Introduction to forums, topics, and posts

A forum website, sometimes called a "board", is an online discussion site, where most of the site content is created by the members of the site to share information and ideas. Paranormal.com provides various broad subject areas, called categories, which contain more specific subject areas, called forums, which can be viewed by all site visitors.

Topics

Within each category, discussions are organized into individual topics. A topic represents a specific conversation or thread started by a user. Users can create new topics to initiate discussions or contribute to existing topics by posting replies. Each topic has a title that summarizes the subject of the discussion.

Posts

Posts are the individual messages or contributions made by users within a topic. When a user creates a new topic, the initial message they post is considered the first post of the topic. Other users can then reply to the topic by posting their own messages, creating a thread of conversation. Posts can include text, images, links, and other multimedia content.

Illustration - Categories, topics, posts

Here's a simple example to illustrate how categories, topics, and posts work together:
Category: “Forum News and Announcements”
Topic: “How to Use the Forum”
Post 1: “How to Use the Paranormal.com Forum”
Post 2: “Introduction to Forums”

In summary, forums provide a platform for users to engage in discussions by creating and participating in topics, which consist of individual posts. This structured format helps facilitate organized and meaningful conversations within online communities.

Navigating within a forum website

There is a navigation bar at the top of every page which will help you to move around the website. When you click on a navigation button, you will will find a sub-navigation bar to easily go to additional information. You will also see a “breadcrumb” area at the top left side of the page which will show you what navigation items you selected to get where you are. The buttons to the right of the navigation bar allow you to Login or Register, access your Member Profile, View Messages and Alerts, and Search the website.

Clicking on a category’s name takes you to the list of topics it contains. Each topic starts out as a single post and grows as replies and comments are added by different users. To read a topic, click on its title. You are able to see some brief information about the Member who created the topic directly to the left of each topic.

“Sticky” topics are topics which are listed at the top of the topic list and remain “stuck” to the top of the listing, even if they have not had any recent posts. Their purpose is to keep this information visible and accessible at all times.

Sometimes, there are more topics to display than will fit on a single page. When this occurs, you will be provided the ability to move through the various pages.

If you would like more information on a specific Member, click on their user name to display their public profile page.