Reading Messages

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Reading Messages

Entering a Forum

There are several ways to select a forum:

1. Go to the forum directly in the URL. For example, if your server's name is www.example.com, and the forum you'd like to enter is jazztalk, the URL would be:

http://www.example.com/read/?forum=jazztalk

2. Click the All Forums button, and then click the forum name. You will be taken to the Messages page.

3. Click on the My Forums button, and then click the forum name. You will be taken to the Messages page.

Depending on the list settings, you may need to log in before you are allowed to read the list's messages.

The Messages Page

Twenty message threads (groups of messages and their replies) are displayed at one time. To view more, click Show more. Repeatedly clicking Show more will show greater numbers of threads at a time. Click Next to see the next twenty messages, Previous to see the last twenty.

You can change the sorting order of the threads by clicking the up or down triangles next to Date, Subject, Replies and Author. By clicking the top triangle, the sort order will be ascending (a-z); clicking the bottom arrow makes the sort order descending (z-a).

Date

The date this thread started. The date displayed is from the first message sent to the thread.

Subject

The thread's subject. Clicking on the subject will display all the messages for a message thread.

Replies

The number of replies to a message. If 0, there were no replies to the message. Clicking on this number will show an overview of the messages sent to this thread. You may then click on the subject of any particular message to read it.

Author

The initial message's author. Click on the author's name to find out more information about the person who started this thread. You will be taken to the About this Author Page, which displays the author's name (if available), the first part of their email address (the domain is not displayed for privacy's sake), the messages posted by this member, and the date the author became a member.

From this page, you may view the messages that author has posted. That page will give you the option to view messages from all authors.

Administrator Functions

Administrators have additional functions when reading messages:

Edit

Administrators may edit a message subject, header or body.

Delete

Administrators can delete a message altogether. If an administrator deletes the first message in a thread, the entire thread will be deleted.

1. The Discussion Forum Interface for Members

2. Accessing and Logging into the Discussion Forum Interface

3. Navigating the Discussion Forum Interface

4. Viewing and Subscribing to Forums

5. Reading Messages