The UO Gateway is a part of the Ultima Codex Fan Network. The Ultima Codex site as a whole was built from the ground up with a focus on social networking and cross-website community participation, and all of the subdomains, including the UO
Gateway, are a part of that.
What does that mean exactly?
If you’re registered on one part of the Ultima Codex, such as Aiera or the UO Gateway, you can participate with other community members on all of the other sites. You can also easily communicate with all other members, both publicly and privately. One minute you can leave a comment on the Origin Gallery, and the next minute you can comment on a story at Ultima Aiera, all with the same account.
Just which websites are we talking about?
– The UO Gateway (UO.UltimaCodex.com) of course.
– Ultima Aiera
– The Origin Gallery
– The Ultima Underworld 20th Anniversary dedication site
– And the Ultima Codex Forums
– Quite a few more to follow in the coming months.
Let’s talk about profile pages, setting up your own, as well as communicating with other Ultima and Ultima Online fans.
Don’t have an account?
Register for an account!
Your Profile Page
If you have registered for an account, you have a member/profile page. It’s located at: “http://ultimacodex.com/members/your-login-name/”
Changing/Editing Your Profile Page
Click on your avatar or name, or find yourself in the Members Directory.
Once you’ve opened your profile’s main page, you’ll see a menu bar with a list of commands/links – Activity, Profile, Sites, Messages, Friends, Groups, and Settings.
Changing password/email or your notifications? You want to click on Settings.
Changing your Avatar or Your Base Group? You want to click on Profile.
Want to display a message next to your avatar if somebody looks up your profile?
From your profile page, you’ll see a box below with a “What’s New Yourname” – simply type a message in that box. That’s an update to your profile that you can later delete or add to it. You can use it to display your interests or what you’ve recently done (such as recent games completed, etc.). It also has recent public messages you’ve sent.
Other People’s Profile Pages
When you see comments or posts by somebody, and you either see an icon next to their name, or their name underlined, if you click on their name or their icon (on some sites), it will take you to their member profile page. You can also look in the Members Directory.
I’m going to pick on Dungy since Dungy left the most recent comment on the UO Gateway. When you click on Dungy’s name (or icon on other Ultima Codex sites), you’ll see the following:
You see those four buttons? We’re going to talk about three of them.
Add Friend: Self-explanatory. If you like Dungy, click on it. After you click on it, it will be greyed out (or grayed out) and you’ll see “Friendship Requested”.
Public Message: Displays a message box with @dungy – you can use it to send a public message. You can add additional users to the message by inserting “@” followed by their member name.
Private Message: Self-explanatory – send a private message to someone.
I want to interact with others publicly, on posts and in the forums!
When you are registered and logged in, there are two types of replies you can make when you see a post you want to comment on. I believe all of the themes in use here at the Ultima Codex are friendly to threaded replies.
I want to let multiple people know I’m replying to them!
Just include the @ symbol followed by a user name. You can do this multiple times – @dungy @uo @cmdrfalcon and so on and so forth.
Single/Stand-Alone Replies
If you are reading a post/article, at the bottom of the comments (or the article if there are no comments), or even at the bottom of this page, you’ll see a fairly large box with a large title that says “Leave a Reply“. If you start typing in that box and hit the “Post Comment“, you will be leaving a top-level comment. It will be listed in line with the original article.
I want to reply to somebody directly! (Threaded Replies)
When you see a comment from somebody, look for the “Reply” link (red arrows below):
Click on Reply and that will allow you to reply directly to a comment made by a previous poster.
Examples of Threaded Replies
– Ultima Aiera
– UO Gateway
The Forums
Have something to say that has nothing to do with a posted article or a page, or you want to start a new conversation on a different tangent than comments in an article? You want The Ultima Codex Forums.
If you are logged in, you will be able to start new threads and post responses in other threads. There are forums for all of the Ultima stand-alone games, plus Ultima Online, as well as some technical forums if you are having problems getting Ultima IX running under Windows 8 or your Mac, or you’re having DOSBox issues with an old Ultima or Origin game.
They are simple to use for now, but their functionality will be expanding over the coming weeks (easy image attachments, video, etc. etc.).
The UO Gateway does have an Ultima Online forum should you want to start up a UO-related discussion.
That’s a Wrap
I’m probably missing a few things – if you have comments or questions, leave them below or send me a private message through my profile.
