Making This Forum Easier to Use for New Members

[Michael]

I thought I'd put together a visual guide to better help new members use some of the functions in this forum.

1 - Here are social sections that can better help you to network:
Contacts and Friends (a page from where you can manage your contacts and friends)
Social Groups (where you can manage your social groups)
Pictures and Albums (where you can manage your pictures and albums)

2 - Thread Tools
This is where you can Manage and Subscribe to a thread or get thread Email Notifications.

3 - Tag Search
This is the best way to search our threads. As you can see with #10, we use tags to search. Standard searching is also helpful but give more general results than the specific searches that tags describe.

4 - Your Notifications
Private Messaging is very useful here. You can exchange information and attachments that you may not want in the general forum discussion.

5 - User CP (Control Panel)
This is where you control your account and keep the information in your profile up-to-date. You should especially ensure that your email address is kept current. We can use your email in situations when you may not be logged in and it is the only way to contact you. We NEVER sell your information to ANY outside parties. We only use it for Forum Notifications and Weekly Shout-Outs regarding interesting posts or threads.

6 - Multi-Quote Function
This is handy when you want to reply to several member posts at a time. You can select them by clicking the multi quote button on each post you wish to reply to. This button will change to RED to indicate that you've selected it. Then by clicking post reply button will then bring you to the full editor with all the posts quoted.

7 - Forum Style
You can change the way the board looks on your desktop or mobile by using the style changer in the bottom left of the page. This lets you choose different skins which change the color scheme and appearance of the board. The LIGHTWEIGHT selection is best used for your smartphone or Pad. The DEFAULT setting is best for desktop.

8 - Product Advertisers
These are advertisers that we believe can be helpful to your daycare environment or business. We usually test the products with our Product Testing Panel which consists of members like you. We only advertise those that we feel are helpful to our members.

9 - Post Number and Alert Button
The post number can be clicked on to just reference a specific post that you wish to use in another post. Sometimes our threads can contain hundreds of posts and this is a good way to point others to a specific comment.

The ALERT button is a way to notify the admin or moderators on a post that may be offensive to our rules or if a post is Spam or Click-bait. Once we are notified, we can delete and even block the abuser. Member participation helps make this forum more secure and enjoyable as a knowledgebase.

10 - TAGS
Clicking on tag will bring you to similar threads on the topic. We have over a decade of tagged information which will be very helpful to you.

11 - Member Name and Photo
To view information about a particular member, click on the username or photo. This will take you to their public profile page. This is how you can find out more about yourself and other members. There is a Photo Album section, Mini Statistic, Friends, About Me, Statistics, Friends, Infractions and Contact Info.