Post by High Priestess on Nov 28, 2016 17:43:08 GMT
It seems that some members join this forum and can't quite figure out how to use it -- particularly how to post a new thread. So let me give a bit of an overview on the structure of this forum and how to post things here.
First, if you haven't already realized it, this is an "old school" forum, (you might call it "retro") different than many modern forums. Okay that right there makes me happy as I'm a retro, old-school type of gal in several ways.
Now what's the difference, old school to new? Well as far as I can tell, the "new" school is intended to minimalize, streamline and simplify -- so that you can get right on a forum and click on a main button and post. BANG! You're done. But unless you're only posting a couple words...why not spend just a few seconds more time there?
The disadvantage of the new school style forum, of course, is that everything that is posted gets thrown together, all mixed up, in one gigantic bin --- there's no sorting mechanism. There's a search function, and you can search under certain topics, but you can't browse, like at something that is very old school indeed -- a library, meaning -- an actual building, with rooms, shelves and books. Remember those? I do, and I like them.
New school forum: everything gets put in a giant bin:
Old school forum: organization and sorting like at an old school, brick-and-mortar library:
In order to post on this type of old school forum site you have to be at the right level. It's like in a library, where in order to look at a book, you first have to find the shelf it's on, and before that, the room that that shelf is on. You can't find a book if you're outside on the sidewalk in front of the library, or even if you're in one of the rooms at the library, but standing far away from any of the shelves with books.
So some navigation is in order -- you (1) first go in the library, then (2) you choose a room to go into, and then (3) you choose a particular shelf of books to look at, and then, wa-la, you are now able to pluck a book off the shelf to read! Or (and now it's become a Harry Potter style library) you are able to magically materialize your own book that you just wrote, and now stick it into the library shelves where it is equally available for all others to read! How fun is that!
So let me explain the levels of this forum and how they compare to the parts of a library.
When you first arrive at the home page of this forum, it's like you're standing at the front door of the library, looking in. You can see all the rooms, and many of the shelves, and even some of the books.
The "categories" are like the various rooms in a library -- each holds a certain subject or series of subjects.
Then, there are the boards on the forum, which are the shelves within each room, and these hold the individual books, meaning, the individual threads or posts.
To read threads or post a thread, you need to click on a board.
Some of the boards have "sub-boards" -- think of this as something like a book title that comes in several volumes, volume 1, volume 2, and so on. If so, you'll neeed to either pick a particular sub-board or you'll need to scroll down the page until you find the magical black "create thread" button which is how you post a new post or "thread" on the forum.
The create thread button lives in the upper right corner of the page when you are finally at the right level....
Basically in order to create a thread you need to click on "create thread" button and in order to reply to any thread, you need to click on a "reply" button -- which appears in one of the replies, as well as at the top or bottom of the page.
You can't create a thread when you're in someone else's thread (have to back out of it first) just like if you're at the library and you pick one book out off the shelf you can't find another book inside that book. You first put the book back and go to the shelf level, and now you are at the right level to select another book.
I hope that is clear! It's a little more complicated than more modern style forums but the advantage is, there's an actual organizational structure to the posts, which modern forums dont' have anymore, making it very difficult to browse under certain topics!
First, if you haven't already realized it, this is an "old school" forum, (you might call it "retro") different than many modern forums. Okay that right there makes me happy as I'm a retro, old-school type of gal in several ways.
Now what's the difference, old school to new? Well as far as I can tell, the "new" school is intended to minimalize, streamline and simplify -- so that you can get right on a forum and click on a main button and post. BANG! You're done. But unless you're only posting a couple words...why not spend just a few seconds more time there?
The disadvantage of the new school style forum, of course, is that everything that is posted gets thrown together, all mixed up, in one gigantic bin --- there's no sorting mechanism. There's a search function, and you can search under certain topics, but you can't browse, like at something that is very old school indeed -- a library, meaning -- an actual building, with rooms, shelves and books. Remember those? I do, and I like them.
New school forum: everything gets put in a giant bin:
Old school forum: organization and sorting like at an old school, brick-and-mortar library:
In order to post on this type of old school forum site you have to be at the right level. It's like in a library, where in order to look at a book, you first have to find the shelf it's on, and before that, the room that that shelf is on. You can't find a book if you're outside on the sidewalk in front of the library, or even if you're in one of the rooms at the library, but standing far away from any of the shelves with books.
So some navigation is in order -- you (1) first go in the library, then (2) you choose a room to go into, and then (3) you choose a particular shelf of books to look at, and then, wa-la, you are now able to pluck a book off the shelf to read! Or (and now it's become a Harry Potter style library) you are able to magically materialize your own book that you just wrote, and now stick it into the library shelves where it is equally available for all others to read! How fun is that!
So let me explain the levels of this forum and how they compare to the parts of a library.
When you first arrive at the home page of this forum, it's like you're standing at the front door of the library, looking in. You can see all the rooms, and many of the shelves, and even some of the books.
The "categories" are like the various rooms in a library -- each holds a certain subject or series of subjects.
Then, there are the boards on the forum, which are the shelves within each room, and these hold the individual books, meaning, the individual threads or posts.
To read threads or post a thread, you need to click on a board.
Some of the boards have "sub-boards" -- think of this as something like a book title that comes in several volumes, volume 1, volume 2, and so on. If so, you'll neeed to either pick a particular sub-board or you'll need to scroll down the page until you find the magical black "create thread" button which is how you post a new post or "thread" on the forum.
The create thread button lives in the upper right corner of the page when you are finally at the right level....
Basically in order to create a thread you need to click on "create thread" button and in order to reply to any thread, you need to click on a "reply" button -- which appears in one of the replies, as well as at the top or bottom of the page.
You can't create a thread when you're in someone else's thread (have to back out of it first) just like if you're at the library and you pick one book out off the shelf you can't find another book inside that book. You first put the book back and go to the shelf level, and now you are at the right level to select another book.
I hope that is clear! It's a little more complicated than more modern style forums but the advantage is, there's an actual organizational structure to the posts, which modern forums dont' have anymore, making it very difficult to browse under certain topics!
