Bulletin Board Basics

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Bulletin Board Basics

An Internet forum is a web application for holding discussions and posting user generated content. Internet forums are also commonly referred to as web forums, message boards, discussion boards, (electronic) discussion groups, discussion forums, bulletin boards, fora (the Latin plural) or simply forums. The terms "forum" and "board" may refer to the entire community or to a specific sub-forum dealing with a distinct topic. Messages within these sub-forums are then displayed either in chronological order or as threaded discussions.

Posting and Replying

If you have not already figured out, you must press the Reply Button, or the Start Topic Button to begin talking. The Reply Button can be found on an existing topic, created by a different user and the Start Topic found in the Category or Board.

Most forums force you to create a title when creating a topic, this allows users to quickly figure out what the topic could contain. You are suggested to make a relevant topic name when posting:

Wrong:

Look here!

Right:

Did you watch the last football game?

It depends on the forum, but it is common knowledge that speaking clearly and calmly will let other members understand you better. Posting with abbreviation is alright if you use it sparingly and it still makes sense.

Many people get too angry in online arguments, and will freqently get themselves into a position that could damage their reputation or get them banned. When you are defending yourself or disagreeing with a persons post, try laying out all your points carefully and restrain from using caps, abbreviation or swears. This way people can take you more seriously and you are more likely to get your points understood.

BBCode

BBCode is a tool used on Forums to shorten the size of a piece of html that will format text. This is a tool that you should use to make your posts look more interesting and let people see where your important points are.

Bold is good when you want to make your text stand out!!!
Underlining is good for links or important infomation.
Italics is good for empathizing a point.

Code:

[b]Bold[/b] is good when you want to make your text [b]stand out[/b]!!!
[u]Underlining[/u] is good for [u]links[/u] or important infomation.
[i]Italics[/i] is good for [i]empathizing[/i] a point.

There is a lot of other BBCodes that can help make your posts become more interesting.

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Terms of use.

I am happy for other forums to use this if they want, but it would be helpful if they kept a link to this post, or Forumcloud.forumotion.com
Thank you,
Admin

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Suggestions - Please help suggest things to be added to this.