The Forum section of the IRSPM site is a very powerful message board, allowing for conversations or "threads" on a range of subjects to continue over time within predefined Forum topics or "Categories."

The Categories are set by the site Administrator. Currently, two sample Categories are in place, IRSPM Events, and IRSPM Discussion.

Any registered user who logs in can post New Threads and contribute to existing threads. Those not logged in can only view the Forum threads.

Each Category can also be set to be hidden from users who are not logged in.

Using the Forum

The forum is based on a highly popular message board system, so should be familiar to anyone who has used forums on other sites.

To get started, login, and click "Forum" on the User Menu.

You should see something like this:

Note the Tabs at the top allow you to view recent discussions (Threads) , your own disccussions, all categories, your profile, forum rules and help.

Start a new topic.

• As seen above, click Categories to see the active Forum Categories.
• Click a Category..
• Click "New Thread" and write your message.

Add to an existing topic or thread.

• As seen above, click Categories to see the active Categories in the forum.
• Click a Category that interests you.
• Click the Topic or Thread you want to contribute to, and click "Reply Topic" or "Quick reply." The latter presents a simplified form for your message, and is quicker to complete.
• Write your message.
• Press Preview to check how your message will look (useful if you have used text formatting) and Submit to save your message.

Forum Glossary.

One of the problems when first using a forum is understanding the terminology. This short guide explains the main areas of confusion.

Categories: Forum "subjects" which guide the discussions within.

Topic: The starting conversation within a Category. For example in the category "IRSPM Events" the question "When is the next event?" is a Topic. Once this topic has replies it becomes a thread.

Threads: A Topic that has a number of replies from different users.

Subscribe / Unsubscribe: You can be notified by email of replies to threads you are interested in. This is know as subscribing to a thread. Click Subscribe / Unsubscribe to change your status for the current thread.

Favourite: Click this to highlight this thread and make it easier to find in future. The thread will appear with a Star next to its name.