Zim Cocker Forum

All forum user accounts were lost in a crash of the forum software on September 10, 2010. If you registered before that date, you will need to register again. Another possible reason is that you are not typing in your username and password the exact same way you did when you registered. Capitalization counts, for example. Did you register as Jane S. but try to log in as Jane S? If you saved the email that the forum sent to you when you first registered, go back and see exactly how you typed your user name when you registered. If you simply can not log in after trying everything you can think of, contact Jim Zim and he will help you.

There are many good reasons to do so. First off, you can reply to the messages you see on the forum. You can send private messages to other forum members. You can create an avatar for yourself, which is a small picture of your or your dog that appears nexts to the things you post on the forum. Even if you are never going to post messages on the forum, it is a good idea to register because the forum can keep track of which messages have already been read by you... which makes it easy for you to find only the messages that are new since the last time you visited. It only takes a few moments to register, and it is totally free, so it is recommended you do so.

If you do not check the Log me in automatically box when you login, the board will only keep you logged in for a preset time. To stay logged in, check the box during login. This is not recommended if you access the board from a shared computer, e.g. library, internet cafe, university computer lab, etc.

Within your User Control Panel, under “Board preferences”, you will find the option Hide your online status. Enable this option with Yes and you will only appear to the administrators, moderators and yourself. You will be counted as a hidden user.

Don’t panic! While your password cannot be retrieved, it can easily be reset. Visit the login page and click I’ve forgotten my password. Follow the instructions and you should be able to log in again shortly. If you totally can not get it to work, just contact Jim Zim and he will manually reset your password.

All forum user accounts were lost in a crash of the forum software on September 10, 2010. If you registered before that date, you will need to register again. If that is not the situation in your case, check your username and password. If they are correct, then the problem is probably that you have not activated your forum registration. The forum sends an automated email to the email address that you entered during registration. You have to follow the instructions in that email to activate your forum registration. This is to prevent robots and spammers from posting to the forum. If you were sent an e-mail, follow the instructions. If you did not receive an e-mail, you may have provided an incorrect e-mail address or the e-mail may have been picked up by a spam filter. If you are sure the e-mail address you provided is correct, please contact Jim Zim and ask him to manually activate your forum registration.

All forum user accounts were lost in a crash of the forum software on September 10, 2010. If you registered before that date, you will need to register again. If you registered after that date, attempt to locate the e-mail sent to you when you first registered, check your username and password and try again. In almost all cases like this, people who can not login are simply typing in their username or password incorrectly. Capitalization counts, as do spaces and punctuation. You propably are simply remembering your login name or password incorrectly. If you absolutely can not get it to work, contact Jim Zim and he will help you.

It is possible, but very unlikely, that Jim Zim has banned your IP address or disallowed the username you are attempting to register. Contact Jim for assistance.

“Delete all board cookies” deletes the files on your computer which remember your username and password for you. If you are having login or logout problems, deleting board cookies may help. Just keep in mind that if you delete the cookies, you will need to be able to provide your username and password in order to log in the next time.

If you are a registered user, all your settings are stored in the forum database. To alter them, visit your User Control Panel; a link can be found at the top right corner of the forum. The User Control Panel allows you to change all your settings and preferences.

It is possible the time displayed is from a timezone different from the one you are actually in. If this is the case, visit your User Control Panel and change the timezone to match your particular area, e.g. London, Paris, New York, Sydney, etc. Please note that changing the timezone, like most settings, can only be done by registered users. If you are not registered, this is a good time to do so.

Please double check to make sure you have set the timezone correctly in the User Control Panel. If the time is off by exactly one hour, check to see if you have the Summer Time/Daylight Saving Time setting correct.

While some online forums offer multiple languages, this forum operates exclusively in the English language.

Those images are known as avatars. Most of the registered users on this forum create an avatar from a picture of themself or of their dog. You can set up your own avatar in the User Control Panel. Look for a link to the UCP in the upper right corner of the forum. Please keep in mind that you have to resize your photo to be no larger than 150x150 pixels before you can use it as an avatar. In the first section of the forum, Important Messages For New Forum Members, you will find a complete set of instructions regarding how to create an avatar.

