Upon entering the front page of the discussion area, users are greeted with a list of the individual discussion areas. These have been set up by the administrator (with the exception of the default area, which is really there for example purposes).
Select an area to enter by clicking on that area.
Once inside an area, users will find a list of previously posted messages (labeled by subject line) and the corresponding replies. Clicking on the message brings up a page with the contents of that message. Users can reply to a message by clicking the reply button.
Following are brief explanations of each of the functions available to users:
Posting a New Message
Clicking on the "post new message" button brings up the message posting page. This can be done either from the discussion area level or once inside a specific message. Posting a new message, however, is just that -- a new message. It will not be threaded to any other messages until someone replies to it. There are four fields, one check box and one button on this page. Users are prompted for their name, email address, subject line and message, all of which are entered in the corresponding data fields. All fields must be filled out (though aliases are obviously possible).
Replying to a Message
After reading a message, some users will choose to respond to that message. To do so, they click the "Reply to Message" button. Replying involves the same fields as posting but with the original message also displayed. The reply will be linked to the original message, and vice versa, both in the messages display and at the bottom of the message itself.
Urlification
As of HyperThread version 3.5, there is a feature called "urlification" users can take advantage of when posting a message (or replying to one). If a user wants to give out an address (URL) to a web site in the body of the message they are posting, they can now do so just by typing out the full URL, and that URL will be automatically linked. For example, if the user types the following into the body of the message:
http://www.yahoo.com/
it will automatically be linked and displayed as:
http://www.yahoo.com/
Already linked urls are left alone.
Searching
Users can search the discussion area on whatever keywords they choose. All the data entry fields (name, email address, subject, and body) are scanned in these searches. The search engine searches through all the discussion areas with each search. Search results can be limited in the number of results they return (10, 25, 50 or 100).
Guide
A guide to discussion is included with HyperThread and will explain to users how to utilize HyperThread's various functions.
Topics Menu
This button will take you to the menu of all discussion topics that are a part of the HyperThread system.
Summary of Topic
This button takes you to the summary of messages (and threads) within a particular discussion topic. It is inactive only when you are on the Topics Menu.
Previous Message
When active, this button will take you to the message that the current one is in reply to, allowing you to move back up the discussion thread. When inactive, you are either not viewing a message or that message is the first in its discussion thread.
Next Message
When active, this button will take you to the next message in reply to the current discussion thread. When inactive, you are either not viewing a message or that message is the last in its discussion thread.
