Welcome to the forum

[thestickman]

This Stickmaking Forum is for anyone with an interest in making sticks - whether you do this for a hobby or to make a little cash to pay for more materials or even if you are a professional stickmaker yourself it does not matter - you are all welcome! We hope that the community will grow into a self-sustaining body of like-minded individuals who are willing to help each other and not just sit back and feed off the results of questions put by others - please take part in the forum yourself! Please note: The forum topics are NOT visible to "Guests" - if you want to access the main forums you will have to become a registered member! The main forums include subjects such as "Straightening sticks" and "Horn bending" among others - you really miss a lot if you don't become a member!

HOW TO USE THIS FORUM
Please read the rules and read any other "READ THIS" posts before you ask a question. You must first register to become a member - see the message in the next post entitled "How do I register to join?". Only members can post messages and read information contained in the forum topic sections.
Once registered and accepted into the forum please click on "User Control Panel" above left and type some personal details in your "Profile". Don't give too much away - we all know the problems of "identity theft" (used to be called "impersonation") and stalking. Be sure to include your approximate location (see below) and give us some insight into your stickmaking history and/or aspirations. Leave blank anything you can't or don't want to fill in.

To send a message click on the "Reply" button to reply to an existing subject. To begin a new subject, click on the "New topic" button. If you see a "Locked" sign then it is an information-only post and you can not reply to it.

Our messages are divided into different topics so please post messages relevant to that topic. If you can't find a topic you want to discuss then use the "General Stickmaking chat" subject and use that. Obviously if it has nothing to do directly with stickmaking you can use the "General chat but not stickmaking" subject. [b]Please note that it is forbidden to discuss sex, politics or religion here![/b] If you think there is a need for a new topic discussion area then suggest it to us and I will consider adding it.

POST IN THE RIGHT PLACE
If there's already a discussion covering your topic please read it then add to it if it doesn't answer your question. Please do not tag your question onto a discussion if it is unrelated. If you do, I'll simply delete it! Start a new discussion topic if your subject hasn't already been discussed.
If you find a subject already under discussion and would like to ask a question or make a comment, use the "Post Reply" button. If you wish to start another subject then use the "New topic" button.

NO ADVERTISING
Don't post blatant adverts without permission. They will be erased and you may be banned if you are blatantly spamming. Spamming includes sending uninvited messages to members with the intention of advertising anything OR giving/selling members' details to a third party for ANY reason.

As we (The Stick Man) are paying for this forum, not only to help visitors, but also to encourage them to buy from us, we don't particularly want to host links to rival companies (or to eBay sales)!
We make our living from stickmaking so if you try to deprive us of customers we don't take kindly to it! If you wish to advertise then please contact us first.

YOUR PRIVACY:
Do NOT include your email address, phone number or postal address in any post unless you like spam. There are nasty people out there who would take great delight in spamming you or phoning you at 3am. I've even had people turn up at my home at weekends!

YOUR LOCATION
The forum has members from all over the world. Please include your location (country and nearest big town) when posting. This helps to avoid misunderstandings and embarrassment. The easiest way to do this is to navigate to your "User Control Panel" -> "Profile" section, and type your location there under "Location".

HOW TO ADD PHOTOS TO YOUR POST
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=418

Please don't put HUGE images with your text. If you want someone to look at a HUGE picture, put the picture on your own web site and add a link to it. Or use one of these sites:
http://www.imageshack.us/
http://www.pictiger.com/
http://photobucket.com

ENGLISH and TYPING:
Since many sections of this forum are for technical matters and since many visitors are not native English speakers, we request that you use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation for technical questions - regardless of which language you use. Although the spell checkers available on all Internet applications (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc) are not always 100% reliable they can help to detect and correct most spelling and grammar errors - please use them! We have also set up the forum so that many common spelling mistakes are automatically corrected when they appear in your posts - you will not notice these until after you "Submit" your messages.

Please don't "text", as on a mobile phone. You don't need to abbreviate words. You are not limited to 255 characters. Type as much as you want!

There is no waiting period once your membership application has been accepted. You can start your own discussion thread as soon as you join our community. However, this does mean that we are especially hard on those who break the rules. You'll be banned without warning.

If you ignore the rules your posts may be deleted. You may post again, provided that you follow the rules. If, instead, you then come back with abuse, you'll be banned without warning.

DONATIONS towards the upkeep and running costs of the forum are always welcome and may be made here:
[url]http://www.thestickman.co.uk/donate.htm[/url]
Keith