Notes on using the Forum

[PatrickJLeeFIA1989]

Rule change (more of a restatement of something previously implicitly understood)
Given this site's expansion from one to multiple forums (on different subjects) the following phrase (implicitly understood until now, because the forum on the merger was set up with the clearly stated intention of transferring all posts to an official AP [Actuarial Profession] forum once one has been created - as you know this process was obstructed by the AP) has now been explicitly added to the registration/terms of use:

You agree that your posts may be transferred (as part of a wholesale transfer) to a suitable official forum if set up in due course by the UK actuarial professional bodies.

The notes in this topic apply to all forums
The notes/guidance on using this Forum are relevant of course to all the other forums hosted on this site, since they all use the same software.

[PatrickJLeeFIA1989]

How to add an online poll

Online polls can be created by adding a new topic, and creating a poll within the very first post of that topic. To do this, use the Poll Creation tab when creating the new topic and set the various options as per the callout images in the screenshot below:



When you are ready, click Submit and your new topic, with its associated text and poll, will be published and ready for you (and all other registered members of the site) to vote on.

IMPORTANT: Once you have submitted your poll, and someone has voted on it, do not edit the first post within the topic containing your poll. If you do so, there is a risk that the software will reset all votes within your poll, because you may have invalidated your poll by editing it after members have started voting on it!

[PatrickJLeeFIA1989]

This topic has been moved to a new, publicly viewable subforum within forumsforactuaries.com, so that users of other forums, e.g. http://www.fidelisdefence.com/forums and http://www.actuarialforums.com can benefit from material posted here.

[PatrickJLeeFIA1989]

How to avoid losing a long post!

This has happened to me a couple of times in the past, and has also happened to at least one member recently on the new AP forum. All phpBB websites have a Session time limit variable, which by default is set to 3600 seconds (an hour). This means that unless you press a button, or click a link within the site within an hour (or whatever the administrators have set the session limit to be, it is an hour here and on the FIDELIS forums, but may be something else on the AP forums), you will probably be logged off automatically.

For some reason, typing your post within a post submission form doesn't seem to count, so if you are logged off (e.g. because you started typing and then got distracted by a phone call or to make a cup of coffee, then came back and tried to finish your post and clicked submit after the time limit), you are in danger of losing the work you carried out in making your post. If this happens, it might be worth using the Back button on your browser immediately you ar presented with the login screen: you just might be returned to the form with your post in, in which case you can copy it quickly and paste it to e.g. Notepad.

To safeguard against losing any but a trivial post, it is worth using one or more of the following approaches:
(1) periodically use CTRL A (select all), then CTRL C (copy) from within the form and paste a copy of your post to Notepad
(2) draft your post in Word or Notepad
(3) from time to time, click on the Save button (the Preview button might also work, by "waking up" the system and resetting the session variable which stores the last time you were active on the site) to save your post as a draft within the forum (see saving and restoring drafts earlier in this topic).
(4) If in any doubt, use (1) above to take a copy of your post just before you click the Submit button.

[PatrickJLeeFIA1989]

How to go straight to any new posts which you haven't read

(Adding to previous information about this because it is clear that not everyone is aware of this)
If you to to Board Index (top left link), there is a "View new posts" link slightly lower down (on the left in standard phpBB forums, it is on the right on the AP version 4 forum site) just above the listing of the forums, which should take you straight to those posts which are new since your last visit, without having to go to the topics in which they appear. As previously mentioned within this topic, you can also change your settings (via the User Control Panel) in phpBB forums so that posts within a topic always appear in descending date order, so (on going to the topic) you will then be taken immediately to the posts you haven't read.

[PatrickJLeeFIA1989]

How to change your password or email address for a phpBB forum

As shown in the following screenshot, after logging in, go to User Control Panel, click on Profile, Edit account settings from the left hand menu. A form then appears where you can enter either a new password, or a new email address, or both. Click Submit to save your changes.

[PatrickJLeeFIA1989]

How to add an automatic signature to each of your posts

The following screenshot shows an example of a signature which includes a (small) picture:



To do this, as shown in the following screenshot, after logging in, go to User Control Panel, Profile, Edit signature, enter the required information (you can use the same formatting as for any normal post), then click Submit to save your changes: