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Saturday, May 17, 2008

Lamorinda Moms Club

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How to Use the Forums
The Forums Home Page

Viewing the Forums: Flat View
Viewing the Forums: Threaded View
Viewing the Posts: Flat View
Viewing the Posts: Threaded View
Making a New Post
Replying to an Existing Post
Your Profile Page
Understanding Bulletin Board Code

The Forums Home Page
The Forums home page is the first page you see after clicking on Forums (link to Forums page), and it's also where you land if you click the "home" link/icon under the Lamorinda Moms Club Forums menu on that page. It gives you a quick overview of what's available—categories, forums etc.—so you can decide where to go for information.
Forum Search
Use the “Search Forum” box to search through the forum for a specific word or short phrase. Click in the box, type a word or short phrase, and press your keyboard's enter key; the search results will appear with successful results in bold text. Click on the bold text entry, and you'll be taken to that particular post. If you have no luck finding something on your first try, don't give up. Be less specific and more general, or try words with a similar meaning.
Main Menu
The Main Menu is located directly below the title of the page “Lamorinda Moms Club Forums” and will be available on every page you visit within the Forums section.
  • Home—takes you to the Forums home page.
  • My Profile—allows you to set up personal preferences for the forums. For example, you can give yourself an avatar (little picture) or set a signature that appears at the bottom of every post you make.
  • Show latest posts—allows you to view the latest posts based on specific time variables.
  • Help—has some quick and useful information on using the forums features.
  • Rules—allows you to read the rules of expected conduct in these forums.
Categories, Forums, and Topics
Think of a category as a "container" for a number of forums; it helps group and describe a number of similar forums within a single over-arching topic area. For example, within the Childcare category, there are forums called Daycare, Nannies and In-Home Care, and Preschools. In each of these forums are topics. Topics are created by the users who post to this forum. Clicking on the forum title will take you to the forum page where you will see the topics that have been posted.
New! New Post Indicator
When you see New! or New! in the left column beside the forum, it indicates whether there are any new posts in the corresponding forum. New! tells you that there are new posts you have not seen before. Clicking on the forum title will take you to that forum. New! means you have already read this posting.
Topics, Replies, and Last Post Details
The Topics column indicates the number of different topics in the forum. The Replies column indicates the number of replies in the forum. If you consider the number of topics and replies as a ratio, you'll get an idea of how active a forum is. The Last Post column indicates the date, time, and name of the last post on the forum.
Newest Post
Clicking on the little page graphic to the right of the Last Post detail will take you to the most recent post in that forum.
“Mark All Forums Read” Button
The “Mark All Forums Read” button will change all the New! indicators to New! to show that there are no new unread posts. This is particularly useful on busy forums if you've been offline for a bit and are unable to catch up on all of the reading.
Viewing the Forums: Flat View
When clicking on a forum name on the home page, you'll enter the actual forum. If it's set to "flat view" you will have these further options:
  • Main Menu/threaded view—click this to change from the current flat view to the alternative threaded view of the forum.
  • Post new topic link—click to post a new topic on the forum.
  • Page—is where pagination is listed, enabling you to skip from one page to another.
  • Boardwalk—indicates the path you follow while moving through the forum. You can click on the various links to move back up the path you've traveled.
  • Views column—shows the total number of views for the corresponding post.
  • Author column—shows the name of the initial post's author.
  • Most recent post indicator column—click the page icon to go to the most recent post for the corresponding topic.
  • Jump box—use this to jump directly to other forums, rather than using the Boardwalk to move upwards and then across into other forums.
Viewing the Forums: Threaded View
Threaded view provides a very different look to the forum compared to “flat view.” Most of the information is essentially the same, however there are differences in how the information is presented:
  • Main menu/Flat view—click this to change from the current threaded view to the alternative flat view of the forum.
  • Topics column—this column has a different layout compared to the flat view. When in threaded view, the topics column contains a hyperlinked topic title and indicates the relationship of replies to their parent’s post. It's somewhat like a tree; this view enables you to follow the branch-like twists and turns that sometimes arise in lengthy online post conversations. Unlike the flat view, the threaded view doesn't show the number of replies or views—or the most recent post indicator.
Viewing Posts: Flat View

When you open a post to read while the forum is set to "flat view," the post and its subsequent replies (known as the thread) will appear in a simple block-type.

