There are several reasons why this could occur. First, ensure your username and password are correct. If they are, contact the admin to make sure you have access – only GBPS members can have accounts on the GBPS site. It is also possible the website has a configuration error, and we would need to fix it.

Having a login account gives access to the members-only features of the GBPS site, so to access these features (which include the ability to post on the discussion boards, as opposed to simply read them) members need to register first. The full features of the board include definable avatar images, private messaging, emailing of fellow users, thread and forum subscription, etc. It only takes a few moments to register.

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. This prevents misuse of your account by anyone else. To stay logged in, check the box during login. This is not recommended if you access the board from a shared computer such as in a library or internet cafe.

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.

First, check your username and password. If they are correct, then one of two things may have happened. New registrations have to be activated by an administrator before you can logon. 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 filer. If you are sure the e-mail address you provided is correct, try contacting an administrator.

Attempt to locate the e-mail sent to you when you first registered, check your username and password and try again. It is possible an administrator has deactivated or deleted your account if you are no longer a GBPS member.

This deletes the cookies created by phpBB which keep you authenticated and logged into the board. It also provides functions such as read tracking if they have been enabled by the board owner. If you are having login or logout problems, deleting board cookies may help.

To post a new topic in a forum, click the relevant button on either the forum or topic screens. You will need to be logged in. A list of your permissions in each forum is available at the bottom of the forum and topic screens. Example: You can post new topics, You can vote in polls, etc.

Unless you are a board administrator or moderator, you can only edit or delete your own posts. You can edit a post by clicking the edit button for the relevant post. If someone has already replied to the post, you will probably find a small piece of text output below the post when you return to the topic which lists the number of times you edited it along with the date and time. This will only appear if someone has made a reply; it will not appear if a moderator or administrator edited the post, though they may leave a note as to why they’ve edited the post at their own discretion. Please note that normal users cannot delete a post once someone has replied.

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 indefinite duration) and lastly the option to allow users to amend their votes.

The limit for poll options is set by the board administrator. If you feel you need to add more options to your poll than the allowed amount, contact the board administrator.

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.

Some forums may be limited to certain users or groups. To view, read, post or perform another action you may need special permissions. Contact a moderator or board administrator to grant you access.

Generally, you should be able to. However, the board administrator may not have allowed attachments to be added for the specific forum you are posting in, or perhaps only certain groups can post attachments. Contact the board administrator if you are unsure about why you are unable to add attachments.

If you have broken a rule, you may be issued a warning. Please note that this is the board administrator’s decision, and the phpBB Group has nothing to do with the warnings on the given site. Contact the board administrator if you are unsure about why you were issued a warning.

You should see a button for reporting posts next to the post you wish to report. Clicking this will walk you through the steps necessary to report the post.

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.

Generally, it won't. but the board administrator may have decided that posts in the forum you are posting to require review before submission. It is also possible that the administrator has placed you in a group of users whose posts require review before submission. Please contact the board administrator for further details.

BBCode is a special implementation of HTML, offering great formatting control on particular objects in a post. The use of BBCode is granted by the administrator, but it can also be disabled on a per post basis from the posting form. BBCode itself is similar in style to HTML, but tags are enclosed in square brackets [ and ] rather than < and >. For more information on BBCode click here (this link is also available on the posting form – click "BBCode" where it says "BBCode is ON" in the "Options" panel at lower left).

No. It is not possible to post HTML on this board and have it rendered as HTML. Most formatting which can be carried out using HTML can be applied using BBCode instead.

Smilies, or 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 they can quickly render a post unreadable and a moderator may edit them out or remove the post altogether. The board administrator may also have set a limit to the number of smilies you may use within a post.

Yes, images can be shown in your posts. This is often very important when discussing matters philatelic, as one good picture may be worth a thousand words of description! Any standard image type is acceptable, although the most useful types for philatelic pictures are JPG/JPEG or PNG.

The simplest way to add an image is to upload it from your computer as an "attachment". There is an "Upload attachment" section just below the "Submit" button. Click "Browse" (Internet Explorer, Firefox) or "Choose file" (Chrome), select the file from your computer, then click "Add the file" (or just click "Submit" if you've nothing more to add). Pictures of any size can be uploaded, and will be shown at the foot of the post, although pictures that won't fit without distorting the display – i.e. more than 750 pixels wide – will be shown as thumbnail images that can be clicked on to see the full size image.

phpBB BBCode also incorporates tags for including images in your posts "inline" as part of the text – see the BBCode page for a description of how to do it.

