Community Forum  Welcome! Peace to all who enter here! Enter Gentle Spirit Forum If you are not familiar with our Forum, please take a moment to read the following instructions, suggestions, and caveats.

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Table of Contents

1. About GSForum 2. Useful Definitions 3. GSForum Icons and What they do 4. Using GSForum 5. Cool Tricks

1. About GSForum

Here are some facts regarding GSForum: GSForum is a multi-forum message board provided by DCScripts, creators of DCForum. This message board features a unique forum design derived from comments and feedback from thousands of other DCForum users. GSForum is a moderated discussion forum. A moderator is assigned to each forum by the board administrator and is responsible for keeping the integrity of his/her forum. [ TOP ]

2. Useful Definitions

Lobby: Lobby is the 'front door' or parlor of the Gentle Spirit Community Forum. This is where all available forums in all Conferences are listed. In addition to the forum names, the forum description, number of current threads, and forum moderator name is displayed. Conference: a group of Forums that share a similar theme. Public Forum: Public forums are where everyone may participate without registration. Everyone is allowed to read and post new threads and messages. Protected Forum: Protected forums are read-only for non-registered participants. If you want to post your own messages, you must register first. Private Forum: In order to access Private forums, the moderator of the forum must grant access on a user to user basis. These are primarily for GS staff and advisor discussions. Main: Main is where an indexed listing of threads for a particular forum are displayed. Thread: A thread is the page containing threaded messages for a given topic of discussion within a forum. [ TOP ]

3. GSForum Icons

There are several icon buttons on each page. Here's what they do: Top of Lobby Page: LOGIN - If you choose to, you may login at the beginning of your discussion session. This will allow the board to display which threads contain new replies since you last MARKed a forum (See MARK button below), as well as enabling you to post in Protected forums. NEW - If you are logged on, clicking on this ICON will bring up all new messages in forums that you have been marked (see below). MARK - this is a time stamp to "mark" the last time you finished reading threads in a given forum. If you MARK while you are in the LOBBY, it will mark all the forums. If you Mark while in a Forum, just that Forum will be marked. New messages since the last time you "Marked" will show as "New" on subsequent visits. HELP - displays a page similar to this. FIND - allows you to search the discussion forum(s) - you can search either current threads or archives, and search by date, author, or key-word. INFO - registered users may update their registration info (password and e-mail address) and also provide a personal profile for other forum participants to view.   Top of Forum/Topics Main Page: POST - this is used to post a new discussion topic (thread). MARK - this is a time stamp to "mark" the last time you finished reading threads in this forum. New messages since the last time you "Marked" will show as "New" on subsequent visits.   Underneath Each Individual Message: EDIT - used to edit a message if you are the one who posted it. This feature is only available to participants who are registered and logged in. EMAIL - this is displayed if the one who posted the message submits his/her e-mail address. Click on this button to directly e-mail him/her. INFO - view the personal profile provided by the message's author. REPLY - You may reply to a given message by clicking on this icon. REPLY WITH QUOTE - Same as Reply, but will include the original message in the text area so that you can respond to specific topics (note: copy and paste works much better!). TOP - jump to top of a THREAD. Takes you back to the table of contents. ALERT - allows you to alert administrator of an alertable message.   [ TOP ]

4. Using GSForum

Registration: If you'd like to participate in Protected forums, you must first register. The registration form can be accessed by clicking on the 'Login' icon. You don't enter anything in the Login box - simply click the Register button. In the registration form, enter the user name you want to be known by, your real name (first and last), and a valid e-mail address. You will be notified by e-mail that your registration has been acknowledged, and you will be provided with a temporary password for logging in. After you've logged in for the first time, you should change your password to one which you will more likely remember. This is done by clicking on the Info button at the top of the page and following the instructions provided. Navigation: Getting around Gentle Spirit Forum is easy: you can navigate either by using icons or using hyper links. For example, you can use the forum links at the bottom of each page to jump from one forum to another. Or, you can instead use the Lobby icon to go back to LOBBY and choose a forum from there. Starting New Thread (Discussion Topic): You can start a new thread by clicking on the POST icon. If you are trying to post a new thread to a protected forum, you will need to log-on first. Replying to an existing message: You can reply to any given message by clicking on the REPLY icon directly below the message you are replying to, then typing in a short subject/title and then your message. When you're done typing, click on the Send Message button and your post will be displayed in line with the other messages. (note: If you foget to put in a subject line, you will be alerted with a new page containing an empty text box, as well. Fear not - your message is not lost. Simply click on the "Back" arrow of your browser and your message will appear just as you left it. Type in the subject line, and click on the Send button.) [ TOP ]

5. Cool Tricks

Here are couple of really cool features that you can use... Embedding URL or Hyper link DCForum script automatically removes all HTML tags. However, you can still embed URL addresses simply by typing the URL. That is, if you type http://www.dcscripts.com DCForum will automatically link it and display http://www.dcscripts.com Embedding Some Default Icons There are couple of cool icons that you embed directly into your message. For example, if you type ":-)" or ":-(" you will get and As more of these embedded icons become available, your administrator will notify you. [ TOP ]

 

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