CAG newbie guide

From CAGwiki

The CAG newbie guide was an idea by many Cheap Ass Gamer Forums posters. We have decided to take the liberty to create a guide for new CAG members so they can have an easy time adapting to the CAG society and make the most of their visits. We'll cover everything from setting up your custom account to posting manners. Members old and new all should take a look at this guide! :)

Introduction

Learn a bit about Cheap Ass Gamer and its community:

CheapAssGamer as of 6/2/06

Cheap Ass Gamer Forums was created by CheapyD in Spring 2003 with one purpose: finding deals on hot games and spreading the deals around! In the beginning, things were slow, but over the years Cheap Ass Gamer has picked up so much momentum, it currently houses over 50,000 members! With so many members, we're able to pump out tons of deals every day, taking the pressure off of Cheapy for an easier time to maintain the boards.

The frontpage is home to the hottest deals Cheapy finds (once in a while, a member's hot deal topic can make the front page as well). These deals aren't necessarily games, but are related to gaming technology. This is generally updated frequently, and because it's viewed by so many people, its deals are usually gone very quickly. Prepare yourself for the rush if you catch a deal on time! Of course, the solution to getting more deals is to register to access the forum deals.

If you haven't noticed already, Cheap Ass Gamer is primarily a gaming board. We specialize in trades (specifically video games, movies, and other accessories relating) and video game and movie deals. Every day several new deals are posted, and usually over 100 people are viewing the Video Game Deals section AT A TIME! This shows how active and flourishing our community is. Deals are guaranteed and we remain a generally troll-free forum after 3 years of success.

We currently cover all major consoles, including old-school consoles and less-popular consoles such as the N-Gage. If you have a console, you can bet you'll find other people to talk to it about! Only have a PC? We've got a huge section on PC games and PC-related topics as well! Stuck with your old Famicom or Sega Saturn? We've got the section for it any many people who will discuss it with you!

Not all of the message boards is gaming-related, however. We have active News, Debate, and Off-Topic sections as well to please to all of your interests. We keep our members interactive with dozens, if not hundreds, of new topics every day.

Tired of posting about your favorite new game? Relax a bit in the Off-Topic Section, and talk about virtually anything! We house hundreds of casual members who love to sit back and chat, so pull up a chair and join the crowd! Or, do you have the thirst for heated debate and want your voice heard? Talk it up with some of the smartest people on CAG in the Debate section! Note that "flaming", or sometimes "hurtful messages", are aplenty, so be prepared to take AND give heat. Moderators are always available if things get out of hand.

Now, we made this guide to help new Cheap Ass Gamers find their way around and adapt to the community as painlessly as possible. Getting in's the hard part, but the rewards are definitely worth it!

Basics

Create your unique profile and let other CAG'ers recognize you:

1) Your User Control Panel is easily accessed through the toolbar at the top of every page on Cheap Ass Gamer. It looks like this:

2) Your User Control Panel is open to a huge amount of options to customize the way you navigate CAG and how others see your individual profile, signature, and avatar. This gives you a purely unique visiting experience so you can browse to your liking! Don't like 10 posts per page? Make it 20! Or even 50!

3) We'll begin with your browsing options. This can be accessed at Edit: Options. From this new menu, you have the ability to browse invisibly, set email options, etc. The options are nearly endless! For example, if you dislike viewing other peoples' signatures because they're too big, or they take of too much of your bandwidth, turn them all off!

4) Now click on Edit: Profile. This is where you put in input about yourself: your birthday, website, instant messaging profiles, etc. This is how other CAG members can view information about who you are and how to contact you off of the forums. This is a great way to let people know who you are and how to keep in touch! One popular feature is the Custom User Title. This is the small line of text some members have under their username when they post. Once you reach 365 days and/or 500 or more posts, you'll automatically gain the priveledge of a custom user title no matter what. Instead of the words "CAG Newbie" or "CAG Veteran" under your username, you'll be able to set that text to whatever you want (under a character limit, of course). Your ranking currently depends on length of membership and/or amount of posts:

• CAG Newbie: 0 to 29 days
• CAG in Training: 30 to 269 days
• CAG Veteran: 270 to 364 days and/or 250+ posts
• CAGiversary!: 365 days+ and/or 500+ posts

CheapyD, the forum administrator, recently changed rankings to length of membership (based on months) instead of only posts, which was the old method.

