Bitzenbytes.com

Hi folks!

It occurs to me that there may be a lot of Members and guests who have never used the type of forum software in use on the CompuClues Forum.

For the benefit of all of our Members, I'd like to explain how this forum works.

First, you'll need to register...

Registration:

• You can register as a Member of the CompuClues Forum by clicking the 'register' link at the top of most forum pages. Registration is free. You do not have to be a Member to read the posts here, but you must be a Member to start a new Topic or to reply to an existing one.
• During the registration process, you will need to agree to the terms and conditions of this Forum. You will also need to fill out an online form. You must supply a Login Name and a valid email address. You'll need to enter the email address twice to confirm it. The other boxes are optional, you may fill them out or leave them blank as you wish. I'd suggest filling in the Display Name box, that's the name that will appear next to any posts you add. Let me add here that when you enter your location, you should only post your City, State or Province and Country (or any combination thereof). Please don't enter your street address.
• Once you have submitted the online form, you'll receive a confirmation message sent to the email address you've provided. This message will contain your password.
• Armed with the login name and your new password, you are ready to login and begin participating in the discussions. Please remember that your Login Name and password are case sensitive and must be typed exactly as they were recorded. In other words, I must login as NoClue...noclue and NOCLUE will not work.
• After you have logged in, your browser may ask you if you want to have it remember your password for you. If you say yes to this, it will make logging in much easier, but you may not want to enable this on a public computer or any other computers that will be used by other people.
• You can change the information in your profile at any time by clicking the 'my profile' link at the top of most pages. You may not change your login name, but feel free to change your password, display name, email address, location, occupation, etc. any time you wish.
• You may also edit or delete your posts at any time. Click the 'Edit/Delete Post' icon on the top of the post you want to edit or delete. A word of caution: If your post is the beginning post of a thread and you delete it, you will also delete all the other posts in the thread. Please be careful.

  
Posting messages:

Let's get some vocabulary out of the way first.  A message is what you have to say, a short letter that one person types.  A thread is a collection of messages that refer to one specific topic.  A thread can contain two kinds of message: the start message and reply messages.  A specific topic is the title, theme, or subject of a thread.  When you start a new topic, you start a new thread.   When you reply to an existing specific topic, you continue a thread.  Specific topics can be grouped together, for categorization purposes, under the heading of a general topic.  Any collection of threads, under one general topic, is called a forum.   Another name for  "forum" is a "board."   A collection of forums is sometimes called a Bulletin Board System.  A Bulletin Board System is sometimes referred to, as simply, "The Board" or "The Forum", a practice that is sometimes confusing to new people because it leads to the description that a Board is a collection of boards, or that, a forum is a collection of forums.  Don't be confused.  You should be able to understand from the context or usage of the word.

There are currently over 20 boards on this forum, or over 20 forums on this board (whatever).  At the CompuClues forum, we call them forums.  You are welcome to post in any of the forums you wish, but please try to make sure that you are posting in the appropriate forum.  Forums are distinguished by their general topic.

Each forum contains messages grouped into Topics (or threads, I'll use both terms interchangeably).

When you post a message, you have two choices, to start a new Topic, or to add (Reply) to an existing Topic.  This is the same as saying that you have a choice to start a new Thread, or to add to an existing Thread.  As a general rule, you should Reply to a thread when your post relates to a current specific topic.  Start a new specific Topic when you have a new question or comment.

New Topics (threads) are given their own topic page. Replies are added to the bottom of the current topic.

At the top right and bottom left of each forum page you'll find a 'New Topic' button. You will click on this button to post a new Topic.

On each Topic page (also at the top right and bottom left), there are 2 buttons; 'New Topic' and 'Post Reply'.

  
Adding a 'New Topic':

After you've clicked on the 'New Topic' button, you will be taken to the 'Add New Topic' screen.

You should enter the Subject of your topic into the Subject line.

You can choose a message icon to reflect the mood of your topic if you wish.

Type the body of your message into the Message box. Please feel free to use UBB Code or HTML in your messages if you wish. You may also use any of the 'Graemlins' or 'Smilies' to help convey a mood.

You'll also be able to enable 'Email Notification' by clicking the checkbox at the bottom of the page. If enabled, an email message will be sent to the address you used when you registered every time someone replies to your post. This can sometimes be a bad thing...I'll leave the choice up to you.

There is also a 'Disable smilies in this post' checkbox. This is sometimes useful because each of the smilies has its own keyboard shortcut. For instance, if I type 'colon D', I'll get the 'big smile' graemlin...

Once you have completed your message, you have the option to 'Preview your Post' before adding it, to see how your post will look.

When you are satisfied with your post, click the 'Add New Topic' button. You will then be automatically taken to your new Topic page.

Replying to an existing Topic:

After you've clicked on the 'Post Reply' button, you will be taken to the 'Post A Reply' screen. This screen is very similar to the 'Add New Topic screen, except:

• There is no Subject line.
• You cannot enable Email Notification.

Other than that, you would treat the 'Post a Reply' screen as described above, and click on the 'Add Reply' button when you have finished typing your message (and previewing it, if you like). You will then be taken back automatically to the thread to which you have replied.

If you are still uncertain about any of this, feel free to try a test post in the "Questions about this forum" forum.  Put the word 'Test' in either the subject or the body of your message. I'll delete them after you've tested.

I hope what I've described here will help you to start posting today, we are very interested in hearing your thoughts and opinions, and are eager to answer any questions you may have.

If it's your first time here, you should probably read this.

The information above was distilled from a couple of posts I put up separately.

As I've mentioned before, I get quite a bit of email, now that my address is linked on every page. While most of it is of the 'Thank you/Keep up the good work' variety (and let me thank you for letting me know you appreciate what we do here ), I still get some 'Help me!' mail. Quite a bit actually. A few of these folks have said that they don't know how to post messages. They do now.