Using the Discussion Forum

You can read the Women's History discussion forum as a guest, but in order to participate, you need to register. The information you enter will be kept private and will not be used for any purpose other than identification of your posts on the forum.

To register, click either the Register icon or the Register link near the top of the screen, as indicated in the example below.

On the Registration window, you need to enter a username, your e-mail address, a password that you will remember (it's a good idea to make a note of this), and then you need to enter the password again to verify that it is correct.

The username must contain only letters and/or numbers; you cannot enter spaces or other characters in this field. Once you have registered and logged on, you will be able to specify the name that will be displayed with your posts.

Once you have entered the required information, click the Register button.

You should then see the message below. Click the Login button in the message to continue on to the forum.

Setting Your Display Name and Other Variables

If you want a name other than the username you entered when you registered to be displayed in conjunction with your posts, you can set the display name in your forum profile. You can also use this window to change your password and to set several other preferences which will be described below.

To view and edit your profile you can either click the Profile icon in the toolbar near the top of the screen, or you can click your underlined username just above the list of available forums.

The Required Information section near the top of the Profile window is where you can set your display name, change your password, and enter an e-mail address that is different from the one you used when you registered. These fields are the only required fields on the window. You may enter information in the other fields, but it isn't necessary to do that.

Changing Your Password

To change the password you specified when you registered, simply enter a new one in the Choose password field, and then enter it again in the Verify password field.

Setting Your Display Name

In the Name field, enter the name you wish to be displayed in your forum postings. Keep in mind that the name you enter cannot be the same display name as another registered forum user. For example, if your name is Anne and another registered user has already selected the name Anne as her display name, You cannot use the name Anne alone. You can, however, use other variations of Anne such as Anne Smith or Anne2.

Other Variables

The remainder of the fields on the window are not required, but you may enter information in them if you wish. For example, you can use the Personal Text field enter a message that will be displayed with your posts and you can select a picture that will be displayed with your posts.

Preferences

In the Preferences section of the window you can specify the format in which the time and date will be displayed on your screen, you can enter a signature (message) that will be included at the bottom of your postings, and you can set the number of hours your timezone is ahead (or behind) the server time (U.S. Central) so that the time is accurately displayed on your postings. These settings will be associated with your username and will not affect any other forum participants.

Saving Your Changes

Once you have finished editing your profile, click the Change Profile button at the bottom of the window to save your changes.

To return to the main page of the forum, click the Home icon in the toolbar near the top of the window.

Using the Forum

The main page of the forum lists all the different areas available for discussion, as well as the number of topics, the number of posts, and the display name of the person who made the most recent post in each discussion. Note that you can view the profile of the moderator for the discussion by clicking the underlined name next to Moderator.

To access a discussion, click the underlined link in the topic you wish to view.

The next window lists all of the subject currently under discussion within the specified forum. To see the actual dicussions, click the underlined subject name.

To add a new subject (thread) for discussion, click the New Thread icon.

The screen example below explains how you can use the icons on the individual message window.