In one of yesterday's threads Quality Pie asked if we could do a simple HTML tutorial. Sounded like a good idea, so here you go.
HTML uses letters or words in brackets <> to designate the beginning and ending of your style format. The beginning is marked by plain brackets <like this> and the end is marked with a backslash in those brackets </like this>. All you do is insert your text between the proper opening and closing brackets. There are dozens of commands but the ones you'll use most are listed below. (I've put what the command does in place of the text you'd insert. To use the command just copy your text over the description.)
<i>for italics</i>
<b>for bold</b>
<div class="blockquote">for a gray-boxed quote</div>
To link to another web page:
<a href=" PUT THE URL/WEBSITE ADDRESS (http://blahblah) HERE "> PUT THE TITLE OF THE LINK (boxscore or link or whatever) HERE </a>
That should do you for 99.9% of the things you'd post. If you want more advanced commands you can Google "HTML" and you'll find lots of help.
This also seemed a good time to remind folks of posting etiquette.
1. If you quote an outside source use only small bits and link to the original.
2. No swearing, including most disguised swearing using letters and symbols. This is a family-friendly site.
3. Talk about a person's points, not a person themselves or their posting style. Name calling is a no-no unless the name is complimentary.
4. Debate is fine as long as it's not personal, but in general you should let people talk about your stuff rather than responding defensively to every single comment they make.
5. Keep threads on topic, especially in the diary section. There's nothing worse than getting all excited because you see 40 comments under your diary entry and then finding out that nobody said squat about what you wrote.
6. In general, pretend like you're in a coffee shop or nice little bar somewhere. Don't do anything conversationally here that would seem rude or out of place there.
--Dave