The discussion forum will be the most useful feature of the Antioch Website for you, the user. This is the place to go to get all the up-to-date information concerning what’s going on with your church family. In this lesson, we will give you general information about the forum and a glossary of terms used. Click on the links below to go directly to the subtopics:
General Format
The following is a picture of the Forum Home page:
Main Forum Page
When you look at the main forum page you will see a number of things. As you click on various words and buttons, they will take you to various places within the forum.
You will probably first see a row of buttons at the top. As you move your cusor over these buttons they tell you that they will take you to various places such as Moderate, My Inbox, Member Lists, My Settings, My Posts, Search, Forum Home. We will talk about how to use each of these in future tutorials, if you wish to have further instruction.
Under the boxes, you will see the words "Antioch Forums" this line will tell you where you are within the forums. You can click on the words to take you back to wherever you wish to be when you are further into the forums.
Under that, you will see the column headings. They are not interactive.
Below that you will see your first Category, which is "The Saints." If you click on these words it will close and open up that category (read on for more information about Categories).
Under the Saints category you will see the forums contained within that category. You can click on the words to open the forum to see the topics or threads. There is a button in front of the words and if it is dark colored, it means that you have already read everything contained in that forum. If it is light colored, it means that something has been added since the last time you were on the forum.
Now, move over to the right. You will see how many threads and how many posts contained in that forum. If the number is the same there is only one post contained in each thread.
The last column contains information about what the last post was about. It contains the thread name and the user name of the person who wrote the post. They are interactive as well. If you click on the thread name, it will take you to that thread. If you click on the user name, it will take you to some information about that user.
The Categories, Forums & Threads
The forum is set up with several different categories with forums under each category and threads under each forum.
The Saints Category - This category contains information about specific people. The forums contained under the Saints Category are as follows:
Prayer Requests – This may be the most important forum for the people of the church. You can request prayer in this forum for any person or reason at any time day or night. This is a good forum to subscribe to (more about that in 202 Updating Your Forum Profile). When you subscribe to a forum, an email will be automatically sent to you whenever someone posts on that forum. It is kind of like being on the church prayer chain but without having to worry about making and receiving phone calls. Also, you have immediate access to people who can pray. For instance, if your Uncle John is injured in an accident at midnight, you would have to wait until morning to call someone to start the prayer chain and then you are dependent on those making the calls to be home and to get it circulated quickly. On the forum, you can post your request as soon as you get the news and emails will go out to everyone who has subscribed to that forum. If, say, Jane is waiting for her kids to get home and checks her email or the forum at 12:15 am, she can immediately begin praying for Uncle John. The prayers don’t have to wait until morning or for someone to get around to making their phone calls. You can even upload a photo to your thread so that people will know who you are talking about.
Celebrations (births, deaths, weddings, memorials, baptisms) – This is where you can announce milestones in your life. This is also where you can go to find out when someone is getting married, having a shower, or a funeral.
Memorials – This is the place where you can discuss the people who have gone home before us. You can tell everyone your memories of that person -- things that person did to make them special to you.
Getting Acquainted – Deb Rempel has an idea about the saints interviewing one another in order to get to know one another better. That is the intention of this forum.
The Foyer Category - Imagine that you are sitting in the foyer at church. These are the things you might be talking about as you drink your coffee. The forums contained under the Foyer Category are as follows:
General Discussion: Miscellaneous discussion, from the weather to politics. Anything you might want to discuss or share with other people.
Clean Jokes: Have you heard a clean joke lately that you wish to share? We all need a good laugh from time to time. Just make sure they are CLEAN jokes!
Deb’s Songs: Deb Rempel ministers to us through the songs she writes and shares with us. Quite often we would like to have those lyrics or discuss them. She also likes to share them with us from time to time.
Recipes: Do you have a good recipe to share? We love to exchange them after dinners or breakfasts at church. Antioch has some of the best cooks!
The Christianity Category - Imagine that you are sitting in a Small Group Bible Study. This is the place to ask questions and share insights and discoveries with your fellow Antiochians. The forums contained in the Christianity Category are as follows:
Theology – This is where you would talk about your discoveries as you study the Bible or ask questions concerning your Bible study. Others can then discuss it with you kind of like being in a small Bible study group.
Practical – This is where you put your Bible study into action. How do we “walk the talk”? Talk about it here.
The Church Category - This is everything that pertains to the church as an institution. There are forums for events and ministries to use. The forums contained under the Church Category are as follows:
Events: Announce or discuss events at the church.
Small Groups: Announce or discuss the various small groups at the church.
General Board: Announce or discuss the board meetings and decisions at Antioch.
Discipleship: Discuss anything related to the Discipleship Ministry (Education) at the church. How can Discipleship minister to you better? Do you have any suggestions or questions?
Fellowship: Discuss anything related to the Fellowship Ministry (Women’s Ministry, Men’s Ministry, Youth Ministry, Branches, Children’s Ministry, Senior Saints Ministry).
Worship: Discuss anything related to the Worship Ministry (worship service, sanctuary & foyer decorations, etc.)
Missions: Discuss anything related to the Missions Ministry or our Missionaries.
House and Grounds: Discuss anything related to Antioch's building or grounds – suggestions for improvement, etc.
The Tech Talk Category - This category contains all things computer related from general computer questions to specific questions and suggestions for our Antioch Christian Church Website. The Tech Talk Category contains the following forums:
General Computer: Discuss anything about computers here. Are you having problems with doing something on your computer. Ask a question and hopefully someone will have an answer.
This Website: Discuss this website specifically. Let us know if you have a correction or something isn’t working correctly or if you have a question on how to do something on the Antioch website.
The Archive Category:
When the forums get too large and people stop discussing certain topics they may be moved into the archives. If you are looking for a certain thread or topic that you remember discussing in the past, but it is not where you thought it would be, check here. This category is divided by the above categories (Saints, Foyer, Christianity, Tech Talk).
As with any communication, all posts must be respectful and civil in nature. No flaming (intentional disrespectful, insulting, or hurtful comments directed at another person) and no inappropriate language, jokes or comments. If you can’t say it in the church foyer, don’t say it here.
Typing in capital letters is considered YELLING. Please do not type in capital letters unless you mean to yell (and that is not very civil or respectful in most cases.
Also, keep in mind that anyone can read what you are writing so it is best that you not post anything private in nature, that you don’t want the whole world to see. Those types of communication are best left to Private Messages (see the glossary note below, they will be discussed in more detail on another tutorial).
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Category: A major heading for a collection of forums (i.e., “Saints”).
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Flame: To intentionally insult or hurt another person with your comments. Flames are forbidden on this forum)
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Forum: A collection of related topics (i.e., Prayer Requests)
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Forum Home: The first page you see when you look at the forum.
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Inbox: This is where you find and respond to your incoming private messages
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Member Lists: This is where you can find out about the other members of the forum and connect to them.
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Moderate: To manipulate various aspects of the forum.
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My Posts: If you click on this button it will give you a list of all the posts you have made.
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Post: A single comment on a thread or topic. See Reply
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Private Message: A type of e-mail that you can send to a person through the forum that only that person will be able to access and respond to. Private messages will be found in your Inbox on the Forum.
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Reply: A single response to the subject of a thread or topic.
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Search: Click on this button to find something using a key word.
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Settings: This is where you choose what you want to be able to do on your forum and what it will look like.
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Submit: the button you click on after responding to a topic or thread.
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Threads or topics: A specific subject for discussion (i.e., prayer request for John Doe)