Messageboards or forums on Zetapets are for people on Zetapets to interact and also a useful place for finding answers to questions.

There are certain rules of etiquette however that are applicable to all other forum usage as well. This page has a quick summary of these 'rules' as well as how to change your font/signature settings, and tips on how to get your questions answered effectively.

This page was last updated on June 5th 2004.

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*Creating a board*
Need help? Or looking for to create general interesting topic? All you have to do is click on 'Add a board' - found on all of the forum pages (click here to see the screenshot) and just type in the title and description (making sure you are posting to the right board!). HTML is not allowed on the forums so anything with HTML will showup as raw code. However, any links that you type beginning with http:// automatically become working links.

You may have seen all the interesting font variations. These are made using zetaHTML - noticed the 'reply' box has a double row of icons? Those are what you can use when you want to write in the reply box. We have also summarised the various 'results' of these buttons, and examples of what you can do with zetaHTML lower down on the page. We've also included a mini-section where you can test out your signature as well!

*Replying to a board*
Probably one of the easiest things on Zetapets. You simply scroll down to the box, type in your reply (on zetaHTML is allowed) and click 'Send'!

*Avatars, signatures and permanent font settings*
All those wonderful 'pictures'! :) Happily Zetapets allows you a choice of (hundreds?) of avatars for free. Just go into 'Forum Settings' (image) and select from the drop down list there. On the same page, you will also see a textbox for you to change your signature, as well as how your forumposts are formatted (in plain English: how they show up everytime you post) (screenshot)

To see the avatars available click here to see the entire collection. More are added nearly every major update, but we try to keep this as up-to-date as possible!

*Those boxes at the bottom*
One of the most Frequently Asked Questions is "what are those boxes below the avatar", and of course "how do I change my name from newbie"? The boxes change with your title - both as a result of forum posts. The more active you are on the forums, the more your post count builds up, and so your status changes from :

Newbie (1) --> Veteran (2) --> Forum Fanatic (3) --> Elder (4) --> Grandmaster (5)

where the numbers indicate the number of filled boxes. Normally it takes 50 posts to change from a Newbie into a Veteran, and then 200 posts to move on to Forum Fanatic, 600 for Elder and 1000 for Grandmaster. Spam is (for obvious reasons) not tolerated on the forums, and therefore it is better to post valid comments in order to buildup your post count.

*The art of suitable content*
Although spam is not tolerated, and the forums are heavily modded everyday, you are however, allowed to test your forum settings (mainly on the General) board but a very long thread may just face deletion - so be warned! Any attempt to post multiple threads at one time of the same/similar topic may also constitute as spam, and is at the discretion of any Moderator or Admin to either ice or warn the 'offender'.

You may be wondering why we are not allowed to talk about other pet sites. The very simple reason being that this site IS a pet site- and it would be waste of their time and ours to talk about other sites - there are other places: such as the 'other' pet site, private forums, private email and instant messengers :) It seems fairly disrespectful of the creators as well. For more information about what we can and can't do, have a read of the Rules.

*Did you mention zetaHTML?*
Indeed we did. :) It was going to be put right here, but then we decided that it wouldbe better to dedicate an entirely new page to it -since there are so many variations and combinations! You can see this page by clicking here for the guide.