Of course, the first step is to get a Zim dog! If you have already taken care of that part, contact Jim Zim and he will set it up so that the forum shows that you own a Zim dog.

Only registered users can send e-mail to other users via the built-in e-mail form. This is to prevent malicious use of the e-mail system by anonymous users. If you are a registered user, be sure you are logged in.

Only registered users can post to the forum. If you are registered and wish to start a new topic, go to the appropriate section of the forum and then click on the button that says NEW TOPIC. When starting a new topic, be sure to type something in the SUBJECT field. The main text of your message goes in the large blank area to the right of all the colorful characters. If you are starting a new topic, make sure you are posting it to the proper section of the board. For example, things that are not actually about Cocker Spaniels do not belong in the Cockers Cockers and More Cockers section... they go in the NCR section, which stands for Not Cocker Related. If you want to reply to an existing topic rather than starting a new topic, view the messages in that topic and then click on the button that says ADD REPLY.

You can only edit or delete your own posts, and you can not delete a post after someone has replied to it. You can edit a post by clicking the EDIT button for that post. It is located at the bottom right corner of the post. To delete one of your posts, click on the black X located to the right of that post. Again, keep in mind that if someone has already replied to the post, there will be no black X to allow you to delete it. But what you can do is click on EDIT and then delete all or part of the text in the post. If you do this, it is usually a good idea to post a quick explanation of what was deleted and why. While we are on the subject of editing and deleting, keep in mind that the moderators and administrators of the forum reserve the right to delete or edit any posts in order to keep this forum friendly and non-confrontational. This is NOT one of those forums where you can just say anything you want. If you post something unpolite or inappropriate, it may very well get deleted or edited. 99.99 percent of everything posted to this board is never edited or deleted by the moderators or administrators... but if you post something that stirs things up and gets people upset, you may find your post among the .01 percent! A good rule of thumb is that if you find yourself wondering whether it is inappropriate to post something, it probably is.

To add a signature to a post you must first create one via your User Control Panel. Once created, you can check the Attach a signature box on the posting form to add your signature. You can also add a signature by default to all your posts by checking the appropriate radio button in your profile. If you do so, you can still prevent a signature being added to individual posts by un-checking the add signature box within the posting form.

When posting a new topic or editing the first post of a topic, click the “Poll creation” tab below the main posting form; if you cannot see this, you do not have appropriate permissions to create polls. Enter a title and at least two options in the appropriate fields, making sure each option is on a separate line in the textarea. You can also set the number of options users may select during voting under “Options per user”, a time limit in days for the poll (0 for infinite duration) and lastly the option to allow users to amend their votes.

The limit for poll options is set by Jim Zim. If you feel you need to add more options to your poll then the allowed amount, contact Jim.

As with posts, polls can only be edited by the original poster, a moderator or an administrator. To edit a poll, click to edit the first post in the topic; this always has the poll associated with it. If no one has cast a vote, users can delete the poll or edit any poll option. However, if members have already placed votes, only moderators or administrators can edit or delete it. This prevents the poll’s options from being changed mid-way through a poll.

Our policy is that all parts of this forum are available to everyone... even guests. So, if you can access certain parts of the forum but not others, there may be a problem with the way Jim Zim has set one of the forum options. Please notify Jim.

If you are a registered forum member, AND YOU ARE LOGGED IN, you should be able to post messages and add attachments. If you can not, please double check that you are logged in. If you are logged in, up in the upper left corner of the forum it should say Logout and your username. If it says Register or Login rather than Logout, you are NOT logged in.

There are several possibilities. The subjects at the top of the list of topics are the subjects that have been posted to most recently. If you posted something a while ago but no one has replied to it, it has probably dropped down on the topic list and been replaced by other topics that people have replied to more recently. You can use the SEARCH feature to locate your old post. Almost nothing is ever deleted from this forum... we have almost all the messages dating back to the day this forum first went online. Just about the only things that are ever actually permanently deleted are things that the moderators or administrators felt were inappropriate. If you posted something controversial and can not find it, it may have been deleted by the moderators or by Jim Zim... but usually they send you a little note when they do this. Be aware that if they have to delete more than one or two of your messages, your days on this forum are probably numbered! One other possibility regarding missing posts is that you may have posted it in the wrong section of the forum, and Jim or one of the moderators may have just moved it to the correct section. For example, if you post a picture of your pet rabbit to the Cockers Cockers and More Cockers section of the forum, it will probably get moved to the NCR section.

