Message Board Help

Contents:
Navigating the Message Board
Creating your own post - how to use emoticons

Navigating the Message Board

This button will allow you to start a new discussion thread. Do not click this button if you want to reply to someone else's post; instead click on the Reply button.

Click on this button to set your email subscription preferences. You may opt in to a daily digest of the Message Board's activity, and you may set your preference for being notified when someone replies to one of your posts.

Clicking this button will take you to a page where you can view the Message Board in "unthreaded" mode, that is, you can see all the most recent posts and their responses in the order in which they were posted.

Click this button in order to see a summary of the most recent threads without viewing their replies. This gives you a good overview of the various subjects that are being discussed, without being bogged down with details.

Click this button to view posts in a compact "summary" form. You will be able to see the post titles and the number of replies to each post, but you will not be shown the body of the posts.

Click this button to view posts in expanded form. You will be able to see the full post this way, as well as the photo of the poster (when available).

Click this button to return to the top of the page you are viewing.

Click on this button to post a reply to a particular post. When you have finished posting your reply, it will appear with a blue background instead of the gray background of the first post in the thread.

Click this button to see the user profile associated with the person that created the post. (Profiles may not be available for all users, depending upon user preferences.)

Click this button to send a Personal Message to a user.

Click this button to navigate to a user's web site. This button will only appear if the user has configured a web site in their profile.

Click this button to view the most recent posts made by a user.

Creating your own post - how to use emoticons

Emoticons associated with your post's title

One emoticon may be associated with your post's title. (We currently do not support embedding emoticons in post titles; the emoticon image you select to go with your post will appear to the left of the post's title.) To select an emoticon image to go with your post title, click the down-arrow marked Title Images to the left of the area where you will type your post. A menu of images should appear; click on one to make it the title image of your post. The image you have selected will appear outlined in red in the Title Images menu.

Emoticons inserted into your post

As many emoticons as you like may be inserted into the body of your post. To view the available emoticons which you may insert, click the down-arrow marked Message Emoticons to the left of the area where you type your post. You will see a list of textual representations of emoticons and their corresponding emoticon images. To insert an image into your post, type the corresponding text. For example, to include this image in your post, you'd type :-), and to include this one you'd type :angel:.

Coming soon: You'll be able to click on the emoticon of your choice, and its code will automatically be inserted into your post!