Navigation There are several different ways you can communicate within the dmusic community. Each method has it's own advantages and disadvantages, so it often depends on what you're trying to achieve as to where your conversation text should be entered. In this section, we shall explain the basics of each function, and how they are generally used. Shoutbox - The shoutbox is often the quickest and easiest way to address a person, however you should remember that a shoutbox is always public, and anyone can read them. It is located to the right hand side of a Users Homepage. A general rule of thumb is if you wish to communicate with another user, you go to their userpage and message them on their shoutbox. If that user has a response for you, then they in turn enter their messages on the shoutbox on your userpage. Quite a few times, members have had to point the poor new guy in the right direction as they were talking away in their own shoutbox, as the intended audience was sitting on their own userpage, patiently waiting for a response. Dmusic Notes - Supposing you wish to communicate with another user, however you do not wish every other users to read through it for personal reasons.. dmusic caters for private messages as well. You could consider it in many ways an internal e-mail system on dmusic. To access the Note page, you can click on the link towards the top left corner of most dmusic pages... it's the one between your username and the logout buttons. Often, it will say "No New Notes", however when a user has sent you a note, it will change to 1 New note, etc. Once accessed, the link will take you to a page with an Inbox, and an Outbox, as mentioned before, much like an e-mail system. If you wish to "note" someone, you can either enter their username into the "Send a note" section at the bottom of your inbox, or alternatively you can link to it from the "Send DMusic note" link located on each userpage (just above their journal entry). The beauty of this function is it fills out the recievers name for you, saving time, and overcoming case sensetivity issues such as hard to spell usernames. Journals - On each userpage, there is a journal entry. This is located in the centre of the users home page. If you get into the habit of updating your journal, even after the shortest of times, journals can be interesting, and remind you of things in the past. The journals can be opened in a new window, so other users and yourself can interact on related topics. You could almost call it your own personal thread, however remember it's also public. Buddy list - The buddy list is your own personal collection of contacts and friends within the dmusic community. Supposing you find an artist who's music you enjoy, or a user with similar interests, you can simply go to the users homepage, and press the "Add To Buddy List" button. This has 2 extremely useful features. The ability to see if a buddy is online, and also to quickly and easily access their userpage. You can see your buddy list on the lower, right hand corner of your userpage. My account - This window, located on the left of your userpage is often the easiest way to access most adminitrative fuctions for your site, for example if you wish to post photo's of you, and your new guitar, you can click on the My Pictures link, and edit your personal pictures from there. After uploading, some users even link to their snapshots with their webcam URL. This is a nice way to liven up your userpage. There are also quite a few extra links and useful buttons in this window, most beaing fairly self explanitory, however it is worth noting the Emoticons link will take you to the current database of Emoticons, (those cute little smileys) and how to make them. Navigation This window is a collection of Links, similar to the My Account window. The main difference is that the Navigation window will take you around whoever's userpage you are on, unlike the My account window which is more directed towards only your userpage. In other words, explore a users page with the Navigation window. Member of/Artists page - The "Member of" is often the hardest link to find for new users. It is the window to the Artist's page. Supposing your userame was "username" for ease of explaining, The url for your user page would be http://username.dmusic.net The url for your Artists page (provided you have enabled one and uploaded your original music) would be http://username.dmusic.com. In other words the answer to "Where can I download songs?" is click on the member of link. Pictures - This will take you to a users pictures, unlike the My pictures link that allows you to edit/delete/add your own pictures. One feature of the pictures window is that it cycles everytime the page is loaded or refreshed.