An Introduction to Our Discussion Forum

When the Forum loads, the first thing to do is register. At right is an image of the top right of the Forum (note this is just an image, the links don't work on this page, they work only on the actual Forum.)

Click the Register link. Agreement terms come up that ask you not to post anything objectionable. If you agree, then click on the link that applies to you.

The required information is:
Username • E-mail address • Password • Confirm password

For users who want to take advantage of more advanced features, you can also provide other information - for instance, if you have instant messaging and chat programs (some people belong to one or more of these, including ICQ, AIM, MSN, or Yahoo).
ICQ Number • AIM Address • MSN Messenger: • Yahoo Messenger
You can also provide the address of your website (if you have one), your Florida location (this is helpful to other families on the Forum), and your occupation and interests. The final block is your signature. Some people add a quote or comment that they want to appear after every post. Your signature is a block of text that can be added to posts you make. There is a 255 character limit.

Now you can select your preferences.

• If you want to share your email when you post, click yes to 'show my email address.'
• If you don't want people to know when you are visiting the board, click yes to 'hide your online status'. If you want people to be able to instant message you, click no.
• If you want to be able to format your text with bold, italics, etc. click ye to allow BBCode.
• If you want to be able to format using html, the code that creates web pages to include images and layout, click yes to allow html.
• If you want to be able to add smilies, click yes. These are those little icons that represent emotions, such as confused:
• The rest of the preferences are fixed right now, with the exception of the time zone. You should choose GMT (Greenwich Mean TIme) minus four hours for Eastern Standard Time.

Once you submit, you are ready to join in the Forum. You will have to logon each time you visit, or click on the choice to logon automatically in the logon page. Otherwise, you must remember your username and password to logon.

Now that you are a member, you have several choices . Again, the links section at top right lets you search topics, messages, and authors.

The Memberlist lets you view all the members of the Forum. From the list, you can click on (send private message), the username (will show the person's profile), E-mail (will send an email to the person) or website.

Usergroups allow certain members to be joined together to create their own group. Families from a certain region of the state, for instance, could form their own usergroup to create their own topics related to there area. Each user can belong to several groups (this differs from most other boards) and each group can be assigned individual access rights. This makes it easy for administrators to set up several users as moderators of a forum, or to give them access to a private forum, etc. There are currently no usergroups.

Now you are ready to join in a discussion. The bottom half of the Discussion home page lists Categories and Forum Titles.

If you click on one of the Forum Titles, the topics with messages are listed. You can click on any topic. To add your comments, just click on:

To start a whole new train of thought, make a new topic by clicking on:

When you post, you start with the subject title of your message. Then type your message in the text box. If you want to add emoticons (Smileys) they must be enabled in your preferences, then just click on the one you want when you want to insert it. You can also insert images and links, make lists or quotes, or format text, using the buttons above the text box. To do this, click on the button you want, type the text to be formatted, then click on the button again. The text box should now have format code in front of the text and at the end.

When you are done, click on preview to see how your message looks. Edit as needed, then click on submit, and your message is posted!

If you want to "watch a topic", click on the 'start watching this topic' link. You will be notified by email whenever there is a posting to this topic.

That's about it. More instruction is available by clicking on the FAQ button (Frequently Asked Questions).

Note: this board includes safeguards to try to track users who send spam messages. You should email the board administrator with a full copy of the email you received and it is very important this include the headers (these list details of the user that sent the email). We can then take action. We will also try to eliminate spammers who join the board and post spam messages.

PROCEED TO THE DISCUSSION BOARD