I posted a message on a board and I noticed that others say "pinned" adn have an icon illuminated. What does this mean? I posted 2 days ago and no-one responded so I'm wondering if I did something to prevent responses.

Thanks

Pinned mean that a moderator has looked at the new post to see if it is appropriate in content and placement.

Sorry that you recieved no response, some days are a little slow. Try it again.

Thanks Lisa

Thanks - I didn't know what it meant eithereither. Also, the only way I seem to be able to ask a question or respond is to answer in someone else's email...then I get the personal email response sent directly to my email...which is great. But - how do I post a question or comment on the Board tht everyone sees and that more than one person can respond to? I really enjoy reading all the posts and I've learned a lot - especially from CarlaB - she's been a wonderful source of information. I'm also new and need all the help I can get. If you could respond to my question re posting, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks! KarenDianne

KarenDiane:

I am assuming that you mean how to post a new topic. If that is the case...Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select a category that would be appropriate for your question or comment.

The click on "New Topic" type and send.

Hi,

I got your message, adn I'm guessing that it was also posted in the thread. I'm still learning how to use this site so hopefully an administrator will answer your question.

The amazing overuse of "pinned" here is basically a demonstration of how ignorant the admins are as to how a forum is *supposed* to work.

The list order of postings should be determined by the participants, not the admin.

I'll pass that on

It is determined by the participants. It's not like other boards where they choose some topics to stay at the top. Nothing stays at the top. The pinning is just used by the mods as some sort of a system to be sure someone checked the post (I'm not a mod, but that's my understanding).

Ya I suppose you're right. Ignore my prev post.
Maybe when *everything* is "pinned", that function doesn't do what it does everywhere else.
Sure seems weird tho.

A moderator needs to go through all the posts and pin them, sometimes change catgegories they are in, etc. Once a post is pinned it's on top until someone responds to another post in that category.

I was very confused at first, too. I posted a new topic, and it seemed to just evaporate! Then next day, I saw it was not only on the forum index, it had been "pinned." Since (like Murph) I am used to how other forums use "pinned" or "sticky" to designate a particularly important topic, I was confused again, because my new topic wasn't all that big a deal!

After reading several topics that referred to the pinning process, I finally figured out that on this forum, everything gets pinned, which is nearly equivalent to nothing getting pinned. Here, pinning simply means making the topic public after it's been deemed appropriate. Before that, it's clear down at the bottom of the list, where no one is likely to even notice it.

An awful lot of the new topics on the Technical Help forum seem to have been posted by newbies wondering where a previously-posted new topic has gone to, and there are surely many others who are wondering the same thing but don't see the point of posting another topic down the same hole.

There must be some way to explain this forum's unusual pinning process to everyone who needs that information. Sign-up time doesn't really seem ideal -- a lot of people lurk for quite some time before ever posting anything, let alone a whole new topic, so would forget in the meanwhile (assuming they'd ever read it in the first place). Maybe something could be added to the "wait a minute" screen that comes up right after you click "post" (or whatever it says) -- "Your new topic will appear at the top of this forum's index page as soon as it has been approved by a moderator" or something like that.

(I sure hope it's not against forum etiquette to quote myself! )

Come to think of it, this is exactly the sort of explanation that would normally (on other forums) be posted in a "pinned" topic on the Tech Help board. Since that doesn't seem to be an option here, maybe it would make sense to create a new forum board, called something like Forum Tech FAQ's, or Answers to Common Tech Questions, or Read This Before You Post a Tech Question. If possible, posting new topics on this board should be restricted to administrators/moderators. Then the oldbies wouldn't have to keep answering the same ol' questions over and over, they could write up The Perfect Answer just once and post it for all to see. (And then when, inevitably, someone asks the same question again, they could just refer 'em to the FAQ board.)

Ok, that was confusing me. On other forums I go to, things only get "pinned" if they're super-important and they want the post to be "pinned" to the top of the forum to keep it from getting bumped to the bottom of the page.

It seemed confusing to me that there were 3+ pages of pinned posts- on other forums there are 1-5 pinned posts at the top of the forum and that's it.

It appers that "pinning" means something different here, and I was confused.

Now I need to figure out how to start new posts, and which forum I should post an introduction/look for other Jewish gluten-free families.

I am totally confused. Why move people's stuff around? I'm having a hard enough time figuring out of people are responding to things? Also... it is confusing where a thread begins and ends. I'm not an internet expert or anything.... but I"m usually not so confused?

To start a new topic (aka thread), go to the appropriate forum and click the green New Topic button near the top right-hand corner of the page. Type a brief description of your topic into the Topic Title box (and a subtitle, if you want one, in the Topic Description box). Type your opening post into the big box in the middle of the page, then click Enable email notification of replies (if you want to be notified of new posts to the topic) and either Post New Topic or Preview Topic. Preview lets you see how the post will look without actually posting it, and is particularly useful if you're trying out some of the features like smilies, special fonts, centering, etc. After the preview, you'll be given another chance to actually post it.

To post a reply to an existing topic, click the Add Reply button at the bottom of the page. If you'd like to quote one or more earlier posts, click the Quote button at the bottom of those posts BEFORE clicking the Add Reply button.

It looks like the best place for introductions and looking for others who share any additional dietary considerations would be the Celiac Meeting Room (even though the description on the main index page makes it sounds like a singles bar!).




The reason that topics sometimes get moved before being pinned is that the poster has not put them into the most appropriate forum. So the moderator moves the topic to the forum where people who would be interested in it will be most likely to see it.

I'm not sure I understand your other questions. Maybe someone else will be able to answer. Or maybe you can give some examples?

Carol explained most things rather well. Thanks.

The biggest challenge for us (the moderators) is ensuring that the topic is in the most appropriate section of the forum. With 25 topic areas, it is sometimes hard to be sure which one is right for a topic. With 18 moderators, we need to have an easy way to tell each other that one of us has looked at the post and found it to be in keeping with the board rules, and that it is in the best location. We do this by pinning the topic. When we see that a topic is pinned, we know that one of us has examined it and found it to be appropriate to the board, and has ensured that it is in the right place.

I'm not sure which view option you are using. I don't have any trouble knowing where threads start and end. You may want to click on the "Options" button on the upper right while viewing a thread, and select "Standard." This is what I use. Each topic displays as one or more pages when selected; only posts from that topic are visible within that view.

Hoping this helps.