Yes, please do. Do not worry about bothering us or being viewed as a tattle tail. There are so many posts made daily to this forum that Jim Zim and the forum moderators can not possibly read them all. If you see something inappropriate on the forum, contact Jim directly... either by email or by private message. Yes, he is a busy guy... but, no, he is never upset at someone for pointing out something on the forum that is of concern. In order to keep this forum a friendly place, it takes a lot of eyeballs.

This allows you to save passages to be completed and submitted at a later date. To reload a saved passage, visit the User Control Panel.

BBCode is a special implementation of HTML, offering great formatting control on particular objects in a post. The use of HTML codes in posts is not allowed, due to security concerns... but much of what can be done with HTML codes can be done with BBCodes instead. BBCode itself is similar in style to HTML, but tags are enclosed in square brackets [ and ] rather than < and >. For more information on BBCode see the guide which can be accessed from the posting page by clicking on the word BBCODE.

Smilies, also known as Emoticons, are small images which can be used to express a feeling using a short code, e.g. :) denotes happy, while :( denotes sad. The full list of emoticons can be seen in the posting form. Try not to overuse smilies, however, as each one makes the page load just a little bit slower for everyone, and uses just a little more computing resources. Plus, it gets a little annoying when a post has a whole bunch of smilies in it.

Yes, images can be shown in your posts. The easiest way to do this is to use the ATTACHMENT feature when you are typing up your message. Adding an image as an attachment to a message is generally the best way to go. Another way is to link to an image stored on a publicly accessible web server, for example linking to an image you have stored on a photo sharing web site. To display an image from a publicly accessible web site, use the BBCode [img] tag. But if you are simply trying to share an image stored on your computer, use the ATTACHMENT feature when posting a message. Please not that you can not attach images larger than 700 pixels wide or 600 pixels tall. If your image is larger than that, you need to resize it first.

Sticky topics are topics that always remain stuck to the top of the topic list. Even if no one replies to them, they do not drop down on the list of topics... they always stay at the top, just under what is known as announcements. As with announcements, a topic can only be designated as sticky by Jim Zim or the moderators. They generally do this to any topic that they want people to be able to easily find, even if no one replies to it. Once you have been with us for a while, you will start to get a feel for what gets the sticky treatment and what does not. Something of great importance that everybody needs to read will be made as an announcement, not a sticky. Announcements are at the very top of each forum section, and stickies are just below them. A sticky may not actually be important, it might just be something we think a large number of people are going to want to easily find for a certain period of time... such as a post with a link that people might need for a short period of time. Announcements can quite often stay at the top of the list forever... stickies usually stay sticky for only a certain period of time, usually only a few weeks at the most.

Locked topics are topics where users can no longer reply and any poll it contained was automatically ended. Topics may be locked for many reasons and were set this way by either the forum moderator or board administrator. You may also be able to lock your own topics depending on the permissions you are granted by the board administrator.

Topic icons are author chosen images associated with posts to indicate their content. The ability to use topic icons depends on the permissions set by the board administrator.

Administrators are the owners of the forum, and are the people with the highest level of control over the entire board. These members can control all facets of board operation, including setting permissions, banning users, editing or deleting anything on the forum, and designating who the moderators are. On the Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum, the administrators are the members of the Zimmerlin family.

Moderators are individuals who keep an eye on what is happening on the forum from day to day. They have the authority to edit or delete posts and lock, unlock, move, delete and split topics in the forum. The main job of the moderators is to prevent things from getting unfriendly here on the forum. Since this forum is so active, it is impossible for the Zim family to see everything that goes on here. The moderators provide an extra set of eyes to watch out for problems. If you happen to see things turn unfriendly here on the forum, do not assume that the Zims or the moderators have seen it. Please contact Jim Zim and let him know about it.

