A Relational Discussion Forum Dedicated to Apostles

FORUMS - Walk Around

We recommend you print this page out then work through it on your first visit to the forums.

Go to the forum page. http://www.apostles-today.net/phpBB3/index.php

At the bottom you should see your space to put in the login name for the user.. That's you, first name and last name with the password you have set.

After you enter them click the box that says remember me. This will make sure you don't have to log in ever again... hopefully. Now if there are two of you in the same house using the same computer then you might want to use Internet explorer for one of you and Firefox for the other. then each program will remember your logins.

Now if you look at the front page you will see some forums. For most at the top will be Apostolic, then prayer needs then Ministry updates. Some may have extra ones such as moderators for the Moderators.The top one... The Apostolic, is a place holder for 5 forums. They are listed on the front page as Subforums. You can click on them direct from the front page by clicking their name after the word subforums or click the Apostolic Forum and it will give you a list of the sub forums on another page.

If there is a message you haven't read, you will see the forum icon to the left of the forum or to the left of the name in the case of subforums, will be red. If you have read all the posts in there then the icon will be Black.

Let's take a look at the  layout of a forum now...

From the main page look at the Needs Forums. Click on them. Now you will see some sub forums. Lets look at Prayer needs. When I last observed this there were 6 topics, with 30 posts with the last post by Apostle Teddy Bear. That will change as people add stuff and also the needs boards are self purging forums - That means they will delete the posts after 60 days. Click on the words Prayer needs or the round icon to the left that should be in red.  Now you should now be in the Prayer Needs Forum. You will see some Announcements at the top and under that prayer needs

Look at the first of the Prayer needs. Look to the right and you will see the last person to add to it and when they did. You can see how many replies there are and how many people have viewed it, bearing in mind that If I look at it today and again tomorrow I will count for 2 views. Now let's click on something... Pick any one. This is the final forum view. You can see the first post and by scrolling down the replies. On the top right just over the forums you should see a text line saying First Unread Post. Remember this as it is important for when you come back later.

The First post is at the top and the second is under it. To reply, click the post reply button. There's one at the top and one at the bottom of the page. If you want to directly quote something out of a post click the Quote button in that particular post. So try both of them now, click Post reply and it will open up the writing page when you've had a look around click the back button on your browser. The try the quote button and again hit the back button on your browser. Remember you haven't submitted the post till you hit the submit button down the bottom.

Subscribing to forum or topic.

Let's go back to the prayer forum front page http://www.apostles-today.net/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=3

Now right down the bottom you will see a blue bar with the words Subscribe forum with a tick beside it. Click these and it will change to Unsubscribe forum. You will now receive an email every time someone posts a message in this forum. NOW!!! if you already have an email but you haven't visited the forum, the forum won't send another one out.  In other words you will get one email letting you know the first time there is a new post. It won't send you 20 if there are 20 posts. Just the first one. After you have visited and read the posts then the board will reset and will send you a post notification next time there is one. Now let's click unsubscribe forum to get it back to the way it was. Now Let's click on the forum topic Australian Elections. Now down the bottom there is an option to subscribe to the Topic. This works the same as subscribing to the forum but only tells you of posts to that particular topic.  So when do you use which? I personally subscribe to the forums I want to read. When anything is posted I get an email telling me and I click the link. If you didn't want to get an email every time there was a prayer need but did want to get one when there was an update on the prayer for Australian elections then you would subscribe to the topic not the forum.

Which forums should you subscribe to? As many as you wish. To see a summary of which ones you are subscribed to click User Control Panel on the top left, Then on the left hand side, manage subscriptions.

So let's go back to the front page.  Look up the top for Board Index and click it. You are now back to the Forums home page. Click learning about forums. Click Have a play here. Send a reply to me and then a quoted reply. After you have finished you can edit the post you have made and if you want delete it by hitting the X in the top right corner.

Setting your details

Login to the forums at http://www.apostles-today.net/phpBB3/index.php or go back to the Board index
When you have logged in on the top left under PHPBB3 and under board index, click on the user control panel.
Click Profile, here you can input your website details, instant messenger details etc.
Then click edit signature. this is what will automatically appear at the bottom of your posts. Normally your email address and website and maybe a slogan here.
Then Avatar... this is a fancy name for photo. It needs to be less than 6kb and 120x120pixels in size.  If you have dramas with this I can help resize a photo for you.
And lastly, Account settings, here you can change your password and other details...

Some Shortcuts

When you first come onto the Bulletin Board on the top left three shortcuts...
View unanswered Posts, View New Posts and View active topics. (View new posts is very handy!)
When you go to a forum on the top right is View First Unread Post (if there are any)
On the front page on the top left, Use control panel allows you to change all your settings
On the front page on the top right Members. Takes you to a list of members that allows you to see who's a part of AT, their web address (if they have put it in) and the last time they were on line.
On the front page very bottom left... who's online now.. you will see the names of the people who are currently in the board.
You can tell if there is a new message in any of the forums or topic because the round icon on the left turns red.

Communicating off the board.

Let's say you want to send a message to someone without it going to the whole Board.
On the right hand side of the message you may see some letters under the persons Avitar and Name. If you hold your mouse over these you should see a popup of the details of what they are for. If they have their details in you can send an email, instant message or Private message. Private message is like setting up a one room forum just for you and them  that disappears after all messages have been read.

Alternatively...
Where you see the persons details on the right hand side of the post click their name or picture (Avitar).
This takes you to the details about this person. On the left see their details and on the right their statistics.