Site Guidelines
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- Written by Jaga
- Category: Website Tips & Help
The PM (private message) system on our site works very much like anywhere else - it allows private communication between you and others. Messages can have a single recipient, or multiple if needed.
The easiest way to send a PM to a single person, is to visit their profile page and click on the "Messages" menu, then choose "Send Private Message":
You can also access the PM system directly to see received items (your Inbox), and sent items (your Outbox). The easy way is to use the Quick Links menu (top-left of any white space on the site) which looks like a small triple-bar icon. Hover it, and then choose the "Messages" entry to open the PM page:
Once the PM page opens, it will look similar to the following:
You can switch between your Inbox (received messages) and Outbox (sent messages) with the toggle on the right end.
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- Written by Jaga
- Category: Website Tips & Help
Inviting a friend to the website is easy once you are already signed up yourself. Simply head to your profile and click on the "Invites" tab under your canvas/avatar:
Then click on the "New Invite" button to open up the invite form:
Fill out the form with their email address, a subject and invite text (like you would any email to that person), and then fill in the captcha box with the correct answer. When ready, hit "Send Invite".
When your friend receives the email, they only have to click on the link inside that has their invite code as part of it. When they complete their account registration, they will automatically be connected (friended) to you through our system.
They can also just visit our site, start creating a new account, and copy/paste in their invite code at the bottom - the same friend connection will be made with you that way.
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- Written by Jaga
- Category: Website Tips & Help
The Content Privacy system on Sunset Valley 2020 can help you select who can see different things you put on your profile, or your blogs, or uploads you put into Albums on the site. To see the best example of how it works, open your profile and edit it, then click on the Info tab to see the following screen:
To the right of information you may notice a small drop-down selector box, which lets you choose who can see that information. You can select from the following to limit access to the info:
- Public - Anyone can see this information
- Users - Registered members (logged in) on the site can see this information
- Private - Only you and Moderators/Admins can see this information
- Connections - You and your friends (connections) can see this information
- Connections of Connections - You, your friends, and their friends can see this information
You can also select specific connection (friend) types:
- Friend - For people you marked as a "Friend" when managing your connections
- Co-Worker - For people you marked as "Co-Workers" when managing your connections
- Family - For people you marked as "Family" when managing your connections
Some information needs to be public on the site - things like your username are one example.
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- Written by Jaga
- Category: Website Tips & Help
The easiest way to add someone to your friends list is to view their profile and click the big green "Request Connection" button:
That person will then be sent a connection (friend) request, and has the option of either accepting it, or denying it. You will be notified of their choice after they do so, and they will show up in your friends list.
You can see people you've added to your friends list by clicking on the "Connections" menu, and then choosing "Manage Your Connections":
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- Written by Jaga
- Category: Website Tips & Help
To add sims you'd like to share information on to your profile, start by editing it:
Then click on the My Sims tab to see the following screen. You can add any kind of sim information you would like, including their avatar. They can be any kind of sim - humans, supernaturals, pets, and even small animals.
When you are done filling in information on a sim, be sure to click the "Update" button near the bottom.
You can add as many of them as you like - simply click on the "+ Add Sim" button and a new blank form will be added for you to fill in for another new sim.
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- Written by Jaga
- Category: Website Tips & Help
To create a Blog of your own, head to your profile and click the Blogs tab under your avatar/canvas. You should see Blogs you've previously created appear underneath (or none if you're just starting out):
Click the big green "New Blog" button to get started on writing a new Blog! The editor interface for blogs will open up, and you'll see several sections you need to fill in:
You should give your new Blog a title, the field next to the first red arrow. Then decide which category you want it to appear in: SV2020 (usually for discussion about the worlds), Gameplay, Stories, How-To's, Personal, or Off-Topic. Placing it in the right category can really help readers find relevant blogs quickly.