The two most common reasons for this would be that you are either not a registered member of the forum, or you are not currently logged in. If you are logged in, up in the upper left corner of the forum it should say Logout and your username. If it says Register or Login rather than Logout, you are NOT logged in.

You can block a user from sending you private messages by using message rules within your User Control Panel. If you are receiving abusive private messages from a particular user, inform Jim Zim. He wants to know about any forum member who is harassing other members.

Please provide Jim Zim with a full copy of the e-mail you received. He will take steps to prevent it from happening again.

You can use these lists to organise other members of the board. Members added to your friends list will be listed within your User Control Panel for quick access to see their online status and to send them private messages. Subject to template support, posts from these users may also be highlighted. If you add a user to your foes list, any posts they make will be hidden by default.

You can add users to your list in two ways. Within each user’s profile, there is a link to add them to either your Friend or Foe list. Alternatively, from your User Control Panel, you can directly add users by entering their member name. You may also remove users from your list using the same page.

The forum has a really great search feature that makes it easy to find discussions dating all the way back to when this forum first went online. Click on the word SEARCH up towards the upper right corner of the page. We encourage you to use the search feature first, before posting a question. After several years of operation, it seems like we have talked about just about everything! Sometimes the forum members get a little annoyed when people ask the same old questions that have been answered a million times before. So, use the search feature to find the discussions we have had previously on whatever subject you are interested in. You will find that the search feature works fastest if you limit your search to specific sections of the forum. Do this by choosing a specific area of the forum in the SEARCH IN FORUMS section of the search page. For example, if you want to find some of the previous discussions of potty training issues... those will likely have been in the Cockers Cockers and More Cockers section of the board. So, under SEARCH IN FORUMS choose Cockers Cockers and More Cockers so that the search looks only in that section and does not waste time looking in all the other sections.

Your search returned too many results for the webserver to handle. Use “Advanced search” and be more specific in the terms used and forums that are to be searched.

Visit to the “Members” page and click the “Find a member” link.

Your own posts can be retrieved either by clicking the “Search user’s posts” within the User Control Panel or via your own profile page. To search for your topics, use the Advanced search page and fill in the various options appropriately.

Bookmarking in phpBB3 is much like bookmarking in your web browser. You aren’t alerted when there’s an update, but you can come back to the topic later. Subscribing, however, will notify you when there is an update to the topic or forum on the board via your preferred method or methods.

To subscribe to a specific forum, click the “Subscribe forum” link upon entering the forum. To subscribe to a topic, reply to the topic with the subscribe checkbox checked or click the “Subscribe topic” link within the topic itself.

To remove your subscriptions, go to your User Control Panel and follow the links to your subscriptions.

Just pictures... in the .jpg, .gif, or .png formats. You can not attach video files, for example. They take up too much server space and hog too many computing resources.

To find your list of attachments that you have uploaded, go to your User Control Panel and follow the links to the attachments section.

phpBB is the software that runs this forum. Php is a computing language, and BB stands for bulletin board. The 3 refers to the fact that this is version 3 of the phpBB software. This forum operated on version 2 from 2005 through most of 2007. Right at the end of 2007 we switched over to version 3. We assume it will be somewhere around 2010 before there is a version 4. PhpBB is open-source software... which not only means that it is free to use, but that it can be modified and customized. For example, Jim Zim used his computer programming skils to make some modifications to the phpBB software in order to give this forum some unique graphic and textual elements. That would be illegal or impossible with commercial software... but one of the great advantages of open-source software. If you would like to learn more about phpBB software, head on over to phpBB.com

This software (in its unmodified form) is produced, released and is copyright phpBB Group. It is made available under the GNU General Public License and may be freely distributed. See the link for more details. As mentioned earlier, Jim Zim has modified several parts of the phpBB software to give this forum a unique look and feel.

This software was written by and licensed through phpBB Group. If you believe a feature needs to be added, please visit the phpbb.com website and see what phpBB Group have to say. Please do not post feature requests to the board at phpbb.com, the group uses SourceForge to handle tasking of new features. Please read through the forums and see what, if any, our position may already be for a feature and then follow the procedure given there.

Send an email to Jim Zimmerlin, the owner of this forum.