5) Next on our list is Edit: Signature. If you're unfamiliar with signatures (aliased as "sigs"), they are little custom images or text you can have that appears after you post. Most, if not all members, have a signature of some sort, whether they be song lyrics or graphic signatures or song playlists. The options are virtually endless! If you want a custom graphic signature, CAG houses many talented graphic designers such as xboxdude and onetrackmind. Feel free to message them if you'd like something, as they're usually willing to make people signatures. Signatures are only displayed once per page, and be courteous to your fellow CAGs by not making an excessively large sig.

6) Our final destination of our Control Panel is Edit: Avatar. Avatars are small images (limited to 100 pixels x 100 pixels on CAG) that appear under your name and to the left of your post whenever you do post. Everyone who has an avatar on CAG has a custom avatar, and are generally how people can recognize you without needing to look at your username every time you post. Since you can upload a custom avatar, there's no limit (excluding porn, etc. which will be covered later on) to your creativity.

Posting

We'll teach you how to reply to topics in a proper manner, as well as dealing with other posts:

At Cheap Ass Gamer, we try to keep things civil and nice. If you feel that you have to say something rude or hurtful, our Moderators (the Moderation team is located (here) will NOT hesitate to remove the post and issue you a warning. Retaliating against an angry post is not recommended either. Simply report the post(s) and a Moderator will help you. Feeding a troll (a member who purposely tries to insult/harass people just to get them angry) is NOT the answer.

In case you have not read the Rules, you aren't allowed to post ANY adult or offensive material. Our forum is home to several members that are under 18, and as long as we have kids and teenagers, we will NOT tolerate any offensive images, audio, or hyperlinks. The only exceptions are mild cases of these, which in this case you MUST put a "NSFW" in the thread title (ex. HOT PICTURES *NSFW*) or use the Spoiler code ([spoiler]Offensive words[/spoiler]) ABOVE the offensive materials in a post so people can avoid them if wanted. Breaking these rules will earn you a guaranteed warning (or even a ban from the forums entirely) for a varying amount of time. If you break this rule even after your first offense, there is no doubt you will never return to Cheap Ass Gamer. Please keep things clean for a healthy community. :)

The Off-Topic Topic thread, always located in the Off-Topic section respectively, is generally a thread about anything you want to post about. If you feel you need to tell everyone about your new pimple, don't create a new thread: just post it in there. It's our way of keeping the boards clean without mindless clutter. Our Off-Topic Topic thread is usually very active and full of friendly people. Regulars include SblymnlCrymnl, FriskyTanuki, zionoverfire, Karsh, dcfox, Moxio, Tiphireth, and more.

Threads

Not all topics are equal. Here's how you realize if a topic is worth making a thread about:

Cheap Ass Gamer members create dozens of new threads every day, whether it be about deals, trades, or even their own lives. If there are too many spam useless threads, the Cheap Ass Gamer forum will become cluttered. To prevent this, here's how you create a proper thread:

1. Please keep your threads in the correct section. If you are unsure what section to place your thread (perhaps due to overlapping ideas), put it in the section you think would get more views and responses. This way, if it is in the incorrect section, Moderators can quickly move it to the correct section where you can hopefully get more views from the correct crowd.Also it would be nice if you can add a little description of your thread.

2. Threads that express hate towards other Cheap Ass Gamer members are NOT allowed. If you have a problem with a certain member, please use the Private Messaging system and resolve it amongst yourselves; the entire Cheap Ass Gamer community doesn't need to be concerned with it. If you have a problem with a group of people, please talk to a Moderator. They will help you better than anyone else.

3. Do not create obviously stupid threads. I'm positive Cheap Ass Gamer members won't be concerned about your cat's diarhhea or how many times you can burp the alphabet while underwater. Please think before you make a thread. If you genuinely think other members will care, feel free to create your thread. However, if you think your topic is even remotely stupid, don't create the thread. Simply post your topic in a post in an Off-Topic Topic (OTT).

4. Do not spam. For obvious reasons, Spam (unsolicited sales pitches) are frowned upon.

5. Do not post thread with vague topic headers. Examples like "I can't believe this?!?!" or "This is unbelievable!!". Occasionally, these threads are helpful or entertaining. More often than not, they are a waste of time for all those concerned.

Thank you for reading this guide! While it may be redundant for forum veterans, we want all of our new members to know what is and isn't accepted. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to PM a fellow CAG member or (even better) a Moderator so they can help you. Please enjoy yourself at Cheap Ass Gamer Forums!