Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.

Old forum instructions stuff -- Please let it sink.

Posted here to refer to since we don't have spoiler tags. Please let it sink.


Navigating the Forums

Welcome to the new Sims 4 forums! There are a number of changes that may seem strange at first, but you should get the hang of quickly. Please find below some explanations to help you get started and enjoy the experience.

Note: As a new member you may find some of these options are not yet available to you yet. Please see the “New Member Limitations” section to find out more.

FORUM RULES
USER PROFILE
NAVIGATION ICONS
SEARCH BAR
NAVIGATION BAR
AVATAR
WALL MESSAGE
EDIT PROFILE

TIPS & TRICKS
NEW MEMBER LIMITATIONS

HOW TOs
To Find Your Posts
To Bookmark Threads
To Make a New Post
To Post Images

FORUM RULES
Please take the time to read the General Forum Rules which can be found here: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/769176/forum-rules#latest

The Electronic Arts (EA) Rules of Conduct can be found in the Terms of Service (TOS) here: http://tos.ea.com/legalapp/WEBTERMS/US/en/PC/#section11


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Above: Numbers listed below refer to this Sample User Profile Page.



USER PROFILE
To find your user profile, you can click your screen name or avatar (1) at the top of any page and you will be taken to your Profile Page.

NAVIGATION ICONS
At the top of your profile page are a number of icons (2-5) to help you navigate.

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The “globe” icon (2) is for notifications. Click on this list to view your notifications, which may include responses to you with the @name tag, responses to threads you started, responses in threads you’ve favorite, wall notifications, and/or private messages. You can click on any of the listed notifications to be taken directly to the message, or click on “All Messages” to view more messages.

You can change which notifications you receive by clicking on the notifications icon (2) and selecting “Notification Preferences” from the top of the list. You will be taken to a page which allows you to select whether you want to be notified of certain activities by email, pop-up, or not at all.

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The “letter” icon (3) is for private messages, which will only be seen by you and the recipient(s) you select. Click on this icon to reveal a drop down box with a list of your most recent private messages. You can select “New Message” to start a new private message. Alternatively, you can start a new private message by going to someone else’s profile and selecting "Message”.

Once on the “New Message” page, start typing the name of your recipient(s) in the “Recipients” box. Some suggested names should appear in a dropdown box as you type. You can select the name of the recipient you want from the list as soon as it appears. Once the name appears in the box, you will see a small “x” to the right of it. Click this if you wish to remove the person from the recipient list.

You can type your message in the message box below. The box should look the same, and have the same functions as the tools for posting to your Wall. Select “Post Message” when you are done to send the message. Select “Cancel” if you change your mind about sending the message.

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Clicking “star” icon (4) will reveal a list of the most recent threads you’ve bookmarked. You can click on any of the listed threads to be taken directly to that thread, or you can click on “All Bookmarks” to be taken to a page that lists everything you’ve bookmarked.

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Clicking the “cogwheel” icon (5) will allow you to choose between signing out and viewing a list of your selected preferences. Choosing “Sign Out” will log you out of the forums and is a good idea to do after you’ve finished using the forums if you are using a shared computer. You can log back in by selecting the “Sign-In” option in the top banner (See below.)

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You will be taken back to a log-in screen for Origin. Simply fill in the email address linked to your Origin account and your password. You will return to the forums at http://www.forums.thesims.com . Note: If using Firefox as your browser, you may have to clear your cache before signing in.

SEARCH BAR
You can search for information by typing your information in to the “Search Bar” (6) at the top of each page, then selecting “GO”.

NAVIGATION BAR
The Navigation Bar can be found across the top of each page.
Categories: Clicking “Categories”(7) will take you to the main index for both The Sims 4 and The Sims 3 forums.
Discussions: Clicking “Discussions” ( 8 ) will take you to a list of threads with the most recent posts across all Sims forum topics.

