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New Users
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If you are new to the message boards, please read through this User's manual to familiarize yourself with the features of the boards.
If you wish to contact the forum moderator, you can send an e-mail to webmaster@forum.com.
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Registering to the Forum
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This section explains how to register for a Message Board Forum.
To join the forums, simply click on the menu tab labeled 'join'.
The Terms and Conditions for using the forum will be presented.
Before joining, you will be required to agree to the Terms and
Conditions of the forum.
To join, simply provide the necessary information on the form
to create a profile of yourself. The fields that must required are marked with '*' like your First Name,
a login name of your choice, password, and e-mail address etc. Although not required,
if you would like to see the actual time that messages are posted
you will want to fill in your time zone. When all necessary information
is provided, complete your request by clicking the "Submit" button. Once you have submitted you will be gone to the forum main page if you are succeeded otherwise you will be shown errors, correct the fields and submit again.
Some of forum information may be e-mailed to you. It is therefore important
to provide a valid e-mail address.
| Field |
Description |
| Login name* |
your username for logging in to the forums (e.g. jsmith). |
| Nick name* |
Optional nick name for displaying as the author of the message in the forum, if not provided then login name will be displayed. (e.g. smith) |
| E-mail Address* |
your e-mail address. |
| Password* |
your password for logging in to the forums. |
| Company name |
Optional, your company name for contact information. |
| First Name* |
your first name |
| Last Name* |
your last name |
| City |
the city in which you reside |
| Province/State |
the province or state in which you reside; if it is not listed, choose "Other". |
| Country |
the country in which you reside |
| Zipcode* |
the zipcode of your region. |
| ICQ ID |
if you have an ICQ (I Seek You) number, enter it here. ICQ is a program you can download that will let you know when friends and contacts are online on the Internet. |
| AIM ID |
if you have an AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) number, enter it here. AIM is an AOL program you can download that will let you know when friends and contacts are online on the Internet. |
| MSN ID |
if you have an MSN Id, enter it here. MSN is a program you can download that will let you know when friends and contacts are online on the Internet. |
| Yahoo ID |
if you have a Yahoo Id, enter it here. Yahoo is a program you can download that will let you know when friends and contacts are online on the Internet. |
| Web Site URL |
your website address. |
| Occupation |
your Occupation. |
| Interests |
your Interests. |
| Signature |
your signature block, which will appear below each message you post.
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| Topics Per Page |
The number of topics displayed on each page in the forum when you log in the forum. |
| Posts Per Page |
The number of Posts displayed on each page in the forum when you log in the forum. |
| Hide Online Status |
if yes, then it will be not be accumulated in total no. of logged in users displayed on main page "Who is Online" panel. |
| Message Order |
select either ascending or descending, for listing of message display. |
| Profile Visibility |
if yes, attaches an icon to each message you post allowing other users to view your profile information. |
| Attach Signature |
if yes, attaches your signatures at the end of each message you post. |
| Time Zone |
for the convenience of those not in the same time zone as the forums, you can select your time zone. All topic and message times will then be displayed in your time zone. |
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Logging In
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To participate in a forum you must be logged into the forum. If the forum allows anonymous login you do not require logging in to participate.
To log in to the forum, select the link "login" on top left of the page. Enter the registered username and password, and select the 'Login' button.
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Logging Out
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To log out of the message board, select the link 'logout' at top left of the page.
You will see a confirmation page if you logout successfully. From here you can go back to forum without login.
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This section allows you to customize your account. Below is an explanation of the function of each option.
Edit Profile
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This section allows you to customize your profile. After setting your options and clicking the 'Update Profile' button at the bottom of the page, your profile settings will be saved.
| Field |
Description |
| Login name* |
your username for logging in to the forums (e.g. Qaiser). |
| E-mail Address* |
your e-mail address |
| Password* |
allows you to change your password |
| Confirm Password* |
a second password field used to verify your password |
| Company name |
Optional, your company name for contact information. |
| First Name* |
your first name |
| Last Name* |
your last name |
| Address* |
your postal address |
| City* |
the city in which you reside |
| Province/State* |
the state or province in which you reside; if your state is not listed, choose "Other". |
| Country* |
the country in which you reside |
| Zip Code* |
your regional zipcode |
| Phone# |
your phone number for contact |
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Change Password
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Below is the description of fields that must be filled to change your password. After entering the required information click on 'Change Password' button.
| Field |
Description |
| Old Password* |
Your old forum password that you want ot change. |
| New Password* |
New forum password of your choice. |
| Confirm New Password* |
New forum password to verify. |
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Forum Preferences
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The following is a list of all the forum preferences that a user can change to customize his/her forum.
| Field |
Description |
| Nick Name |
Your nick name. If you enter here then it will be displayed with your posts, if you left it blank then you login name will be displayed. |
| ICQ ID |
if you have an ICQ (I Seek You) number, enter it here. ICQ is a program you can download that will let you know when friends and contacts are online on the Internet. |
| AIM ID |
if you have an AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) number, enter it here. AIM is an AOL program you can download that will let you know when friends and contacts are online on the Internet. |
| MSN ID |
if you have an MSN Id, enter it here. MSN is a program you can download that will let you know when friends and contacts are online on the Internet. |
| Yahoo ID |
if you have a Yahoo Id, enter it here. Yahoo is a program you can download that will let you know when friends and contacts are online on the Internet. |
| Web Site URL |
your website address. |
| Occupation |
your Occupation. |
| Interests |
your Interests. |
| Signature |
your signature block, which will appear below each message you post.
