Forum Help Pages

[Mutters]

Finding your way around the Forum.
Click the blue links to read the information on the relevant threads.


Your first venture into our world of family history, is to say Hello on our Greetings forum (New to Our Forum). Here you tell us about yourself, we would like to welcome you. We are a friendly bunch and are pleased to help you on your way, what goes around comes around and you might well have knowledge that will, in turn, also help others.

Alerts - An explanation of the benefits of using this link

Categories - The Home Page has categories, these are the headings on the shaded green bars. Open the categories to click the links to the forums/boards and you will be delighted to find even more goodies - questions and answers on various topics.

Location - Find where a member lives with Google Maps
Start Date and More... - What does the green bar at the top of each forum do?
Media Gallery - What is it and how does it work?
Viewing from Home - How to see the panoramic view
What's in a name? Forum Speak - Are you with it? Check out the new terminology

How to Link to a Post from another Thread
How to Post Images
Can I Print a Thread/Discussion?
How to Quote a Thread, a Post/Message and more clever tricks
How to Start and Delete a PM/Conversation
How to find - Who said that? - Members Posts and Threads

Not found the help you need? Just ask your question on the Finding your Way forum. Someone is sure to rush to your aid.

Show me the way to go home. From wherever you are.
Click Top Dog or the tree

 

[Mutters]

The Home Page of the Forum

Along the top green bar are some drop down menus.
User Albums, Blogs, Calendar, Members and Help all have useful links. Hover your mouse to the right of each word (the black arrow). The black line points to the drop down menu box related to Members.

Click Your User Name (the blue circle) to change your status and more.

Click Alerts (the yellow circle) to keep up to date on forum activity.

Click the arrow (the red circle) to open quick navigation of the forum.

Clicking the category title opens up the forums in list view. Clicking the down arrow at the right hand end of the green bar opens the forums in a shorter across the page view (the green lines). You choose whichever you prefer.

If the categories are open to reveal the forums, the small green down arrow changes to a red up arrow. How clever is that?

 

[Mutters]

Where was I?

Don't forget.... If the What's New Section is empty you can cast your eyes down the screen a bit and click the link, view all recent threads.

You may find a thread you meant to reply to but had to rush off and answer the phone.

 

[Mutters]

Forum Decorum

Members giving help should always quote the source of the information they have found.

Members asking for help should always quote census references where appropriate.
- should give as much information as known and say where you have already looked.
- should not generally type a whole post in capital letters (it is called shouting).
- should not criticise the typing errors of others. Be polite, we don't know if they have a problem or disablement.
- should take the time to reply and say thanks, after all you may need their help again
- should not post the same question on multiple forums. The members will see your question
on New Posts, whichever forum you place it on.

- should not create several discussions on the same person within a family.
It is most annoying for a member to give up their time and effort and maybe spend their credits searching for a family, only to find the work has already been done in another discussion. You can add to your original discussion any time you wish and it will bounce to the top of New Posts.
Oh! you can't find it.... click the message count number under your avatar, this will bring up all your posts. Enter the surname into the search box and all posts/threads by you, with that surname will appear.

Most of all, relax and enjoy yourself and be kind to others.
It's a difficult hobby so be tolerant and make it fun!

 

[Mutters]

Can I edit or delete my post.

You cannot delete a thread or post, this could cause a lot of upheaval to the forum if someone felt inclined to do so. You can ask a moderator or administrator to do it for you, if you have a very valid reason.

You have 15 minutes to edit your post if you need to make a correction to it.

 

[Mutters]

What is a Sticky?

At the top of a forum are discussions which contain important information. They are coloured pink and are pinned to the top of a forum so you can easily find them.You will see the little pin icon over to your right under start date.
If the information is given by the administrators, it is often closed and has a little padlock icon, so you will not be able to reply.
If the information is a useful hint or tip there will not be a padlock and you can add your contribution.

 

[Mutters]

Searching and Researching

Top Dog has a very good search engine. There are a variety of ways to easily search for posts or threads by members or your own ramblings.
It will search for a date but does not search on words with less than three letters.

New members will be drawn to the forum by searching for their names of interest in the various search engines. Should you wish to register the names you are researching to hopefully connect with others, click the link to the forum and follow the advice given.
Research Names

 

[Mutters]

Can I take the forum out on a date?

You most certainly can. It has been optimised for use with mobile devices. Read the member's chatter thread and if you have any further questions, just ask away.

 

[Mutters]

Happy Birthday to you.

To see the member's Birthdays and any future events or family history fairs click the Calendar on the top green bar.
You can view weekly, monthly or see future and past events.

Entries in the calendar are clicky links to other parts of the forum.

 

[Mutters]

Codes to create Smilies on mobile devices.

Click the link to find out how.

 

[Chimp]

New Reply Feature

We now have a new reply feature following the recent upgrade.

If you wish to reply to a post and wish to include a portion of a previous post then instead of hitting 'reply' and taking out the parts you do not need there is a simpler way.

I will copy a part from Mutters' post #7 above to show you what I mean.

Highlight the bit of the post you want to include and a little box appears that says 'reply'.

Click on the reply and just the highlighted portion appears in your new post.

[ QUOTE="Mutters, post: 2727, member: 4"]New members will be drawn to the forum by searching for their names of interest[/QUOTE]

(I have had to include a space at the beginning to show what will be displayed)

When you post your reply it will show

New members will be drawn to the forum by searching for their names of interest

 

[Daft Bat]

'Bumping' your posts

If you posted a question some time back, you might have received some replies which you have investigated further - and then, like a lot of us, have become side-tracked onto other lines of research. Or, you might still be looking for an answer to your question.

Rather than post your question again, which can result in duplication of research and then become confusing, it is best to keep the query in one place.

This is easily done by first finding your original thread. You can do this by going to your profile page and clicking on Postings. This will bring up a list of all the posts that you have made. Otherwise, just put a key word in the search box and it should pop up nicely.

Then, all you have to do is post a reply to your thread which might say something along the lines of, "I am still looking for ......" or "Thank you for the replies, which I have followed up and I now have a few more questions ....." - or something similar. This will bump your thread to the top of the New Posts so that it grabs peoples' attention again.

By the way, did you know that 'bump' stands for...
Bring
Up
My
Post