How to use and navigate our Forum

[Noel Tudball]

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Definitions of Forum Terms are at the bottom of this page.

Click here for another person's guide if you find mine unclear.


Navigation:

Choose the Forum that most interests you from the front page (Board Index).

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Choose the Topic that most interests you.

"Hot Items" will appear at the top of all Forums for a time.

(Click on image to view & close)

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(Use your browser's Back function or the banner at the top of the page to return)

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[Noel Tudball]

Topics and Posts sorting:

To make the latest news items easier to find, they will now appear at the top of all Forums (under the Announcements heading) for a week or so before they are moved to their relevant Forum. Some ongoing and/or important items will remain at the top.


In this Forum, the default display is from oldest to latest, so the oldest information will be at the top when you first view Topics and Posts.
If you Register to the Forum, you can access the "User Control Panel" to sort the most recent items to the top - see below.

You may see a message telling you to go to page 2 or 3 ...... like this:

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This image shows that the first post in this Topic was made on Sat, Nov 9, 2013 and is on page 1:

(Click on image to view & close)

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Sometimes, a Topic has an update at the top, where you first view after clicking on a Topic.
However, most often, when the Topic has several Posts over time, the most recent information is located at the bottom of the Topic (which could be on page 2 or 3), as in this image - this post was made on Tue, Nov 11, 2014 and is on page 2:


(Click on image to view & close)

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[Noel Tudball]

Registered Users can access the "User Control Panel" to sort the most recent items to the top.
Change "Ascending" to "Descending" where indicated.

(Click on image to view & close)

[Noel Tudball]

[Noel Tudball]

[Noel Tudball]

Using the Forum:
Terms:

Forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.[1] They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporarily archived. Also, depending on the access level of a user or the forum set-up, a posted message might need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes visible.
A discussion forum is hierarchical or tree-like in structure: a forum can contain a number of subforums, each of which may have several topics. Within a forum's topic, each new discussion started is called a thread, and can be replied to by as many people as so wish.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum)

This Forum has subforums such as General, Issues and Events.

Post
A post is a user-submitted message enclosed into a block containing the user's details and the date and time it was submitted. Members are usually allowed to edit or delete their own posts. Posts are contained in threads, where they appear as blocks one after another. The first post starts the thread; this may be called the TS (thread starter) or OP (original post). Posts that follow in the thread are meant to continue discussion about that post, or respond to other replies; it is not uncommon for discussions to be derailed.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum)

Topic (or Thread)
A thread (sometimes called a topic) is a collection of posts, usually displayed from oldest to latest, although this is typically configurable: Options for newest to oldest and for a threaded view (a tree-like view applying logical reply structure before chronological order) can be available. A thread is defined by a title, an additional description that may summarize the intended discussion, and an opening or original post (common abbreviation OP, which can also mean original poster), which opens whatever dialogue or makes whatever announcement the poster wished. A thread can contain any number of posts, including multiple posts from the same members, even if they are one after the other.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum)

[Noel Tudball]