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Welcome to the 'Personal Preferences' section of the h2g2 FAQ. This is where you can find information about the settings you can make on h2g2 - things like your Nickname - and how to make changes to them.
If you want to see a complete list of questions answered by the h2g2 FAQ, you can go to the h2g2 FAQ Index at any time.
Contents of this Section
What are Personal Preferences, and how do I find mine?
Your Personal Preferences contain various bits of information about you and the way you use h2g2. You can find your Personal Preferences if you have registered and are logged on, by clicking on the 'Preferences' button. If you haven't registered, then you don't have any Personal Preferences to change.
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What Personal Preferences are there for me to change?
You can alter the following bits of information by clicking on the 'Preferences' button, making any changes you want, and clicking on the 'Update Details' button:
Nickname
This is initially set to 'Researcher' plus a long number. This is the name by which you are identified on h2g2, and it's a good idea to change it to something more dynamic if you want to stand out from the crowd - but it's totally up to you.
Skin
See the next question for more about skins.
Email address
You can change this at any time by simply altering it, typing your password into the 'Current Password' box, and clicking on the 'Update Details' button.
Password
To change your password, enter your original password, then your new password twice. If you've forgotten your password, then you can get a new one emailed to you by clicking on the link.
On Goo and Alabaster, you will also see the following:
User mode
You can choose either 'Normal' (the default) or 'Expert' mode. The only difference is that Expert mode adds a 'Tree Gadget' to your Conversation display for more technical naviagation of Conversations; you can find more information about the Tree Gadget here. 'Normal' simply doesn't add the Tree Gadget. The Tree Gadget is always visible on Brunel
Forum style
You can choose either 'Single pages' (the default) or 'Frame'. The latter is slightly slower but shows more information on one page, but the choice is totally up to you - try them both. You can find out more about Conversations on h2g2 here. Brunel does not support frames.
If you want to change your account password, there's also a link to the main BBC account page, where you can make the changes you like.
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What are skins and what can I do with them?
You can view h2g2 through different 'skins' - the same information is shown in a different design, so you can choose how h2g2 looks in your browser. Currently we have three skins to choose from - Brunel, Alabaster and Classic Goo - but we hope to add more in the future.
To see this page in Classic Goo, click here, to see it in Alabaster, click here, and to see it in Brunel, click here.
Brunel is the default, but pick the one that you like the best. The only functional differences between the three ae that Classic Goo doesn't have a 'Front Page' button (but clicking on the h2g2 logo in the top-left corner takes you to the Front Page anyway), and Brunel has a different set of buttons and added functionality in the Posting and Entry Editors.
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Why does it call me 'Researcher' plus a long number?
We have to give you some kind of Nickname when you join, and to preserve the anonymity that some members of the Internet community want, we initially call you 'Researcher XXXXXX', where 'XXXXXX' is your Researcher number (you shouldn't ever need to use your Researcher number explicitly, so don't worry about it).
One of the first things new Researchers will want to do is to change their Nicknames to something a little more exciting, and we recommend everyone does just that by clicking the 'Preferences' button and changing their Nickname.
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Is my Nickname exclusive?
Currently Nicknames do not have to be unique, but you should try to ensure that your name is recognisable as your own, to avoid the confusion that would arise from having two people posting with the same name.
Why are some Nicknames in bold italics?
These are genuine staff members who work for the BBC (and specifically the h2g2 site). This is to prevent people masquerading as staff members, should anyone be insane enough to want to do so.
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