A guide for the beginner and the non-speaker of Technobabble.
1. Registration
If not already registered, you will see a choice of Log On or Register. Click on Register.
This brings up the forum Terms of Usage. Click on Agree, then Submit.
This brings up the Registration page. Fill in your User name, E-mail Address and Real name. (You can ignore all the rest).
Click on Submit.
2. Password Notice
"Submit" brings up a notice saying a password will be e-mailed to you. Directly below the notice is a window asking for your user name and the password you haven"t got yet. Don"t attempt to use this window yet. Instead, open your e-mail in-basket, check the new message, and copy down the password (it will be some damn-fool word, but accept it for now).
Then, return to the registration page and the box you just left, fill in your user-name and the provided password, and submit again.
This finishes your registration and returns you to the Forum page where you started off.
3. Main Forum Page
This is where you will normally start once you have registered. There is a red bar at the top. Ignore all the options on this bar except Control Panel.
- Control Panel: Click on this option to personalize your postings:-
- Ignore all the stuff on the left side of this page and follow the directions on the right to:-
(a) Change your system-generated password to something you can remember (minimum length is four letters/numerals); and/or
(b) Add a personal symbol, such as your arms or badge (called for some reason an "avatar", otherwise defined by us religious folk as the incarnation of a Hindu god. Ain"t Techspeak wonderful?). The window lets you browse through your files to locate the image you want. When you"ve found it, click Go. However, the image must be no more than 50 KB in size and no more than 60 pixels wide. When done, go right down to the bottom of the page and click on Submit. This brings up a message saying your "profile" has been successfully updated. Go the top red bar on this page and click on Forums. This returns you to the Forum page.
4. Entering the Forum
- Active Forums Note there are three "active" forums on which you may post messages on the general subject in question.
- Informational Forums There are four of these, providing information on how to use the forum, announcements etc.
- Columns The columns on the right tell you how many "threads" (new topics) have been posted and how many total messages (new topics + responses) there are in each forum.
- To enter a particular Forum Click on its name, say, General Heraldry.
5. Within the Forum
You will find a shaded area with a red header. Above the header on the left is a "New Thread" button. Leave this alone for now, but you may need it later. On the right is an option called "Message Format" with an arrow and a GO button. Leave it alone, or at least ensure that the information-bar says "Threaded".
6. The Threads Box
This is the shaded area and contains a list of all the "threads" (main topics) posted to date, listed from latest to earliest, with the responses to each thread indented from it, as are the responses to the responses. This is the page you will use for navigating the forum.
7. Reading Threads
To read a thread or a response, click on the one you want to read. It will come up in a shaded box, with the relevant headings and authors below the box.
8. Posting a Message
(a) To introduce a new topic, click on New Topic at either the top right or bottom left of the page. You must give it a Subject heading, then type your message below. You can preview or spellcheck it (but the spellcheck doesn"t work) before clicking Submit.
(b) To respond to an earlier response, click on the title/author/date you want to respond to, then click on Reply (either above on the (L), below on the (R), or in the message box itself).
9. Returning
To return to a previous page, click on the "BACK" arrow on the very top left of the screen. Repeat as often as necessary. To return to the Forum page, go to the red bar at the very top of the page and click on Forums.
10. Bells and Whistles
A number of unexplained options appear in and below the Threads box. You may be advised to leave these alone. However, if you want them translated into English, here goes:-
- Quote If you click this, the text of the message you are replying to will appear above your response. Sometimes makes the response easier to follow.
- Profile This provides information about the person to whose message you are replying (assuming you want it).
- PM This means "private message" and permits you to send via the forum a personal message to the originator of that message. It will appear on his forum page only.
- E-Mail This permits you to send a private message to the same person, but via his regular E-mail - even if his address is a concealed one and you don"t know it.
- Top/Bottom These permit you to go to the top or bottom of a long message without having to scroll. May be handy.
- E-Mail Notification (box at bottom (R) of the page, labelled Actions) This permits you to receive E-mail notification if anyone posts a reply to your own most recent post. Could be useful. Click on Toggle e-mail notification. This brings up a check-box. Check it and Submit. You can turn this off by unchecking the box and re-submitting.
11. Things to Stay Away From
The following are also shown in the space below the Threads Box, and are best left alone:
- Jump to Forum If you want to go to another forum, go to the top of the page, click Forums, then select the one you want.
- Search this forum OK for experienced users, but very confusing for the beginner.
- Sort threads Leave this alone; just see that it says "Descending".
- Enable Emoticons These are those puerile happy-faces that some people need to explain their inability to write English. Disable them and perhaps they will go away.
- Filter by date For heavy coffee-drinkers only.
- Delete all cookies set by this site This is for Mom only.
12. How do I email the administrator with a question?
There are a number of mechanisms for contacting the administrator with an email. The simplest method is to simply click on "Administrator", found in any post made by the administrator, or from the same on the forums home page (where all of the forums are listed). This will invoke a user profile window, and towards the bottom of this window, you will see "Send this user a private message".
The second mechanism is to click on the "PM" button located at the bottom of any post submitted by the "Administrator". This button looks like 
GOOD LUCK!
Oh, by the way, when you"re done, don"t click on "Log-off" - which might seem the sensible thing to do. It will remove you from the on-line list and delete all your cookies (whatever they are). Not only will you lose your cookies (not pleasant) but you"ll have to go through a lot of nonsense to log on again. JUST TURN THE SILLY THING OFF!
Copyright © 2004 Royal Heraldry Society of Canada
Released: February 8, 2005
Updated: May 29, 2008