- Joined
- May 31, 2005
- Messages
- 15,640
- Reaction score
- 6,849
- Location
- Last Star on the Right
- Website
- www.jenniferdahl.com
For those of you who are even more n00b than the usual newbie (and you know who you are), here's a little guide for 'How to Post on AW' - the mechanics, not the content, etiquette and protocol... just the steps required to actually post a post or start a thread.
But before we go there, let's look at finding where the posts are to begin with. If you go here, you'll find a long list of forums and sub-forums. As you poke around AW, you'll find your favorites and I promise you'll be able to find them again some day.
Don't let the range of topics frighten you off... you don't have to memorize the list and there's no Pop Quiz on Friday.
As you look at that list, you'll see the Forums highlighted in a wide blue stripe across the monitor. Under each Forum is the list of sub-forums related to the Forum. Within those sub-forums, there are threads. As you look at the sub-forums and look to the right, you'll see what the last post was in that area, who wrote it and when. Then you'll see the column that contains the number of threads (some of them are BIG numbers - again, don't panic!), the number of posts and who the Moderator for that Forum is. If you click on the Mod's name, you'll get that Mod's profile and several links - one of them is to send that Mod a PM (Private Message) if you have a question that pertains to his/her Forum.
If you click on Office Party, for example, farther down the list of Forums and Sub-forums, you'll be given a listing of the threads nestled within Office Party. They default to showing you the most active/most recently posted in threads first. If you see a thread that interests you, all you have to do is click on it and voilà! You're IN the thread. In this example, let's click on a 'Sticky' (which means only that it's an important enough thread that it stays stuck to the top of the thread list for various reasons - sometimes that's because it's an ever-green topic. Sometimes it's just 'cause we like it. Sometimes, it's 'cause it contains important information or instruction.)... let's click on 'Baby Stuff'.
Now we can get into that 'Posting' thing!
Let's start with the easier of the two first - the simple 'Reply':
How to Reply to a Post:
Look at the first post in the thread - it's posted by JennaGlatzer (our former fearless leader and past owner of Absolute Write). She was going to have a baby - Little Sarina, who eventually joined us March 2nd, I believe - Jenna posted Sarina's picture.
Let's say you want to reply to Jenna's post... you can click on 'Quote' (especially if there's something you want to specifically address in her post) and when you do, a 'Reply to Thread' window will pop up. You can delete the parts of Jenna's post that aren't relevant to your comment and then type in your reply. If you want to preview your post before hitting that scary 'Submit Reply' button under the reply window, click on the 'Preview Post' button and take a gander at what you've created. Under that new view you've just acquired, there's another box where you can add to, subtract from, edit, and submit. Or, if you chicken out for some reason, you can click on the 'Back' button at the very far upper left corner of your window and return safely to reading.
If you're not interested in posting to a specific post, say you just want to throw in your two cents worth, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and there you'll find a 'Post Reply' button AND a 'Quick Reply' box. Click on the 'Post Reply' and follow instructions. Or type directly into the Quick Reply box and click on 'Post Quick Reply' when you're done... or you can 'Go Advanced' and get all the benefits and privileges appertaining thereto. (I'll give you a Rep Point, explained here, if you PM me with the name of the movie that came from!).
You can also click on the symbol that looks like a page with a quill pen hovering over it all alone on the far lower right of a post and that will take you to the 'Quick Reply' box. You can also find the 'Post Reply' button at the top left of the thread message list... there are SO many ways to post! And none of them is better than any other! Go wild!
There are other ways to quote - using the little symbol between the Quote and the Quick Reply buttons, but that's for multiple quotes from multiple posts/multiple posters, and a little more complicated. I'll let you discover the joys of that one on your own.
Now... let's start our own thread!
Say you've got a burning question you need answered, or the latest movie to comment on, or a current event that you're the first to discover... go to that first page I told you about... the one with the entire list of forums and sub-forums and find the best place to tuck it, based on subject matter.
Once you've picked the appropriate forum (and don't worry if you get it in the wrong place a few times, sometimes it's confusing even to the old timers - and a Mod can always move the thread to a more appropriate place and leave a marker behind to take you to the new home!)... click on it. There you are facing the list of threads already in the sub-forum.
At the top of the page, just above the list of threads, there's another button. It's the - TADA! - 'New Thread' button. If you click on it, another message box, that looks a lot like the one you used for 'Reply', will pop up. There's a place for your thread title, then a nice clean box in which to post the gist of your message/problem/comment/observation/whatever.
