- Q: What are discussion forums?
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A: Discussion forums allow you to share ideas, opinions and information quickly and easily. Organized by threads in an easy-to-follow format, discussion forums are designed so you can quickly locate information, find other knowledgeable users and participate in conversations.
- Q: How is forum content organized?
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A: The content in the forums is structured as follows:
- Forum Categories – Categories represent a collection of forums. Often, categories are used to organize forums into a tree structure so members can find the right discussions more easily.
- Forums – Forums are the areas where individual discussions take place as a listing of threads.
- Threads – Threads are the discussions that consist of one or more messages displayed as a list, or in a tree structure of messages and their replies.
- Messages – Messages are the individual discussion posts made by community members.
- Replies – Message replies are posts in response to other messages and are organized in a flat or threaded mode.
- Q: Do I have to be registered to use the forums?
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A: You must be registered to post in or reply to a message or to view Thrivent Financial Members/Chapters message boards.
- Q: How do I log in?
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A: Click the "Log In" link in the upper-right of the screen, or when you choose to post or reply to a message, the login screen will be displayed. Enter your User ID and password to log in.
- Q: What do I do if I forgot my User ID or password?
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A: There is a link to request your User ID and/or password on the login page. You will receive your User ID and/or password in an email.
- Q: How can I tell if I have already read a post?
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A: If you are logged in, dots will appear in the far left-column within forum and thread listings, and left of the subject line within message posts. These indicate whether you have already read these posts, and if there is any new or updated content.
New content since your last visit
Updated content since your last visit
No new content since your last visit
- Q: Can I be notified when a new message is added to a forum or thread?
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A: There are two ways you can receive automatic notification when a new message is added to a forum or thread.
“Watch” Feature
Activating the message board "watch" feature will send you an email whenever a new message has been added to a forum, category or thread you have selected.
To activate a watch, login, then click on the "Watch Forum" link at the top of the forum you want to watch. You can also click the "Watch Category" link from a category home page, or "Watch Thread" at the top of a thread you are interested in. You can choose to watch as many forums, categories or threads as you like.
To delete a "watch," simply click "Stop Watching Forum" from the top of the watched forum, "Stop Watching Category" from the top of a watched category, or "Stop Watching Thread" from the top of a watched thread. You can also manage your watches by clicking "Watch Options" from any page that contains a watch. Watches with no activity for 90 days are automatically removed.
In addition, you can add watches to individual members.
RSS Feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds are a new, fast-growing way to read and distribute web content. Message board content can be set up as an RSS feed. Simply click on the orange RSS icon which appears at the bottom of the list of message boards. You will then be able to select a forum or thread that you would like to have added as an RSS feed. Simply add this feed to your reader.
You can view and subscribe to RSS feeds using the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari. You can also read and subscribe to RSS feeds using an RSS reader (aggregator). There are many RSS readers available on the Internet; some are web-based that you can access by going to their websites; some are browser plug-ins; while others are separate software programs you install on your computer.
To subscribe to a Lutherans Online message board RSS feed:
- Click the orange RSS button at the bottom of the page you'd like to receive the feed from.
- Right click on the "Get requested feed" link.
- Select "copy shortcut."
- Paste into your RSS reader.
Note: You can also right-click on the announcements, threads, popular threads or messages icons, select "copy shortcut", and paste into your RSS reader to subscribe to these feeds.
- Q: Can I be notified when certain members post?
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A: Yes, activating the message board "watch" feature will send you an e-mail whenever a new message has been added by member(s) you have selected.
To activate a watch, login, then click on a member's screen name. This will take you to their user profile page. Click "Watch this User" to receive an e-mail whenever they post a new message. You can choose to watch as many members as you like.
To delete a watch, simply click "Stop Watching User" from the user's profile page. You can also manage your watches by clicking "Watch Options" from any page that contains a watch.
In addition, you can add watches to threads or entire forums.
- Q: How do I create a thread or post a reply?
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A: To start a new thread, choose the appropriate forum and select Post New Thread. Type your thread header in the subject line and type a message in the message box. Before you are about to post, you can spell check your message by clicking on the Spell Check icon.
When you are satisfied with your message, you can preview your message to see how it will appear when posted by clicking on Preview. Or you can post your message without previewing it by clicking Post Message.
To post a reply to a thread, select the reply icon next to the message you would like to reply to. If you want to respond to specific text from the original message, click the "Quote Original" icon and that will add the text from the original post in your message.
