Lots of folks who arrive at the Diner are a bit confused by the combination we are running of Blog & Forum Software.  We have tried to make the integration seamless and easy to Navigate, but if you haven’t been exposed to Forum software before and only made Comments on Blogs with linear threading, it can be confusing for the Newby.

One of our long time members Agelbert was once a Newby here, and now is pretty expert with moving around the Diner and posting up with innumerable Smileys and assorted Graphic Wildness.  LOL.  He’ll inform here on how to trek around the Diner and spill food all over the place.

RE

Agelbert’s Advice for Newbies

Click the link above for still more Advice & Information about Navigating the Diner.

       
The Doomstead Diner subject and posting architecture is based on a restaurant theme where the “food” you consume is food for thought as well as comment. Unlike many web sites where you read a story and post or reply to posts beneath the story, you can create your own story as a post on its own thread.

Are you thoroughly confused yet?  Add to that the fact that you cannot place a reply to a post directly beneath it and it takes a bit of getting used to. 

The main advantage of this format, at least to me, is that each and every post, whether it is an original thread you started or a reply, has its very own web address. You can return to that exact same place a week or a year from now by putting that address in your favorites. I will now show you how to do all the above quickly.

When you arrive at the BLOG front page, you can click on any of the articles to read them. Getting to the other parts of the Diner are easy to do by clicking on the buttons with diner area labels such as “Forum”.

The forum is where the discussions and comments take place. As a guest you can comment but you are limited in what you can do so register (it’s FREE) and get a handle and password to have full access. As soon as you register you are an instant blogger, not just an internet surfer commenting on articles. You can write your own.

But getting back to posting. Once you have registered and gone to the forum, just click on the forum subject areas arranged by food name categories and other subject titles like Newz.

Once there you may find daughter threads (called child boards too) of interest. When you get to a thread you wish to comment on, depending on how long it has been around (everything is saved here    ) you will seer from one to several pages of replies to the initial post.         Read it and reply to any of the replies by copying the comment and putting it in quotes when you reply to it. That’s all there is to it. You can add the various emoticons to spice up your post as well as place video or pictures in it. Use the preview feature to see what your post looks like before you post it. There is a spell checker as well for your convenience.

So, in summary, when you arrive at the blog, read the articles, then post replies in the forum or go directly to the forum to create your own posts or reply to others. One thing you may find a bit hard to get used to is that when you post, you get bounced away from the specific thread to a more general area and you have to navigate back to where you were. You’ll get used to that. When you are done for the day and want to return to EXACTLY the same place you are now, just save your present locations in your browser favorites. Update this each day or set up a favorites list with all the current forum subjects you are interested in and you can rocket straight to a point of interest directly even if you haven’t been there for a few days or months! For in depth study of a forum subject, go to page ONE and read the several months of posts like an e-book. This is a good way to learn about your fellow diners and their “interesting” personalities.

Also, feel free to ask questions about how to do this or that. Someone will always give you a heads up on how to make your life easier here.     No question is considered too dumb to answer and we don’t get nerdy or snarky because you have limited html/bbcode skills. We want to hear what you have to say. There is virtually ZERO censorship here. Express yourself!