Home :: Pardon? :: Forums :: Chat :: Network
|
Overview | Molland's | Origins | The Forums | Code of Conduct | Aesthetics | Registration | Avatars | Emoticons and Smilies | YaBB Code and HTML | Navigation | Modifying and Deleting Posts | Students Last updated: 14 December, 2001 Welcome to Molland's! If you are here, you are probably wondering what we are all about. The following is a guide to the lay of the land and some links to sites you might need or like to see. Fear not, gentle traveler; there are not many rules, and they are not very oppressive. Let our friendly waitstaff bring you a nice hot cup of tea and some sweets. With luck, perhaps you'll meet a handsome sea captain with a spare umbrella, scam a ride in Lady Dalrymple's barouche, walk home with a rich and mysterious young widower, or at least pick up some of the finest marzipan in Bath. The name of this community comes from the novel Persuasion by Jane Austen:
There is also a funny rendition of this scene in P2 [Janeite shorthand for the 1995 film adaptation of Persuasion] that takes place in a tea-room. Miss Elliot intones, "I believe that Molland's marzipan is the finest in all Bath." Well, gee, thanks, lady. We endeavour to give universal satisfaction. According to R.W. Chapman, the editor of the definitive scholarly edition of Jane Austen's novels, there was an entry in the 1812 Bath Directory as follows: "Molland, Mrs. Cook & confectioner, 2, Milsom-street." Jane Austen probably patronized that Molland's, and since most of the original group at this message board are Persuasion enthusiasts, we thought the name of the Bath tea-room was appropriate for our online home. Molland's is associated with other Jane Austen-related sites, Tilneys and Trap-doors and The Cult of Da Man [The High Priestess' sites], and the P'heads/P-heads site [the Web Mistress-in-Training's Persuasion site]. The various forums are fairly self-explanatory as to subject matter. Don't worry too much about posting at "the wrong board." We're not that compulsive about such things. In general, the forum subjects are as follows: The Drawing Room - general discussion, soapbox rantings, whatever. The Chawton Round Table - Anything to do with Jane Austen, her novels, the film adaptations, biographies, sequels, &c.; The Laconia - Persuasion in all its manifestations. The Shrine of the Cult of Da Man - Henry Tilney, Northanger Abbey, Gothic novels, anything pertaining to Da Man and NA. The PHead Treatment - Where we give the "treatement" to those annoying Persuasion characters. The Stacks - The Cyberlibrarian's fiefdom, where all manner of books are discussed. Sunset Boulevard - Movies, television, anything on film or video, plus rumours and discussion of upcoming releases. The Hornblower Cafe - Horatio Hornblower, the books, the movies, and anything else related to the history and fiction of the Age of Fighting Sail. Slayage - We have a small cult of Buffy and Angel fans here, and this is where we discuss those shows. [A separate forum wasn't really necessary, but the High Priestess was quite taken with the idea.] The Workbag - Support and discussion and boasting about needlework and crafting of any kind. The Cute Guy Files - Drooling, gushage, girls talking about boys. The Smiling Weasel Pub - Sports, trash talking, hunky athletes. Ink-Stained Wretches - A forum for the writers of our community to share their pearls of literary wisdom. Or whatever. Byte Me - For webmasters and webmistresses [and anybody else who's interested] to share resources and get information. Even if you don't have a site, if you have any questions about the internet, somebody here might be able to help you. Feedback - questions, problems, requests, tips, constructive criticism, &c.; may be posted here. You can also use this forum to test your avatar or sig line. Code of Conduct, such as it is The first and most important rule is: HAVE FUN! If you're not having fun then there is absolutely no point to all this. Thus, we endeavour to avoid importuning our visitors with a long list of draconian guidelines. We have tried to adapt the technical aspects of this site to the enjoyment of our visitors wherever possible. However, that doesn't mean that we're running some kind of online version of Lord of the Flies here. As you can see above, you can find a forum here to discuss most any topic. We ask only that you use common sense: no pornography, obviously, and spam will be either deleted or mocked at the High Priestess's whim. Don't forget the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have done to you. In that spirit [and because it gives the HP high blood pressure], trolling will not be tolerated. At best, you will be shunned and mocked, and at worst, you will be banned. And if you do troll, and then have the unmitigated nerve to start whining about the First Amendment, free speech, and your so-called "opinion," the High Priestess will beat you about the face and head with an unabridged copy of the Federalist Papers. Like Justice Potter Stewart and pornography, the HP knows trolling when she sees it. Other than that, simply apply common sense and consideration for your fellow posters. This community was not designed for or by children, so we have no set policies with regard to content or language meant for grownups. However, we are a diverse community with varying levels of tolerance, so creative use of the top row of your keyboard is always encouraged. In order to maintain that delicate balance of freedom of expression and positive vibes here at Molland's, the High Priestess and the management of Molland's reserves the right to delete any post at any time, without notification, and to ban any member at any time. The management of Molland's has chosen to utilize the latest technology in the design of this site, always trying to balance beauty with utility. Unfortunately, on the internet, this is not always an easy mix. The site, including both the boards and the static pages, use Cascading Style Sheets. