How our website is organized
Do you need to Register – How to Register?
How do I Comment on posts?
How do I Post?
What are the moderators looking for in a post or comment?
How do I subscribe to follow particular blogs?
How do I update my registration information or change passwords?
How do I navigate in the Forum?
How do I post to the Forum?
How our website is organized – From left to right on the menu at the top of the page:
- Home – an overview of mission
- News – what is going locally on related to that mission
- Discussion Topics – the topics we are planning to have or have had discussions on. As you can see, most of these are interrelated and have to with the interaction between our politics and our economics, i.e. the 99% vs the 1%; but our intent is to find and move ahead local solutions. Topic Discussion pages will have an overview, as much useful and accurate information as we can find/present and resource links and documents so that we are all well informed.
- Topic Blogs – ideas and commentary by our contributors and site users. When you register, you can post your own ideas and commentary. You can also comment on other’s posts. Posts are moderated.
- Events – our event calendar showing regular meetings and our local discussion forum dates.
- Discussion Sign-up – this page has links to subscribe to follow topic blogs and news or notify us if you would like to attend a local evening discussion forum.
- Forum – this is a discussion forum with threads that we suggest everyone use for exchanging ideas not directly related to one of the Discussion Topics. If asked to log in, use the same username and password as for the main sections of the website.
- Contributor Blogs – the blog posts of our contributors are organized here by contributor should you find a particular contributor whose posts you especially like to see.
- FAQ/About Us – self explanatory
- Contact – a web form for emailing the Main Street Forum NC team. We welcome you ideas, comments and new topic suggestions.
- Donate – until we identify the need for anything more than minor expenses (should one of the action items coming out of the discussion forums require spending), we only suggest small cash donations at the evening discussion forums.
Do you need to Register – How to Register? – All materials and information will be available without registering. You will need to register if you want to post to the blogs/forum or comment on a post. On the right side of any page is a “Create a new account” link.
How do I Comment on posts? – When you go to a particular topic blog, the page will display the title and a brief digest showing the beginning text of the post. Below that digest is a small text gray line that includes a link reading Leave a comment. If you are logged in, there is a comment form below the full post.
How do I Post? – Once you have logged in you can click on the Your Dashboard link on the right side of the page below the Upcoming Events. On your Dashboard, hover your cursor over the Posts link in the left hand column. A slide out menu will display and you can select New Post from there. Write your post and title and click the Preview (shown below with red shading) to see it displayed in a new window.
Once you are satisfied with how your post looks, Before set where you want it to show in the Categories box (shown below with green shading) – click in the box next to the categories you think your post fits in. There are topic categories and contributor categories. Unless you are a regular contributor with a category listed, you will only want to select topic categories. Once you have set your categories, click the big blue Submit for Review button and your post will be reviewed by our moderators.
What are the moderators looking for in a post or comment?
Basically, we are looking for posts and comments to follow the same guidelines as for our events.
First and foremost, be respectful. While the topics, posts and comments might get your blood boiling at some point, you aren’t going to bring anyone new to your point of view if you are crude, insulting or diss other peoples’ opinions out of hand. Moderators will not approve anything that is mean spirited.
Second, be constructive. And, we would expand that by adding, be informative and factual. While we welcome opinions from all quarters, our goal is to find common ground solutions to problems that affect us all. We feel that the best starting point is to present everyone with the same, accurate facts as a foundation for constructive dialogue. Indicating the facts you base your opinions on will make your posts/comments more effective and more constructive.
Moderators will be fact checking so, if you are implying or stating a fact, be sure it is accurate. We suggest you provide links or references to your sources. It will speed up the fact checking and we will include those links in your post/comment. We can upload and link to documents if you email them to us.
If your facts are inaccurate, only somewhat accurate or cannot be confirmed, the post might be approved but with a moderator’s comments to that effect inserted.
How do I subscribe to follow particular blogs? – You can select which blogs for which you want to receive email notifications of new posts. There are links to your subscription page on most topic and blog pages. From your Dashboard, you can click the Subscribe2 link in the left column.
How do I update my registration information or change passwords? – On your Dashboard, click the Profile link in the left column. You can add or change personal information. At the bottom of the page you can enter your new password (twice to insure accuracy). When ready, press the big blue Update Profile button.
How do I navigate in the Forum? – Click on the post title of interest to see the full post and follow down its thread tree. To move back up the tree, click on the level of the tree you want in the navigation bar (the gray bar below the main menu – it begins with Board Index which is the top level). You can also use the Jump to selector box below the post on the right side of the page.
How do I post to the Forum? To post to the Forum, you will need to log in again. Use the same login as the main site. Navigate to the post or reply you are interested in and click the POSTREPLY button below the title of the post or below the post itself.