Activities: Clicking “Activites”(9) will take you to a page chronicling the activities of all form members. This includes which badges people are earning, what’s been posted to people’s walls recently, rank promotions, and notes posted to Activities.
To post a note to the Activities board, simply type in the “Recent Activity” Box and click “SHARE”.

The Activities page also includes a “Leader Board” in the left column. This will show you which posters have accumulated the most points this week as well as overall. For more information on this see [INFORMATION].

Best Of: Select the “Best Of” (10) page to view a bulletin of the hottest topics being discussed right now.

AVATAR
You can change your profile picture or avatar (11) by clicking on the picture. From the pop-up that appears select “Browse” and select the image from your computer files that you would like to use as your avatar. Select “Open” and you should see your new avatar in place of the old one.

Alternatively, you can go to “Edit Profile” (13) and select “EDIT MY THUMBNAIL” from the left hand column to change your profile picture.

WALL MESSAGE
You can personalize your Profile Page with a custom message, which can be viewed at the top of the page (12). To change your message, type your text you wish to appear in the Activity Box (22). Use the formatting tools (21) to edit your text. Your message will appear both at the top of the page (12) and on your message wall (24).

You can clear the message by either typing a new message in the Activity Box (22) or pressing “Clear”(12) to erase the message off the top of the page. If you want the message completely removed, you will also need to hover your cursor over the message on your Wall (24) and select the small “x” that will appear in the upper right corner of your message.

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EDIT PROFILE
Click on “Edit Profile” (13) for a list of profile options (numbers for image below): Notification Preferences (1); Change My Picture (2); Edit My Thumbnail (3); Ignore List (4); Quote Settings (5); and Signature Settings (6). You will be taken to the Edit Profile Page.

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Edit Profile: On this page you will see your screen name and email listed. You do not have the ability to change them at this time. If you have a compelling reason to do so, please contact EAHelp or email privacypolicy@ea.com .

You may select opt to indicate your gender (10) or leave it unspecified.

Notification Preferences: You can choose whether you wish to be notified by email or pop-up message of various happenings on the forums (1 – 9). Choosing e-mail notification will send an e-mail notification to the address linked to your Sims forum account. Checking pop-up notification will cause a message to appear in the lower left corner of your screen as well as a red box with the number of notifications you have to appear as a superscript on the “globe” icon of the navigation icons at the top of the page. Uncheck both boxes next to an option if you do not wish to receive any notifications of that type at all.

After you have made your selections, be sure to click “SAVE PREFERENCES” (10) for your changes to become effective.

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Change My Picture: Clicking “CHANGE MY PICTURE” takes you to a page where you can customize your avatar. Your avatar picture will appear next to your screen name at the top of the page, in the upper left corner of your Profile Page, as well as on all your posts in the forums and on your wall.

To change your picture: Click “Browse” (2) to open a dialog box and select the file from your computer you wish to use as your avatar. (There is a 2MB file size limit.) After navigating to and selecting your file, click “Open” in the bottom right corner of the dialog box. Select “UPLOAD” (3) on the “CHANGE MY PICTURE” page to upload your file.

There is also an “Edit Thumbnail” option (3), which allows you to select a portion of your uploaded image to be used as your avatar.

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Edit My Thumbnail: If you only wish part of your uploaded image to show, click “Edit Thumbnail” (3). Then click your mouse on the uploaded image on the left and drag your mouse across the portion you wish to appear as your avatar. A preview of the area selected will appear on the right. Press “Save” when you have adjusted your selection to your liking.

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Ignore List: You can use the “Ignore List” (4) to hide the comments on your wall and in forum posts of up to 5,000 other members. Please note that the people you add to your ignore list will still be able to see your comments and respond to you even though the responses will be hidden from you.

To add a person to your ignore list, type the screen name of the person you wish to ignore in the box (1). Select “IGNORE USER” (2). You can select up to 5 members to add to your ignore list this way.

