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Unidata Community Forums
Forums Help
What are discussion forums?
Discussion forums allow you to share ideas, opinions and
information quickly and easily. Organized by threads in an
easy-to-follow format, discussion forums are designed so you can
quickly locate information, find other knowledgeable users and
participate in conversations.
How is forum content organized?
The content in the forums is structured as follows:
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Forum Categories: Categories represent a collection of
forums as well as other categories. Often, categories are used
to organize forums into a tree structure so members can find
the right discussions more easily.
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Forums: Forums are the areas where individual
discussions take place as a listing of threads.
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Threads: Threads are the
discussions that consist of one or more messages displayed as a
list, or in a tree structure of messages and their replies.
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Messages: Messages are the individual discussion posts
made by community members.
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Replies: Message replies are posts in response to
other messages and are organized in a flat or threaded mode.
Do I have to be registered to use the forums?
Yes, you must be registered with the Unidata web site in order to post to our forums. Some
forums may be closed for posting to all but Unidata staff. Please see the particular forum page for this information.
How do I create a thread or post a reply?
To start a new thread, choose the appropriate
forum and select Post New Thread. Type your thread header in the subject line and
type a message in the message box. Before you are about to post, you can spell
check your message
by clicking on Spell Check. You can also choose to
watch the thread (which will add it to you watch list, and allow you
to receive email notifications when new posts are made) by clicking
the Watch This Thread box.
When you are satisfied with your message, you can preview your
message to see how it will appear when posted by clicking on
Preview. Or you can post your message without
previewing it by clicking Post Message.
To post a reply to a thread, select the reply icon
next to the message you would like to reply to. If you want to
respond to specific text from the original message, click on
Quote Original, and that will add the text from
the original post in your message.
How do I change my account information?
To change you account information, click on
Your Control Panel. A link to your account information will be provided.
How do I search the forums?
From the main page of the discussion forums, type your term(s) into the
search box, select which forum(s) you want to search, and click the Go icon.
When you are in a Forum page, you can click on Search
Forum to use an advanced search page where you can narrow
your search by specifying a date range or filtering by username.
What are watches?
A watch notifies you by email if the thread you are interested in has been updated.
To add a thread to your watch list, click on the "Watch This
Thread" link at the top of the thread page. Click on
Stop Watching Thread to end the email
notifications. After 30 days, inactive watches automatically
expire. You can also watch forums, categories and users. For example, when a new message is posted
in a forum you're watching then you'll be notified by email.
To see the current list of watches, click on
"Your Control Panel" then "Watches". From this screen you can choose to
receive email notifications when new posts are made. Just click on
Add Email Notification next to the thread for which
you want to be notified.
You can delete a watch by clicking in the Delete
tick box for the watch you want to delete, then clicking the
Delete button.
How can I format the text of my posts?
To format your message text, there are three buttons
for Bold, Italics and
Underline. Clicking on these buttons will add tags
to the message field.
For example, typing: "This is [b]bold[/b] text, and this is
[i]italicized[/i] text" will appear as "This is
bold text, and this is italicized text"
once you post the message.
How do I check the spelling of my message?
To check the text of your message for proper
spelling, just click Spell Check on the
post screen.
If our spell check dictionary doesn't recognize a word in your
message, it will appear in a box. You can correct it yourself by
simply typing over what is displayed. If the dictionary has any
suggestions, you will be able to see them in the suggestion box.
To choose one of the suggestions, simply select the suggestion
you'd like to use and click on the Change button
for each of the words you would like changed.
When you are finished checking your entire message, click on Post Message to
save your changes and post the message with your spelling corrections. If you
want to continue editing your message, hit Go Back or Edit to return to the post
message area.
What are questions?
In order to filter through the general discussion "noise", users have the option to flag their post
as a question. This provides the community a visual clue to the fact that the poster is wanting an
answer to their question. The poster is able to see their open & resolved questions through their
profile.
What are question answers?
When a community member posts a questions, other members are able to post an answer. In some cases,
the answer is just some hints, or helpful information to aid the poster in resolving this issue.
This is classified as a "Helpful" post. In other cases, a community member will post the specific
answer to the original questions. This is classified as a "Correct" post. The originator of the post
will be able to flag each response as either "Helpful" or "Correct", or not to flag a response at
all. The originator of the post will also be able to "close the loop" on the question by flagging
the entire post as answered, which provides a visual clue to the community members.
How do I get points for answering questions?
If you provide a response to another user's question, you are eligible to receive points from the
question author. The question author will have the option to mark any response as either "helpful"
or "answered", both of which will add points to your account. Those points will in turn increase
your ranking (or status level) in the community.
Why reward points?
In order to increase community participation, the option exists to provide rewards to those who give
helpful or correct answers to community members' posts. Over time, commmunity members accumlate
points that increase their status level within the community. Certain point values are associated
with helpful and correct responses, for example - 6 points for a helpful post and 10 points for
correct post. Members can see their status level by Forum, Category, or at the main Community level.
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