Welcome to the help section of OMAHM. Here you will be able to find answers to most of the questions you have. If you have a query that isn't covered below, feel free to get in touch with us.

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A few words of advice before you start browsing this website. Firstly, this website was designed and tested in Firefox (both 1.5 and 2). Although I've tested basic functionality in other browsers, I can't guarantee everything will work as it should. One problem I am aware of is the site presentation in AOL's browser with a screen resolution of 800x600. This significantly distorts the sidebar. I am working on a fix (sorta), but in the mean time, at least use a real browser. Hell, even IE works, which speaks volumes.

The weblog is the most popular section of the site, and is probably the only reason why anyone actually visits the site. It must be good for something after all!

Rating An Entry - although anyone can rate an entry, you must have javascript enabled and a modern browser. The reason for this is that AJAX is used to tell OMAHM the rating you've given the entry. So without it, OMAHM doesn't know what you think of it. Really, most people should be able to do this without any problems. The reason it is implemented in this way is to reduce load times and the total amount of clicking and scrolling users do on the site. This makes the site much more slick, which of course is a good thing.

Viewing The Archives - if you wish to read previous entries by myself or Om, you can view the weblog archives. On the front page of the weblog, simply click on the archives link of the appropriate member, and you will be presented with a list of years that have entries. Click on an appropriate year, and you will be presented with a list of months that have entries. Repeat this process one more time and you will be given a list of days. Clicking on a particular day will take you to a page with all the entries on a single page.

You still may comment and rate, although you will have to click on the link that says "If you would like to read or leave a comment, please click here.".

Notes - the majority of the weblog is self-explanatory and operates in a similar manner to the guestbook. However, one key difference is that only members may comment on a weblog entry. These members may post what they like, although should this feature be exploited, action will be taken to reduce the freedom members have.

In this new section, Bob gets to showcase his literary 'skills'. Currently, only fictional pieces of writing are available, although this will change in the near future.

Angelion - my masterpiece in the making featuring the downward spiral of a man who fights against his own destiny in an increasingly peculiar world.

The Third Policeman - my adaptation of Flann O'Brians The Third Policeman. Please note this is currently only available in Word 2000 format.

The Untitled - the return to action of a private eye fighting both corruption and his employers.

More pieces will be uploaded once things calm down, including both fiction and non-fiction I've written during bouts of boredom.

This is where teh funnies are. It's a very straightforward thing. There's a list of humourous writings, just pick the one you want and read away. Many of the articles have multiple pages. To navigate these pages, simple click on the previous/next link.

For articles with many pages, you can use the page listing side bar which lists all the pages on this article. And...that's about all there is to it.

This section hasn't been completed yet and is still being coded.

This section hasn't been completed yet and is still being coded.

The guestbook is one of the most popular sections of the site. Both staff and members regularly convene to leave messages, silly links and verbal abuse. However, it's much better than your run-of-the-mill guestbook.

Default Name and Email - members may specify a default name and email to be displayed onscreen. This is a nifty time-saving feature for members which makes it that little bit faster leaving a message on the guestbook. These defaults can be changed as appropriate in the preferences section of the screen.

Emails - to reduce the amount of spam you may receive through the use of spambots, OMAHM now does not display email addresses to members unless they are signed in. This will all but ensure spambots cannot harvest your email address from this website.

Member Levels - there are three types of user. The type of user means the type of perks you'll receive not only on the guestbook, but throughout the site. The first level of user is the basic user. On the guestbook, this user may only post a message with 1000 characters and may not post any HTML or vBulletin code. Furthermore, any comments left by the member are scanned by OMAHM's patented Anti-Spam™ techniques that prevent certain words being posted.

Trusted members, however have several advantages over the basic member. Trusted members may post messages 5000 characters long and receive a shiny yellow star next to their name each time they post a message on the guestbook (whilst logged into the site). Please note, as with basic members, trusted users may not post HTML or vBulletin code at this point, however in the near future, a limited set of HTML entities will be permitted.

Finally, staff members have a few more advantages. Although I will not go into detail about these advantages (for security's sake), I will say that staff members have a dark green star next to our names to imply we are staff.

Smilies - all users have the ability to include a selection of smilies in their comments. The following table is a list of all the current smilies available to users. Please note that more smilies will be added over the coming weeks when things quieten down in terms of workload both in the real world and online.

Code	Image
grr
:s
>.<
¬.¬
:)
ninja
:o

Abbreviations - should a member leave a long message, the site will only show the first one thousand characters. The rest will be hidden by default. If you wish to read the full message, simply click on the words "...[View Full Comment]".

Previous / Next Comments - it is now possible to navigate through all comments since the beginning of the site. Not particular useful, but it is there if you want to really kill some time.

Every so often, there's content on the site that doesn't belong any where else. That content sometimes receives its own subsection. Two (Styles of Beyond and Lost) of the subsites have been left behind in the upgrade due to a lack of time/interest. The rest have been moved but not upgraded. Over time, the subsites will be upgraded. Furthermore, the FCBM section of the site is now INACTIVE as it takes too much time to maintain.

The contents will remain for public viewing however.

Another subsite that has suffered inactivity is the subsite for The Reserved who have been uncharacteristically quiet of late. When we hear more news, we'll update you as appropriate.

Whilst I'm not sure how popular this is, but it has its uses on occasion. I'm sure you all know how to use a search engine. Whilst it's no google, it does the job for a relatively small website like mine.

The results are organised into different sections of the website: news, weblog and then humour. Once you've found the result you're looking for, simply click on ">> More..." and you'll be taken to your destination.

This section of the site allows you to edit your the email address and password your account is registered with. Furthmore, you may also modify your guestbook name and password preferences as required from this screen.

Simply change the necessary information then press "Save Changes >>" button. This will update the information and it will be ready for immediate use.

There's not too much to the about section no more. Although the site upgrade was mainly cosmetic, there were several underlying organisational changes made to the site as well.

For example, there is no 'About' side bar now. There is no Coming Soon or Site History pages any more as they're just too much work for too little return. The statistics page has been moved to the bottom of the 'Statistics' side bar, which when you think about it, makes much more sense.

The disclaimer has been given a more prominant place at the bottom of every page next to the copyright sign. Finally the links have been given a small link in the sidebar. After all, we don't want people leaving the site, do we? And it makes it look quite nifty.

One addition to this section is a page detailing the history of OMAHM, and it's even upto date. However, we haven't removed the lovable pig painting moment. So don't worry.