This part of the guide will be about general things you need to know.
User Groups There are three user groups on Kovash Tauva. The Aun, the Por and the Shas.
The Aun are the Administrators of the website, with Ethereal Shas as Head Administrator or Aun'o and Nevermore and Shas'ral'ta as Administrator or Aun'el. You can recognize the Administrators by their icon:
The Por are the Moderators of the website. That is J'kaara. You can recognize him by his icon:
And all the other members can be recognized by the following icon:
The Shas have ranks that are not only determined by their amount of posts in the forum, but also on how many times they were online and how many comments they have given, so in general how active they have been. The ranks are:
Shas’saal: 0 - 10 posts + activity
Shas’la: 11 - 100 posts + activity
Shas’ui: 101 - 300 posts + activity
Shas’vre: 301 - 600 posts + activity
Shas’el: 601 - 1200 posts + activity
Shas’o: 1201+ posts + activity
There is also another user groups: The Newsletter Staff, who are the editors of the Newsletter. They don’t have any special rights, but they do have a special job.
Posting Pictures There are multiple ways of placing pictures in posts or other texts: - use a remotely hosted picture and link to it using the following code:
[img]XXX[/img]
with on the xxx, the ‘address’ of the picture. - use an already uploaded file from the gallery or some other part of the forum using the same code:
[img]XXX[/img]
with on the xxx, the ‘address’ of the picture. - use the ‘attach image’ option, which is almost always present when posting a message. Keep in mind that when using the upload option in the content section, the image also has to be assigned after it has been uploaded.
The Kovash Tauva Newsletter [members only] All members of Kovash Tauva receive the Kovash Tauva Newsletter automatically. This will be sent to the email dress they have provided at their registration, so make sure that this is an active email address. The old newsletters can also be read in the Newsletter Archive of the Content Menu.
The Newsletter is composed by the Newsletter Staff, but the content will come from the members. We welcome all the content you send us and keep in mind that the better the quality, the bigger the chance that it will make it into the next Newsletter (or otherwise the next one). Our intentions are to make the Newsletter something special, not just a summary of all the forum posts. Therefore it will contain special content, things like: interviews, unpublished stories, competition reports/conclusions, campaign results/stories/reports, guides, tutorials and much more.
Website Resolution The website is best viewed on a resolution of 1024 x 768 and bigger. It would not have been possible to create a website that is smaller and still offers as much content and services as we do now, our apologies for any inconvenience.
Link Words Link Words are words that are automatically converted into links to websites that correspond to those words. For example, Forge World is linked to the website of Forgeworld and Website Rules is linked to the website rules of Kovash Tauva.
The next part of the guide will describe the different Website sections in detail. (from top to bottom and from left to right)
The Homepage When you visit www.kovashtauva.com you will be sent to the front-page containing all the news.
The News Section There are three categories of news:
- Kovash Tauva News. This is all the news regarding the Website. - Tau Empire News. This is all the news regarding the Tau Empire. This can range from new models, rules or other things from official sources like Games Workshop. - Warhammer 40k News. This is all the news regarding everything 40k.
Clicking on one of these links will take you to that category, listing all the news that has been posted in that category.
Submit News [members only] All members can submit news themselves. Keep in mind that we only have three News categories, so the subject of the news items should be within those categories. After submitting an item, an Aun will check it and then approve or disprove it.
The Forum The forum contains many sections, sorted by subject and ordered by estimated popularity. Some sections have sub forums. Always make sure that your post is in the right forum, if you are unsure in what forum to post, post it in the most likely forum and ask in your post wether it is in the right forum or not. An Aun or Por will then move it, or keep it in that forum.
Apart from reading threads, you can post new threads, or reply to them. At the bottom of every forum there is a legend explaining what every icon stands for.
When looking at a post, you will see underneath the title bar navigator ‘previous thread’ and ‘next thread’. Clicking these links will take you to the next or previous post only in that forum section.
The Forum Archive This is the old forum, hosted as an Invisionfree Forum; this is where Kovash Tauva started on the 7th of January 2004. This forum is only used as archive, where members can read old content (some of the content will be duplicated to the current forum) and search for old content. The forum is closed, so it can only be used to look up content.
The Gallery On the gallery front-page there are 4 area’s:
- User menu. View, search and select categories, albums and images and upload your images. - Album Manager. Create, order and modify your albums, pictures and profile. - Gallery Categories (the area showing all the gallery categories). Here you will see all the categories: ‘User Galleries’ (containing all the member albums), ‘Contest Galleries’ (containing all the painting and conversion competition entries) and ‘Various Galeries’ (containing all the images that did not fit an other category). - Latest Additions (The area showing 8 images with information). Here you will see the 8 latest additions made to the gallery. It includes a thumbnail, title, view count, description and date.