That's all there is to it! Really. It's simple. Try it! You'll like it.
You can practice here in this thread... go on... you can do it... I know you can! Just give it a try!
But before we go there, let's look at finding where the posts are to begin with. If you go here, you'll find a long list of forums and sub-forums. As you poke around AW, you'll find your favorites and I promise you'll be able to find them again some day.
Don't let the range of topics frighten you off... you don't have to memorize the list and there's no Pop Quiz on Friday.As you look at that list, you'll see the Forums highlighted in a wide blue stripe across the monitor. Under each Forum is the list of sub-forums related to the Forum. Within those sub-forums, there are threads. As you look at the sub-forums and look to the right, you'll see what the last post was in that area, who wrote it and when. Then you'll see the column that contains the number of threads (some of them are BIG numbers - again, don't panic!), the number of posts and who the Moderator for that Forum is. If you click on the Mod's name, you'll get that Mod's profile and several links - one of them is to send that Mod a PM (Private Message) if you have a question that pertains to his/her Forum.
If you click on Office Party, for example, farther down the list of Forums and Sub-forums, you'll be given a listing of the threads nestled within Office Party. They default to showing you the most active/most recently posted in threads first. If you see a thread that interests you, all you have to do is click on it and voilà! You're IN the thread. In this example, let's click on a 'Sticky' (which means only that it's an important enough thread that it stays stuck to the top of the thread list for various reasons - sometimes that's because it's an ever-green topic. Sometimes it's just 'cause we like it. Sometimes, it's 'cause it contains important information or instruction.)... let's click on 'Baby Stuff'.
Now we can get into that 'Posting' thing!
Let's start with the easier of the two first - the simple 'Reply':
How to Reply to a Post:
Look at the first post in the thread - it's posted by JennaGlatzer (our former fearless leader and past owner of Absolute Write). She was going to have a baby - Little Sarina, who eventually joined us March 2nd, I believe - Jenna posted Sarina's picture.
Let's say you want to reply to Jenna's post... you can click on 'Quote' (especially if there's something you want to specifically address in her post) and when you do, a 'Reply to Thread' window will pop up. You can delete the parts of Jenna's post that aren't relevant to your comment and then type in your reply. If you want to preview your post before hitting that scary 'Submit Reply' button under the reply window, click on the 'Preview Post' button and take a gander at what you've created. Under that new view you've just acquired, there's another box where you can add to, subtract from, edit, and submit. Or, if you chicken out for some reason, you can click on the 'Back' button at the very far upper left corner of your window and return safely to reading.
If you're not interested in posting to a specific post, say you just want to throw in your two cents worth, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and there you'll find a 'Post Reply' button AND a 'Quick Reply' box. Click on the 'Post Reply' and follow instructions. Or type directly into the Quick Reply box and click on 'Post Quick Reply' when you're done... or you can 'Go Advanced' and get all the benefits and privileges appertaining thereto. (I'll give you a Rep Point, explained here, if you PM me with the name of the movie that came from!).
You can also click on the symbol that looks like a page with a quill pen hovering over it all alone on the far lower right of a post and that will take you to the 'Quick Reply' box. You can also find the 'Post Reply' button at the top left of the thread message list... there are SO many ways to post! And none of them is better than any other! Go wild!
There are other ways to quote - using the little symbol between the Quote and the Quick Reply buttons, but that's for multiple quotes from multiple posts/multiple posters, and a little more complicated. I'll let you discover the joys of that one on your own.
Now... let's start our own thread!
Say you've got a burning question you need answered, or the latest movie to comment on, or a current event that you're the first to discover... go to that first page I told you about... the one with the entire list of forums and sub-forums and find the best place to tuck it, based on subject matter.
Once you've picked the appropriate forum (and don't worry if you get it in the wrong place a few times, sometimes it's confusing even to the old timers - and a Mod can always move the thread to a more appropriate place and leave a marker behind to take you to the new home!)... click on it. There you are facing the list of threads already in the sub-forum.
At the top of the page, just above the list of threads, there's another button. It's the - TADA! - 'New Thread' button. If you click on it, another message box, that looks a lot like the one you used for 'Reply', will pop up. There's a place for your thread title, then a nice clean box in which to post the gist of your message/problem/comment/observation/whatever.
That's all there is to it! Really. It's simple. Try it! You'll like it.
You can practice here in this thread... go on... you can do it... I know you can! Just give it a try!
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