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Forums
Atorrante-cyber edited this page Aug 25, 2020
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Forums on OGS are a world apart. They serve as the backbone and heart of the OGS community. When you first visit the OGS forum you see an overwhelming variety of categories, topics and more, much more. In the following paragraphs we introduce you into how the forum functions.
On the forum you meet other players, share ideas, say hi and discuss all sorts of subjects. Of course go is the main subject to chat about. However the forum is not limited to go alone; there are also categories with topics that have absolutely nothing to do with go or are only vaguely related to go.
(insert screenshot start page OGS forum)
Here you find all the categories of the forum, followed by the number of topic in that specific category. With the 'magnifying glass' you can also search for a particular category.
Under this heading you will find the topics chronologically ordered (from new to old) according to the activity that took place in this topic.
If there is a new topic this category will show. New (6) means that there are six new topics since you last visited the forum. When there is nothing new this category is absent. So there is no New (0).
If there is an unread item in an already existing topic (a reply) this category will show. Unread (6) means that there are six topic where one or more new replies have been made.
OGS forum has a lot of categories and subcategories. To name just a few of the categories:
- General Go Discussion: general Go discussion that doesn't fit into other categories
- Support: OGS site and forum support
- Strategy and tactics: discuss topic related to strategy and tactics
- Ladders: discuss all things related to ladders here
- Feedback: suggestions for how to improve OGS
There are many more categories. It will take some time to find your way in the system of categories.
Here you can type what you are looking for and automatically topics that deal with your search will appear.
(insert icon magnifying glass)
The three lying bars include:
- latest: a chronological list of topics where recently activity took place.
- new: new topic appear here
- unread: new post at already existing topics
- top: shows the most popular topics of the period before today; so if you select week, it will show the topics of the 7 days up until today
- badges: see special paragraph on badges
- users: listing OGS forum user's statistics (hearts given/received, topics, replies, viewed read and visited) per last day, week, month, quarter, year and all time
- groups: shows moderators group (activity: post, topics, mentions per member)
- categories: colour coded list of categories
- about: listing admins (developers) and moderators; that is the people who run and rule (benevolently) the OGS site and forum. See https://forums.online-go.com/about or https://online-go.com/docs/team
- FAQ: https://forums.online-go.com/faq deals with forum etiquette.
- keyboard shortcuts: for hardcore forum junkies there is a list with keyboard shortcuts
(insert screenshot keyboard shortcuts)
- notifications: responses, likes, mentions or edits
- bookmarks: saving important topics so that they are easy to access
- mails: inbox, sent, archive
- type title or paste link: this is the subject of your topic. Keep it short and clear.
- category: chose the category your topic fits in best
- write post: initially the field says 'Type here. Use Markdown, BBCode or HTML code to format. Drag or paste images.' This text disappears when you start to type.
- create/ cancel topic: if you hit create topic, your topic will become public. If you don't want this, you can cancel it permanently (by abandoning) or save it as a draft and (maybe) post it later.
From left to right you see:
- title of topic: description of subject of topic
- category: category the topic creator has chosen
- line of profile pics: right of the post there is a list of profile pics. The first profile pic is from the creator of the topic, the rest are pics from users who replied to the topic.
- replies: number of replies to a topic. This number does not refer to unique persons (more replies by the same person).
- views: number of persons who have opened this topic This number does not refer to unique persons (more vies by the same person).
- activity: shows when the last activity (reply) took place.
- title: title of topic
- category: a topic can not be created without assigning it to a category. OGS forums has 26 categories. Chose a category where your topic belongs to. If you don't a moderator will have to move it to the correct category. Keep the forum tidy.
- (initial) post: if you create a new topic, your post will be the first of the thread. Other users can reply to it or give it a like (heart will turn red).
- like: if you agree with a post, but don't want to reply, you can like the post.
