Bitems, Items & User tags

BITEMS, ITEMS, RITEMS, LITEMS & USERS, SUSERS & RUSERS

All about the WDC links everyone should learn

By Sticktalker

TWO MAJOR RULES
There are only two major rules in using ALL of WDC’s “WritingML” code which creates links
1. Use ONLY the “{“ and “}” parends. Any others will NOT work.
2. DO NOT put ANY spaces in the linking code.

The code is NOT case-sensitive and uses the seven digit ID number assigned to each page.

BITEM
The Bitem is used more frequently in the forum than any other link. You’ve seen and used them before. Here is a what a bitem looks like:

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #1510308 by Not Available.

This is a link that, when clicked, will take you to the Paper Dolls Home Page. (Go ahead and click it to check, then come back here by clicking the green “back” arrow in the top left corner of the tab).

This is how you write a bitem link:
{bitem:1510308}
(Curly parend, colon, seven digit ID number and closing curly parend) and NO spaces.

You may ask, if that’s the way you write the code, why didn’t the link to the Paper Dolls page show up?  Easy, because if you use TWO curly parends to start the code and two to end it, it doesn’t create the link, but simply prints out what is between the two outer parends.

Do this now: Open an email form, address it to yourself. Type in “Link Test” for the subject line. If the body of the letter, type out the above bitem for the Paper Doll page. When it looks right, go to the bottom of the email and click on “Preview email”.  Check and make sure that the result LOOKS right. If it doesn’t, click on “Edit Email” and go back and check what you typed and fix any errors. Keep doing that until you’ve got it right.

ITEM
An “item” link is done exactly the same way as an Bitem. It provides a link to a page and opens it in a new tab, but doesn’t give you so much information. Here’s the “item” link to the Dolls home page: "Invalid Item" .
Notice how the “item” link can easily fit into a sentence and takes up a lot less room. 
Here’s how you code an “item” link:
{item:1510308}

LITEM
There’s one more frequent codes in the series: the “litem”. Here’s the “Litem” itself "Invalid Item"   by A Guest Visitor
And here’s the coding for the “lLitem” link:
{Litem:1510308}

Notice the "Item" gives you little information except the name of the link you are going to.
The "Litem" gives you more information about who created the page you are going to and what color case they are.
The "bitem" gives you a lot of information.

I think of them this way: "item" is the basic info. "Litem" stands for a "Little Information" and "Bitem" for "BIG Information".


RITEM AND CITEMS
There are two more “items” codes, “ritem” and “citem”. They are created the same way but are used infrequently. Here is what they look like:

RITEM:
"Invalid Item" 

CITEM:

Invalid Item  [] # by A Guest Visitor

Notice the "age limit" appears on the ritem link and the email and “fav” icons do not appear on the citem link.

POST & LPOST LINKS
There are two more links which are used very irregularly. These are the “Post Link” and the “Lpost Link”. This is used when you want to link to a specific post in a message board. All messages have an id number assigned to them.
Using that number, you write it this way:
{post:1973728}
{Lpost:1973728}

Go back to your email and type in the above codes and review the email to see what the difference is.


USER CODES
You’ve seen the following lines when someone is talking about a particular member of WDC. It has an icon to go to their home page and an icon that opens up a new email form already addressed to the member.

There are three different codes: user, ruser and suser. Just like the “bitem-item” series, each presents you with different amounts of information.

Here’s the codes for the “user forms”followed by what it looks like
{suser:name of member} (Without spaces)
Sticktalker
{ruser:sticktalker}
Sticktalker
{user:sticktalker}
Sticktalker

Again, notice the amount of information changes with each code. The number in parends is the number of "community service points" the member has gathered and the check mark you click to add the member to your "favorite authors" list.

CONCLUSION
I’m aware that I’ve given newbies a lot of information in one chunk, but it’s all good stuff and eventually, if you remain a member of WDC for a long time, you will run across and need to know most, if not ALL of the above codes. My recommendation is to fav. this page for future reference or print it out and put it in your “Paper Reference Notebook”.

If you are brand new to WDC and feel lost in the forum, I’d recommend you check out this group “The Paper Dolls Newbie Project Group”.  The group has a dedicated core of about 25 experienced WDC members who enjoy teaching newbies how to use the entire forum and how to best utilize it to help them improve thier writing craft. You’ll also meet other newbies and probably make some long-lasting friendships too. Classes are two months long with a special grad class for you over-achievers. There are three classes each year, with a maximum of 25 students in each class.

Here’s the bitem for the Dolls Home Page:

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #1510308 by Not Available.

Sticktalker
10-11-09
917 words (including WDC Coding)