Using our forum should be simple however if you are not familiar with the concept of forums then you may find it a little confusing at first.

This user guide should answer some of your questions or at least provide clues to help you solve some of the mysteries. If you can't solve something then please use "Contact Us" to send in your question, post something in the forum to get every one's help or catch one of us at Old Sarum for a more personal service.

 

The concept of FORUMS - SUB FORUMS - TOPICS - POSTS

• Posts are messages left by users in Topics. A collection of posts in a Topic is a conversation.
• Topics are comments or questions on a specific issue. Topics are created by users and start conversations.
• Sub Forums contain Topics which relate to it. Sub Forums usually cover a primary subject i.e. "Suggestions"
• All our Sub Forums are found in the single forum - "Main Forum"

So you might find a post saying "YES I CAN COME" in a topic "Want to go to France?" in a sub-forum called "FLY OUTS!" in our Main Forum

 

Let's look at the main features;

1 - Clicking on the top menu item - FORUM

This takes you to the Forum and automatically displays the most recent forum activity. This is great because it allows you to quickly find new posts without having to search for them. If you want to go back to the Recent Activity page at any time there is a link in the top menu.

 

2 - Click on INDEX which is just under the top menu.

Now you can see the whole forum. Under the Heading MAIN FORUM are the Sub Forums. The folders on the left of each Sub Forum heading show those sub forums in which there are posts you have not read - denoted by the colour of the folder (blue or green). Looking about on this page will show you other handy information such as who posted last, when, how many views, how many posts etc. Stats for the whole forum are at the bottom.

 

3 - If you click on any of the sub forum names - say Fly Outs and Events

Here are the individual Topics within the sub forum . This is the place you need to click SUBSCRIBE - doing so will subscribe you to the Sub Forum. Should any posts or new topics entered in the sub forum you will be notified by email. Again take a look around for other tools and buttons you might find interesting.

 

4 - Clicking now on a Topic - say Damyns Hall

You are now viewing the topic and the posts (conversation) within - there is also an option to subscribe here as well but this is not required if you have subscribed to the sub forum in the previous step. Providing the subscribe feature here allows people to only subscribe to the Topic they are interested in being updated about, rather than getting updates from the whole sub forum. There are many options in here for you to play with. "Karma" and "Thank You" are 2 of the best. The higher the Karma the more respected you are :) Thank Yous are always nice to receive!

 

5 - When you start a New Topic or Reply (or Quick Reply) to a Topic you also get the option in the submission form to be "notified of replies to this topic" - this is in the form of a tick box - ticked by default - you should leave this ticked. If you untick the box then you will NOT be notified of replies to THIS Topic.

 

Remember you can't break it!! Even if you post something in the wrong place we can move it for you!