Mayo Ireland - Message Boards
Help

These message boards are available to add discussions on Mayo, Ireland and your Irish Roots. Here are the links to the areas of interest:

What's in a word?

Bulletin Boards, Message Boards, Forums, Discussions

So where you see the word discussion throughout this site it can be any of these things.

Regardless of what you call it this area of the 'Mayo Ireland' site is for putting messages in a place where others can find them.

Login

After you connect to the Mayo Ireland Bulletin Boards for the first time, save a bookmark to the login screen so that you can come back easily.

Browsing

Mayo Ireland Bulletin Boards are organized into folders and discussions. A folder contains a list of nested folders and discussions. A discussion is a series of messages on the same topic.

You can see the contents of a folder or discussion by just clicking on it. You can navigate back "up" to containing folders by clicking on the navigation bar at the top and bottom of each page, or by clicking the back button in your browser.

When you go into a discussion, you will see the discussion heading, followed by the messages posted in response. Because a discussion may have hundreds of messages posted to it, long discussions are split into smaller pieces. In a long discussion, you'll see buttons at the top and/or bottom that let you go back and forth, or you can just use a button to see the most recent material.

Posting a message

To post a message, just scroll down to the form at the end of each discussion. Fill in the form, and click on the Post My Message button following it. You can use Mayo Ireland Bulletin Boards's quick-edit feature to add things like boldface type and italics. To get information about quick-edit formatting, click on the help link just above the message box. You can also use the Web's HTML tags if you like.

Once you've posted, your words aren't set in stone. You have a half hour to amend or edit your post. And you can delete your message at any time. Just click in the Edit or Delete buttons following your message.

Starting a new discussion topic

If you've got something new to talk about, you should start a new discussion. Obviously, it's a good idea to check the listing of current discussions to make sure there isn't an identical one already in progress.

You start a new discussion by clicking on the Add Discussion button in the toolbar at the end of a folder. Just fill out the form with the title and any opening comments for the discussion. This discussion heading can be fairly long, and you can use it in the same manner you would use a paper memo.

After you add the discussion, you will be able to delete it or edit it until a message is posted to it. Once a discussion has messages, only the conference manager can delete or edit it.

Starting a new folder

At the moment this option is turned off so if you think of a folder that should be added send an e-mail to bull.board@mayo-ireland.ie

Searching for information

You can search for information at any time by going to the folder or discussion you wish to search and clicking on the Search button. If you go to the top level, all the Mayo Ireland Bulletin Boards will be searched. If you go to a folder, everything in that folder will be searched, including all its nested folders and discussions. If you go to a discussion, only the messages in that discussion will be searched.

The search uses keywords instead of exact patterns. This means you can type a few words that you expect to see in the message you're looking for, and you will get a list of places that include all of your keywords.

You can then click on any location to read it and see if it is what you are looking for. If not, use the back button in your Web browser to go back to the search summary to check other items.

Checking for new messages

The Mayo Ireland Bulletin Boards automatically keep track of messages as you view them. When you see a discussion in a folder, the listing includes how many messages are in the discussion, and how many of them are new. This means that you can browse through a conference and check for new messages as you go.

Note: once you go to a discussion, all of the messages in that discussion are marked as having been viewed, even though you may not have read them all.

There is another way to check for new messages: use your Subscription List. After you subscribe to a discussion or folder, you can later check for new messages by clicking on the Check Subscriptions button. Wherever you are in the Mayo Ireland Bulletin Boards, you'll then be shown the first new message, discussion, or folder in your subscription list.

As you view new items, you can post messages, create new discussions, and browse through the conference. When you're ready to find the next new item, you just click on Check Subscriptions again.

When there are no more messages, you will get a page that lets you go back to browse through the conference, or lets you wait for a while and check for new messages again. Hint: if you save a bookmark to this page, you can later go to this bookmark to check for new messages.

Managing your subscription list

Your Subscription List keeps track of folders and discussions which you are following. When you click on Check Subscriptions, only folders and discussions in your subscription list will be checked for new messages.

You can subscribe to the entire group of Bulletin Boards by clicking on Subscribe To All at the top level. Or you can subscribe to individual folders and discussions by going to them and clicking on Subscribe.

If you decide you do not want to follow a discussion or folder anymore, go to that location and click on Cancel Subscription. (If you have gotten to a discussion by clicking on Check Subscriptions, and find that you do not want to continue following it, you can just click on Cancel Subscription right at that point.)

When you first come into the conference and subscribe to something, it may have a very large number of items. So, you can "mark your subscriptions current" if you don't want to wade through everything. To bring your subscription list current, you just click on the Preferences button, check the mark current box at the very end of the form (in the subscription list section), and then click on Update Preferences.

User preferences

User preferences let you change your name and/or password, mark your subscription list current, and control how Mayo Ireland Bulletin Boards work for you. Preferences also allows you to list useful web sites and include some personal information, as appropriate.