Notes for Forum Newcomers

Please read the notes in this section if this is your first visit to the forum
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Steve Wooler
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myTobago Editor & Chief Anorak
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Notes for Forum Newcomers

Post by Steve Wooler »

A fully illustrated easy-to-follow tutorial is provided for forum beginners and available through the Forum/Tutorial link on the main menu bar at the top of this page. The following notes are a brief summary of the information in the tutorial.

The myTobago.info Visitor Discussion Forum allows people to ‘post’ questions, ideas, opinions and information in an organised way. The posts are organised into three subdivisions:
  • Post – A post is a piece of information submitted by a single user. It may be a new post, which starts a new topic, or a reply to an existing post. Posts are typically a sentence, paragraph, or a few paragraphs.

    Topic - A topic is a collection of posts. The posts are organized in chronological order. The idea of a topic is that there is a single post that contains the main topic of discussion. This is followed by replies – replies to the main post and replies to other replies. Topics are similar to conversations, allowing many people to state their opinions about an idea, or debate an issue.

    Forum – A forum is a container for a specific topic – “Accommodation”, “Food & Drink”, “Sightseeing, Tours & Activities”, etc.
Navigating through posts is based on the idea of forums, topics and posts. Generally, a user will start at the Forum Index (available via the myTobago.info Forum Index link beneath the logo at the top of every page). The Forum Index shows a list of forums. If you click on one of the forums, you will be shown the View Forum page, which is a listing of the topics in the forum. By default they are sorted in chronological order by the most recent post in each topic. If you click on a topic, you will be shown the View Topic page, which is a listing of the posts in that topic. The posts in a topic are organized chronologically, with the oldest post that started the topic being shown first.

Making a New Post

To post a new question, comment or opinion, you must first determine the most appropriate forum for your post. Click on the myTobago.info Forum Index link in the upper left corner of your page to take you to the main index where you can see the various forums listed.

Having chosen the most appropriate forum – or General Questions & Comment if no other forum seems appropriate – click on the forum title to take you into the main View Topic pages for that forum.

To post a new topic, simply click on the New Topic button at the top of bottom left of the page.

Enter a meaningful title to your topic in the Subject field of the posting form. Remember, this is the title that will appear in the View Topic pages, so should give readers the essence of your posting.

Having entered the subject, you may type your actual message in the Message Body field. If it is a longer post, such as a holiday report, you may prefer to compose your message in your word processor (e.g. Microsoft Word) and then copy and paste the message to the Message Body. We strongly advise caution before posting any personal information. Remember, the forum is a public medium and can potentially be read by millions of anonymous readers around the world. NEVER give private information, such as your address, holiday dates or any other information that might help criminal elements identify you or your home.

You may apply basic formatting, such as Bold, Italic or Underline, by selecting the text to be formatted in the normal way and then clicking on the appropriate button at the top of the Message Body.

When you have completed your message, click the Preview button at the bottom of the form to see how your message will look, or the Submit button to actually post it. Once its been posted, you can always edit the message by clicking on the Edit button in the top right corner, but the editing function is disabled as soon as someone replies to the post.


Replying to Posts

Making a reply to a post assumes that you have already navigated your way through forums of interest, have selected a forum and found a topic that interests you. To add your comments, simply select the Post Reply button at the top or bottom of the View Forum page and proceed as for a new post.
Steve Wooler
myTobago.info - the definitive Visitor Guide to Tobago
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