If you don't use the site for a certain period of time you are automatically logged out. Using the site means loading new pages, if you just have one page displayed and you don't click on any links then the site is not used.

You have to be careful when you are writing long comments or messages. While you are writing the message you are on one page and the site thinks that you are inactive. If it takes you a very long time to finish the message then by the time you submit it you may be already logged out. One of two things could happen at this point. If anonymous postings are allowed then the message will be posted anonymously, the site administrator may be able to help you to fix this. If anonymous postings are not allowed then you will be prompted with an error message saying "Sorry, you don't have the permission to access this area." and your posting will be lost. You may be able to use the browser Back button to go back to the form, copy your message to the clipboard, go to the Home page, login and post again.

If you are writing long messages the best thing to do is to write them offline in some text editor and when you are done go to the site, login, and post your message by copying it from the editor.

No, it is not. You have to explicitly logout before closing your browser. It is very easy to verify this, go to the site, login and close your browser. You can try both closing just the current window (assuming you have other browser windows open) or closing all open browser windows. Then start the browser again and come back to the site. You will see that the site remembers you being logged in.

In order to logout select Logout in the User Menu block.


You will see a brief message saying "You are now logged out Thank you for your visit to our site!" and you are logged out.

There are several reasons why you may want to logout.

First of all, if you are on a public computer you definitely want to logout when you leave the computer so no one else can access the site and impersonate you.

Even if you are using your own computer where no one else has access you still may want to logout once you are off the site in order to signal to other users that you are not online anymore. The web site is tracking all the logged in users and it shows a list with these users and also for all these users puts the Online label under the user name in form postings and comments.

When you are logged in instead of a Login block you should see a User Menu block.

Click on the Lost Password? link in the Login block, in the next page use the Lost your Password? section.


Type in your email address and click Send Password.



The system will generate a new temporary password for you and email it to you.

If you don't know the email address that you used when you registered on the site then try all your email addresses. The system will give you brief error message like "Sorry, no corresponding user info was found." and your browser will return to the same page where you can try another email address.

As soon as you receive this temporary password please login and update your profile by choosing another permanent password. Since the temporary password was sent through email it is not secure, this is why you should change it as soon as possible.

It is not possible to retrieve your existing password, not even by the system administrator, this is the reason why a temporary password is generated.

In the Login block type your user name and your password and click on the User Login button.



You will see a brief message saying "Thank you for logging in, ..." and then you are forwarded to the page you where before.

If you try to access a section of the site available only to registered users and you are not logged in then you will be presented with the login page. After you login you will be forwarded to the page you were trying to reach.

First of all you have to make sure that you completed the registration. If did not click the Finish button in the second step of the registration process then the registration did not take place and you will not get an account activation email. Please go back and register again.

If you are sure that you completed you registration then you may want to wait a bit longer for the email. Sometimes it takes quite a while (several hours) for an email to reach its destination. It all depends on the current network conditions and where exactly the source and destination computers are.

If you still don't receive the activation email by next day then most likely you did not type in a proper email address or the message did not reach you for some other reason (your mailbox was full, one of the mail servers falsely identified the message as spam, etc.). Do not register again, try to contact the web master or one of the moderators and ask for help. Tell them the exact user name and email address you have user. Don't send them your password.

In the Login block select the Register now! link, this will take you to the User Registration form.


Step 1. Fill out the user registration form.



Username: enter a user name that will represent you in the system; you will use this name to login and it will show next to all your postings on the site, this is the name under which other people will recognize you
Email: enter your email address; please make sure that the address is correct since it will be use to send you an account activation message
Website: if you have a web site then enter its address here
Time Zone: select your time zone
Password: enter the password you want to use, make sure that you can remember it and that it is not a trivial password; your password is not stored on the system, only a checksum is stored, you should not be afraid that someone will be able to see it
Verify Password: enter your password again for verification
Receive occasional email notices from administrators and moderators?: select Yes if you would like to receive occasional messages from the administrators or moderators; you will not be spammed, only important messages will be sent
Disclaimer: read the disclaimer and if you agree then click on I agree to the above, you can register only if you agree with this disclaimer

Click the Submit button.

Step 2. Confirm the registration information.



On the next page you will see the username, the email address and the time zone you entered in the first step. Make sure they are correct.

Click the Finish button in order to complete the registration process. This is VERY IMPORTANT! If you don't click on Finish then you will not be registered.

Step 3. Activate the account.

After you click Finish the system will create an inactive account for you and it will send you and account activation email. This is necessary in order to verify that the email address you provided is correct and that it is your email address. Once you receive this email follow the link provided in the email in order to activate your new account. You will not be able to login until you activate your account.

Once you activated the account login and start using the site. You may want to edit your profile once logged in in order to provide more information about yourself.

