Community
28The forum
Reading and writing in the forum: tags instead of categories, live posts, reactions and mentions, and what moderators can do.
Finding a discussion#
The forum index lists discussions, and reading it needs no account. Four sort orders and a tag filter are usually enough to find anything.
| Sort | Shows |
|---|---|
| Latest activity | Whatever was posted in most recently. The default. |
| Newest | Newly started discussions. |
| Top | The most active threads. |
| Unanswered | Discussions with no replies. The ones worth your help. |
Unread only narrows the list to what has changed since you last read it, which is the fastest way back in after a week away.
The header counts the discussions, the posts and the contributors, and shows how many posts were written today.
Tags, not categories#
The forum uses tags rather than a fixed tree of boards. Every discussion has at least one primary tag, which says what it fundamentally is, and any number of secondary tags.
A question about a vario in a competition can carry both tags and be found from either. Moderators can re tag a discussion later without moving it anywhere, and nothing breaks.
Caution
Starting a discussion without a primary tag is refused with Pick at least one primary tag.
Writing#
- Press New discussion.
- Write a descriptive title. A descriptive title... is the placeholder, and it is good advice: the title is what people decide to click on.
- Pick the primary tag and any secondary tags.
- Write the body and post it.
Inside a discussion, Reply writes a new post and Quote pulls the post you are answering into your reply. New posts from other people arrive live while you read, with a marker reading New posts below, scroll to view, and you can see when somebody else is typing.
Mentioning someone by name notifies them. Where the site allows it, images and files can be attached to a post.
Note
Drafts are kept for you while you write, so a closed tab does not cost you a long post.
Reactions, following and best answers#
What you follow is listed under Following on your dashboard, and what you have written under My discussions and My posts.
Forum notifications#
Every notification type can be switched on or off individually:
- A reply to your post.
- Someone mentioning you.
- Reactions to your posts.
- A new post in a discussion you follow.
- A new discussion by a pilot you follow.
- Your answer being marked as best.
- A moderation action on your post.
- A private message.
The notifications themselves are collected under Notifications on your dashboard. When there is nothing left it says You're all caught up.
Moderation#
Anyone can flag a post. Pick a reason, spam, offensive, harassment, illegal, off topic or other, and add a note. Flags go to the moderation queue.
Moderators can lock and unlock a discussion, pin and unpin it, re tag it, merge two discussions or split one, and delete posts. A deleted post has a grace period before it is really gone.
Some capabilities are gated behind a minimum number of posts, so a brand new account cannot immediately post external links or upload files. If you hit one, the message is You need to write more posts before you can use this feature.
Note
Other messages you may meet: This discussion is locked., Your text contains words that are not allowed. and Too many requests. Please slow down., which is the rate limit rather than a judgment on your enthusiasm.
Private messages#
Private messages are conversations between pilots, outside the public forum. The inbox lists your conversations, New message starts one with one or more recipients, and each conversation works like a small private discussion.
Private messaging can be switched off site wide or restricted to certain user groups, in which case the tab simply is not there.