This is my first go-round with any computer forum, so I have a suggestion, as well as a related question.

There is a massive amount of information at this forum, and a lot of it is very valuable.  I would like to suggest a top-line link covering the best practices for how this website works and how to get the most out of it efficiently.  I can't tell if this has been evaluated in the past, but it would sure help me (and hopefully others).

So, my related question is just that:  What Are the Best Practices for Being Able to Use this Website Effectively?  How are the forums organized?  How do we know which forum contains what information?  Other than the search engine and the memories of the old-timers, are there other ways of finding stuff?  Are there any accepted protocols for working with the forums?  To what extent is access to this forum restricted in any way?  Has a primer of this sort been covered in any prior posts (and I just can't find it)?

Wayne

To the best of my knowledge, this forum currently is in the middle of being revamped from ground up, so maybe it all will be resolved in the not too distant future.

Rüdiger

Well, it's past the point where we can make any changes in the code, but we can still make changes to the Easter Egg!

Revamped may be putting it mildly. Although this forum was built on some pretty impressive technology, the developers have gone out of business and this forum will eventually become outdated. In order to keep up with the newer technology, we will be replacing the entire forum and hope to have everything in place between January 1 and January 3. Our current advice is to forget about trying to master this forum. The current links to this forum will take you to the new forum in a few days and all the postings that exist on this forum will be imported, along with membership rankings, posting totals etc., to the new forum.

1 of the advantages of this forum is the ability to copy specialized formatting, colored fonts and even embedded hyperlinks from Microsoft Word. That's why our responses always appear in a black Bookman Old Style italicized size 13 font. Although that capability is somewhat limited in the next forum, it won't even be necessary because you'll have all that capability built directly into the new forum and that's just the tip of the iceberg. The new forum structure is quite literally the Cadillac of forums but even the native version of this forum has a few unacceptable limitations and that's part of the reason for the delay on its implementation. 1 very important feature that was missing was the ability to insert JPEGs directly into a posting like this forum. Fortunately that oversight has been corrected and we will be taking some of the better technology from this forum to the next forum but 98% of the next forum is a redesigned from the ground up and we think you'll like it.

We have been getting accustomed with the new forum over the past couple of weeks so that we can hopefully assist anyone who needs a little extra help but for the most part, it's just a matter of pushing the buttons and seeing what happens. For those who wish to macro automate the new forum, we have made a few personal notes which may come in handy as the new forum implements some hot key technology. For example, Ctrl+k opens a hyperlink box while Ctrl+s uploads the post, which is handy when answering a question in full screen mode (another perk).

The new forum will also include more moderators with administrative rights. If fact, we are going to make all the current troublemakers forum moderators and let them duke it out. What could go wrong

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