Maggi Young here, wrestling with the new forum pages!
I have collated the following snippets from posts of the last few days, to have them all in one place to aid any new members having bother getting going with the new forum system.
I would stress that the new methods, while differing slightly from the old forum are generally user friendly and simple to navigate. As I am often heard to say; “there’s often a clue”… please read the pages carefully and remember that there are the HELP pages to come to your rescue, too.
That being said, there are always little snags in anything new ( just ask Alan and Brenda Newton about their new oven!) so I hope that I have gathered here quite a lot of questions and answers to assist anyone struggling with registration. Posting problems are dealt with on this thread:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=41.0To anyone having a problem with making a new registration:
Do everything through the New Forum pages, starting with the registration pages, as you might expect. Follow all the steps, begin with your username, this can be a nickname, to make it quicker for you to enter when you login. You will be asked for a valid email address and a password. The process is a little fiddly but I am sure you will get there in the end! You will need to check a little "I agree" type box at the bottom of a longish piece about terms of use of the forum, no swearing etc., before you click continue to the stage where an email will be sent to the email address you have entered....this will contain a link you must click on to activate your registration. The "HELP" button is quite useful; all steps are gone through there.
In registration, your user name will be the name shown with your posts, you can decide what you want to be called, and choose your password, of course. When you have completed the first part of registration you will get a notice that an email will be sent to you to confirm your status. When this arrives, click on the link in it and you will then be able to enter your profile page on the forum to set up all the various options for your full name, location, etc.
Now, while you can choose a nickname, e.g. “Fat Tulip” as your user name, you may also choose to display your real name on your posts. I would recommend this latter action: it is much more pleasant to respond to Abigail Anderson than it is to Fat Tulip!
New site has facility to add personal photo to show with posts. You may show or hide your email address from public view and choose whether or not to be shown other members personal photos (or “avatars”) when you view the forum pages.
You can add a personal signature to be added automatically to your posts. If you have not activated this feature, may I suggest that you return to your profile and add your name, location and perhaps your local hardiness zone, in the signature area to be added to all postings?
In your profile options you can choose what type of email to receive, with/without the text of the post included etc.
Emails of posts can be activated by the "Notify" button at the top of each board or page/thread
If you look at the buttons at the top of each board (when opened) the notify button is there. Click that and you will be notified of all posts to topics on the board. You can also do it with individual topics. You may stop said notifications be reclicking those buttons, or by clicking the relevant link in the email when it comes to you.
It is apparent that members using an AOL email address tend to have more problems than others in both registering and receiving emails, though others can experience snags.
Do you or your server have a spam filter on your email account?
If you do then it may be catching our emails : Add the SRGC address (which is used by the forum to send you emails) this is: gen@northern-software.co.uk
Add this gen@northern-software.co.uk to your address book with your server and that should let the emails pass. Do not reply to that address it is only for sending out the notifications.
This is a new forum to all of us and it will take us a while, as users, to work out how to navigate around and use all the features.
From the administration side we are also learning and we will have an ongoing programme of adjusting settings and features within the limits of the software to best suit all our needs.
Thanks to you all for your support, please keep your comments and problems coming and be patient as we try and sort them all out.