- Q: How can I format the text of my posts?
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A: To format your message text in "Plain Text" view, either enter the HTML coding for the formatting you would like, or use the "Plain Text Help" box on the right side of the screen to format your text accordingly. You can also click the bold, italic, underline, and link icons in the upper-left of the text box to format your highlighted text.
To format your message text in "Rich Text" view, simply highlight the text you'd like formatted, then click one of the formatting icons in the top of the text box to update your text accordingly.
- Q: How do I add an emoticon to my message?
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A: You can insert emoticons into your post by simply typing the appropriate smiley punctuation into your message. For example, typing in :) will show up as . You can also click the smiley icon when typing a message in the Rich Text editor to see a full list of emoticons to choose from. See the full list of emoticons.
- Q: How do I post an image or web link in my post?
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A: You can use basic HTML code within any message post, such as for adding images, links and more. However, if you decide to include HTML tags into your post, you will need to have the whole post use HTML tags, including <P> tags for paragraphs, <BR> for line breaks, etc.
If you need help with basic HTML commands, you may want to refer to these sites which have a good list of basic HTML:
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Webmonkey
Note: If you post an image within a thread, a security error may display. This will happen whenever anyone posts an image within a thread that has a Web address that starts with http://. To prevent the security error from displaying within the thread, you may want to refer to the image using https:// instead of http://. If you get the security message and click NO to the question that pops up, the only difference will be that the image(s) the user posted will not display.
- Q: How do I check the spelling of my message?
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A: Click the ABC Checkmark icon to check the spelling of your message. If our spell check dictionary doesn't recognize a word in your message, it will appear in a box. You can correct it yourself by simply typing over what is displayed and clicking "Change." If the dictionary has any suggestions, you will be able to see them in the suggestion box. To choose one of the suggestions, simply select the suggestion you'd like to use and click on the "Change" button for each of the words you would like changed. Click "Ignore" if you would like to keep the word spelled as is.
When you are finished checking your entire message, click "OK" to the "Save and Close" dialog box that appears. Click "Post Message" to save your changes and post the message with your spelling corrections, or continue to type your message.
- Q: How do I add tags to a message?
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A: You can optionally tag each of your posts with one or more tags describing your post. Commonly-used tags will appear as larger text in the tagcloud, which appears as a box in the lower-right of the Message Boards home page. You can click on any tag in the tagcloud to see all posts that used that particular tag.
To add a tag to your message, simply type in the tag(s) you want to associate your post with below the main message text and above the "Post Message" button. You can associate your post with as many tags as you like, using spaces to separate multiple tags (use an underscore to combine two words). You can also click on popular tags to automatically add them to your post's tag list.
- Q: How do I edit or delete a message?
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A:Users do not have the capability to delete a message, but you can edit the message as long as other users have not yet replied to your message by clicking on the edit icon within the posting. If you have a post you would like removed, contact the Lutherans Online Help Desk at 866-201-1522 or by using the online contact form.
- Q: How do I add, change or remove my avatar?
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A: Avatars are small icons that appear below your screen name with each message board post.
To add an avatar to all of your message board posts:
- Go to the message boards and log in.
- Click "Your Control Panel."
- Click the "Edit" button in the lower-right corner of the "User Information" box.
- Click the "Click to set an Avatar" link.
- Click the radio button next to the avatar you would like to use.
- Click the "Save Settings" button.
- Click the "Go Back" button. The selected avatar will now appear below your screen name within all of your previous and future message board posts.
To change or remove your avatar:
- On your "User Information" page, click "Edit Avatar."
- Choose a different avatar or click "None" to remove your avatar from all of your message board posts.
- Click the "Save Settings" button.
- Click the "Go Back" button. Your avatar changes will affect all of your previous and future message board posts.
- Q: How do I view my message board browsing history?
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A: If you are logged in, you can view the history of recent threads you have visited by clicking the "History" link in the upper-right of the screen. Note that this will clear out once you close your browser.
- Q: Why do I have to log in again after being away from my computer for a few minutes?
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A: Because the message boards are now tied into your login profile via the screen name, we automatically log you out of the system after 30 minutes of inactivity for security reasons. Please note this if you are writing a long post that may take more than 30 minutes to compose and send.
- Q: How do I search the forums?
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A: From the main page of the discussion forums, type your term(s) into the search box, select which forum(s) you want to search, and click the "Go" icon.
When you are in a Forum page, you can click on Search Forum to use an advanced search page where you can narrow your search by specifying a date range.