Frequently Asked
Questions
Use your browser's [Back]
Button to return to the board.
How do I
use this board?
The message list is divided
into parts:
The Linkbar:
(Appears at the top and the bottom of the list page).
- [Search] - Click
to run a word search on this message board.
- [View Archived Messages]
- Click this if you want to see messages over 60 days old.
- [Expand/Collapse
Threads] - Click to see all messages or just the first message per
topic.
- [Subscribe] -
You can subscribe and receive copies of messages via e-mail.
- [Post Message]
- Click this if you want to add a message to the list. (Details)
- [Exit Board]
- Click to exit the message board area and return to our Home Page.
The Message
List
- Here you'll see the
subject line of each message. The newest ones are at the top. Replies
to a message appear directly below that message and are indented. To
read a message, just click on the highlighted message subject.
The Message
Form - This is used to post a message.
- Name: Type
your name (or a nickname) here. Posting under multiple names is not allowed.
- E-Mail: If you'd
like people to have the option of sending you e-mail, enter your address here.
(Optional)
- Subject: This
is the topic of your message. Try to make your subject as specific as possible.
For example "Confused about POV" is much better than "A Question" or
the proverbial "HELP!!!!" ;-)
- Check if you
want to receive replies via e-mail. If you check this box, you will
receive an e-mail copy of all replies to your message.
- Message: Type
your message into this field. Make it as short as you can so more people
will read it. Many won't read long messages.
NOTE: The next three boxes
are optional. Linking to off-topic sites is prohibited. (See main page intro)
- Link URL: Does
your post refer to a web site? If so, enter the URL here and a link
will be added to your message.
- Link Title: If
you typed in a Link URL, enter a title for the URL here. This title will appear
as a link at the end of your message.
- Image URL: If
you have a picture on the web that you want to include with your message,
type its URL here.
Click [Preview] to
view the message for typos before you post it.
Click the [Post Message]
button to send your message to the Message Board.
Click the [Reset] button
if you want to start over.
How
do I post a Reply?
If you read a message and
want to post a reply, you can do it directly from that message page. Let's
look at the parts of the message page:
The Linkbar
(There's a linkbar at the top and the bottom of each message page):
- [View Thread]
- This scrolls you to the thread view. A thread consists of a topic
message and all of the replies under that message.
- [Post Reply]
- This scrolls you to the Reply Input Boxes so that you can post your
response to the message you just read.
- [Return to Main List]
- Returns you to the main message list page.
- [Admin] - Administrator
access only.
- [Help] - Gets
you here.
The
Message: Here you'll find:
- The poster's Name. If
the name is highlighted, you can click on it to send E-Mail to them.
- The Date and Time
that the message was posted.
- The Message itself.
- If the poster included
links with their message, they appear at the bottom.
The Reply
Form:
This is almost exactly
like the main message form, with two exceptions:
- The Subject Box will
contain the subject of the original message with a Re: in front of it. This
shows that the message is a response to the original posting. You can
edit this (suggested) or leave it as-is.
- The Message Box will
include the original message. It will include a colon at the start of each
line to indicate that those lines are "quoted" from the original message.
You may edit these lines or leave them as is. (If you're responding
to a small section of a rather large message, you can cut the quoted part
down so that it just includes the relevant part of the message).
Click the [Preview]
to check your message for typos before posting it.
Click the [Post It]
button to send your message to the board.
Click the [Reset]
Button if you want to start over.
Can I put
html tags anywhere in my posts?
No. You can not use HTML
tags except in the Link area. The script will just throw out everything in <>'s.
Why are
there colons in the message when I try to post a reply?
Colons appear in the message
dialog box when you try to reply to a message to indicate that those lines are
quoting the previous document.
Why didn't
my post show up?
Your post most likely did
not show up because your browser did't reload the page, it simply pulled
it out of you disk cache. Please "Reload" or "Refresh" your
browser window and it should then appear.