Alternatively, you can go to the profile page of the member you wish to ignore and click “Ignore” in the top left corner of their page.

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Quote Settings: Sometimes during an extended conversation posters may quote several messages at a time. The “Quote Settings” (5) option allows you to choose how many quotations you wish to see in these nested quotations. You can select “Don’t Ever Fold Quotes” if you wish to see all of the nested quotes. Or, you can select “One Level Deep” if you only wish to see the last person quoted. Or, “Two Levels Deep” if you wish to see the last two people quoted, and so on. After making your selection, click “SAVE” to ensure your selection takes effect.

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If you do limit the number of nested quotations, at any time you can select “show previous quotes” in the quoted post to view all quotes of that particular post. Doing so will not affect your “quote settings” for future posts.

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Signature Settings: There are three options you can choose from for viewing signatures: hide all signatures (1), hide signatures on mobile devices (2), hide images in signatures (3). Choosing to hide all signatures (1) will make it so you don’t see anyone’s signature at all (even your own if you’ve selected one). Checking the box next to hide signatures on mobile devices (2) will allow you to continue to see signatures on your PC or laptop, but not your tablet or phone. Choosing “strip images out of signatures” (3) will hide the images, but still allow you to see the text.

In addition to choosing hide or show signatures, you can also create your own signature in the “Signature Code” box (4). Type and format your message or insert your image. Click “SAVE” when done. Please choose your signature wisely as very large, moving, or distracting signatures cannot only overpower the actual message of your posts and disturb other members, it can also encourage others to block you and/or your signature so no one will see it anyway.

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PROMOTE
Promote (12) ... (I think how this is used has changed.)

DISAGREE
This (13) is a count of the number of times members have clicked the “Disagree” button on your posts. Please note that these totals do not count against you or your point totals (found in the gray box in the left column).

AGREE
This (14) is a count of the number of times members have clicked the “Agree” button on your posts.

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To search for information:
A major key to successful forum navigation is learning to use the “Search Bar” at the top of the page (6). This will help you find answers to questions that have already been asked faster as well as keep you from making embarrassing double or triple posts. You can perform a simple search by simply typing keywords into the “Search Bar”. For example, if you wanted to find out which recipes were included in The Sims 4, you could try typing (without quotes) “recipes” or “food” and then press “GO”.

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You will then be taken to a page that lists all the threads with the word “recipes” in them.
If you only wanted to find the new recipes added with the latest expansion pack, you could try (with quotes) “new recipes” or “. Using the quotation marks ensures that the program will search for the exact phrase “new recipes”. If you omit the quotation marks, a search will be performed for threads that the word “new” *or* the word “recipes”. These results may not be very useful since a search for the word “new” alone may turn up many entries that have nothing to do with recipes.

You will notice. . .

To find your posts:

How to edit your posts:

To bookmark a thread:
On the top right of each page of every thread is a “star” icon [IMAGE]. Clicking this icon will “bookmark” the thread to make it easier to find the thread in the future. Your list of bookmarked threads can be retrieved by selecting the “star” icon at the top of any page. To remove a bookmark, you can simply select the star a second time in the thread, or go to your bookmarks thread and unselect the stars next to the thread titles on that page.

To reply to a specific person:
Use the @ symbol before the full name of the person to whom you are replying. This will send them a notification so that they will be more likely to see your post. Simply quoting the person does not send a notification.

For example:
@greenXen Hey, thanks for that post!

The above format lets me know that someone directed a message at me.
[quote=”greenXen”]Welcome to the new Sims 4 forums![/quote]

Hey, thanks for that post![/

The above format does not notify me of a message. Consider using the quoting in combination with the @name format if you really want to get someone’s attention when you’re quoting them.
[quote=”greenXen”]Welcome to the new Sims 4 forums![/quote]

@greenXen Hey, thanks for that post![/



This forum runs on Vanilla software. You can find more general information about these types of forums and how to us them at their site.

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