  • Main menu/Post reply—use this link/button to post a reply to the topic thread, in addition to the reply links/buttons associated with each post in the thread.
  • Buttons associated with subsequent posts of a thread—click the reply or quote links if you would like to respond to a topic.
  • Subscribe—click the link/icon to subscribe to the topic you're reading. This will result in emails being sent to your email account when replies are made to the post.
Viewing Posts: Threaded View
The post in threaded view has a different look to that in flat view. You'll notice only one post at a time is shown in detail, and the entire thread is shown below in its tree format. In threaded view, you're able to see how all of the posts are related to each other. This enables you to follow the thread of a conversation, as there can be multiple themes—particularly within an active post.
Making a New Post
Join our Online Community! Creating a new post may seem daunting at first, but it’s very easy to master. Here are a few details about posting. Please remember that while Forums is for LMC members only, your posts are visible to hundreds of potential users. Use discretion.
  • Name of Poster
  • Topic Title
  • Topic Icon
  • Board Code
  • Text Effects
  • Close All Tags
  • Bb Code Help
  • Message Text Box
  • Smilies
  • Image Attachments
  • File Attachments
  • Subscribe
  • Post Action Buttons
Name of Poster
This text box contains the name of the person making the post. This defaults to your username.
Topic Title
This is where you give your post a topic title. Make your topic line appropriate to the content of your problem. The topic line is essentially a brief summary of the problem, and this is used during the forum search procedure. Make it relevant, useful, and full of keywords!
Topic Icon
You can give your topic a little icon to make it stand out in the crowd. None is selected by default. To select an icon, position the mouse pointer in the circle to the left of the icon and click. The little circle should now have a dark spot in it.
Board Code
This area really needs an information section all to itself, and the good news is that you don't have to use it to post a message. The buttons will insert "tags" to format text—such as bold, underline, italics, etc. Some will do dot point, and some will enable an image or hyperlink to be inserted. These tags then have to be closed after the text is affected.
Text Effects
This extends upon board code, and enables you to change the size and color of your forum signature.
Close All Tags
While it's normal to open and close board code before and after the text you're applying these effects to, sometimes things get missed. Clicking this link will close all tags that have been left open.
Bb Code Help
As you move your mouse over the bb code buttons, you'll see a help message flash up in this area to give you tips on applying bb code to your signature.
Message Text Box
This is where you type the content of your post. Where necessary, use the board code and text effects mentioned in the previous points to add any desired formatting or special links.
Smilies
Click on one or more to insert them into your post. You won't actually see the smilie in the text box though; it will be represented by things like brackets, colons, semi-colons, numbers, etc. This is "smilie code”—and it will be converted once you look in the preview window or at the published post.
Image Attachments
If you have a photo you want to make available on the forum, use this feature. Click the browse button to open up a new window showing your computer’s file tree. Navigate your way to the image file, click on it to highlight it, click open, and you will notice that the blank area preceding the browse button now has a local computer path in it; this is where the image file will come from. Now press the [img] button to the right of the browse button, and your file will be uploaded to the server. Image attachments have certain parameters regarding who can upload, size and type, etc., and these are set via by the administrator. You are limited to one image per post. Other limitations such as size and file type may apply.
File Attachments
To include a file such as a text document in your post, follow the same procedure to attach a file as you did to attach an image. You can only upload one file attachment per post. Other limitations such as size and file type may apply.
Subscribe
If you're posting something important and want to get replies sent to you via email, this is where you can subscribe to the post at the time of writing. Subscribing ensures you won’t miss a post.
Post Action Buttons
When you're done typing your post to the forum, click the submit button and it will be published. Click the preview button if you'd prefer to check over your post before submitting. The cancel button simply cancels all your hard work writing the post; it's deleted before it's even published to the forum.
