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

Note that the buscar 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 buscar will look for each of the words tu type separately, so the buscar results would be the same for cat video Godzilla Kaiju monster. This means that, for our example buscar above, in addition to getting Godzilla in the results, tu might also get results of 'Some misceláneo 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 por 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. tu can click a channel título (for instance, 'Pets & Animals') and then scroll through the different spots in that channel, o tu can get a lista of the most popular spots, o tu can lista just the pending spots.

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

Fan of another user
As tu browse the site, tu will either find friends and family tu know, o you'll just notice other users who are posting enlaces that match your interests. tu may say that tu are a fan of another user. To do so, click on the user's name o portrait picture. This will take tu to that user's profile. If tu want to explore a little más of what this user has done on the site, tu can select 'activity' in the parte superior, arriba navigation bar. The module on the right will refresh with a lista of the enlaces that the user has added to the site, with the ability to also lista the videos, images, comments, posts to fora, preguntas and soapbox artículos that user has entered/created. Once you've satisfied yourself that tu want to add yourself as a fan, find the box labeled 'about me' on the left side of the user's perfil 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 tu have a reaction to it, positive o negative. At the moment, tu can rate videos, links, soapbox artículos and imágenes (remember, when we speak of content in general, we refer to all of these types of content as 'links'). When tu 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 estrella 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 medallas is completely based on ratings. If tu want your content to be recognized o if tu want to appreciate the content that others have posted, the best thing tu can do it rate that content!

Favorites
As tu find enlaces that tu particularly enjoy, o that tu want to be able to find again quickly, tu can save them to your lista of favorito! 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 perfil page. Your favoritos are listed in the left, right under the 'about me' box. por default, the favoritos are organized in reverse chronological order, with the link tu added to your favoritos lista most recently listed at the top. If tu click the link 'more favorites', tu can choose to lista your favoritos alphabetically por título as an alternative.

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

The segundo 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 anterior 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 reportar 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). tu then are dado 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 televisión channel – it's not TV, so it shouldn't be there), o duplicates a anterior spot. If, on the other hand, a link is not working, tu should reportar that link. The way to reportar 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, tu may instead choose to select 'Don't Report' to cancelar the problem report.

Here's enlaces 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 encuesta preguntas that tu see on the site and for the respuestas tu can pick to that question. Papa has created a link.

* 5: link

* 6:
link

* 7: link

tu may also want to see:

* link feature

* link