Welcome to F&G, please take a minute to read these guidelines.

Firstly --- The forum is NOT for posting:

Your home, your school, your girlfriend's home, your place of work/play/business, where you went on holidays/vacations etc,
Something which you think might be a UFO,
A lake/cloud/mountain that you think looks a bit like an Alien Face/ Puppy/Ghost/Pig/Mark of the Beast if you view it the right way up ( with your eyes squinted) ----- you get the idea! ,
Parks, cinemas, bars, discos, rock concerts, red light areas, places where you might have fun or even play games.

No

The forum is for people to post riddles and puzzles for others to solve.

Secondly -- This is a world-wide site with people from all around the world in different time zones, which is why we ask you, when you solve something, not to give the answer in a way which will spoil it for others coming along later.

So please:

• do not leave the coordinates on your image (View menu > uncheck Status Bar )
• if a text answer is asked for, use the "spoiler" option, that's the S with a diagonal line through it at the top of the post window, this means that anyone who wants to read the answer can do so, but those that don't want to know can ignore it. See Lucia's post if you need help using this option.

Help with Posting

To post an image, first you need to save it:

• make sure you have removed the coordinates by turning off the status bar in the view menu of GE. Then save it (File - Save - Save image, or ctrl-alt-S )
  or
• Press printscreen (or alt-printscreen) to copy the image, paste it into a picture editing program (whatever you have, even Windows Paint will do), crop the image to leave just the bit you want (no coordinates!)
  or
• Use a screen capture programme like MWSnap or ScreenHunter.

Then upload to an image hosting service, Photobucket, TinyPic and ImageShack are free and are often used here, but you can use any site you have access to so long as it allows direct linking. We do not recommend that you use Picasa for this purpose, as a forum link is not provided and using the URL of the image will not work, you need to manipulate the embed code.

• Copy the link you are given into your reply, for example (click the image to see a larger version):
  

If you use a hosting service which does not provide forum links, copy the url of your image, click on the "Image" button at the top of the post box, choose one of the options (if you don't know which to choose, just take the first) and paste the URL into the pop window.




Adding a link
Use the "Create a link to a webpage" button at the top of the post window (the second from the left) to add a link (URL) rather than just pasting your link. It's better to see this page than this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_palace


Advice for setting a quiz

Don't use kmz files, seeing the image in the post is always better.

Don't forget to come back and give clues and the answer! It can be difficult to judge how easy or difficult a challenge is going to be, so if you get no answers, it's not that people aren't interested, they just need some clues. It's also a good idea to give some clues after a few answers have been given. People's minds work in different ways, and some things are easier for some than for others, local knowledge can play a part too. Even after the clues there will still be some who do not know the answer, or how to work it out..... so, after a week or so, please post the answer, and the reason behind your clues (using the spoiler option) so that everyone can enjoy the solution.

When you make the post, you can tick the box "Add this topic to my Watched Topics" and if you have selected "By default should anything added to your Watch Lists be emailed to you?" in your preferences (see My Stuff at the top of the page), this will enable you to keep track of the answers if you aren't able to visit the board on a regular basis. That way you'll know when you need to contribute another clue, comment on somebody's response or give the answer.


Finally, F&G is a friendly open global forum. We appreciate feedback and discussion, it's always nice to leave a comment with your answer. Don't forget that everyone needs to participate in setting challenges and in solving them!

We look forwarding to seeing your challenges and your answers, so, feel free to post challenges, participate in others' quizzes, exchange a bit of banter .......and.........................and................................ enjoy yourself!

Thanks