The New Forum!!!
Posted by Obi Matt Kenobi 16 Jan 2002 22:57.20
Features of the forum (just copied and pased from the help system) - it's quite a bit to read but wll give you most of the forums main features! I can't wait to start using it!
What can this forum do?
This forum has many community-oriented features that you can utilise, especially if you've properly registered as a user. You have access to your own user centre, where you can edit your profile, subscribe to subtopics and newsletters and communicate privately with other users. There is also the main discussion area where you can browse through categorised messages, post subtopics and replies, vote in polls, participate in chat sessions, search and summarise messages and do lots of other things!
Can you tell me more about private messaging?
Private messaging is a way of communicating with other users on the board without your messages being publicly displayed. In many cases, it can be a substitute for e-mail; keeping your forum related messages together, and hiding your e-mail address from other members. To use private messaging, you must be a registered user.
Private messaging works rather like e-mail, and is available through your user centre. An inbox is provided for messages sent to you, and an outbox for messages that you send to other people.
What are discussions, ads, polls and chats?
As you may recall, subtopics are where discussion takes place on a forum. Four types of subtopics exist, namely discussions, advertisements, polls and chats. Each type has its own particular features, so it's a good idea to become familiar with them, especially when you come to posting a subtopic: You'll also be plased to here smiies are back with 16 different faces and the ability to add many many more!!! 
Discussions are the standard subtopic type, and probably form the bulk of the forum. When posting a discussion subtopic, an initial message is posted to begin discussion. Users can then post further messages, called replies, to this initial message.
Advertisements are a subtopic similar to a classified ad that you may see in a newspaper. When posting an advertisement, an initial message is posted, as with a discussion, but a user may also attach a graphic to accompany their advertisement. Advertisement subtopics begin locked, meaning that other users cannot post replies to them. It is, however, possible for a moderator to unlock such a subtopic to open it up for discussion.
Poll subtopics are similar to the discussion variety, but come with an extra user poll accompanied by voting form and results. When posting such a subtopic, an initial message is posted, along with a question and up to twelve multiple choice responses to make up the poll. Other users can then vote in the poll for their chosen option, as well as post replies to the initial message.
Chat subtopics are designed for real time conversation rather than the post-response model of the other subtopic types. A chat subtopic is posted with a simple introductory text to the subject of conversation. The subtopic then has its very own chat room in which users can discuss together. It is also possible to post replies to the subtopic, although no initial message is posted and the emphasis is on the real-time chat rather than the message replies. However, you may like to use the reply system to post useful excerpts from a conversation that you had in the chat room, for example.
What are cookies, and how are they being used?
A cookie is a small snippet of information stored in your web browser for the forum to use. In particular, the forum uses a cookie to store your login information and keep track of the last time you visited the forum. More precisely, the following information is stored in your cookie:
Your username
Your password
Time of your last visit, last session and some date and time display format information.
No other information is stored in your cookie. Using cookies will allow you to automatically log in rather than having to enter your username and password whenever trying to access restricted areas. To use cookies, ensure that you have them enabled in your browser and then log in through the form provided on the topic index page.
Should be ready in 2-3 weeks at the most!
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