FIA Online Forums Help...
The Forging Industry Association is hosting an online discussion called the FIA Online Forum on its web site. Once you have registered, you may log on. (Technical note: the FIA Online Forum works best with Netscape or Explorer browsers 4.0 or higher.)
Within this Forum, visitors can post messages on more specific subjects of interest to them -- called threads. Other visitors can respond to or comment on these messages.
These "conversations" will be visible on the web site to registered users for a period of 90 days. Also, users have the option of having new messages on threads they have marked forwarded to their e-mail addresses, in order to keep up to date with the discussion without logging into the FIA web site.
Click on "login" on the bottom of this page, and you will be offered a "Registration Form." Fill out the requested information, decide your own username and password, and press "OK". Then login again, using the username and password you chose, and then you will have access to FIA Online Forum.
After login, a series of buttons allows you to look through messages.
| Exit | New Messages | Search | Options | Logout/in |
Active threads from last 365 days:
Exit
will send you back to the FIA homepage.
New Thread allows you to add a new subject (or "thread")
to the Forum.
Search will allow searching of messages by keyword.
Options allows changes to the screen appearance.
Logout/in goes back to the login page, and asks for a username
and password.
Refresh lists any message you have posted.
New Messages will list any messages since your last session.
The Current Forum on FIA's website is General Discussion -- A general discussion area for all topics.
For example:
| General Discussion |
HELP
The label in the blue box is the name of the forum, or main topic area. The underlined red texts are the names of the threads within that Forum. The date to the right is the date of the most recent message on that thread. The number in brackets is the number of messages within that thread. To see those messages, just click on one of the threads. If you had chosen to receive e-mail notification of new postings click on HELP to be connected to the Help Guide for this Forum package.
If you click on one of the threads, you will see the following:
| Back | Refresh | Options | Search |
(message
subject 1)
~~(reply to message 1)
~~~~(reply to reply to message 1)
(message
subject 2)
~~(reply to message 2)
*Post new message in this thread
The
buttons at the top have the same functions as on the previous page.
Below those buttons are a list of all of the messages in the thread,
with slightly indented messages to indicate a reply to the previous
message. To read a message, click on it. The format is that
of a normal e-mail message. To post a new message on a new topic,
click on *Post a new message.
To reply to an existing message, click on the Reply button
above it. Always preview messages before posting.
For
ease of use, the Forum has been divided into 6 separate Topic Headings:
- General Discussion
- e-commerce / e-business * New Topic
- Health & Safety
- Technical
- Training
- Equipment, Materials & Supplies
- From the
Main Forum Page, Click on "Options".
- A blue screen will appear. Under forums, check each of the 6 Topic Headings.
- Click OK. This will take you back to the Main Page where all 6 Topic Headings should now be listed.
- By Clicking on the Gray Arrow, to the left of the topic name, you may chose to hide or reveal the individual messages within that topic heading.