Being registered and logged in gives you several benefits:
- you have a persistent profile on the site, people will recognize you and you help building a community
- you can use notifications
- you can send and receive personal messages
- some features could be available only if you are logged in
- some sections of the site could be available only if logged in

A topic that has been locked is identified by this image:files/Forum/locked.jpg

The topic can still be read but no more replies are accepted. Why should this be required?

1. Some topics can extend for several pages and become too large to follow easily.
2. The point of the topic has been reached and resolved and further discussion becomes irrelevant or confusing.
3. The moderator decides to close the topic due to poor conduct or sensitive disclosures.

You can set a signature for every post you will make in this site. In order to achieve this, you have to select the Edit Account menu item of the User Menu. This will bring you to a page where you can edit your profile. If you scroll down a bit, you'll see a row called Signature:

User Profile : Signature

This is where you should write the text you'd like as your signature.

Also, if you'd like your signature to be attached to every post you make on this site, make sure to check the Always attach my signature box.

Don't forget to hit the Save Changes button at the end of the page.

As you can see on the image below, the User Menu contains an item called Inbox.

User Menu : Inbox

Clicking on that menu item will bring you to your Inbox page. Your inbox contains all the Private Message you have received from this site.

As you can see on the image below, the User Menu contains an item called Notification.

User Menu : Notifications

Clicking on that menu item will bring you to your Active Notifications page. This is the place where you can manage all the notifications you have set in this site. Each time you select a checkbox in the Notification Options of a module and you hit Update Now, a new item is added to your Active Notifications.

As you can see on the image below, the User Menu of this site displays 2 items regarding your account: View Account and Edit Account.

User Menu : View And Edit Account

Basically, if you click on View Account you will be able to see the informations of your account, as you would see them for another user if you clicked on their name. However, since it is your account, you can edit it. You will see at the top of your informations, 4 buttons :

User Menu : View Account

- If you hit the Edit Profile button, you will be able to edit the informations of your profile.
- The Avatar button will allow you to change your avatar, which is the picture that represents you on this site.
- The Inbox button will take you to you Inbox, which is the place where you receive your Private Messages.
- The Logout button will log you out of this site.

Those options were given to you by clicking on the View Account of the User Menu. If you click on Edit Account of that same menu, you will be taken to the page where you can edit the informations of your profile.

As for any module of this site, different notification options are available for the Web Links module. At the bottom of the Web Links module page, you can find the Notification Options block.

Web Links Notification Options

All you have to do is check the notification you are interested to. For example, if you would like to be notified any time a new web link is published, you will check this: Notify me when any new link is posted.

Note : Don't forget to hit the Update Now button or your new notification options won't be saved!

Yes you can! To rate a web link that you liked or did not liked, simply click on the Rate this Site link at the bottom of the web link:

Rate this site

You will then see a select box and two buttons:

Web Link : Rate It

All you have to do is select a number in the select box that represent your appreciation of the site. The scale is 1 - 10, with 1 being poor and 10 being excellent.

To save your vote, simply hit the Rate It! button.

Note :
- Please do not vote for the same resource more than once.
- Please be objective, if everyone receives a 1 or a 10, the ratings aren't very useful.
- Do not vote for a web link that you submitted.

Really simple: just click on the Tell a Friend link at the bottom of the web link:

Tell a Friend

Your mail application will then open with a new message that has Interesting Website Link at Example Site as the subject and the link to visit the web link in the body of the message.

If you clicked on the web link's name to actually visit the website and you get an error telling you that the page could not be found, it is possible for you to report web link as a Broken Link. This will advise the site administrator and he would be able to fix the link.

To do that, you only have to click on the Report Broken Link link at the bottom of the web link :

Report a broken web link

Then, you simply need to click on the Report Broken Link button.

For any web link, it is possible for you to post a comment. Let's see how.

First, you need to locate the Post Comment button like the image below:

Post a Comment

You will usually find this image at the end of the web link. If it is not there, you can click on the link Comments (0) to the lower right corner of the web link. This will make the Post Comment button to be displayed.

Comments?

When you have located the Post Comment button, click on it. You will now be presented with the web link for which you want to post a comment, and at the end of the web link, you'll have the Post Comment form.

Post Comment Form

Let's have a look at the principal field of this form.

Title: This is the title of your comment. By default, the title is the title of the web link for which you are posting a comment, with "Re :" inserted before the title. You can change it to whatever you like.

Message Icon: You can select a little picture that will identify your comment. For example, if you are posting a question, you could check the question mark icon. You are not required to check an image.

Message: This is the main text of your comment. As for forum posts, you can add links, images, quotes, code, smilies etc...

To preview what your comment will look like, you can hit the Preview button. To post your new comment, click on the Post Comment button.

You can find the number of time a web link was accessed by looking at the Hits : at the bottom of the web link.
For example, in the image below, the web page of the site Monster was accessed 8 times.

Web Links Hits