbcode:

It's really very simple, bbcode allows you to change just about anything in your posts, all you need to remember is that it always consists of 2 parts, first you open the code you wish to apply and then after you've typed what you wanted, you use another tag to close it.
Example:
[color=Blue] Blue text here [/color] : Will make the words "blue text here" blue.
[b] Bold text here [/b] : Will make the words "bold text here" appear in bold format.
[i] Italic text here [/i] : Will make the words "italic text here" appear in italic.

The importance of using that second tag there, the one always preceded by a / is because if you don't then everything after that will get the effect. So if you type the tag [b] but forget to close it with the [/b] tag, everything after that tag will become bold.
This principle works with every tag in bbcode, for those that know Html it's very similar but instead of using <> you now use [].

- Adding color:

When in the "add reply" menu or in the "fast reply" menu. Type this to make your text a certain color:
[Color=*] Insert text here [/color]
now simply replace * with the name of a color, like blue or yellow or green to make it that color.

- Changing the font of the text:

To change the font of the text you wish to type, you'll need the exact name of the fonts available to you. You can easily find that in your configuration screen under the name "fonts" note though, when using a special font like daedric, if the person reading it doesn't have it installed, he'll see it as standard text.
The code is:
[font=*] Insert text here [/font]
And simply replace * with the name of a font.

- Changing the size of text:

You can also change the size of text with bbcode, note though most people on the forums won't appreciate words the size of pages so it's always best to use this feature in moderation.
The code is:
[size=*] Insert text here [/size]
And replace * with a number larger then 1.

- Lists, how to make them and what you can do with them:

Lists are there to make it easier for people to summarize things, and can be used for many different things. the Basic list can be made by using the code:
[list]
Text here
text here
text here [/list]
Which will baiscally put the text below each other.

It's also possible to put "bullets" in front of each of your lines in that list, the code for that is:
[list]
[*] text here
[*] text here
[*] text here
[/list]
This will put automatic "bullets" in front of each line making it look even neater.

last but not least, it's also possible to have the forum assign a number or letter to each line automatically. This will make for easy numbering of reasons or arguments. This is accomplished by this code:
[list=1]
[*] text here
[*] text here
[*] text here
[/list]
For the forum to number each line, or;
[list=i]
[*] text here
[*] text here
[*] text here
[/list]
To preceed the first line with "i" the second with "ii" and the third with "iii" etc. Or;
[list=a]
[*] text here
[*] text here
[*] text here
[/list]
To assign a letter to each line. This peculiar feature is case sensitive, meaning if you put a "a" there it will display small letters but putting "A" there will give you capitals.

- Using the command "code"

This command is especially helpfull when you wish to explain something like bbcode to someone on the forums, adding the code tag will prevent the forum from changing it. Example:
[b] insert bold text here [/b]
Will get the forums to make that "insert bold text here" bold.
[code]
[b] Insert bold text here [/b]
[/code]
Will get the forums to display it exactly as you typed it.

- other Common codes:

There are a number of other codes you might find usefull:
[u] insert underlined text here [/u] To underline that text.
[i] Insert italic text here [/i] To put that text in italic.
[b] Insert bold text here [/b] To put that text in bold.
[s] Insert sample text here [/s] To cross out that text.
[url=insertURLhere] Insert name of link here [/url] To make what is called a hyperlink. A link to a site and naming that link something of your choosing. Example;
[url=http://www.elderscrolls.com] The Elderscrolls Homepage [/url] Will display in your post the text "The Elderscrolls Homepage" and clicking on it takes you to that site.
[thread=#] Name of thread [/thread] Replacing # with the number of a thread will link this hyperlink back to that thread on the forums.
[post=#] Name of post [/post] replacing # with the number of a post will link this back to that post inside the thread you're in.

- Linking to specific posts:

At the top right of every post you'll see a number, for instance "post #1" Click on the "#1" to bring up a small window with a url in it, copy and paste that url to link to that specific post.

- Outlines:

When you're inside a thread, looking at the posts, there are three ways to display every response to a thread. Those are called outlines and you can find them at the top right of every thread. there are three choices:
* Standard: Displays everything as normal, nothing special. It will be the same as when you first join the forums.
* Linear: Appears much the same as standard, with the exception that no matter what page of a thread you click on, the top post is always the very first post of that thread.
* Outline: Displays the first post as normal, and every other post in the thread will be displayed in a line below the first post. There are several advantages to this outline, for one thing you can easily see many more posts then in the standard outline, second you can tell by the lines on the left side of the responses who responded to whom in the thread, and third you can get an quick grasp of what someone's posted. Though for larger posts this won't work obviously.
Whenever you click on one of those lines in this outline, the forum will bring up the entire post as you see it in other outlines, making it easy to read large posts.

When you suddenly see the posts in a thread as lines rather then normal posts, chances are you accidentally pressed the "outline" button in the top right of a thread. Click on the "standard" button to get everything back to normal.

