How to Use This Forum - Tips and Social Contract

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edited January 2019 in Welcomes and Intros

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT

  • Be polite. This is a friendly community that welcomes all. Please be respectful of others, even if you disagree with them. Don't insult, troll, or harass other users. The mod team will take a dim view of belligerent behavior, and members who can't be civil will be removed.
  • Don't take it personally. Over the years we've found that very few books are met with universal appeal, and even some of the most globally beloved books have fallen a little flat here. If you nominate a book and the other club members didn't really like it, don't take it personally! That doesn't mean it was a bad choice or that you made a mistake, and nobody will judge you harshly for it.
  • Be part of the community. You're no stranger to forums, which means that you probably know that forums thrive on activity. Please do what you can to foster activity on this forum. If you see something you like, say so. If you have a topic you'd like to discuss, post it. If someone else asks a question, answer it. Encourage other people to post by responding in an encouraging way. If you start a thread, be sure to respond to the people who took time out of their day to contribute to it. If you have content to share - a book review, a recommendation, a game review - please post those in the appropriate forums. If you're new here, take a moment to introduce yourself.
  • Stay Focused. Post relevant topics that will foster discussion. We ask that you don't post blind links or use this a a forum for advertising. You may link to a blog post, but the link should be there to support a discussion that you intend to hold here on the forum. Do not start threads with the sole purpose of driving readers to other sites.

MAKING THE MOST OF FORUM SOFTWARE

  • Mention others. Put an @ symbol before the username to mention someone. They’ll get notified when you do.
  • Review and update your notification preferences. You’ll receive a notification if someone mentions you or posts to a discussion that you’ve bookmarked. You can set notifications from the Edit Profile page. If there's a particular book you'd like to join in the discussion of, you can arrange to have an e-mail sent to you for that particular sub-forum.
  • Send messages. You can private message members by going to your inbox. You can also leave a message on another user's page, but be warned - those messages are not private.
  • Don’t want to see everyone’s signature? You can hide signatures by going to Edit Profile > Signature Settings.
  • Check out the forum from your mobile phone. Just go to the forum URL in your browser - no need to download an app. You can also browse to the forum on your phone, then add that link as a shortcut to your home screen. That way you don't have to enter the address each time or create a favorite link in the browser.

If you have any questions or concerns, please send a private message to one of the moderators, listed below. Private messages to @admin are not monitored.

Comments

  • 0
    edited February 2021

    TIP: HOW TO SET UP NOTIFICATIONS FOR THREAD CATEGORIES:

    Some members like to set up notifications for discussions, so they can be notified when new monthly book discussion start, or when new Slow Read discussions are posted. Here's how you can do the same:

    If you're on a PC - look to the upper left side of your screen and you'll see your avatar with some icons beside it: A globe, an envelope, a star, and a gear. Click on the gear to open a dropdown menu and select 'edit profile'

    Now, directly under your avatar are 5 choices - the middle one is 'Notification Preferences'. This opens a new page that lets you toggle all kinds of notifications on and off - either for specific purposes (like 'threads i've contributed to' or specific categories). Pick "my discussions" for threads you started, or "discussions I've participated in" for threads you commented in (or started, I assume). You can also get notifications for individual threads that you book-mark, like the Newsletter thread. If you pick this, you then need to go and bookmark the threads you want. To do that, open the thread and click on the star in the upper right corner.

    From this menu, you can also select specific discussion categories to be notified about. THIS IS THE ONLY SCREEN THAT ALLOWS YOU TO DO DO THIS. So, if you've signed up for the latest 'Slow Read' and want to be notified each time a new discussion is started for that - scroll down through the list and check the right category. These are not organized chronologically, so don't expect the newest categories and discussions to be at the top.

    The software does not allow you to set notifications for new threads by default, so you'll need to come back periodically and add new discussions or categories to your list.

    If you're on a phone, some of this may be hard to find. I couldn't find the Edit Profile page that led to the Notification Preferences, for example. However, at the very bottom of the page, in the white section above the Vanilla logo, you can see three links: 'Full Site' and 'Dashboard' and 'Signout'. Clicking 'Full Site' will give you access to the menus I described above. When you're done, at the bottom of the page again, tap the 'back to mobile site' to take you back to the dashboard view.

    Once on the 'Full Site' view, to go to the edit profile / notifications page and set up whatever notifications you want as per the PC instructions above.

    Another way of getting to 'Edit Profile' on a phone is to tell your browser that you want the desktop site, which in most systems is an option on the browser menu.


    Footnote: If you're scrolling the categories, for example the 'Slow Read' categories, you'll see they they usually say '0 discussions'. This is usually a lie - most of these are filled with discussions. We'll try to figure out how the make these numbers reveal the truth!

This discussion has been closed.