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Quick Lists

Help

Registering
Articles
- Browsing the articles
- Creating your own articles
Mods
- What are mod pages?
- Can I add my own mod?
Downloads
- What can I find here?
- How do I upload my own files?
Users
- User list and profiles
- Preferences
- Files and Points
Links
- Getting listed
- Reporting a dead link

Registering

Hello visitor. As a guest you will be able to use the majority of the functionality of this site. However, some functions, such as writing comments, or giving ratings, will require you to register.

As a registered member, you will also be given the ability to write your own articles, submit your own mod pages, or upload your own work.

The Third Age site and forums are part of the Revora network. This means that everyone who is already registered at Revora, won’t have to make a new account. It also means that you will be redirected to the Revora forums if you decide to register at our site.

Articles

The site features an article database. These articles each contain a tutorial, guide, or tips for modding the Battle for Middle Earth Series.

Browsing the articles

When you select the article page at the left side menu, you will be shown a page listing the different categories in which the articles are sorted. After selecting the initial criteria, you will be shown a list of articles that meet it. From there you can either directly select the article, or narrow the list down by inserting more criteria at the search field at the top of the page.

As a member, you can leave comments and give a rating with each article. Please try to be critical when rating,
don't give every tutorial that's a little bit useful a 10.

Creating your own articles

If you are a registered forum member, you can help the community by writing your own articles. An article can be a tutorial, a guide, a list of tips, or a general piece of good advice.

To create an article, you can use the "Create new article" button at the top of the article lists. You will be directed to a page that will ask you to fill in the title, possible contributors (You will automatically be selected as author), a one line summary, the most suitable category and skill level that the article fits in. The last part will be the selection of the game the article is relevant to. You can also select multiple games or none at all.
Please follow the instructions on this page

After hitting the save button, you will either get a confirmation that your new article has been created, or a message that you need to change some input to get accepted by the database. When the entry is accepted, follow the link to your newly created article.

The page you will be sent to is similar to any article you can view. The difference is that you will have additional buttons, which will let you edit your article.
If we start at the most left button next to the article title, you will notice this button will bring you back to the page in which you first created your article. If you want to edit any of the properties, you can do so there.

Next to the article edit button, is the activation button. This button will let you show or hide the article to the public. If it's red, it means the article is public, if it's green, the article is hidden and only visible to you and the staff. By default your article is hidden, so you have time to add some pages and other things. It is best to leave it that way until you think it is done.

Next are the additional buttons appearing in the top-right corner of the article pages (to get a page, first create one using the link).
The two green arrows let you move your pages, allowing you to reorder the structure of your article.
There is a pencil shaped button, which will let you edit the page content.
The red bin lets you delete the page. There is a confirmation when you want to delete a page, in case you hit the wrong button by accident.
Beware, a deleted page cannot be restored without asking the staff for a backup.
Click on the "+" tab to add a new page.

The input area for pages is a simple text field. You can use standard forum code tags like [b]bold[/b] and [url]Link[/url] in your articles.
For more information about writing a good structured article, please follow this link (coming soon)

If you want to attach file to the article, you can do so by using the "Add reference" button. You will have the option to link to a file that is hosted elsewhere, or in case it is a small file, you can upload it to the server (more about that later).

Don’t forget to make your article public using the green button next to the article title!

Mods

The Third Age hosts several game modification projects, thus it is only logical that we give them their own place at our site.

What are mod pages?

This part of the site is especially for pages about modifications for the Battle for Middle Earth games. Some of these mods are hosted at our site, some are not. Some are finished, others are still being worked on.

On a regular mod page you will find a description of the mod, perhaps a techtree, or screenshots, sometimes even a movie. When a mod has hosting at The Third Age, you will also be able to find a link to the subforums and the site of the mod. When a mod has a release, you will likely be able to download it from the mod page.

The mod pages are the responsibility of the mod leaders. We may step in from time to time, but it is their task to keep them up to date. We can't keep an eye on the daily changes of each mod.

Can I add my own mod?

Yes you can. As long as you are a forum member, you will be able to add a page about your mod. The process is very similar to writing an article, as described above. There are two differences. The first is that you do not have multiple pages, as in articles, but one single description. This description can be edited in the mod's properties.

Second difference is a screenshot or logo that you can attach. This thumbnail will be used for the screenshot rotator in the right top corner of the site.

As with articles, you can attach files using outside hosting, or upload small files in the space that every member gets. Hostees are recommended to use the hosting space they got for their site.

Don't forget to activate the mod pages using the green button next to the title!

Downloads

To offer a central location to share tools and other mod related files, we now have a download section on our site.

What can I find here?

What you can find in the download section are tools and other helpful files for modding, but also work that people wanted to share with others. These can be ini files, skins, models, etc.

If you are looking for mods, these can be found at their own section: The mod pages.

How do I upload my own files?

The routine is again similar to the articles. There is one difference. Just like with mods, the downloads can only have a single description page, which can be edited in the download properties, either at the creation of the item, or using the left button next to the title.

You can attach the file(s) you want to share using the "Add reference" button. There you will be given the choice to either enter a link to a file hosted elsewhere, or attach a file from your own space at The Third Age. You can read more about this below.

Don’t forget to make your download public using the green button next to the title!

Users

Userlist and profiles

The user list shows an overview of all members registered and active at the site. You can sort them on Name, Position, Points and Last Active. The users can be shown in a grid, or a list. You can also browse the different profiles and see which items they have contributed to the site, or follow the link to their Revora profile.

Preferences

Next to the files link in the user bar, you will have noticed the Preference link. At this page, you will be able to change the times and dates of the site to your local time.

In addition, you will be able to indicate whether you want the latest comments on articles, mods and downloads to be listed at the bottom or at the top.

Files and Points

As mentioned in the above parts, each member has his own little bit of disk space. This file space is set to 10 MB to start with. You can use this space to upload files, which you can then attach to articles, mod pages, or download entries.

You can upload your files by using the Files link, which you can find at the user bar, just below the site banner. Using the Browse button, you can search files located on your hard disk and select them to upload to the server. Once uploaded, the file will be added to the list of files in your space.

As said, this space starts with 10 MB, meaning it can increase. Every entry (articles, mod page or download) can be rated. There are two ratings, one of the public and one of the staff. The rating of the staff includes that of everyone who is listed as Team Chamber or higher in the Userlist.

A staff rating higher than 3.0 will gain you additional points. Apart from indicating the amount of work you have contributed to our site, these points are in direct relation to the space available to you. 10 MB is the equivalent of 10240 points. 15 MB the equivalent of 15360 points.

In case you need more space than is available to you, please contact one of the Staff or Administrators, and they will decide whether your space should be expanded.

If it is noticed that you abuse the space, your space limit can be lowered or even set to zero. The decision as to what is abuse, is reserved to the Staff, Administrators and Owner of The Third Age. In general, you are expected to only use the space for this site and in any case only for files related to BFME modding.