Getting Started on the New Miniapples Forums
(updated 12/6/07)
Miniapples Forum Home Page: http://miniapples.7.forumer.com/
Miniapples Forum Index Page: http://miniapples.7.forumer.com/index.php

Miniapples is testing a new online forum as an alternative to the First Class BBS. It is not unusual to hear of Mac novices having First Class configuration issues. And frankly a minority of Miniapples members are participating in the First Class BBS. The new Miniapples forum is a complete modern online forum that runs from your browser of preference. We recommend Safari or Firefox.

Nov 07 Update- Thanks to Harry and Pam Lienke, we have posted a Getting Started with Forumer.com article at the Miniapple Forums. It includes illustrations to get you registered and posting. Some of the following is repeat info but it does includes forum organizational info.

Forum Home Page vs Index Page
There are two ways to arrive at the Forums. Both links are posted above. The Home Page includes a summary of posts and other interesting information about the Miniapples Forums. Note at the far left under the section labeled Board Navigation is a link to the Miniapples forums. This link takes you to the index or top level of the Forum. Or you can go directly to the Index Page by using the link listed above.

Registration Info
We are inviting Miniapples members to come take a look, sign up, and post some messages. Head on over to the New Miniapples Forums. At the top of the page under the Miniapples Forum banner are several links, including a Register link. For getting started info see this this link in the forum.

You can read all of the messages in the public forums, but you will not be able to post a message until you are registered. All that is required to register is to submit your email along with a user name and password. One of the forum administrators will verify your membership and then you'll be notified that your membership has been activated. Very simple and fast.

If you are familiar with online forums, you'll feel right at home. This forum uses phpBB software and is hosted by forumer.com. This company has made a business of providing free bulletin board/forum hosting. The price of free admission are the adds that run across the top of most pages. While Miniapples does not officially endorse add blockers, if ads really bug you, let it be known that the Firefox browser has add-ons that will prevent these ads from running.

When you arrive at the Miniapples Forum Index (the top level of the forums) you will see a list of forums. The top section is Miniapples Central which includes all of the Miniapples related forums. The Second section is All Things Macintosh including General Apple Topics & News, Hardware, Software, and a Beginner's Corner. The bottom section is the Miscellaneous which includes a general topic forum called Grab Bag, Buy & Sell, and Apple II.

The first thing to do is click on the Miniapples & SIG News and read the Forumer.com Terms of Use and then browse through the Forum FAQ message. The Forum FAQ has a long list if items regarding common questions.

Navigation of the forums is easy. Simply look at the Navigation Bar located at the top of each page. If you are currently reading the Forum FAQ, the Navigation Bar will show something like: Miniapples forum Index >> Miniapples News & Newsletter >> Forum FAQ. The first item (Miniapples Forum Index) is the top level of the forum, Miniapples News & Newsletter is the forum, and Forum FAQ would be the current post you are reading. All of these items are clickable links taking you back to either the Index level or the Forum level.

Difference with First Class
If you are familiar with First Class, you'll notice some differences. First off messages are better organized in this new forum. If you think about the FC Mac Software section, you'll remember that all of the message topic replies are all mixed together. In this forum each message has it's own section, so when clicking on a post to read, you'll only see replies to that post.

One thing that won't be in the new forum are message flags showing if message as read or unread. If you rely on this, you will have a period of adjustment. However the Miniapples forum does notify you of forums with new posts by presenting those Forums in a highlighted color after you have logged in. And when you click on the forum, the thread with the new reply will also have high lighted text designating it as new reply since your last visit.

Note: If you don't look at all of the new messages before logging out, they will no longer be highlighted when you return. However this is not the only way to see new messages. If looking at a Forum like Miniapples News & Newsletter, all of the newest posts are listed at the top. In addition to the far right is the Last Post Column, showing the person and date of the last message posted to a thread. Last but not least this forum allows you to subscribe to any post that interests you. What this means is that every time a reply is posted, you will receive email notification. In busy forums, this method of new post tracking is a must.

Finally here is a list of Pros for this forum:
- Free
- Full Featured
- Flexible Message Organization
- Easy to Navigate
- Totally Online Solution
- No need for hardware server support (on our end)
- Flexible message editing
- Private forum for BOD
- Avatar uploads and emoticons Smile
- Uses BBCode- Similar to HTML in allowing the formatting of messages.
- Ranks and Titles (such as SIG Leader, BOD)
- Supports Polls
- Email notification of replies
- Uses phpBB
- Requires at least 1 post per month to stay open. (We can handle that! ) Shocked
- Signatures.
- Red Text appears for forums and topics with new posts since your last visit.
- Supports high degree of permissions flexibility allowing for the segregation of Guests, privacy where it is needed (such as the BOD Private forum), and Read Only forums (if needed).
- Does not mix all replies in a single forum into one long list.
- Recognizes URLs in posts and turns them into links.
- Supports moving of misposted topics.
- Unlimited Bandwidth and storage.
- Allows custom banners.
If you have never participated in the First Class BBS for what ever reason, you'll find that the Miniapples Forum is a great place to seek and receive answers to all of your Mac questions. There is no software to download and configure so please come on over and take a look! (Posts will be slow at first until we get a majority of members signed on.)