As you may remember, the Forum consists of Categories, Forums, Topics and Posts.  What I failed to mention is that the Categories can be hidden (compressed) or revealed (expanded).

The reason for this is that some forums may be designed to appeal to a wide variety of interests and in a particular web site you might have categories for Food, Cars, Guns, Appliances, Tools, Sports and Sewing.  The people that are interested in Cars and Tools many not be interested in Guns and Food and the people interested in Guns and Food may not be interested in Cars and Tools.  In that case a person could click on a category and hide the forums in that category.  The category would still be there, for instance FOOD, but the French, Mexican, Italian, Cuban and American food forums would all be hidden.  (Getting hungry yet?)  If you click the category a second time then it would be expanded and you would see all the forums in that category.

Well you might be wondering what Guns and Food and Cars and Tools and Sports and Sewing has to do with ham radio.  Nothing at all, just an example to point out the reason why someone might want to hide or collapse a category.

If I have done my job right you probably will not want to hide any categories.  Well why all the talk about compressing and expanding categories? You might have a hidden category and not know it, that's why.  I recently got a call from someone who wanted to make a post in the Meet and Greet forum, but he couldn't find it.  The reason was that the Meet and Greet forum is under the Howdy! Category and for some reason that category was hidden.  When he clicked on the Howdy! category, all the forums in the category were revealed and there was the Meet and Greet Forum.

In my very first Tech Corner I told you about the forums and gave you a homework assignment to go to the Meet and Greet Forum and introduce yourself. Hardly anyone did that.  Now I am thinking that maybe you all don't know where the Meet and Greet Forum is at.  Maybe it is hidden. Here's what you need to do.  Go to the web site at http://www.suwanneearc.org and click on the Forum button near the top left of the page.  You should then see all the categories: Howdy!, QSO, Swap Meet, Licence Prep, Event Planning, Hardware and Emergency Services.  You should see forums under each category.  For instance, under the Howdy! category you will find the Welcome, Meet and Greet and Questions/Feedback forums.

Out to the right of each category you should see the words Unread Posts and either a + or - sign.  You can click on Unread Posts and get a list of all the posts in that category that you have not read yet.  If there is a + sign showing it means that the category is HIDDEN.  If you see a +, click on it to expand and show the forums.  You can also click on the category name to expand or contract the category. If you see a - sign (and most, if not all) categories should show a - sign, click on the - sign (or the category name) to see how it looks when the category is hidden.  If you click on a category to hide it, don't forget to click on it again to un-hide it.

If you need a refresher on how to make a post in the Meet and greet forum you can go to the club web site and on the right side of the page you will see links to the old newsletters. Click on the link to the June, 2012 newsletter, then go to page 4 to read about forums and posting. Or, you can just click here to go directly to the June 2012 Tech Corner.

Until next month, 73.

Ron Austin
KK4HGY@arrl.net
386-688-4057