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 Von Lesen 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, oder even a spot associated with one of the Fans 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 Du to that spot. A slight exception is the name of a spot in the "recent images" section, which will take Du 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 Sekunde way to find a spot (marked with a "2" in the illustration) is Von using the Suchen function. On every page of the site there is a box in which Du can type key words and then click a Suchen button to look for content that matches those words. The Suchen will try to find spots which match the words Du enter. Note: when we talk about any content on the site other than the spots themselves (soapbox Artikel like this one, images, Fragen & picks, fora, et cetera), we refer to them generically as 'links'. When Du use the Suchen function, Du may also find Links that match your Suchen terms. Suchen 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 Suchen results below the first five spots listed. The Liste of link results have Icons that represent the type of link: images, videos, et cetera, but they are all grouped in the same section. Suchen results can take Mehr than one page, so if Du don't see the spot oder link Du want, Du may click the 'more results' link (if available) to Liste another page of Suchen results of that type (spots oder links).

Note that the Suchen 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 Suchen will look for each of the words Du type separately, so the Suchen results would be the same for cat video Godzilla Kaiju monster. This means that, for our example Suchen above, in addition to getting Godzilla in the results, Du might also get results of 'Some Zufällig 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 Von a Liste 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. Du can click a channel Titel (for instance, 'Pets & Animals') and then scroll through the different spots in that channel, oder Du can get a Liste of the most beliebt spots, oder Du can Liste just the pending spots.

Fan of a spot
Once Du find a spot that matches your interest, Du 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 Profil and above the 'banner' for that spot. The page will refresh immediately with Du as a Fan of that spot. Now if Du click the 'my profile' link, Du will see your profile, which will include that spot, as well as a running Liste of Kürzlich Updates made to 'your' spots (the spots for which Du are a fan).

Fan of another user
As Du browse the site, Du will either find Friends and family Du know, oder you'll just notice other users who are posting Links that match your interests. Du may say that Du are a Fan of another user. To do so, click on the user's name oder portrait picture. This will take Du to that user's profile. If Du want to explore a little Mehr of what this user has done on the site, Du can select 'activity' in the oben, nach oben navigation bar. The module on the right will refresh with a Liste of the Links that the user has added to the site, with the ability to also Liste the videos, images, comments, posts to fora, Fragen and soapbox Artikel that user has entered/created. Once you've satisfied yourself that Du want to add yourself as a fan, find the box labeled 'about me' on the left side of the user's Profil 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 Liste yourself as a Fan of the user.

Ratings
Please rate content whenever Du have a reaction to it, positive oder negative. At the moment, Du can rate videos, links, soapbox Artikel and Bilder (remember, when we speak of content in general, we refer to all of these types of content as 'links'). When Du 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 star, sterne 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 Medaillen is completely based on ratings. If Du want your content to be recognized oder if Du want to appreciate the content that others have posted, the best thing Du can do it rate that content!

Favorites
As Du find Links that Du particularly enjoy, oder that Du want to be able to find again quickly, Du can save them to your Liste of Favorit links. To add a link to your favorites, simply click the 'save' button right under the ratings circles. To look up your Liste of favorites, go to your Profil page. Your Favoriten are listed in the left, right under the 'about me' box. Von default, the Favoriten are organized in reverse chronological order, with the link Du added to your Favoriten Liste most recently listed at the top. If Du click the link 'more favorites', Du can choose to Liste your Favoriten alphabetically Von Titel as an alternative.

Sharing
If Du find some content that Du 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 Artikel 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 Du like, it is also serving double-duty as a way to track how Du have contributed to the increase of Fanpop's registered users.

The Sekunde 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 Zurück 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 Berichten such problems. First, if there is a problem with a spot (it's obscene, it violates fanpop's terms of use, oder 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). Du then are gegeben 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 Fernsehen channel – it's not TV, so it shouldn't be there), oder duplicates a Zurück spot. If, on the other hand, a link is not working, Du should Berichten that link. The way to Berichten 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) oder inappropriate. In either case, Du may instead choose to select 'Don't Report' to Abbrechen 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 Umfrage Fragen that Du see on the site and for the Antwort Du can pick to that question. Papa has created a link.

* 5: link

* 6:
link

* 7: link

Du may also want to see:

* link feature

* link