- The addreply feature:

Clicking on the addreply will bring up a new screen in which you have the obvious space to type things, but also above that quite a number of features, from left to right and from above to below:

"B" This is for making text in bold. (pressing it a second time will close the tag)
"I" This is for making text in italic. (pressing it a second time will close the tag)
"U" This is for undrlining text. (pressing it a second time will close the tag)
"font" This is for changing the font of the text. (close this tag with [/font])
"size" this is for changing the size of text. (close this tag with [/size])
"color" This is for changing the color of text. (close this tag with [/color])
"Close all tags" This conveniently closes any tag you might have left open, ie puts in the tag [/b] when you forgot to close your bold tag.

"http://" This is for making a hyperlink.
"IMG" This is for displaying an image in your post. (Note, Forums may have this feature turned off making it impossible to post pictures in your posts)
"@" This is for making a link to an email address.
"quote" This is for easily adding a quote to a post. (pressing it a second time will close the tag)
"code" This is for easily adding the [code] tag. (pressing it a second time will close the tag)

The line below this, shows what all these buttons are for, say you hover your mouse over the "I" it will say: "Insert Italic text" And will give you the keyboard shortcut between ().

Below this you see the text "open tags" followed by a number. This is the number of tags you've left open. (Note, you can easily use the "close tags" button to close all the tags you've left open.)

To the left of the box where you type your text you see a number of smilies, those you can click on to add to your post, or you can click on the "show all" button to see every smily selectable.

Below the box where you actually type your text there are two options, "addreply" and "preview post" Addreply posts your post or thread. The preview post however can be used for checking how the post will look after you post it, without actually posting it. This makes it easier to double check if all your tags are in the right place, if it all looks as you want it to look and it will allow you to test things out.

- The fast reply function:

At the bottom of each thread, alongside "addreply" you see the option "fast reply" clicking on it brings up a small text window at the bottom of the thread in which you can type just as if you clicked on the addreply button. It allows you to make a faster reply then when using the addreply function. The main difference between it and the addreply is that you don't have any help options for the bbcode. If you wish to make text special by using the bbcode, you'll have to type the code out yourself.
Just below it you see a button called "show smilies pop up window" It displays the entire list of selectable smilies. Click on one to add it to your post.

- Emoticons:

Emoticons or smilies as they're often called; ways to express a feeling through an icon. You add them by either clicking on them in the smilie window (you get to the smilie window by clicking on "show all" in the addreply, or "show smilies pop up window" in the fast reply.
Alternately you can add them by typing the code of the smilie. Like typing ";)" without the "" with get a winking smilie. And ":)" Without the "" will get a normal smilie.
Note: Many forums have a limit to the number of smilies you can add to a single post, this to prevent smilie spam which can be pretty annoying also because it slows down the speed of the forums especially to those that have a slow internet connection. Again something to use in moderation

- The Edit button:

At the bottom of each of your posts there is an edit button, if you ever, after posting, discover you've left something out, you can use the edit button to add something to an existing post. This will keep you from double or even triple posting which might be considered spammy by moderators/ admins.

- Seeing who has already posted in a thread:

In the section of the forums you're looking at, if you wish to see who has already posted in a thread then look just right of the thread title, there you'll see a number, that's the number of replies the thread has already received. Click on it to see the names of people that have posted in it, and how often they've posted in that thread.

You can tell if you've already posted in the thread by looking just to the left of the thread title, it shows an icon shaped like a windows folder. Whenever you post in a thread, a small triangle appears inside that folder. So icons with no triangle in it are threads you haven't posted in yet.

- Moderators, who they are and becoming one:

Moderators are members of the forums that have been asked by the leaders of the forum, the admins, to help them in keeping the order. It's often a lot of work to run a forum and when you're a company like bethesda, you can spend your time a lot better then looking in on the forums 24 hours a day 7 days a week to see if no one does anything against the rules. This is where Moderators come in.
Moderators browse the forums, respond to reports made by members and act when rules are being broken. Moderators have the power to lock threads, delete them, move them from one section to another in case a member posts it in the wrong section. Additionally Moderators have some power over other members, they can warn them when they're misbehaving, and if they keep doing it, even suspend them for a time or indefinitely.
Moderators on The Elderscrolls Forums are not employees of bethesda, just random people that have been asked to help out. And whenever you use the report function located on the left side of every post, you alert them to any misbehavings. Note; the report button is there only to alert moderators of misbehaving of another forum member, not to come into contact with a moderator. For that the personal message system is more suited.

Becoming a Moderator:
Moderators are selected because of a positive influence they've had on the forums, often problem solvers even when they were normal members. They tend to be helpfull and kind. Sometimes moderators are asked to be one because they're active in certain forum sections and those sections are in need of more supervision. You need to be at least 18 to be asked to become a moderator, this for legal issues.
Having a high post count, or being very noticable, alone is not cause enough to be chosen, neither is popularity, as sometimes the most popular members wouldn't make very good Moderators. And asking for it will often not help, might even accomplish the opposite. Furthermore, flaming, spamming, trolling or anything like that is usually a sure fire way not to even be considered for moderatorship.