Welcome to your forum, let's get started!

The first thing you may notice about your forum is that the index view, in which conversations are listed, is a little different to the other web forums out there. We've chosen to move away from the traditional way of organizing posts; instead of using sub-forums we allow you to quickly find what you want by using search terms that we call 'gambits'.

Gambits are simply phrases that describe what you are looking for. Here are some examples.

If you want to list only the conversations that contain unread posts, double-click on unread in the bunch of words towards the top of the page.

To view the conversations that have been active during the last day, double-click active today.

Or to list new replies to your posts, click on unread and contributor:myself, then click the search button.

Experiment! Gambit searching is actually pretty powerful and we hope that, once you get used to it, it will make your time spent on forums less about clicking and more about talking.

Tags

Gambits aren't the only way to locate conversations. You can also search by tags, which are snippets of text that describe the topic of a conversation. To search by a tag simply click on the desired phrase in the tag cloud, which is the collection of words above the gambits.

Thirdly, you can always enter normal search terms into the search bar, just as you would when using Google or Yahoo. Note that unless the forum is configured otherwise search terms must be at least four characters long.

So now you know how to find the conversations you are interested in. What other things can your forum do?

Having a conversation

Forums are all about talking! To get started, click on a conversation and try typing a reply. You may be asked to log in before you are allowed to post. If this is the case, type your username and password into the input fields just under the header and click login, or click join this forum if you are not a registered member.

You may style your reply using some basic formatting options, such as bold and italic, or you may even add a hyperlink. Try experimenting with different formatting options to see what you can do. To see what your reply will look like once it is posted, simply check the preview box.

Once you're ready, click submit post and your reply will be added to the conversation. It's that simple.

Starting a new conversation

If there are no conversations that catch your fancy why not make one of your own? It's exactly the same as replying to an existing conversation but with a few added extras. Click the start a conversation button and you will be asked to enter a conversation title and specify some tags to describe the conversation. For example, if you choose to start a conversation about the movie Ocean's Eleven you might choose the tags "movie", "Ocean's Eleven", and "George Clooney". Remember: you can have as many or as few tags as you want! If you can't be bothered thinking of tags for a topic then you may always add them later, or a moderator may add some on your behalf. Conversations do not need tags to be listed.

Changing your avatar and color

When people are reading a conversation full of posts they may often overlook your username. To help distinguish your posts from those of other members you may specify a profile image, called an avatar, and choose a color for your posts.

Simply log in and click my settings in your control bar. On this page you will find a section called appearance settings in which you can upload an avatar and select your favorite color.

While you're here you can also choose whether you'd like to be emailed whenever someone invites you into a private conversation and whether to receive email notifications of new replies within starred topics. We'll talk about these a bit more.

Private conversations

If you've used other web forums before you will probably be familiar with the concept of private messages. Your forum expands on this functionality with private conversations, which are simply conversations that may only be viewed and replied to by certain members. A private conversation may consist of just you and a friend, or it may allow access by an entire group, ex. all of the moderators.

Apart from allowing only certain members to participate, private conversations are identical to normal conversations. To start a new private conversation click start a conversation and locate the members allowed to view this conversation section. By default it will say "everyone", but you may change this by adding in a member. Try typing the name of your friend and clicking add. You will notice that it now lists your friend as the only other member allowed to view the conversation, and a private label will appear beneath the conversation title.

To list all your private conversations from the index, use the private gambit. You can refine your search by using other gambits too, for example private + unread will list only your private messages that contain unread replies.

Starred conversations

You may occasionally find a conversation that you want to pay close attention to. Rather than memorize the search string you used to find the conversation, you can mark it with a star by clicking on the star icon next to the conversation title. Then, simply use the star gambit in the search to bring up a list of all the conversations that you have starred.

Another benefit of starring conversations is that you can choose to receive email notifications whenever someone posts a new reply in the starred conversation. Check the appropriate box in my settings and your forum will handle the rest.

Draft conversations

We know that posting long replies can take a while. Sometimes you may be interrupted or need to resume later. When this is the case, click save draft and your reply or conversation will be saved in a way that is only visible to you. To list conversations that contain one of your draft replies, use the draft gambit.

My favorite gambit searches

As mentioned previously, gambits are powerful both for forum regulars and guests searching for a specific piece of information on a newly-found forum. Here are some of the gambit combinations that I find useful or interesting!

• My new private messages: private + unread
• New replies to my posts: contributor:myself + unread - private
• Hot topics of the last week: active last 7 days + order by posts
• Replies to my recent conversations: author:myself + active last 2 weeks + has replies
• All-time most popular conversations: order by posts
• My failed conversations: author:myself + !has replies
• Random recent conversations: random + active last 1 weeks - private - sticky

Experiment to find your own favorites!

The quickest way to become familiar with your forum is to start using it, so get posting!

We hope you enjoy using our software.

• geteso team