Getting Started Guide
This article is designed to get you started as a brand new SoFurry user.
Probably one of the first things you will want to do here is set up your user profile so others will know a bit about you as you explore and meet new friends. You can edit your profile by floating your mouse over the user avatar in the top right part of the header (1) and clicking Settings in the menu that appears. The image at the right shows the location of the settings link as well as many of the locations of important features of SoFurry. If you would like to learn more about the different areas of the main page visit the quick tour, otherwise read on!
When you click the Settings link after hovering over your user avatar (indicated by 1 on the image to the right) the main screen will change to the user settings page.
Their are a lot of settings available to you that let you customize the way SoFurry looks and behaves to you and to people who visit your user page or profile. For now we will just set up the main items so that when other SoFurry users visit your profile they can learn a little more about you!
Setting up your Profile
Now that you have the settings page up it's time to set a few parameters. At the top of the settings page their is a set of links titled Site, Account, Display, Profile, Browse, Privacy Settings, Notifications, Forums, and Chat. For now we are just going to set some basics so click the link titled Profile.
The image to the right of this part of the article shows the top part of my profile page. If you scroll down the page you will notice a lot of things you can fill in. For now lets just enter in the basics so you can get started exploring SoFurry!
- Species: Enter in whatever species or race you feel is your primary fursona (furry personality). This is just a text entry box so you can enter in anything you like. Some examples might be Orca, Fox, Dragon, Deer, Foxtaur . If you have a custom race name (like shown) you can also fill that in.
- Gender: Is your primary furry personality Male, Female or a Herm? (Both Male and Female) If you would rather not say or you don't have a sex you can choose N/A here.
- Mateship Status: This is a drop down box that lets you choose whether or not your fursona is in a relationship and your views on accepting new ones. If you would rather not say you can choose N/A here as well.
- Profile text: This is a large paragraph type area that you can tell us a bit about your self. You can talk about what your fursona looks like, what kind of family he or she has or whatever you like. (This area should be kept 'clean'. If you know what the motion picture associations ratings are for movies consider this rated G for general audiences.)
- Adult profile text: This is another large paragraph area where you can enter in an adult profile. ProTip!: If you don't want to have an adult profile you should copy the information from the Profile text box above into this one. That way people who have adult profiles turned on will at lease see something about you.
Now that we have some general information about you entered lets click the Save(all tabs) button at the bottom of the page and add an avatar or two to your profile.
Adding Avatars
Avatars are small images that are displayed next to your Username in various areas on SoFurry. If you have used an on-line bulletin board or forum before you know what they are. In this section I'll help you select either a default avatar provided by the SoFurry community or upload your own.
If you are anxious to start exploring SoFurry the easiest way is to simply use one of the Provided Avatars. On the left-most side of the settings page are a set of persistent links under the heading titled Tools. (These links stay on the page no matter what tab you click on.) The top link is titled Avatars. Click the link. A new page will open titled My Avatars. At the bottom left most side of the page is a link titled Provided Avatars. (Indicated by 1 on the image to the right.) Simply click the link and select any one of the provided images by clicking on the USE link at the bottom of the avatar.
If you already have an avatar you would like to upload to use then this part is for you, but first I have to mention a few things about what kind of files are allowed.
- Avatars come in two varieties. Clean and Adult. You should always have at least one clean avatar that will be displayed to users who have adult settings turned off.
- You can have multiple avatars. Their are some exciting things in the works with avatars but at this time SoFurry will randomly choose one of your avatars from the list you have uploaded based on the viewer's adult settings.
- Avatars need to be 100 x 100 pixels in size.
- Avatars can be in PNG, JPG or GIF format.
- You can use animated avatars, but the image should not flash or use rapidly changing colors out of courtesy. (It can also be dangerous! Rapidly changing colors, in particular the color red, can adversely effect people with epilepsy and other serious medical conditions.)
Once you have a file that meets the above parameters it's time to upload it. The image on the upper right has numbers on it illustrating the steps detailed below.
- First click the Upload New Avatar Button. (2)
- A file dialog box will appear. (3) Note: Your dialog box will probably look different depending on your operating system / browser.
- Select the file you wish to upload and select the Open button. (4)
- If your file is larger than 100 x 100 pixels a new page will open (5) allowing you to crop (select a smaller part) of the file to use as your avatar. In the example image I moved the bounding box on the top image so that it selected the part of the picture I wanted to use as my avatar. The bottom image shows a preview of the avatar. Once your finished click the Crop Avatar link.
- Your avatar will appear in a list back on the My Avatars page. If your avatar contains adult content click the [toggle] (6) link to switch it between adults and all ages.
- If your not happy with your new avatar or simply would like to remove it click the delete (7) link to remove it from SoFurry.
Now What?
Now that you have the basics set up you might be wondering what their is to do around SoFurry. While there are as many ways to use SoFurry as their are SoFurry users, we've come up with few features that may differ from other sites that you may want to know about.
- Upload your art works, photos, stories or commissions.
- Search our groups for your interests and join them.
- Check out our popular works and +fav and +watch talented artists, song writers and authors.
- Check out our furry calendar for upcoming art streams and meetups. (Note: This feature is still under development.)
- Try a live story collaboration and write stories with other authors, seeing all changes happen live!
- Try our integrated chat and the SoFurry forums! (Note: New accounts must wait 24 hours before using the chat feature. While you wait why not introduce yourself in the New Furs and Welcome Forum?)
That should get you started for now. Don't forget to have fun and explore, and if you need help a link to the FAQ and Wiki are available on the footer (bottom) of every page on SoFurry.
