Forums FAQ

Many of the areas of the Electronic Commons/Agora Electronique are devoted to discussions, both of the eCommons/Agora itself and of the important issues of the day. We use a software package for this which, not surprisingly, is called Phorum. If you aren’t familiar with this particular forum software, you might want to look through this page, which will answer your questions about how everything works. If you need to know about a specific function, use the links in the table of the contents to go to the question you need answered.

1. What is the blue bar at the top of the page for?
2. How do I read a message on a specific subject?
3. How can I tell who wrote a message from the opening list?
4. How can I know which subjects are creating a lot of discussion?
5. How do I know if a discussion on a given subject is still going on, or if it has died out?
6. Okay, now that I know how to read messages, what do I do if I find myself somewhere in the forum where I don’t want to be? How do I get around?
7. How do I find out what forums are available?
8. If I’m at the bottom of a long list of messages, how can I get back to the top?
9. How do I start a discussion on a subject that hasn’t been talked about yet?
10. How do I see all of the messages that have been posted to a forum?
11. How do I only see the messages that start discussions?
12. If there are too many messages to scroll through, how do I find specific material quickly?
13. I find the little red “new” icon next to messages annoying. Isn’t there anything I can do about it?
14. Once I’ve posted a message, how can I tell if anybody replies to it?
15. Can I search from the message form page?
16. What if I want to go back to the top of the list of messages?
17. How do I reply to an existing message?
18. If I write more than one message, will I have to type my name in the “Your Name” field every time?
19. What if I want to pick and choose which messages in a thread I want to read?
20. What if I want to see the text of all the messages in the thread?
21. How do I move from message to message?
22. How do I move from topic to topic?
23. How do I search through the forum messages?

Answers

1. What is the blue bar at the top of the page for?

The blue bar tells you information about messages that have been posted. It allows you to look through this information in four different ways, by clicking on links to: “Topics,” “Author,” Replies” and “Latest Reply.”

2. How do I read a message on a specific subject?

Look through the list of message titles under the Topics heading. When you’ve found a message that looks interesting, click on the topic and a link will take you to the message.

3. How can I tell who wrote a message from the opening list?

The name of the writer of a message can be found in the Author column next to the title of the message.

4. How can I know which subjects are creating a lot of discussion?

Under the Replies heading, you will find the number of people who have posted responses to a message. Each of these replies may also have replies, so you can find yourself burrowing deep into messages on an especially hot topic!

5. How do I know if a discussion on a given subject is still going on, or if it has died out?

Under the Latest Reply heading is the date of the most recent post responding to the message. If the reply was posted in the last couple of days, the discussion is probably still strong; if there hasn’t been a post in a couple of weeks, the discussion has probably petered out (although, if you’re interested in the topic, there’s no reason why you can’t attempt to restart the discussion).

6. Okay, now that I know how to read messages, what do I do if I find myself somewhere in the forum where I don’t want to be? How do I get around?

Above and below the list of messages is a grey bar full of links to help you find your way around a forum.

7. How do I find out what forums are available?

If you want to go to a list of all of the forums that are running in the eCommons/Agora, click on “Forum List.”

8. If I’m at the bottom of a long list of messages, how can I get back to the top?

Click on “Go To Top.” (Hey, it beats scrolling through dozens, or even hundreds of items.)

9. How do I start a discussion on a subject that hasn’t been talked about yet?

Click on “New Topic.” You will be taken to a page with a form. Simply fill out the form with your name, your email address, the subject of your message (please try to be accurate and pithy) and the message itself. When everything has been filled out, and you’re happy with your message, hit post. Congrats: you’ve just become a part of the great online discussion.

10. How do I see all of the messages that have been posted to a forum?

When you first enter a forum, you will only see the messages that start threads of discussion; all subsequent messages in the thread are found on the page with the message itself. If you want to see all of the messages, not just the ones that start discussion threads, click on “View Threads.”

11.How do I only see the messages that start discussions?

If you’ve viewed threads and find that they’re now just cluttering up your screen and want to get rid of them, click on “Collapse Threads” to go back to a list of just the initial messages.

12. If there are too many messages to scroll through, how do I find specific material quickly?

If you’re interested in a particular subject, you can search through all of the messages in a forum by clicking on “Search.”

13. I find the little red “new” icon next to messages annoying. Isn’t there anything I can do about it?

Yes! You can get rid of the “new” icon by clicking on “Mark All Read.” (Hey, look, it is actually very useful if you come back every day just to read the latest messages, but, let’s face it, that icon can also be very distracting.)

14. Once I’ve posted a message, how can I tell if anybody replies to it?

You can be notified by email when anybody responds to your message by clicking on the box next to “Email replies to this thread, to the address above.”

15. Can I search from the message form page?

Yes.

16. What if I want to go back to the top of the list of messages?

Many pages have a “Go To Top” link; click on it and you will be taken back to the top of the first page of the forum, a list of messages.

17. How do I reply to an existing message?

Click on “Reply to This Message,” which can be found at the bottom of the message. This will take you to a similar screen as the one for starting your own thread, except in it the name of the original message will automatically be placed in the “Subject” field. (You can, however, change it to your own subject if the original doesn’t suit you.)

18. If I write more than one message, will I have to type my name in the “Your Name” field every time?

No. Whether starting a new thread or replying to an existing message, if you send more than one message, your name will automatically appear in “Your Name.” Just one more example of how computers save you work.

19. What if I want to pick and choose which messages in a thread I want to read?

When you click on the title of a message, you will get not only the message, but all of the replies to the message, on a single page. If you don’t want to scroll through all that text just to find the messages you want to read, click on “Threaded View.” This will give you the first message in the thread and a list of all the other messages. You can then click on only the ones that sound interesting.

20. What if I want to see the text of all the messages in the thread?

If you are in Threaded View and would like to see all of the messages, click on “Flat View.” You will go to a page with all of the messages.

21. How do I move from message to message?

When, in the Flat View, you see only one message and the threads, you can choose to go to “Previous Message” or “Next Message” by clicking on the appropriate links. Pretty self-explanatory, those; they help you navigate through the thread.

22. How do I move from topic to topic?

In the Flat View, you can choose to go to “Newer Topic” or “Older Topic.”

23. How do I search through the forum messages?

Clicking on “Search” from any part of the site will take you to a form. In the “Search” field, type in the word or words that most accurately describe what you are looking for. (A few search strategies can be found at the bottom of the page.) You can choose between searching for “All Words” (which will find only messages which have every word you’ve typed into the “Search” field), “Any Word” (which will find messages which contain any of the words you’ve typed into the “Search” field) and Exact Phrase (which searches for the words in the order in which you’ve typed them into the “Search” field). You can also choose to search over several different time periods, from “Last 30 Days” to “All Dates.” If you’re looking for a message from a specific author, click the “Author” box and get rid of the checks in the “Subject” and “Message Bodies” boxes (by clicking on them). If you’re looking for a specific subject, as the page tells you, looking through “Message Bodies” will take longer than “Subject” alone, since there is much more to look through. When you are satisfied that you are looking for the right thing, hit the light blue “Search” button. (If you haven’t done this kind of searching before, you might want to play with different combinations just to see how the different types of searches will give you different results.)

When you have completed a search, you will get a list of the messages that have what you are looking for, their authors, the first few words they contain and the date they were posted. (Assuming there are messages that have what you are looking for; if not, you'll get a frowney face.) Click on the title of a message and you will be taken to it. If you would like to conduct another search, the form is at the bottom of the list of items.