The Member’s forum provides a convenient way for Harrisburg Bicycle Club members to communicate with each other by posting comments, questions or replies.  Think of it like a bulletin board.  When you post to the forum, everyone who visits the website can see what you have posted.  But you must login and be an HBC member to post.  If you don’t know how to log in or don’t know your username – see the Website help topic “How to Log In” .

Forums are great if you have a question you’d like to ask the general membership.  It is less intrusive than sending everyone an email, and reaches a broader audience.  Sometimes, it provides a way for like-minded people with similar interests to connect with each other.

Just some simple terminology – what we refer to as the “Member’s Forum” consists of several “Categories” such as General Discussion,  Advocacy and Club Rides.  Then under each Category is one or more “Forums”.  For example in the “General Discussion” Category are Bike Maintenance, Special Rides, Miscellaneous Topics, Safety and Website Stuff.

When you post to the Member’s Forum, you first should select the Category and Forum that you think is appropriate.  Of course it’s no big deal, it’s just a way to help people find topics of interest.  You can either reply to a previous Topic (also called a “thread”) or you can create a new Topic in the selected Forum.

It is really very easy to use – don’t be shy!  The following annotated screens should get you started.

To get to the Member’s Forum, you can click on the “Member’s Forum” selection on the top menu.

Alternatively, since the latest forum posts are listed on the module on the right hand side of the web page, you can also get to the individual Forum posts by clicking on them there.

Assuming you’ve clicked on the Top Menu, this will take you to a screen that looks like this:

If you key in a search term in the Search box, it will show you all the forum posts that match that word, and highlight the word in red.

Back to the main screen – if you click on one of the individual Forums listed under the Category, it will list any Topics (or “Threads”) under that Forum.

Clicking on an individual Topic will show you the original post as well as any replies.  This is why it is called a thread – multiple replies are listed in date sequence under the original Topic post.

Back to the main screen – if you select the “Recent Discussions” tab, it will list the topics in time sequence, with most recent topics first.

OK, suppose you want to start a new Topic (or “Thread”).  It’s easy – assuming you are logged in, just click on the “New Thread” link which will display on any Forum.

This will take you to a screen where you can enter your text.  Don’t get intimidated by all the icons and “boardcodes”.  For a simple post all you need to do is enter your text and hit the “submit” button.  Feel free to experiment with the “emoticons” to add some flare to your post.  If you click on one of the yellow faces on the left, it will put that image at the cursor.

And here is the finished product – I put a little emoticon at the end of the post.  Note that once a Topic is created, then anyone who is logged in can now post a reply to the topic.

Try it out – let us know if you have any questions or comments by sending an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4