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 and above should be able to handle CSS with no problems. Netscape users might be best off with Netscape 6.0 or better, as older versions of Netscape may have some problems with the forums. Many studies [and the statistics for this site] indicate that most people browse the internet at a screen resolution of 800 x 600 pixels or higher and a high color setting. Thus, the site designers have optimized this site to look best at those settings. It should work for other settings, but you might have to scroll a little and the colors may be off. Here is a tutorial on how to adjust your settings. If you have adjusted your settings and the graphics still look grainy, washed-out, or otherwise strange, and you are using AOL and especially the AOL browser to access this site, click here to find out why this is happening. Here is a site with detailed instructions to correct your browser settings. Here is another view of the situation from an AOL user and supporter, with suggestions on how to get the most out of your AOL browsing experience. You don't have to get rid of AOL...but perhaps some adjustments are in order to really take advantage of the amazing visual delight that is the internet. You paid all that money for a monitor, why not use it to its full potential? For those of you who have trouble reading text on most sites at 800 x 600: did you know that if you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape you can increase the size of the text WITHOUT changing your screen resolution? For MSIE, click View--Text Size. The little dot indicates your current text size; increase or decrease as desired. For Netscape, click View--Increase Font (or Decrease Font) repeatedly till you're happy. The stylesheet we have used for this site should support those kind of changes in text size. If you need help with or have questions about any aspect of this site, please do not hesitate to e-mail the High Priestess. You need not register to post at the forums. However, you cannot edit your posts, have an automatic signature or personal pictures or icons, or use the private messaging system unless you are registered. You may hide your e-mail address in your personal profile so that others may not see it [but do please authorize the acceptance of private messages...if you are being abused via pms, the HP will take care of it]. You may register with a clever alias--most of us have. However, please think about revealing your real name [or something like a real name] at some point, for instance, by adding it to your signature line. But that is not the general way of the web, and some people are shy or very private, so aliases are okay. We'll probably winkle it out of you eventually! [We're horribly good at winkling!] You can use whatever image you like for your avatar. The High Priestess reserves the right to restrict the size of the photo, as very large ones tend to throw off the board. Keep it as close to 60 x 60 pixels as possible, although a little larger is fine. The image you wish to use must be on the internet somewhere and must be linkable, for instance, from your homepage. Many of the free website providers do not permit linking of images on their servers to other servers. In such a case, or if you have an image and nowhere to upload it, e-mail the High Priestess and the image will be uploaded for you. Once you know which image you want to use, click on Profile at the top of the main board and each forum. Fill in the URL for the custom avatar. Remember, it's not nice to link to another site's pictures without their permission. It can cost them money for the bandwidth--their server uses the bandwidth to post a picture on our site. We'll host the picture for you if necessary. Click on the emoticons and the code will be put in for you! Isn't that easy? YaBB code is a simple markup language similar to HTML and UBB code. There are buttons for most of the codes above the posting area. Hover your mouse over them to see what they do. Click on them and the tags will be entered, like [quote][/quote]. Insert the text you wish to set off between the tags, just like with HTML. Feel free to play around with the codes at the Say What forum to see what everything can do. You cannot use HTML on YaBB boards...apparently it's some kind of security problem. At the bottom of each forum is a drop-down box with a list of the other Molland's forums. Click on the one you want to visit, then click the GO! button. Or you can click the link back to "Molland's" at the top of the forum and go from there. To navigate the static mollands.net pages, use the links at the top of every page. The same links can be found on every page of the forum. To get back to the sponsoring websites, click on the forum logo banner at the top of the forum or on the link back to the sites underneath the banner. There is also a Sponsors page that has links back to the sites. To get to the Molland's home page, click on the "Home" link. You may only modify or delete your posts if you are a registered user. There will be a link at the top of the post that say "Modify" and "Delete." Click on "Modify" and the editing window [like the posting window] will open. We're not going to do your work for you. We won't give you a summary of the novels, either. Read them. It won't kill you. You might even like it. Stranger things have happened, you know. If you post a question anyway, the HP suggests that you check any answers you get VERY carefully. Trust me, you're better off just reading the book and thinking for yourself. |
Original images and content copyright © MMI by mollands.net. All rights reserved.
