Using the forum

The main Forum page will list all forums and all topics within each forum.  There will be an icon next to each topic.  A plain folder icon Visitor Topic means that anyone can read messages in this topic.  An icon with a lock on it Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Restricted Viewing) means that viewing is restricted (requiring at least a site login).

At the top right of the Forum page will be a Search button.  Use this to search forum posts by keyword.  Also, there may be a Preferences button if the administrator has enabled preferences tracking.  (If you are not logged in, there will be a Login button instead, because you need to be logged in to modify your Forum Preferences.)  See Setting your forum preferences for more information.

You can click the name of any topic to view posts to that topic.  You can also click the name under "Last Post" to go directly to that particular post.

Discussions list - posting and responding

Once you click on a Topic name, you will be taken to a list of discussions for that topic.  A "discussion" is a thread with at least one post.  The number of posts in a discussion, in addition to the number of times it has been viewed, will be displayed to the right.

If you have posting access for this topic, you can add a new discussion by clicking the Add A Discussion button in the upper right.  (If you only have read access, you will not see this button.)  When you click the button, you will be taken to a page where you can create a new discussion title, type in your discussion, and indicate whether you want to be notified on a response.  Click Post New Discussion Thread when you are finished.

To respond to a posting by someone else, simply click the name of the discussion.  This will bring up the original post and all responses.  Then click the Add Messagebutton to reply to this discussion.  (If you only have read access, you will not see this button.)

If you would like to receive notifications of all posts to the discussion you are reading (assuming your administrator has set up this feature, and you are logged in to the site), you can click the Receieve notifications for this discussion thread (if not receiving them already) button.  This modifies your preferences so that you will get all responses to this thread.  (See Setting your forum preferences for more information.)

At any time, you can navigate back to the list of discussions by clicking the Topic link at the top of the page.  You can also navigate back to the list of Forums and Topics by clicking the Forum link at the top of the page.