- link
- ... (flag, bookmark): via ... you can either bookmark or flag a post.** Bookmark**: adding/saving a favourite as to facilitate quick access to tthat specific topic. Flagging a post: you can flag a post when it is is inappropriate. Flagging a post helps to keep the OGS community civil. There are several options to choose from: direct message to poster or notify the OGS staff if the post is off topic, inappropriate, spam or something else.
- reply: you can respond to a post in two ways; namely direct to the poster (reply in the post) or in general (at the bottom of the topic). Both replies are visible for everyone. If you don't want this, send the poster a personal message.
- suggested topics: shows topics which are more or less related with the topic and/or the category in which the topic is placed.
And just before the suggested topics you will find:
- bell alert: how do you want to follow this topic? There are four options: watching (notification of every new reply in a topic, count of new replies are shown), tracking (count of new replies are shown, notification if your @name is mentioned or replies),normal (notification if your @name is mentioned or replies to you) and muted (no notification at all).
(insert screenshot bell alert icon)
- system: OGS uses the Discourse badge system and trust levels.
- badges: have as a goal to reinforce positive users behaviour and facilitates and stimulate users to learn by doing. There are two ways to receive a badge: an administrative user manually grants you one or they are automatically granted by the system. Badges can have some optional properties: you may use them as a title, they can be granted multiple times, you may show badge on the public badges page and post granting badge on badge page.
- trust levels: are a method of protecting** new forum users** so that they cannot accidentally hurt themselves, or other users while they are learning what to do and at the same time granting experienced users more rights over time, so that they can help everyone maintain and moderate the community they generously contribute so much of their time to. There are five trust levels:
- new: visitors who just created an account, and are still learning the community norms and the way the community works. Very limited functionality. They are not allowed to send personal messages, flag posts, post an attachments, post more than 3 topics, post more than 10 replies, etc.
- basic: when new user spend some time reading on the OGS forum and entering some topics, they will be granted trust level 1 (Basic). At this level the new user** are allowed** to send personal messages, upload images and attachments, flag posts, etc.
- member: users who keep coming back to the forum over a certain period and have actively participated long and consistently enough to be trusted with full citizenship. Becoming a member when you have visited the forum several times, casted and received at least 1 like, replied to some topics, entering several topics, spend some time reading a number of posts for, etc. Users at trust level 2 can give more likes, ignore other users and edit their own posts for a longer period after posting, etc.
- regular: active readers and reliable contributors over a period of months, even years. They’re always around, can be trusted to help tidy up and organise the OGS community. Level 3 users have in the last 100 days at least visited half of the days, replied to several different topics, viewed a lot of newly created topics, received and given a number of likes, etc. At trust level 3 you can recategorise/rename topics, receive more likes, etc.
- leader:have been around forever and seen everything. A positive example for the community through their actions and their posts. For advice you go to the leader. Reaching level 4 by only by manual promotion by staff. Users at trust level 4 can edit all posts, (un)pin, close, archive, split and merge a topic, etc.
- for more detailed info on badges and trust levels: https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-are-badges/32540 and trust levels: https://blog.discourse.org/2018/06/understanding-discourse-trust-levels/
- list of badges: the list of badges is divided into four subcategories: getting started, community, posting and trust level.
(insert screenshot list of badges)
- last visit line: in the topic table there is placed the last visit line. It shows the topics where activity has taken place since you last visited the OGS forum.
(insert screenshot of last visit line)
- community guideline: on https://forums.online-go.com/guidelines you will find community guidelines on forum etiquette. Summarised it all boils down to: the OGS forum is a place where you input is appreciated. We love the way you improve in your own words a discussion in a civilised and respectful way. So even when you disagree, do it in your most charming way. If you encounter problems on the forum, don't be shy and flag it. Keep the forum tidy.
- responsibility: do realise that as a poster you also have a responsibility for what you post. If you don't, you might be warned or even banned by the OGS moderators. Therefor it is wise to check the Terms of Service: https://forums.online-go.com/tos