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| Topics Per Page |
The number of topics displayed on each page in the forum when you log in the forum. |
| Posts Per Page |
The number of Posts displayed on each page in the forum when you log in the forum. |
| Hide Online Status |
if yes, then it will be not be accumulated in total no. of logged in users displayed on main page "Who is Online" panel. |
| Message Order |
select either ascending or descending, for listing of message display. |
| Profile Visibility |
if yes, attaches an icon to each message you post allowing other users to view your profile information. |
| Attach Signature |
if yes, attaches your signatures at the end of each message you post. |
| Time Zone |
for the convenience of those not in the same time zone as the forums, you can select your time zone. All topic and message times will then be displayed in your time zone. |
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Email Notification Subscriptions
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It manages your topic email subscriptions. It displays the list of those topics in which you are subscribed along with the last post date and author name.
From this page you can Unscribe to any of the topics in the listing by selecting your required topic(s) and clicking on 'Unscibe' button on top right of the page.
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Private Messanger
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From this page, you can Read and send Private Messages between yourself and other forum members.
There are three main areas of the Private Messanger.
- The first area is the "Member's InBox", which displays your private messages in the forum sent from others.
- The second key area is the "Member's OutBox", that contains the messages sent by you to others.
- The other area is from where you can send private messages to yourself or to other members of the forum.
On the left of each message name is an icon. Below is a table of the different icons that you may encounter
in your private messanger.
| Folder |
Description |
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Read Messages - messages has been read in your private messanger. |
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Unread Messages - messages has not been read in your private messanger. |
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Posting a new topic
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The key actions of any forum are, of course, posting, replying, and viewing messages. The process of doing each of these tasks is as follows.
To post a new topic in a particular category, go to that category or sub-category in which you want to post to and click the 'new topic' button on top right of the page.
The "Post New Topic" form will appear, where you can enter the message subject and description. Press on the 'Post Topic' button when completed. And if you want to preview your post, click on the "Preview Topic" button that will display your topic in a pop up window. See below for the list of fields in this form and their definitions.
Above the message box, you will see a toolbar with symbols that resemble "B" and "I". This toolbar allows quick access to bolding text, changing font to italics, underlining text, and putting links around words/sentences. On the right of the panel is the list of Smilies that you can attach with your topic text.
| Field/Function |
Description |
| Message Subject |
the title or short description of the message. |
| Message Text |
the body text of the message. |
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Replying
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To reply to a message/topic, click the 'Reply' or 'Quote' button located in each message within a topic. The difference between the two options is that by pressing the 'Quote' button, the original message is automatically added to the beginning of your reply message. See below for the list of fields in the Reply form that will appear, and their definitions.
Above the message box, you will see a toolbar with symbols that resemble "B" and "I". This toolbar allows quick access to bolding text, changing font to italics, underlining text, and putting links around words/sentences.
| Field |
Description |
| Message Subject |
the title or subject of the message. |
| Message Text |
the body text of the message. |
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Editing
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You can edit a message that you have posted. You can only edit messages if you are the originator of the message. To do this, navigate within the forums to locate your posted message. At the bottom right of the message, there is an 'Edit' link. Click on this link and the Edit Message form will appear.
Above the message box, you will see a toolbar with symbols that resemble "B" and "I". This toolbar allows quick access to bolding text, changing font to italics, underlining text, and putting links around words/sentences.
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Viewing
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To view messages in the forum, navigate into a category and click on a topic that interests you. A list of messages will appear. If the number of messages in that topic exceeds the number of messages that you've allowed to be displayed per page, you will see page numbers at the bottom of the listing. This will assist you in navigating through the page(s) of messages.
Every message consists of the following features: the message subject, the message body, the posted date, the author of the message, His number of posts in the forum, His member no, and Joining date.
Bottom Right Message Toolbar
The toolbar located at the bottom right of each message, allows you to perform various tasks. Following is a description of each task.
| Link |
Description |
| Subscribe To Topic |
Subscribe link - allows you to subscribe to the topic; if any new messages are posted, you will be notified via e-mail or private messaging depending on your profile settings. |
| Email Topic |
E-mail Topic link - allows you to send the URL link to this topic to someone else by e-mail. |
| Print Topic |
Print Topic link - allows you to view text version of the topic and print it. |
Bottom Left Message Toolbar
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| Who is Online |
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On the main page of the forum, located below the category list to the left, is a panel, "Who is Online", which displayes a list of users who are currently logged in. This information is accurate to approximately 15 minutes. You can view the User profiles, send e-mail, or send a private message to any one of these users.
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