Using Forums
Reading threads
Depending on the security settings of your forums, the first step for most users will be to take a look at the existing messages which have been added to see if your website is for them. Forums are generally structured in a hierarchical manner with general topics at the top level followed by threads, for instance ‘General Discussion’ might be a top level topic with ‘What do you think about xyz?’ as a thread. Replies to the first item in the thread are shown underneath it, generally in chronological order.
A list of topics with the number of ‘child’ threads indicated in brackets.
A list of threads within a Forum topic with the number of replies indicated in brackets and the number of times the thread has been read in the ‘visit’ column. The most recently updated thread is shown at the top.
Registering
In general, registering and logging in gives site visitors the ability to post their own messages. There are some exceptions (depending on your configuration) so the below may not apply exactly to your website.
Unlogged in visitors are usually presented with 2 options; log in with their details if they have already created an account, or create an account through the registration form.
The registration form generally asks for a minimum of 4 fields; the user’s real name, their email address, their desired username and their desired password. The password field is often repeated to ensure people type it correctly.
Once they click OK, Site Manager processes the registration form and sends an email to the email address which was added. This is to prevent the use of fraudulent or nonsense accounts. The email contains a link which the user needs to click on for their registration to be successful.
Once registered, a user can then access the forums by correctly typing their username and password to the login form (see below)
Logging on
To reply to a thread, a user must first be registered and secondly logged in to the website. To login they should to the Login form which asks for their username and password. If these are typed correctly and match a user account on the system, they are given access to the forum with an appropriate level of security.
Replying to a thread
To reply to a thread, a user should visit the relevant thread and scroll to the bottom of the page. This will show a simple text box with ‘Click here to enter your text’ clearly marked inside. Clicking anywhere inside the box will make this disappear and allow the user to write whatever they wish, formatting it with the simple bold, italic and underline tools. Links appear automatically when they are typed in directly (e.g. www.bbc.co.uk) or can be ‘hidden’ by typing some text (e.g. ‘the BBC website’ ) and using the link icon
The spell check tool does work, however it can be fairly slow to run particularly on long entries or on busy websites, so we encourage users to manually check their own spelling as they go along.
Adding a new thread
To add a new thread, users should visit the list of threads within a topic and click the button. Adding a thread works in exactly the same way as replying to one, except users also need to add a thread title.
It is not uncommon to restrict the ability to create new threads.
