Are you new to MuseBlog? Make this your first stop. We’ve got some pie fresh out of the oven, and friendly locals ready to answer your questions and help you feel at home.
For starters, we recommend that newcomers (that’s what “neophytes” means) look over The Rules and The HG2MB (Hitchhiker’s Guide to MuseBlog), which contains more helpful information than you can shake a stick at. We don’t know why you’d want to shake a stick at it, but now you know you don’t have to bother.
Don’t forget to stop by Who’s Here (see the menu at the top of your screen) and announce your arrival in a comment there, so we’ll be sure to add you to the official list.
MuseBlog Veterans: Please use this thread only to welcome newcomers as they arrive and answer questions that they ask.
Friendly locals…
Now, now, don’t scare the neophytes off.
I’m new here! I am fresh from ChatterBox. I have learned a few things about MB from some MBers that have been to ChatterBox. Like Piggy. I have not figured out how to post a post yet…. Can someone PLEASE tell me how to?
(Sorry if my spelling or punctuation is kind of… bad.)
Post a post? These threads, as they’re called here on MuseBlog, are made by the GAPAs (Great And Powerful Administrators) and the GAPAs only. You’ve already learned how to comment, I see. If you want a thread made, you could ask the GAPAs to make one. Welcome!
So you ask them to make one on a random thread and tell them what you want it to be about. Sorry if that doesn’t make sense.
P.S. Thank you for the pie. *eats pie Piggy pied* *pies Piggy*
Not exactly. You go to the Suggestion Box and ask them if they could create a new thread, tell them what you want it to be about, and wait patiently. They may not create the thread.
PS. The green text indicates a link.
*dodges pie* It’s anything but guaranteed that they’ll make it for you. If it’s just a few people that want a thread, they probably won’t make it. You can go to the Suggestion Box to ask for a thread.
Thanks Piggy and RoseQuartz!
How do you do italics? And make the print bold? I can’t seem to figure it out…ugh. I must seem so clueless. I’m sure the answer is right in front of me, if only I could figure it out…please help, as I’m in obvious need for it right now.
To do italics:
Angle bracket (shift + ,), a lowercase i, angle bracket (shift + .), whatever you want in italics, shift+, /, lowercase i, shift+.
To do bold:
Angle bracket (shift + ,), a lowercase b, angle bracket (shift + .), whatever you want in bold, shift+, /, lowercase b, shift+.
Thanks!!
[+]i[+]Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!+/i+
Weird.
Or this, replacing the [s and ]s with angle brackets:
[i]whatever you want in italics[/i]
[b]whatever you want bold[/b]
Um… *has neophyte shyness* I’m having problems with my avatar. I do have a Gravatar account, and everything on there is cleared, but do I have to set up anything extra for it to appear on here? At least I can change my email and get rid of my old face…
*tries* Except every time I try, it says “please enter valid email address”. Hmm…
If you use the same email address as you did on gravatar and made yourself an avatar there, then you should have no trouble. Double check that you have an active avatar/picture there, then post using the same email address here. If it still doesn’t work, try clearing your cache. Good luck
Welcome, Byrd! *pies*
Jakob and Insane MLDM, stop scaring the ‘phytes off!
*PIES!*
*feels guilty since there are no phytes here yet*
*wonders when friend Goose :0) will come on phyte thread . . .*
Oops! Sorry Byrd!
*choklit pies*
Hey, that’s my wung, Mia!
Welcome neophytes!! Welcome Byrd!!
WELCOME BYRDIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Welcome, Byrd! I was shy when I came on at first too. I still am as a matter of fact. Oh well. Welcome! Here’s a piece of advice – try to read, or at least skim, the comments ahead of time, and the original post, so you won’t make the same stupid mistakes I still make.
Wow, I put myself down a lot in this post. You’ll think I’m very depressed. The point is; Welcome!!!
Have some pretend pie.
Welcome Byrd! I’m still kind of a neophyte myself, but I can say this: Make sure that you proofread every single entry that you write and make sure that it says exactly what you mean to say. It helps to avoid a lot of extra explaining and misunderstandings. Oh yes, and the Quotations 2009.2 thread is now the atheism thread, just in case you wanted to join the discussion. It’s really quite civil–I got two nosebleeds this week, but they were completely unrelated.
Pies! Cheers!
PIES
Hi! wow…i’m not technically “new”. i joined in 2006. but it has been about two years since I was on…and i’m back by my original name.
so….HI!
p.s. someone want to explain the “gravatar” thing to me?
