Discussion Groups Overview
Below you will find a brief introduction to the OISC Discussion Groups. This overview will help you understand the interface for viewing and posting messages. For detailed instructions on setting various preferences or advanced tasks such as messaging another club member privately, please refer to the common tasks page.
As shown above, the Discussion Groups area has 4 main pieces:
Feature Links - Links to various features such as message digest configuration, or the user preferences for message posting.
Forums - The main message forums, this is where you view and post messages. Click on the name of a form to view its messages.
Stats - A quick summary of postings in a given forum.
User Summary - A summary of the total users who can post/view messages.
When a forum has new messages in it, the note icon beside it will turn yellow. When viewing the messages in a particular forum this same convention is used. A message is new if you personally have not viewed it yet. If you have viewed a messages and some other user has not, it is still new for them.
| Icon | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
 | Normal Messages | |
 | New Messages | |
 | Locked (read only) |
Clicking on the name of a forum will open it up and allow you to view the messages in that forum. For example, inside the Skating forum you would see something like this:
The links at the top allow you to post a completely new messages (i.e. clicking on the NEW TOPIC button), or navigate back up to the main forum index by clicking on the "InlineOttawa.com Forum Index" link. If there are enough messages, you may jump to each page of messages by clicking on the "Go to page" links to the right at the top. To view an individual topic, just click on the title for the topic. You will also notice that the author of a posting is a link to the author's public profile. Your public profile does not contain any information by default. However, you may include things such as a picture of yourself (an avatar), your IM userids or web site etc.
| Icon | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
 | Normal Message | |
 | New Message | |
 | An official announcement | |
 | Important Information (stays at the top) | |
 | Locked (read only) | |
 | Locked and new (read only) |
To view a particular topic, simply click on its title. This will open the message thread and you should see something like this:
The original posting and all replies will be shown as single discussion. Each posting will have the author information to the left (along with an avatar if one has been set), and on the right the original post or a reply will be shown. To reply to the posting, simply click the "POST REPLY" button. You will be shown an input form where you may enter your reply, and even include HTML styling if you choose. Note that you do not need to fill in the subject line.
| Icon | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
 | Start a completely new topic | |
 | Post a reply to this topic | |
 | Edit the posting (author only) | |
 | Quote the posting and reply to it. | |
 | Delete the posting (author only) | |
 | View the author's profile | |
 | Send a private message to the posting author | |
 | Contact them on Yahoo Messenger | |
 |
Contact them on MSN Messenger | |
 | Email them (by proxy, actual address now shown) | |
 |
View the author's web site (if set) | |
For details on specific tasks such as configuring the digest (how often and what kind of digest you receive in email), or setting your message preferences, please view the common tasks page.
