Hello, and welcome to the SchoolNet Web Forum. Hope you have come here to speak your mind. For those of you who have been here before, login and talk on any issues of journalism you wish. You can write opinions on whatever topic is of interest to you and to the journalism profession, and post opinions on this page for other students to read and respond to. Or if you are new, carry on and read how to use the forum.

1. Pick a new login name and password.

2. Put in your full name and school. Skip the phone number. Put in your e-mail address. The rest is optional.

3. Before you go to the forum you must login again.

4. This is the easy part...go to the discussion area and speak your mind.

How to post a message on the web forum is a simple task.

When you have logged in to the forum you will see this row of icons across the screen.

To read the first message on the forum simply click on the highlighted blue writing to read the post.

To read the next message in the forum, simply click on the icon. That should take you directly to the next post.

To go back one post, use the icon.

A new entry of a topic is called a post. So to submit a new thought to the forum simply click on the icon. This should get you to a writing page.

Here it will ask you for a title, which should be provided, as it gives the next readers a topic to relate to the article.

Then you are free to type your text in the box provided. The screen will automatically format the page to fit in the forum.

When you are finished you may leave your name and e-mail address or you may post the note anonymously, which leaves no name or return e-mail address . When finished hit the Enter button. It will automatically format the text and attach your name to the post, at the far left had corner at the bottom of the post.

If someone's thought and post has caught your attention, and you wish to respond to the post, click on the icon. This will give you a screen similar to the posting screen, only this time the response is automatically attached to the first post.

A post with a number of responses, is called a thread.

Now you have all the basic skills needed to use the web-forum.




Nettiquette

In the Internet universe there are many rules that you should follow.

1. Introduce yourself. Like who you are, and where do you go to school. Remember that this forum is like a big room, with lots of people. Introducing yourself is just polite.

2. Uppercase letters may be easier to use but, on the net, it is considered SCREAMING! This is the normal tone of voice.

3. As there aren't any hand gestures or other ways of telling a person's feelings, smilies are used. : ) is the normal smiley, ; ) is a "winker", 8 ) is one with glasses, : ( is a frownie, and on and on.

4. You will see lots of acronyms like:
fyi - For your Information
btw - By The way
L8r - later, as in Bye, see you L8r.
ttfn - ta-ta for now
imho - in my humble opinion
fwiw - for what its worth

5. Flames - Flames are nasty messages about your writing. Remember that you are responsible for what you write. Some people may not like what you have said and will try to "Flame" you. So choose your words carefully, and you won't offend as many people.

6. Lurking is reading a forum or newsgroup (ng) without writing.

7. If you have been lurking for a long time then the first message you send (called posting) you will be a Newbie. New people add more to the conversation.