Hi! Welcome back cellogirl26! I just joined a little while ago, so you wouldn’t remember me from before obviously. Anyway, I don’t have an account, but I’ve figured out a few things about the “gravatar” stuff based on what other people have written. Gravatar is some sort of a site that you can get an account on, and then receive access to many different avatars. With an account, you can use different avatars on this site of your choice instead of the one that’s already picked out for you. Hope that clears things up.
thanks! i might check it out
Hi, cellogirl26! You won’t remember me either, but anyway… yeah, Gravatar is a site where you can get an avatar. It’s www . gravatar . com (remove spaces). If you sign up, you can upload an avatar from your computer or the Internet to have as your avatar.
Also, there are now “Paleophyte threads.” Check out the New MuseBlog Experiment.
Welcome back, cellogirl26!
awwww thanks! I wonder how many people are still on from when I was on
When exactly did you join? I’m a 2006-then-leave-for-a-whiler too.
-A
…october 2006? something like that?
I was cellogirl26 for a while, then “Queen of music…cows…or something” then Gaia.
I was just informed that I must use completely correct grammar now. So “October 2006 or some month thereabouts”
10- It’s simple, actually. You go to Gravatar.com, make an account, and upload pictures from the internet or whatever. Then, you chose a picture, make it activated, and if it doesn’t show up, refresh the page untill it shows up.
I’m back from summer camp!
Yay.
*pies all newcomers and re-comers*
Welcome!
I have an announcement to make: you can popo, ramble (althouh not the smartest thing to do, on your really slow phone, in the car, when you are prone to carsickness), multiple post, etc, and all those other heinous crimes that draw the attention of the popo police, but for bun-bun’s sake SAY WHO YOU’RE REPLYING TO.
Okay:
76(hpb)- dont scare the n00bs!!!!!!!!!!
Not Okay:
76- dont scare the n00bs!!!!!!!!!!
Note: I am not condoning the practices of popoing, not using proper grammar, etc. I am just saying that if you do that you will be fined and annoy your fellow MuseBloggers. If you reply to someone and just give the comment number, you will die a slow and painful death at the hands of the choklit
s I will fine you.
My friend should be coming on soon, I’ve been helping her figure this out.
Hi! I’m SudoRandom’s friend…. Sorry for the completely obvious pseudonym, I’m trying to think of a better one.
WELCOME PSEUDONYM!!!!!!!!
Welcome pies!
!!! *ducks*
Don’t worry, they’re friendly pies. They’re part of the neophyte (that’s you)-welcoming process.
SudoRandom’s told us a little bit about you, I think (Right, SR?), and it’s nice to see you on the blog. It’s sort of ironic that you have an avatar similar to his….
Yeah, I was just noticing the avatar similarity.
Yeah, if Pseudonym’s who I think she is, then he has. Welcome, Pseudonym!
By the way, you make
s like this:
: arrow :
without the spaces.
But with double spaces on the outside of each colon.Where 9=space,
99:arrow:99
would make a
Whoops. I guess the double-space rule is gone. Welcome anyway!
No, I think the double-space rule is still in effect with rows of smileys, which was all it was for anyway. I still have to do it.
Yeah, I noticed that with my row of pies. HTML confuses me. Especially when I mix different forms of HTML up.
Yeah, I hate it when that happens. We need the list of HTML back at the bottom, because I haven’t gotten the linkifying-words HTML memorized and I hate having to go look it up every time I want to do it….
Welcome, Psuedonym!
Hi! I’m baaaack! I’m trying to think of a less obvious pseudonym, can anyone give me some ideas?
Hi again! Hmm…. *does not suggest name SR has been calling you by* Give us some ideas about what you’re like, then maybe we’ll be able to help you more easily.
It’s better than ‘Insane MLDM’s latest bun-bun victim’
. *bunnifies all neophytes* Oh, that’s right, give them a non-violent welcome. *pies* 
Let’s see…. wait. What has SR been calling me by?
Charlie. Heh.
Yeah, I’ll probably think of Pseudonym as Charlie no matter what she decides to call herself…
I guess I might as well change my pseudonym to Charlie then…
YeyHey! SayHey! Say what? Say llama! Well, I just got back from a phun-tastic week at camp and decided to post on the wonderful, ever changing MB 2.0.1.2.1.4.3.1.11.5.46.8.1123581321. What? Well, welcome neos, to our humble, comfy, spacious 3 gigs of web space. This is a place for (yay!) having fun, and (yay again) having….more fun. So if you need some fun, come in and if you have had too much fun then get the heck in here anyway. If you like Green Day, come in! If you hate Green Day, come in. This is a very, very freeform place. Go breakdance! Think Irish jig! PET A LLAMA! It really doesn’t matter as long as you obey the HPBs- I mean, the Rules. So good luck, and good pizza hunting.
-Pink Vibes
Just breathe in… and out… and in… and out…
Calm yourself
Do not be completely random on the neophytes thread
Take a yoga class
Ah… please… calm… down. We’re really glad you decided to show up, and randomness is condoned, even encouraged here, but not THAT random. Please, in the future, try to stay on topic with whatever the subject of the thread happens to be.
