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Making the best use of the club forums ...


 
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 8:16    Post subject: Making the best use of the club forums ... Reply with quote

As the forums have grown in depth and quality, more and more repeat posts are appearing.

Where possible, the most regularly raised posts have been moved to the 'Technical FAQ' forum, where you should check in the first instance.

If your question is not resolved there, the next thing to try is the forums comprehensive search facility : simply click on the <search> button at the top of the forum, put in (a) relevant search word(s), click on the button to search for ANY or ALL of the entered terms (words) then click search and all previous entries related to your problem will be listed for you to browse.

Here are a few useful examples of keyword search phrases :

*egr*
*egr*valve*
egr AND valve
*egr* AND *valve*


(the *'s allow for example valve & valves)

here is an example of a bad search phrase :

my engine makes a lot of noise at 40mph

Additionally, to limit the information that is returned, you can restrict your search to a specific part of the forums in a number of ways ...

For example, by specifying the forum you want to search (eg Technical FAQ).  When you perform your first search, one of the options in the search box is

Forum : [All available] v

From that drop down menu, you can select (for example), just the Technical FAQ forum, so your search is limited to just that forum!

To further refine your search, there is another box where you can click a button to choose to search the entire forum, (titles AND message content), just the messages or just the titles (this last option is great, but ONLY if people post with meaningful titles!)

Finally, if your question still remains unanswered, please feel free to post your question.  You will need to have registered ON THE FORUMS before you can post a new message or respond to an existing one... just click on the <register> button at the top of the screen, choose your own userid and password and you're away... please remember to update your profile, to include a rough location of where you are - the town/county you live in will do ... this way, other local members may be able to help out if you have a problem!

For a general overview of the forum facilities, click the FAQ button at the top of the forum.

Finally, if you're having trouble with any aspect of the club site, (or need help with any aspect of using your PC), try the Computer bytes forum - everything from 'how to make the site work for AOL users, to advice on Viruses,  to 'how to post a picture on the net'.

Forum usage rule ... there's only really one rule ... if you have a point to make, please be sure you have all the facts which you can back up.

There are guidelines too ...

be polite and considerate to other club members.

don't use the technical forum for 'offline chat' ... it's there for technical advice and the more 'off topic' posts that are in there, the more cumbersome and difficult to navigate it becomes.

don't respond to a post (in particular technical posts) with "yeah - I get that too" - the person raising the post may have asked to be "notified on response" - they have a look at the response expecting a solution and see "yeah - I get that too".

don't keep adding something pointless to a post just to bring it back to the top of the list.

do try to keep it reasonably clean and inoffensive - there is a 'word filter' on the forums, but there are other ways to be offensive.

do use a meaningful title for your post - if you need help with a specific problem, then spell it out - when browsing, you're more likely to get a response to a topic entitled (for example) "Help - engine keeps cutting out" rather than one entitled "urgent help required".

do keep an existing topic 'on topic' - it's no good starting a thread on 'how do I fix my compass' which goes on to to tell you about how to reduce your exhaust emissions.

do try to post in the right forum ... "Anyone know a dealer in Kent" belongs in 'dealers' not in the 'technical forum'

I'm sure there's more - it's all really down to a common sense approach.

For a light-hearted guide to posting on forums, please watch the short video (below) :


Link



Finally ...

Newbies & picture posting.

So ... you've just registered and you can't wait to show us a picture of your pride and joy - but wait - what's this ???

Quote:
You haven't been a member long enough nor made enough posts to be able to add URLs / web links in the forums.

Quite simply, it's an anti-spam measure to help combat the problem of spammers, registering on the forums with the sole intention of posting links to filth / porn / drugs / etc in all popular forums.

"OK ..." you think to yourself ... "I'll use this here 'add-attachment' facility on the forums then!" ...

But there's a small problem there too ...

The on-forum picture hosting is really intended for illustrations of technical articles, where it is important not to lose the pics ...

Not only is the format of the on-forums hosted pics in the post quite poor, it uses our storage and band-width, hence costs us (me) money - in addition, every time the on-forum-hosted pic is viewed, it affects the page-load speeds for everybody browsing the forums.

Off-forum hosting is better for a number of reasons ...

  1. It uses their storage
  2. It uses their bandwidth
  3. The picture format is a better format in the post
  4. The page refresh speed for other users is unaffected by the size of the pic.

My favourite (off-forum) picture host is Photobucket <-- Click to link

It even gives you the code to show the pic in your post Wink

PLEASE - don't use the on-forum picture hosting either to simply add a picture to a 'general' post, nor as a way to get around any anti-spam measures preventing URL links in posts.  The anti-spam criteria are based on a small number of posts AND a short, minimum length of membership - neither are very high, but you have to achieve BOTH Cool

Sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding!

Thanks for taking the time to read this message.

Simon.
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2004 8:16    Post subject: Google Ads keep the POCUK free to join!


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