All good tips so far.. Remember that before anyone gets validated, we click 'find all posts by this member' - if all/most of them are along the lines of You will not get validated. Saying mate, and I hope I have helped is getting a bit tedious to read recently and some new members seem to think that saying that will get them validated - it wont. One decent reply will get you validated, whereas 100000000 crap ones wont. More tips: Put as much information into your posts as possible. I can't stress how important it is.. dont leave people guessing what you mean, or having to ask you more, basic information before they can give you a reasonable answer. If you dont have to say it, dont. Leave spammy chit chat to MSN, remember this is a discussion forum. EDIT BY TOMM: Just FYI people - I won't validate anyone who fails to use capital letters at the start of sentences. Petty, I know. What are you going to do?