Are you finding it hard to navigate this site? Try this....

[Kohinoor]

To new members finding it hard to "get around", or to understand this place...

Step 1 - Open another "window" with NewYouForums in it. Keep this window open too, and toggle between them (i.e. read the instruction here, then click on the other window to "try it out". Then come back to this window to go to the next step...)

Step 2 - Look at the five "sections" and think of each one as a filing cabinet. So, we have five "filing cabinets" named:-
- Starting and Running
- Cohen Programme Boards - Discussions re the Program itself
- NYForum Diary Boards - with all of the Diaries.
- NYForum Support Boards - discussions about health, the website, recipes, etc.
- Community chat time - with "Off Topic Discussions", meetings, other language forums, etc

Step 3 - The first "filing cabinet" has just two drawers :-
- New Members Start here, (a place to "play" - try setting up a ticker, ask questions, learn how to do stuff)
- Forum Announcements (this is where we let you know what things are happening on the NewYou site - don't post here, unless questioning something we have posted).

Step 4 - The second "filing cabinet" has four drawers, all Programme related :-
- go have a look (open a drawer by clicking on the one you want....).
It could be Discussion re the Plan (or programme, or EP, or whatever you like to call it), or about Refeed, or Maintenance, or just "Tips and Tricks"

Step 5 - NOTE THIS BIT !!!!!
If you have been "looking" (as mentioned in Step 4) you are now "somewhere else", so HOW do you get back again?

EASY !!! Go to the top of ANY page, and click on the colourful flowery thing which has "New You Forum" written across it. Clicking on that brings you back to the Home Page (you are now looking at those five filing cabinets again).

The Home Page is what you see whenever you Log in - but then gets lost as you "go looking". Simply click that banner at any time to "get back to square one" no matter where you were before.

Wanting to get to New Diaries?
Go to the third "filing cabinet" (called "NewYouForum Diary Boards") It has five drawers - click on the first drawer called "New Diaries". This opens the New Diaries drawer, and allows you to see the various members' Diaries.

If wanting to START a New Diary, then you MUST have first submitted a Diary Request (go to the top of the page, find Quicklinks, click on it, then select "NYF Official Diary Request" and fill it in"). You can't start a New Diary without having done that. Once you have done that, come back to the New Diaries section, click on "New Thread", give it a title, tell us about yourself, then "Submit" to post your New Diary. Once you have started a Diary, simply Reply to it to update us.


Step 6 - How to KNOW where you are at any time :-

Look at the top left of ANY page about 3 - 4 cms below the "New You Forum" banner with the pretty flowery thing. You'll see something like this:-

New You Forums > New You Forum Diary Boards > New Diaries
--- Please read this - re New Diaries

This is your "key" to "Where you are" in this place. Working it through is like this:-

New You Forums >
You're on the New You Forums Bulletin Board (or website if you like). It has FIVE filing cabinets of information.

New You Forum Diary Boards >
You're in the "New You Forum Diary Boards" filing cabinet (where we keep the various Diary forums - which drawer do you want to open?)

New Diaries
You are in the "New Diaries" drawer of the third "filing cabinet".

Please read this - re New Diaries
You're reading a thread of that name (or, if you like, you have opened one of the Folders in that drawer).


Each of the "small letter" phrases can be clicked on to navigate to somewhere else. i.e. click on New You Forums (above) and you'll be on the Home Page (same as if you clicked that flowery thing).

If you wanted to leave New Diaries, but go visit another Diary Forum, click on "New You Forum Diary Boards" (above) and you will be looking at the Diaries filing cabinet.

Or, click on "New Diaries" (above) to check out other new diary threads, or start (or reply to) your own thread.


Stickies -
We use these to "stick" important information at the top of each page when you are in one of the filing cabinet drawers. In that way, important stuff is always available to you while in that drawer.

Each new post made to a thread (a folder within a filing cabinet drawer) will bring that thread to "top of the heap" on page 1. The last thread on page 1 then moves to the top of page 2.

Thus, we often "bump" a thread (to bring it to the top) when finding something important. If it is REALLY important, we might make it a "sticky". So, when looking for "the good stuff", check out the "stickies".


I hope that "filing cabinet" analogy helps new members to understand a bit more of HOW this place works.

Feel free to Reply to ask a question, or to correct anything that might need it.....

Koh

[Kohinoor]

There are several ways to use this place - the following is what I find is most simple for me. There are other ways, but don't ask me too much about them

Many use Subscriptions, with or without notification. I don't use Subscriptions, or even "Today's Posts" as some do. But, did you know that, even if using the "simple way" mentioned in the previous post, you can still tell which threads you are Subscribed to (and a whole lot more too).

To Navigate this place, and glean a lot of extra information, here's what I do :-

Click on the NewYou banner (that flowery thing at top left). This was mentioned in the first post. This page shows all forums, and is the "Home Page". Now, let's look at the layout for this page.

1. At the left side, there is a depiction of a set of scales for each forum. If the scales are faded, there are no new posts in that forum (YOU have read all of them, or have deliberately marked them as "Read").

If it is bright, (bluish-grey with a green dot), then that forum has new (unread) posts.....

Now, here's a tip - if there is a forum you don't read (for me, it's Recipes), simply "double-click" on those bright scales, and all unread posts are changed to "Read" and the scales fade again.


2. Now let's go into a forum - click "Discussion on Cohens..." Here's a few tips about this level.

You're on the first page of the "Discussion" forum - one of the first posts (a sticky) is called "Getting back on the Bus" - let's look at that listing. Don't open it, just look at its title on this page....

At left. there is a red envelope (faded) and this also shows a little green circle on the envelope IF you have posted in that thread.

All threads have this - so use that to see "your activity". The green circle is telling you that you have been involved in that thread previously!

Also, by hovering your cursor over the green circle, it will tell you how many posts YOU have made to that thread, AND it tells you the date of the last post YOU made !! Very useful....


Just above that list of "stickies", see the light blue line - it shows "Thread/Thread starter". If you click on those words, the posts will "re-order" to alphabetical order (handy if looking for a thread about aardvarks ). The Default order for each forum is via "Last Post" (see further right on that blue line). So, if you try clicking on some of those other options, click on "Last Post" to get things back to normal.

And, if you use Subscriptions, to the left of "Last Post" is the word "Rating" - click on that if you want to rate a thread - but look BELOW the word Rating and, for each thread, there will be a symbol or symbols.

IF you have subscribed to the "Bus" thread, you will see a little Michelin man figure with a + symbol. That tells you this is a Subscribed Thread for you. Other symbols include the drawing pin - for all "stickies" (they are pinned in place, and don't change position like other "non-sticky" posts do.

Also, at this level, any "unread" posts have their titles bolded. By observing the above things (envelope with green circle, michelin man with cross) you know a lot more about a thread before you even click on it to read it.

The Arrow buttons. If a thread has "unread posts" in it, look to the left of its bolded title, and there is a "down arrow". Hover the cursor over that, and you'll see it will take you directly to the "first unread post". Further across the page (actually under the "Last Post" title) is another arrow - a Right Arrow. It takes you to the Last Post in that thread (of course, if there are three or four unread, you could miss them - so I prefer to go to the "first unread post".

The Edit function. This is a time-sensitive feature (i.e. available to you for 24 hours after posting) that allows you to correct any errors you might make, and then notice after. If the Edit button is showing against your recent posts, then you can use it. This allows you a "second chance" to get things right when posting.

I hope some of those tips are useful,

Koh

[Kohinoor]

Bump !!! Just bringing this into the "New Posts" realm to help anyone struggling with how this site works.

Go back to the start of the thread and read on down,
Koh