This part of my fanpop User Guide describes some of the basics of using the site, and was last substantively edited on 19 December 2007.

Covered in this article:
Finding spots
Fans of spots and users
Ratings
Favorites
Sharing
Reporting

Finding a spot
There are three primary ways to find spots that fit your interests, which is really the whole point of the site. The first (examples are marked with "1" in the illustration) is da Leggere the lists on the main page of the site ('fanpop home'): it's entirely possible that some content displayed there is of interest to you, whether it be a spotlit spot, a question, an image, a video, a forum, o even a spot associated with one of the fan featured on the main page. In general, every time a spot name is listed anywhere on the site, it is a clickable link which will take te to that spot. A slight exception is the name of a spot in the "recent images" section, which will take te to that image in the spot, rather than to the main page for that spot (just as if you'd clicked on the thumbnail of the picture).

The secondo way to find a spot (marked with a "2" in the illustration) is da using the cerca function. On every page of the site there is a box in which te can type key words and then click a cerca button to look for content that matches those words. The cerca will try to find spots which match the words te enter. Note: when we talk about any content on the site other than the spots themselves (soapbox articoli like this one, images, domande & picks, fora, et cetera), we refer to them generically as 'links'. When te use the cerca function, te may also find links that match your cerca terms. cerca results are divided into those two categories: spots, and links, so if you're looking for a spot, you'll find that listed first. The links are listed in the cerca results below the first five spots listed. The lista of link results have icone that represent the type of link: images, videos, et cetera, but they are all grouped in the same section. cerca results can take più than one page, so if te don't see the spot o link te want, te may click the 'more results' link (if available) to lista another page of cerca results of that type (spots o links).

Note that the cerca is a simple search, however, and does not recognize boolean expressions. That means that +”Kaiju Godzilla” +”cat monster” +video will get the same results as Kaiju cat monster video Kaiju Godzilla, as an example. In addition, the cerca will look for each of the words te type separately, so the cerca results would be the same for cat video Godzilla Kaiju monster. This means that, for our example cerca above, in addition to getting Godzilla in the results, te might also get results of 'Some random plant on a pole', 'Cat says a-ha!' and 'monster truck rally video'. The results are organized in order of accuracy of match, however, so a video of Godzilla fighting a cat monster (if there is one) would come first. If there isn't one, you'll see a message "We couldn't find any exact matches", followed da a lista of partial matches.

The third way to find spots that match your interests (marked with a "3" in the illustration, above) is to use the 'Browse spots' feature on the main page of the site. This is currently found in the bottom right of that page. te can click a channel titolo (for instance, 'Pets & Animals') and then scroll through the different spots in that channel, o te can get a lista of the most popolare spots, o te can lista just the pending spots.

Fan of a spot
Once te find a spot that matches your interest, te can add yourself as a fan of that spot. To do so, click the link at the upper right of the page, below the link to your profilo and above the 'banner' for that spot. The page will refresh immediately with te as a fan of that spot. Now if te click the 'my profile' link, te will see your profile, which will include that spot, as well as a running lista of recente aggiornamenti made to 'your' spots (the spots for which te are a fan).

Fan of another user
As te browse the site, te will either find Friends and family te know, o you'll just notice other users who are posting links that match your interests. te may say that te are a fan of another user. To do so, click on the user's name o portrait picture. This will take te to that user's profile. If te want to explore a little più of what this user has done on the site, te can select 'activity' in the superiore, in alto navigation bar. The module on the right will refresh with a lista of the links that the user has added to the site, with the ability to also lista the videos, images, comments, posts to fora, domande and soapbox articoli that user has entered/created. Once you've satisfied yourself that te want to add yourself as a fan, find the box labeled 'about me' on the left side of the user's profilo page, which contains the user's portrait picture, whatever biographical information the user has decided to include and a number of quick links. One of these is 'Add to fan List'. Click this link to lista yourself as a fan of the user.

Ratings
Please rate content whenever te have a reaction to it, positive o negative. At the moment, te can rate videos, links, soapbox articoli and immagini (remember, when we speak of content in general, we refer to all of these types of content as 'links'). When te look at any of these things, you'll see a row of five grey circles with “rate this link” written across them. Click on these to rate the link in question, on a five stella, star scale of 1 ('garbage') to 5 ('awesome!'), moving from left to right. It cannot be stressed enough how important ratings are, since many lists of links, et cetera use ratings as a major part of the algorithm to determine how they are displayed. In addition, the system of medaglie is completely based on ratings. If te want your content to be recognized o if te want to appreciate the content that others have posted, the best thing te can do it rate that content!

Favorites
As te find links that te particularly enjoy, o that te want to be able to find again quickly, te can save them to your lista of preferito links. To add a link to your favorites, simply click the 'save' button right under the ratings circles. To look up your lista of favorites, go to your profilo page. Your preferiti are listed in the left, right under the 'about me' box. da default, the preferiti are organized in reverse chronological order, with the link te added to your preferiti lista most recently listed at the top. If te click the link 'more favorites', te can choose to lista your preferiti alphabetically da titolo as an alternative.

Sharing
If te find some content that te think someone else will really like, there are two handy ways to send them a link to that content in e-mail. In each spot, in the upper right (just under the long horizontal image (called the spot's 'banner'), you'll see a link labeled 'invite friend'. Click that to fill out a form that will send an e-mail message to your friend inviting them to use that particular spot. Note: since this articolo was originally written, this feature has been expanded to track the number of new users who have registered on fanpop from your invitations. So while the invitation is primarily a way to get others to see a spot te like, it is also serving double-duty as a way to track how te have contributed to the increase of Fanpop's registered users.

The secondo way to share fanpop content is to click the link labeled “Share this Link” (or 'Share Video' in the case of videos). This will also bring up a form, which is identical to the precedente form except that the message sent to your friend will contain the url to the link, rather than to the spot.

Report
Sometimes, even on a wonderful site like this one, there can be problems. There are two ways to segnala such problems. First, if there is a problem with a spot (it's obscene, it violates fanpop's terms of use, o it duplicates an existing spot), click the 'report' link in the upper right of the spot (a little red flag just under the spot's banner). te then are dato a number of choices for what to report: the spot is either inappropriate, offensive, miscategorized (for example, if the Pirates of the Caribbean spot was listed in the Televisione channel – it's not TV, so it shouldn't be there), o duplicates a precedente spot. If, on the other hand, a link is not working, te should segnala that link. The way to segnala a problem with a link is to click the grey flag just under the ratings circles, and then select which type of problem it is: spam, outdated (if the link is to some event that has come and gone), broken (if the link doesn't work), miscategorized (the link was put in the wrong spot) o inappropriate. In either case, te may instead choose to select 'Don't Report' to cancella the problem report.

Here's links to other parts of the guide for your quick reference:

* link

* 1: link

* 2: link.

* 3: link

* 4: Picks: this is the generic name both for the sondaggio domande that te see on the site and for the risposte te can pick to that question. Papa has created a link.

* 5: link

* 6:
link

* 7: link

te may also want to see:

* link feature

* link