A welcome to 17th Shard, and site information

[Chaos Adonalsium]

See Also: Code of Conduct | Policies | Etiquette Guide

Hello everyone, and welcome to 17th Shard, the official Brandon Sanderson fansite and the home to his official forums, chat, wiki, and more. I'm Eric, and I'm the forum administrator. The staff and I are here to make this place a fun, kind, respectful, and interesting community to be a part of! 

Our site is named 17th Shard, at Brandon's suggestion, after the in world cosmere organization, Seventeenth Shard. The cosmere is a connected universe that encompasses most of Brandon's adult novels include, Elantris, Mistborn, Warbreaker, and Stormlight Archive. If this is news to you, man you've come to the right place! If you've read Brandon's cosmere books and want to dig deeper into the universe, I'd suggest you take a look at the topic Cosmere 101, as it's a nice introduction. Of course, if you want to dive into the deep end, check out the cosmere page on our wiki, The Coppermind. A word of caution, however, for if you haven't read all the cosmere books; the Coppermind, along with the Cosmere Discussion board, and Arcanum (our Word of Brandon archive), are full of spoilers which may impact your reading experience.

This topic is here to give you the rundown of the forum's including site navigation and features. Click the links below for each section!

• Site Layout and Features
• Other Capabilities
• Your User Settings
• Groups on the Shard

[Chaos Adonalsium]

Site Layout and Features

Let's discuss each module on 17th Shard, going left-to-right on our top navigation bar!

News

Find out the latest in Brandon Sanderson news, as well as free content we create for you!

Forums

The community hub of the site. You can make topics on anything you like here! This is great for having in-depth discussions about Brandon's works, in all its facets.

Shardcast

This is our long-running podcast on Brandon Sanderson! As long term mega-fans, we will give you the deep dives and fun you desire!

Gallery

This area is for fan art and all other images regarding Brandon fandom. Everything is welcome here, including cosplay photos. We'd love to see the awesome stuff you've done!

The Coppermind Wiki

This is the official wiki of the official Brandon Sanderson fansite. Everything regarding the cosmere and Brandon's works are here. It's a work in progress, yes, but it’s improving every day. Please help us by expanding it! This is a separate site and you'll need to make a separate account, though you can edit anonymously!

Arcanum, the Brandon Sanderson Archive

Arcanum is a custom website we built for the purposes of cataloging what Brandon says outside of the books. Here you can read up on what Brandon has said (Words of Brandon), put Words of Brandon into lists for safekeeping, or help transcribe new audio for all to enjoy! This is a separate site and you'll need a separate account for it.

More Stuff

After that, there is our Activity Feed, which shows recent posts, our Search Bar, and then to the far right, an overflow menu with some other stuff. In particular, there is our Discord server, a fantastic way to chat with other Brandon Sanderson fans in a live setting!

Edited April 12, 2020 by Chaos

[Chaos Adonalsium]

Other Capabilities

Member Statuses, Following Members

Yes, you can post statuses here, kind of like Facebook. On any member’s profile, you can follow them to get notified about content they post. Then, you can post status updates. Lastly, on any member’s profile, you can also comment there, which acts somewhat like a Facebook wall.

Reputation Points

On the bottom right of topics, posts, and comments, you’ll see an up button. Here, you can upvote a post in the site’s reputation system. If you think something is awesome, upvote them! Reputation points are carried throughout the site and are displayed whenever make a post. When you give out reputation, it’s anonymous to other members, so feel free to let your voice be heard!

Edited April 12, 2020 by Chaos

[Chaos Adonalsium]

Your User Settings

On the top right hand of the screen, you can access your user controls. There you can see your notifications, your messages, and if you click the box which says your username, a dropdown menu appears. There, you can access your profile and your settings. 

Profile

There's a lot of customization you can do on your profile. On the upper right of your profile (but below the navigation bar), there are the buttons Edit Profile and Cover Photo. Cover Photo lets you put a photo on your profile, just like Facebook. Edit Profile lets you set your birthday, custom title, enable status updates, put in contact methods, and make an About Me page for your profile.

Account Settings

On the left hand side on this screen, you can adjust your email, password, or display name. Under Account Security you can enable security questions or Two-Factor Authentication. Under Signature, you can enable yourself to have a signature which appears below your posts on the forums.

Back in the Overview tab, there is also Notification Settings, where you can adjust how you get notified both in-site and email notifications. You can hit Edit Profile for another way to edit your profile, like we talked about above. Lastly, there is Ignored Users, where you can stop seeing content from members, should you choose.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Chaos

[Chaos Adonalsium]

Groups on the Shard

Let me introduce you to the several groups on the forum. Most of you are in a group called "Members" but there are some special groups you should know about.

17th Shard staff

Head Administrators: These are the three founders of site. They are Rubix, otherwise known as Josh Walker. He is one of the co-founders and the owner of the site. He and his wife, Mi’chelle--firstRainbowRose--both live in Utah and primarily stalk Brandon. Then there is me, Chaos, otherwise known as Eric Lake. I'm the day-to-day site administrator. When the site breaks, it is usually my fault. 

Administrators: These, along with the Head Admins, are the day-to-day leadership of 17th Shard. Some of these have a particular area where they specialize in outside the forums, like the Coppermind or Arcanum. They have expanded powers over moderators.

Moderators: These are staff members who do regular management of the forum, like move topics, edit posts, deal with reports, etc.

Other groups

Next up, we have people who are not 17th Shard staff, but manage other sites we run. There are Keepers, which manage the Coppermind Wiki, and then there are Arcanists, which are staff of Arcanum.

Then, we have +Patrons, who are our Patreon supporters. 

Lastly, we have Dragonsteel Entertainment which include Brandon, his assistants like Peter Ahlstrom and Isaac Stewart, and other Dragonsteel employees.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Chaos

[Chaos Adonalsium]

Code of Conduct and Policies

Our rules, code of conduct, and policies are now in separate topics:

• Code of Conduct
• Policies
• Best Practices for Posting in Debates or Contentious Conversations

Edited April 12, 2020 by Chaos
Moving rules to separate topics