Most functions you can perform come with a little guide, but here are more detailed explanations if you find yourself in trouble.
If you want to upload a file click on the ‘upload file’ button in the user menu. It will take several steps to upload your image. Step one is to select the right picture from the right source. This can be on your computer or from somewhere on the internet. Step 2 is to fill in all the information about the picture. All of this information can also be changed later on, but doing it right the first time saves you trouble later on.
- ‘Create/order my Albums’. A member can only upload images to his personal gallery and only after one or more albums have been created in that gallery. To create an album in your personal gallery click on the ‘create/order my albums’ button in the album manager. Then click on the button ‘new’, select your new album and type in the name you want to give it. Then click on apply modifications. Press ok if it is ok. Click on continue to continue. You can create as many albums as you like.
- ‘Modify my Albums’. You can then modify an album by clicking on the ‘modify my albums’ button in the album manager. You can change a lot of options, keep in mind that setting ‘visitors can post comments’ and ‘visitors can rate files’ will not make any difference, for visitors are not allowed to do those things on our gallery. Giving your albums a keyword will make it easier to find it when members use the search function.
When you click on ‘sort my pictures’ you can change the order of pictures in an album. Select an album, then select a picture and use the arrows to order them as you like, this can be done at any time. Again apply the modifications as before.
You can send a picture as an e-card to someone. Click on the envelope button when you’re on the page of a picture and you will enter a menu where the e-card can be made and send. Make sure all information is correct and all boxes are filled in.
The Army Painter [members only] The Army Painter is a Java Applet that allows you to colour in a colourless Fire Warrior. So you can test every possible painting scheme that you have in your head and try it out, before you actually start painting. Almost all the details that are on the actual model can be coloured in.
When you open the Army Painter, loading can take some time, depending on the speed of your internet connection. Make sure you have a working version of Java (download it here: Java). When the applet has fully loaded, activate it by clicking on it.
When the applet has fully loaded, you will see two parts, one part containing the black and white Fire Warrior and the top section containing all your tools. There are three rows of tools, going from left to right and top to bottom are:
- The current colors you have selected. The top left color is the color that you get when using the left mouse-button, the bottom left color is color you get with your right mouse-button. You can select what color you want using the table of colours in the top right of the tools menu. Select a color by clicking on it with your left or right mouse button. A preview of the color will be presented left of the table of colours. - Brush mode. When you have clicked the Brush icon, you will be able to paint in the template with your mouse as if you are using a brush. - Line mode. When you have clicked the Line icon, you will be able to draw straight lines in the template with your mouse, by clicking, holding and dragging the mouse-pointer from one point to another. - Eraser mode. Erase parts of the picture. - Text mode. Past text into the template. - Square mode. Draw squares the same way as lines. - Circle mode. Draw circles the same way as lines. - Fill mode. Fill an area of colour with a colour of your choice. Make sure you - Arrow mode. Draw arrows the same way as lines. - Line thickness. There are three line thicknesses you can choose, which are applied on all modes. - Clear all. When you click this button the scheme you have created will be returned to what you started with; an empty template. This action cannot be undone, so be careful not to click it accidentally. - Undo. Undo your last action(s) - Colour tables. A table of the colours you can use.
- Font. When the text mode is on (clicking on the Text button ‘A’). Using the dialog option you can put your username into the scheme, so that everyone knows that you made it. You can select the font, size and style. Type the text that has to go into the template into the empty text field, then click, hold and drag the text into the right spot.
- Symbols. There are special symbols that can be pasted into the template and coloured in. Click on a symbol button and then click, hold and drag the icon into the right spot.
If the applet ever gives any problems, refresh the page. This will reload the applet and will solve the problem (keep in mind that you will loose your scheme as well).
You can safe the picture of your Fire Warrior by making a screenshot of it. Most keyboards have a screenshot-key (called Print Screen in most cases). If you then paste the screenshot into an image-editing program (like Microsoft Paint, Photoshop or Paintshop) you can cut out the part of the picture you need and save it.
The Members Section Here you will find an overview of all the members Kovash Tauva has. You can click on their names to view their profiles, or you can click on the email link to send them an email. If you want to search for a member, use the search function.
The Website Rules Here you can find the Website Rules. It is important to have read them, because it will give you a good view on how things go here at Kovash Tauva.
The Calendar The calendar gives an overview of all the special events that will take place. Members can add their own events. There are three categories: Kovash Tauva Events, Warhammer 40k Events and Other Events.