Replying to an Existing Post
The page view when replying to an existing post is essentially the same as the one you'll see when posting a new topic. There are a couple of differences associated with the display of details from the initial post and subsequent replies.
Topic History Title
Below the post area, you'll see the title of the topic you're replying to here.
Content
Beneath the Topic History, you'll see details of the author and content of their post/reply here.
Forum Profile Page
The profile page allows you to set a number of preferences related to the forum's appearance and message arrangement, signature, and your avatar (picture).
Appearance and Message Arrangement
From the Forum’s Main Menu, click My Profile. This is not only the profile for the forums but for the LMC website. Choose Edit, then Update Your Profile, then Forum Settings to set the following. Select Update to save the information.
  • Preferred Viewtype: This sets your standard viewing format—whether you want to see the forum in a flat or threaded view each time you open it. You can still set viewing format on the fly via the forum menu bar as well.
  • Preferred Message Ordering: This sets the order of messages—Latest Post First or Oldest Post First.
  • Signature: One of the many ways to give yourself an "online personality" is the signature tag. Some people use well-known quotes, others make statements, some a standard goodbye. This is where you enter the details of your signature. Remember to use caution about displaying personal information in your signature; although the Forums feature of the LMC website is for members only, your signature will be visible on all your posts unless you manually delete it.
Picture (or Avatar)
To personalize your online experience, give yourself a picture or avatar. From the Forum’s Main Menu, click My Profile. Choose Edit, then Update Your Image. Browse to an image that meets the requirements noted. Click Upload when you are finished.
Understanding Bulletin Board Code
As HTML represents a significant risk to the security of sites running forums, formatting the text of a post is accomplished using a system referred to as bulletin board code (bb code). While it can be confusing for people new to posting on forums, it's an easy system to work with.
Bold
To add Bold text to your posting, click the "B" button to open the bold tag before writing the text you want to be bold. You will see that [b] has appeared after the text and the "B" button now has an asterisk on it. Now, type in the text you want to be written in bold. Click the "B" button again to close the bold tag and return to normal font.
Italics
To add Italics text to your posting, click the "i" button to open the italics tag before writing the text you want to be in italics. You will see that [i] has appeared after the text and the "i" button now has an asterisk on it. Now, type in the text you want to be written in italics. Click the "i" button again to close the italics tag and return to normal font.
Bulletized Lists
You can also create a bulletized list within your posting, like this:
  • Apples
  • Oranges
  • Pears
To add a list to your posting, click the "li" button to open the list tag before writing the text you want to be listed next to the first bullet. You will see that [li] has appeared after the text and the "li" button now has an asterisk on it. Now, type in the text you want to be written next to the first bullet. Click the "li" button again to close the list tag. Press the enter key to go to the next line, and repeat the process of opening and closing the "list" tag around the second and subsequent points you want to make.
Hyperlinks
To add a hyperlink to your posting, click the "URL" button to open the hyperlink tag. You will see that [url] has appeared at the beginning of the line, and the "URL" button now has an asterisk on it. Type in the web address (for example, www.google.com), then click the "URL" button again. You can now see [/url] after the web address, and the link will work. To insert a hyperlinked word or phrase requires a slightly different technique. Simply open up the "URL" tag, type in the text to be hyperlinked, then close the "URL" tag. Once you've done that, insert the url into the tag so that it looks something like this: [url=http://www.yourdomain.com]YourLinkText[/url] Looking at it in the preview window, you can now see the hyperlink. Move your cursor over it and you'll see that it's active; if you click on it, a new window to that address will open.
Conclusion
While not all aspects of board code and text formatting have been covered at this point, the information given should be enough to give you the confidence to experiment further and make full use of the formatting features available.