Anyway, welcome! 
At what point do you stop being a neophyte?
When you no longer feel the need to ask this question.
Uh, when I’ve asked I’ve gotten different answers. What is it really?
In the past, (Before I was even here, actually. I just happen to have a tendency to read through some of the older threads just out of curiosity for how much MB has changed…I know, weird habit, right?) it seems like many of the Welcome, Neophytes threads have turned into long discussions of when you stop being a neophyte. Although it is an interesting question with many possibilities, the GAPA’s have decided that this thread is simply not the place for that discussion. Instead, discussions on “when I stop being a neophyte” should instead be reserved for other threads. The point of the Welcome, Neophyte! thread is only to help make neophytes more welcome, and to answer any questions they might have about MB. Therefore, although I do not want to seem or sound rude, I will not be answering that question here for the sake of the thread.
Kiga, maybe I should have said “when you no longer feel the need to make or think about such distinctions at all.”
The real point of my answer — other than the forlorn hope of avoiding another round of this conversation — was simply there is no correct answer. Every person here would have a different set of criteria based on ens individual experience and personal preferences. Others would disagree. As far as GAPAs are concerned, the question is meaningless. Once you’re here, you’re part of the blog. “Neophyte” means that we have only just discovered you. It has absolutely nothing to do with an individual’s worth.
What you make of your time here matters far more than how long you hang around, how often you post, or how well you have mastered the art of using the shift key.
Really? Thanks, I like that!
Touché. I feel like there should be the word grasshopper involved somewhere in there, though.
-A
Okay. The “when-do-I-stop-being-a-phyte” conversation is completely pointless. You stop being a neophyte when you and others stop thinking of you as one. There isn’t a specific time limit. Some people stop acting phytey right away, like after a week or so; others still act phytey after being on MB for a year. Usually, people settle right down. When you use correct grammar, spelling and punctuation almost all of the time, don’t make posts that have nothing to do with anything, don’t DP and don’t use excessive exclamation points/smileys in every post, then people aren’t liable to think of you as a phyte.
Calm down, calm down. Pseudonym is a neophyte who asked a question, and has the right to have that question answered. You can call me a hypocrite, but how is a ‘phyte supposed to know what questions en’s not “supposed” to ask?
Pseudonym, I don’t believe I’ve welcomed you yet. It’s good to have you here on MuseBlog.
Suddenly I’m sorry I asked.
Don’t be. It’s a valid question, and everyone asks it at some point. Is someone’s only just joined, how is en to know that we don’t have a solemn ceremony a month after ens arrival, marking ens passage from neophytedom, right?
We don’t, just in case you hadn’t already gathered that. But maybe it should be put on the Frequently Asked Questions?
Anyway, welcome!
I’m Alice, your semi-helpful, occasionally-sighted person-who-wanders-around-complaining-about-things-and-defending-justice-every-now-and-then. I’m obsessed with JS&MN and Doctor Who and can be found without a doubt on the Sea Roc, which is a ship–ahem, an RRR.
More pies:
And I like your name.
I couldn’t think of a better name at the moment (or ever), so I picked the most obvious one in existence…but thanks!
And I’m sorry I blew up like that. It’s just that pretty much every Neophytes thread ends up being about “when do I stop being a phyte?” Being a phyte isn’t a bad thing, though! That question just seems to make it sound like it is.
Welcome Pseudonym!
Don’t feel bad about asking that question, I’m sure I asked it too. I think when you feel comfortable on MB, you stop being a ‘phyte. Hope that helps!
haha hello Pseudonym and get off the computer! i want to blog for a little while! yes…she’s my sister…and she was trying to discourage me from being on MuseBlog…and hi again, SudoRandom
Hello, bubblebabe! Welcome to MB.
(Welcome pies–they’re friendly, and an MB tradition.) You seem, from what I’ve seen on other threads, to be good Muser material. Only one thing–please use proper capitalization. It’s not a gigantic issue as far as I’m concerned, but it is sort of annoying to read noncapitalized posts, and some people do get really worked up about it. So consider this your advance notification from someone who’s not going to yell at you.
I’m not sure if this is personal or whatever, but why doesn’t Pseudonym want you on the blog?
I wouldn’t, perchance, be one of the people you consider to “get really worked up about” noncapitalization?
And why wouldn’t Pseudonym want bubblebabe46 on MB? They’re siblings. Need you more explanation?
Welcome to MB, bubblebabe46.
Well, why would you think that?
Good point. Very good point.
Hello, bubblebabe! Welcome to the MuseBlog.
Uurgh. Hi. MuseBlog is being invaded by people I know!