Contact Us An easy to use contact form, especially for guests, but of course it can also be used by the members.
The Links Section The links section contains the links to important/interesting/popular affiliate/company/official websites. Rating and or commenting websites will improve the quality of the list, filtering out bad websites and keeping the good ones.
Submit Links Everyone, including guests, can submit links to websites they think should not be missing in our list. This is the only place for people to place links to other Warhammer websites apart from their signature. Keep in mind that they are checked by the Aun before actually submitting them.
Website Statistics [members only] This page will show all the stats that are being collected about Kovash Tauva. It will give you an idea about who, what, where, how many times, etc.
Random Gallery Images The Random Images are images taken randomly from the gallery. Clicking on one of them will bring you directly to the image in the gallery.
Search Type a word, or multiple words into the box, press search and view your results. You can then adjust if necessary the parts of the Website you want to search in. You can also use instead of basic search, ‘Advanced’ search. This will allow you to search more precisely.
The Database The Kovash Tauva Database holds all the content that does not fit the gallery or the forum: the Kovash Tauva Lexicon, tutorials, guides, stories, the Newsletter archive and more. Every member can upload any content to the database, which they think would be a good addition. You can view the most recently submitted content by clicking on ‘view recent content’ or you can submit yourself by clicking on ‘submit content’. The content you have submitted will be check by an Aun if it’s appropriate or not. If you are not sure about the category your content falls under, just upload it to ‘various’ and an Aun will put it in the right place, or even create a new category for your content.
The Member Blogs Member Blogs can be used to make personal journals. Every member can make multiple Blogs and per Blog multiple entries. They can be used to keep track of a large scenery project you’re doing, a campaign you’re playing or writing a multi-part story about some fictional character. Just make sure the Blog has anything to do with Warhammer.
Support Kovash Tauva There are many ways the members can support Kovash Tauva. One way is to create content like posts, tutorials, stories, etc. But another important way is to ‘spread the word’. If more people know of Kovash Tauva, more people will join and the community will then grow, creating more content. This is of course not possible without a good website and a good website costs money. That is why every donation is welcome and the donator is free to give whatever he/she wants to give. Keep in mind that even a few dollars/euros/pounds can already accomplish a lot. A list of contributors can be found, where you will be placed on if you have donated. State your user name at the transaction if you don’t want to make it an anonymous donation. There are two ways you can donate: - Creditcard - Paypal
The support menu also offers the option to add KovashTauva.com to your favorites/bookmarks and you can find a link to a template, which you can print or email. If you print it, you could hang it at your local gaming-club or gaming-store, but please hang it only where it is allowed.
The Personal Menu This is where you register, log in, view your profile or edit your profile. Every member can create its own profile; containing the information a member wants everyone to know. You can choose what to fill in and what not. If you want to make sure people remember your birthday fill in your birthday. If you don’t want people to know your age, you can also fill in a silly year, but still use the correct date, so that we will still remember your birthday. (Make sure to use a very old date, to prevent any confusion.)
Keep in mind that there is a maximum size of your avatar of 120 x 100 pixels (width x height). An avatar that is to big will not be allowed by the system if it is an upload, but if it is linked to from an external source, it will be allowed even if it is too big. So make sure that the picture you link to has a maximum size of 120x100 pixels.
There is no real maximum signature size, but keep in mind that your signature’s size should never have an effect on the way the website is shown, nor make the forums unreadable with big signatures covering half the page. Use common sense or as a certain measure of size, make sure it’s not higher than your personal information area in the forum (avatar, plus posts, join date etc.). The content of your signature is completely up to you (keeping to the rules of course), and you can also place links to other Warhammer websites in it.
The Private Message (PM) Menu In this menu, you can go to your Inbox, Outbox or you can send a new message.
The Online List This is a list of how many guests and members are online and how many members there are on the page you’re viewing and how many members there are totally.
The Latest Gallery Images The Latest Images are images are the most recently uploaded images in the gallery. Clicking on one of them will bring you directly to the image in the gallery.
The Latest Forum Posts This is a list of all the most recent forum posts. Clicking on the link will take you directly to the post.
Unanswered Forum Posts This is a list of all the most recent unanswered forum posts. Only normal posts are taken into account. Clicking on the link will take you directly to the post.
Members Birthdays This shows you whose birthday it is today and whose birthday is next. Make sure you have entered your birthday in your profile information to enable this feature for your birthday as well.
If you still have any questions after having read this guide, or you think some information is not correct or too short, please contact Ethereal Shas at: etherealshas@kovashtauva.com or post in the Website Discussion.
