Here is a brief explanation of some of the questions you may have about using the OSWG Discussion Board.
Last updated April 5, 2005
To make this board and your message more useful to all, I hope you'll consider these suggestions:
And thanks for visiting!
Go back to the main page, and look down the page for all the message headers. Then click on the header you want to see.
Go back to the main page and select "Post a New Message". Fill in the Name, E-Mail, and Subject boxes. Type the text of your message in the Message box. Then click the Post Message button. You will see your post as it will appear, and can approve or revise it.
At the bottom of the page displaying the message, there is a form just like the one for submitting an original post. Enter the information just as for posting an original message, and then click on the Submit Follow Up button. The message text box is initialized with the text of the message you are replying to. You can type your reply above or below it, or delete it if you wish.
How do I revise or delete one of my messages?
Once it's posted, you can't. It's kind of like a newsgroup that way. (A really really compelling request might be entertained in an emergency situation; email the board administrator by clicking the "Questions? Comments?" link on the main page.)
How do I lay out the text in my message or reply?
The box where you type your message is only 50 characters wide, but you can type wider lines and the window will move to follow your typing. Your message will look better if you don't break your lines up, but type an entire paragraph on one line. That way, when your message is viewed, the browser will format the paragraphs and it will look better on the screen.
When replying to a message, you can type your reply before or after the original message, which appears in the text box with a colon at the start of each line. You can even mix your lines in with the original message. If the original message is very long, putting your reply at the top means the readers won't have to page down to see your reply. Also, don't type your message on a line that starts with a colon, because those lines will display in italics when the reply is posted.
Why are there colons in the message text box when I try to post a follow-up?
Colons appear in the message dialog box to indicate that those lines are quoting the previous document. Those quoted lines will appear in italics in your post. If you don't want that text in your reply, you can delete some or all of it.
Your post most likely did not show up because your browser did not reload the updated Web page, but just pulled it out of the cache on your computer. Try hitting the reload button on your browser.
If all or part of your post is missing, one cause might be using the punctuation characters < or >. These are interpreted as HTML formatting characters by your browser.
If you can't figure out the problem, please send me an email and let me know what happened. I really want to locate and fix any problems, but I can't do it if you don't tell me about it.
How do I search the posted messages?
A simple search function allows you to search all posted messages for a string or keyword. Type the string or keyword in the box and click on Search!
The search finds all occurrences of the word or string, regardless of upper or lower case. It searches on the entire string, not on the words in the string.
How can I put a bulletin board like this on my own Web site?
This bulletin board is implemented using CGI scripts written in Perl and created by Matt Wright. (Thanks, Matt!) They are free to anyone who wishes to use them. You can get them and many other scripts at: http://worldwidemart.com/scripts/.
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