If you are a registered user, all your settings are stored in the board database. To alter them, visit your User Control Panel; a link can be found at the top of most pages on the site once you are logged in. This system will allow you to change all your settings and preferences.

It is possible the time displayed is from a timezone different from the one you are in. If this is the case, visit your User Control Panel and change your timezone to match your particular area, e.g. London, Paris, New York, Sydney, etc.

These images are known as avatars and are generally unique or personal to each user. You can upload an avatar of your choice (maximum size 130x130 pixels, in GIF, JPEG or PNG format) via the User Control Panel. If you are unable to use avatars, contact a board administrator.

Only logged-in users can send e-mail to other users via the built-in e-mail form. This is to prevent spam use of the e-mail system by anonymous users.

Global announcements contain important information and you should read them whenever possible. They will appear at the top of every forum and within your User Control Panel. Global announcement permissions are granted by the board administrator.

Announcements often contain important information for the forum you are currently reading and you should read them whenever possible. Announcements appear at the top of every page in the forum to which they are posted. As with global announcements, announcement permissions are granted by the board administrator.

Sticky topics within the forum appear below announcements and only on the first page. They are often quite important so you should read them whenever possible. As with announcements and global announcements, sticky topic permissions are granted by the board administrator.

Locked topics are topics where users can no longer reply, and any poll contained in them 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.

Administrators are members assigned with the highest level of control over the entire board. These members can control all facets of board operation, including setting permissions, banning users, creating usergroups or moderators, etc. The primary admnistrator of the board is (naturally enough) the current GBPS Website Manager.

Moderators are individuals (or groups of individuals) who look after the forums from day to day. They have the authority to edit or delete posts and lock, unlock, move, delete and split topics in the forum they moderate. They may also step in to prevent users from going off-topic or posting abusive or offensive material.

Usergroups are groups of users that divide the community into manageable sections board administrators can work with. Each user can belong to several groups and each group can be assigned individual permissions. This provides an easy way for administrators to change permissions for many users at once, such as changing moderator permissions or granting users access to a private forum.

You can view the usergroups (if any have been set up) via the “Usergroups” link within your User Control Panel. If you would like to join one, proceed by clicking the appropriate button. Not all groups have open access, however. If the group is open, you can join it by clicking the appropriate button. If a group requires approval to join you may request to join by clicking the appropriate button.

A usergroup leader is usually assigned when the usergroup is initially created by a board administrator. If you are interested in creating a usergroup, your first point of contact should be an administrator; try sending a private message.

It is possible for the board administrator to assign a colour to the members of a usergroup to make it easy to identify the members of this group.

If you are a member of more than one usergroup, your default is used to determine which group colour and group rank should be shown for you by default. The board administrator may grant you permission to change your default usergroup via your User Control Panel.

This page provides you with a list of board staff, including board administrators and moderators and other details such as the forums they moderate.

There are three reasons for this; you are not logged on, the board administrator has disabled private messaging for the entire board, or the board administrator has prevented you from sending messages. Contact a board administrator for more information.

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 a board administrator; they have the power to prevent a user from sending private messages.

We are sorry to hear that. The e-mail form feature of this board includes safeguards to try and track users who send such posts, so e-mail the board administrator with a full copy of the e-mail you received. It is very important that this includes the headers that contain the details of the user that sent the e-mail. The board administrator can then take action.

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. 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.

There are two ways to search – the general Google search box at the top of each page (which will search the whole GBPS site, not just the dicussion boards) and the boards-only search that is part of the phpBB software we use. To use the latter, enter a search term in the search box located on the index, forum or topic pages. Advanced search can be accessed by clicking the “Advance Search” link which is available on all pages on the forum. How to access the search may depend on the style used.

Your search was probably too vague and included many common terms which are not indexed by phpBB3. Try a more specific search and use the options available within Advanced search. Alternatively, try the Google search which you may find preferable.

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. It is strongly recommended that you check this option for all topics you post to.

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.

Most common types. If you are unsure what types of file may be uploaded, contact the board administrator for assistance.

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

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.

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 using the procedures given there.

Any of the administrators listed on the “The team” page should be an appropriate point of contact for your complaints. Please note that the phpBB Group has absolutely no jurisdiction and cannot in any way be held liable over how, where or by whom this board is used. Do not contact the phpBB Group in relation to any legal (cease and desist, liable, defamatory comment, etc.) matter not directly related to the phpBB.com website or the discrete software of phpBB itself. If you do e-mail phpBB Group about any third party use of this software then you should expect a terse response or no response at all.