Then you need to write a short intro for your blog in the first large text area (next to the second red arrow). Blog Intros are important since they show up in category lists on the site, and introduce your reader to what the blog is about. Intros show up before your main blog text when someone reads what you wrote, so don't repeat this text in the main blog area.
After writing your blog's intro, jump down to the next large text area (next to the third red arrow) and start typing the main body of your blog text. You can insert thumbnails from your profile's Gallery if you right-click them and copy their address, then insert it as an image into the text. Aligning the image left or right makes the text wrap neatly on the other side of it.
If you aren't finished with your blog and want to save it to continue working on it later, change the Published dropdown at the top to "No". That will hide it from others until you are ready to make it public.
When you want to save your new blog, click the "Create Blog" button at the bottom. If you return to edit it later, that button will be labeled "Update Blog".
Blogs you create and publish will show up on the Member Activity feed, visible to the group you selected next to the Access field during editing. Public means everyone can see it, Registered means only logged in members can see it.
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- Written by Jaga
- Category: Website Tips & Help
To create an Album that can hold images, files, or music - head to your profile and click on the "My Gallery" tab just below your canvas/avatar:
You will see two large green buttons, the second is "New Album". Click that and you will be in album creation mode:
You should give your Album a name in the "Title" box, and a description saying what it is for. If you set your Album to Unpublished, no one but yourself and Moderators/Admins can see it for now while you work on finishing it. When it is ready for publishing and you toggle that back on, you should set a Privacy level for it, meaning "who can see this album".
Privacy on your content is detailed in another help document, but these are the general levels you can choose from:
- Public - Anyone can see this information
- Users - Registered members (logged in) on the site can see this information
- Private - Only you and Moderators/Admins can see this information
- Connections - You and your friends (connections) can see this information
- Connections of Connections - You, your friends, and their friends can see this information
You can also select specific connection (friend) types:
- Friend - For people you marked as a "Friend" when managing your connections
- Co-Worker - For people you marked as "Co-Workers" when managing your connections
- Family - For people you marked as "Family" when managing your connections
When you are done creating your Album, click the blue "Create Album" button and you will be returned to your Profile, viewing your Gallery tab where the new album should be listed.
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- Written by Jaga
- Category: Website Tips & Help
The best way to upload screenshots and files is to create an album first.
Once you have done that, head to your profile and click the My Gallery tab under your avatar/canvas. You should see Albums you've created appear underneath:
Click on one of your Albums that you'd like to upload things into, and you'll see more details on that Album, and be able to upload items directly into it using the "New Upload / Link" button:
You can upload screenshots or files directly into Albums, or you can link to content somewhere else on the web.
- Images are limited to 1920x1080 resolution, and no larger than 1MB each (JPG with 90% or less quality are recommended).
- Files are limited to 10MB size, and need to be one of the following types: zip, rar, doc, pdf, txt, xls, 7z, sims3pack, package
It isn't absolutely required that you create an Album before uploading screenshots or files - you can upload them directly into your Gallery and move them into/between Albums you make at any time by editing them (the small pencil icon in their upper-right).
- Details
- Written by Jaga
- Category: Website Tips & Help
Editing your profile is very easy. Simply head to your profile and click on the "Edit" menu above your canvas/avatar:
Once you are editing your profile, you can change virtually anything about your account info and preferences:
- The Info tab contains basic account information for you.
- Your portrait is your avatar which can be uploaded to the site.
- The canvas is a horizontal background picture you can place on your profile.
- The My Wall tab is a place for you to post updates, or just for general chat between you and others.
- The My Sims tab is where you can create sim profiles for any sim you'd like to add.
- The Activity tab is a feed for new things you put up - comments, blogs, gallery images, and so on.
- The User Status tab gives you the ability to hide or show your online/last online status with others (via privacy controls).
- The Statistics tab similarly hides or shows how many friends you are connected with, and how many views your profile has received.
- The Notifications tab allows you to turn on or off notifications of activity types you would like to see or hide throughout the site. They appear in the small globe icon in the upper right area of your profile next to the Private Messages icon.