Welcome to the Portrait Forums
The Portrait Forums were originally created in 2003 by Kat. They were then known as the KiwiOlsen forums but were initially deleted by proboards due to, we believe, members under the age of 13 lying about their age. The forums were recreated and remodeled (without the underage members) on May 16th of 2005.
The Portrait Forums exist as a subsite of Portrait Magazine. (But also feature family forums to the admin's other websites: KiwiOlsen, Hilary Drama, Always Amanda, Lindsay Drama and Cat Lovers.)
This page provides all the information you need regarding joining the Portrait Family. Including rules, admins and moderators, the purpose of each forum and what to post where, how to use a siggy and avator, what the karma option is for, how to send PM's as well as how to select your skin.
Moderators and Admins:
The following people are in charge of running the forum. Kat the Admin has full control of the forum and the rest of the staff have variations of control including being able to modify and delete posts.
Admin (School Principal): Kat (To PM Kat use the username Admin)
Global Moderator (Vice Principal): ChrysXtal
Moderator (Hall Monitor): DrifterBG (To PM use the username brett)
Rules:
If you are new to the forums you can access the forums rules Here. The intent of Portrait is to be a friendly home for people online, don't worry about saying or posting the wrong thing (provided it isn't mentioned in the rules) as we're not going to jump down your throat at the slightest thing as some forums do. If you have any questions regarding what is appropriate you can contact the admins and moderators (see above).
Rankings:
Your ranking on the forum is decided by either your post count or what member of the staff you are. Rankings are based on the American High School system and are listed below:
Staff:
School Principal = Admin
Vice Principal = Global Moderator
Hall Monitor = Moderator
Members:
High School Freshman = 0 posts
High School Sophomore = 100 posts
High School Junior = 200 posts
High School Senior = 500 posts
High School Graduate = 1000 posts
Rockstar! = 2000 posts
Fun Stuff: Competitions:
To make the forums more interesting we frequently have 'Member Awards' and 'Graphic Design' competitions. The purpose of the Members Awards are to build up certain members who bring a special something to the forum. For example, to date we have had: Portrait's Best Friend (Jason), Portrait Princess (Kat), Portrait Clown (Snoopy), Portrait Prince (Jason), Portrait Chatterbox (ChrysXtal) and so forth. The Graphic design competitions exist for our avid (and extremely talented) graphic designers (who also command their own forum. The 'Graphics/Siggys Forum').The competition ars generally relate to one of Kat's websites, for example the KiwiOlsen Layout competition allowed designers to create a layout for the popular Mary-Kate and Ashley fansite. Portrait Members then voted for their favorite and the winner was used on KiwiOlsen. The competitions kill two birds with one stone: they're a lot of fun for designers and a great high when they win while also helping Kat with her various websites. Graphic competitions have also been run for wallpapers and banners.
Understanding each forum:
There are currently 20 forums on the Portrait Forums (including sub forums). For descriptions of each forums purpose read on:
Portrait Forum
Introductions, Please!
Square Eyes Forum
Music Madness Forum
Fashion Frenzy Forum
Just for Fun Forum
Graphics/Siggy Forum
Readers Anonymous Forum
KiwiOlsen Forum
Always Amanda Forum
Lindsay Drama Forum
Hilary Drama Forum
By Request: Ashlee Simpson Forum
Animal Lovers Forum
Portrait Pictures Forum
Hilary Pictures Forum
Lindsay Pictures Forum
The Portrait forum is our random discussion forum. You can discuss everything from a crush, the weather to homework here.
The introductions forums exist for members to get to know one another better. If you're new head over to the 'Introduce yourself' forum and create a post telling us all about you. You can also promote your website on the 'Website Plugging' forum and share pictures and videos you've taken on the 'Portrait Peeps Picture/Video Forum'.
Named after the monthly column in Portrait Magazine the Square Eyes forum is a discussion forum for anything and everything related to Movies or Television.
Also named after the monthly column in Portrait Magazine the Music Madness forum is for lovers of music to come together and discuss their favorite songs and artists.
The Fashion Frenzy forum is for lovers of anything fashion, jewellery or hair related.
This forum is specifically for forums games and surveys such as the 'Kiss, Marry, Kick' and '3 Word Story' games.
Post your graphic design work here if you're looking for feedback. Also a great place to request siggys.
A subsite of the KiwiOlsen fanfiction site of the same name the Readers Anonymous forum is for lovers of the written word. Discuss books and post your poetry here!
A part of KiwiOlsen.net, discuss Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen here.
Discuss Amanda Bynes here.
Discuss Lindsay Lohan here.
Discuss Hilary Duff here.
Due to the large number of Ashlee Simpson fans on the forums, this forum was created specifically for dicussing Ashlee.
A part of Cat Lovers, Post anything animal related here whether it be a picture, a cute story or an animal movie.
Post pictures of your favorite celebs here. Images posted are linked to in the Portrait Pictures Gallery. You can post Paporazzi pictures of your favorite celebs on the Paporazzi sub forum.
Post pictures of Hilary Duff here. Images posted are linked to in the Hilary Drama Gallery.
Post pictures of Lindsay Lohan here. Images posted are linked to in the Lindsay Drama Gallery.
If you are familiar with Proboards forums you'll understand how things work here. However, you may have some questions regarding how to use a siggy or avator what the 'Karma' option refers to and what a PM is. If so read on.
Siggys:
If you have an siggy (signature - generally an image but sometimes text) you wish to use at the bottom of your posts you can upload it at imageshack.us then access your profile by either clicking 'profile' on the bar at the top of the page or on your own name. From there go to 'Modify Profile' Scroll down to the 'Personal Information' section and where it says Signature: you can enter your siggy. For an image place the URL of your image between the following tag [img]URL HERE[/img] inside the box. If you don't have a siggy and are looking for someone to make you one head over to the Graphics/Siggys forum and one of our talented designers may just be nice enough to make you one.
Avators:
For an avator do the same as above but instead of entering the URL in the 'Siggy' box enter it in the 'Avatar URL:' box. You won't need the [img] code, simply enter the URL of the avator. You will also need to specify beneath it's width and height. For example if the avator is 100pixels by 100pixels enter 100 in each box.
PMs (Private Messages):
At the top of the page you will see a welcoming text informing you how many private messages you have. PM's are the equivelant of a post on the forum but only the person they're sent to can see them. They work like e-mails with a 'create' option as well as an outbox etc. To pm a person simply click on 'New Message' and type in a subject and the persons name (Note: Sometimes people change their names after signing up in which case the PM won't send. If this is the case find a post by that person and click on their name. Their original username will be displayed at the top of that page, then send the PM to that name.)
'Karma':
The Karma text displayed beneath each persons name, avator and post count is an option that allows users to 'rate' other users. When you 'exalt' someone you give them a positive (+1) rating, when you smite someone you give them a negative (-1) rating. The option is for fun and we discourage using it to attack and constantly smite another person. NOTE: As the admin I can view in the security log when a member smites or exalts another member and will see if someone is using this option to attack another person. We encourage exalting a person to say thanks for posting something that intersts you such as pictures of your favorite celeb on one of the pictures forum.
Skins:
The forum has various layouts with a certain graphic at the top and tables that match the graphics color scheme. When you sign up you'll automaticaly view our default skin designed by Sunshine. You also have the option to view various other skins with different colour schemes. To change your skin go to your profile page go to 'Modify Profile' then scroll down to the last option under 'Account Preferences' there you can select your skin. Skins are named after their designer.