Do you need me to show you where the
“shift” key is? By the way, you’re posting, so obviously I’m NOT on the computer
Oops! I forgot to replace bubblebabe46’s email and pseudonym with my own! Sorry! 26.4 was me.
Welcome, bubblebabe46! I really like your name. It’s fun to say!!!
she’s my sister
and i can’t capitalize. i’m kind of average…i text a lot and stuff..I will try to capitalize, how’s this? Muffins
*cracks up* No offense, it has nothing to do with you. It’s just that on MB, ‘muffins’ and ‘cake’ are sometimes used as mild swearwords…
And yeah, I know we’re weird. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t be MuseBloggers. And, to actually answer your post, very good!
I found it hard to capitalize at first, too. But personally, I don’t mind if you don’t use capitals, since your spelling and grammar are accurate and you’re not abbreviating everything. Overall, you’re doing pretty well for your first day. You’ll fit in very well here.
Haha, I text a lot too, but my texts are always grammatically and spelling-ly correct – something that irks my friends.
Anyway, welcome!
*returns*
Welcome, bubblebabe!
And welcome Pseudonym!
Ugh, this is getting rather awkward.
How is it awkward?
It’s awkward when you type and can’t figure out what to say.
It’s also awkward because I’ve just returned from one of my long breaks and I feel like a neophyte.
Even if I’m not.
Oh…yeah. I always feel really fake greeting ‘phytes with the same old thing all the time….but they appreciate it even if you’re using the same words, you know.
And I know what you mean about feeling like a neophyte. I still feel like one half the time. And the other half I feel like I’m a stuffy old palophyte.
Same here…
I feel the same way when I greet new people on the Chatterbox. I seem to say the same things every time.
hi… I’m kinda newish one could say. Especialy with… well this. I’m YodaShmoda’s friend. But she hasn’t been on this site in like ever because of her new job, and school, and family. But I get muse too and finally decided to join. I never really lurked I just kinda watch Yoda go on the old blog but now I’m really really confused. *sigh*
Welcome, UpinDown!
Is there anything I can do to relieve your confusion?
Welcome anyway, newish one! How are you confused?
However you are confuzzled, welcome anyways! *pies*
Hello, UpinDown! Welcome to the blog.
Hey, tell Yoda next time you see her that Armada misses her and would like to see her back on the blog, would you? I liked her. I was sad when she disappeared…..
just mainly confused with the new set up… how new is it? I think I get it now though.
Wait…. it seems like people are commenting on comments. It’s like theres sepeate little responces. How do you do that? Like you know the 29.1 thing. How’d the point get there?
The first MuseBlog was hacked in late March or early April. The malevolent code inserted into the outdated software of MB 1.0 did two things: put ads in the sidebar (which only appeared for a few MBers) and, if I remember correctly, threatened to link to inappropriate and/or malware sites, causing error codes to appear in various places. Robert was forced to shut down MB as he tore it down and rebuilt it more or less from scratch. We were at the backup MuseAcademy blog for a good couple of weeks–I don’t remember exactly how long. The software is up-to-date now, so there is a much slimmer chance of that sort of thing happening again.
As for replying directly to comments, there’s a “reply” button on the right side of each comment. If you’re using Internet Explorer, the button doesn’t show up, for some reason, and only the top third of the avatars appear. If you wave your mouse over there, it should turn into a hand and you can click. To see where it is, look here.
ohhh okay. thank you very much.
By the way, could you capitalize that which should be capitalized? Thanks.
Oh. Sorry.
It’s fine–we’re just a bit picky about that sort of thing here on MuseBlog.
AUGHH! What happened? I am so confused. What is with the logging in thing? Help!
Click on the link below and you’ll find out what’s going on. I would explain in further detail in my own words instead of a link, but I happen to be in a rush right now and therefore only have time for this. My apologies.
https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=3102
Ok thanks. Not really by the way, but has anyone seen somebody named ROGLOL? She’s one of my friends but I can’t find her anywhere.
Yes, she’s posted in several places, some recently.
Ok thanks!
Hello! I have returned from the dead(Okay, Canada to visit my grandparents on my moms side)! Welcome all newcomers!
AAAAaaahhhh!!! *tries to duck*…-SPLAT-
how do you get all the cool things like pies and smilies in your messages?
i’m new. *pies come flying* “Eep!”
HEEEELLLP MEEEEEEE!!!!!!
This should help you with smileys. If you have any other questions, check out the HG2MB (link at the top of this page).
Don’t dodge them. Eat!
Pies are for welcoming people. They’re friendly.
Hey, welcome!
Inu-chan, pies from the side are : arrow : and pies coming at you are : ! :. Just make sure you put 2 spaces one each side of the :’s, and leave out the spaces I put. The smiley is simply : ) with 2 spaces on either side.
So this isn’t PoPo, pies for all newcomers, again!! 
!