Introduction to The Lee Forum 2020

Structure

Unlike the ‘old’ forum in which topics on a variety of subjects are raised one after the other, The Lee Forum 2020 has a hierarchical structure.

Hierarchy chart showing how the forum is broken down into Categories (Village forums and HS2), Forums (for example Lost and Found, Forum Support etc. within the Village Forums category), Topics and Replies

At the top level are categories of which we have two: village forums and HS2. The major difference between the two categories is who can see the posts within them – only residents and those with a close association to The Lee will be able to see posts in the village forum, whereas the HS2 forum may be opened to a wider audience.

Below categories are forums – rather than a single forum with lots of topics as in the ‘old’ forum, there are several each with a different focus. For example, within the village forums category, there are forums for Wanted and For Sale, Lost and Found etc.. There are two reasons for this:

  • users will be able to choose to receive notification emails for some forums and not others, reducing the amount of mail for subjects in which they aren’t so interested
  • it will be simpler to browse to find an old post on a particular subject

Within each forum are topics: these are the different subject threads that users want to discuss.

Finally within each topic are replies

In some parts of the User Guide, topics and replies are generically referred to as posts.

Enhancements

Ease of use
  • starting a new topic is a simple click of a button – no more searching for the topic you want to open
  • separate forums with targetted focus to simplify topic based discussion
  • errors in a post can be corrected within 10 minutes of posting
  • simpler and cleaner look and feel complements that of the main website
Emails
  • notifications sent to all users simultaneously
  • ability to specify email notification preferences by forum, rather than ‘all or nothing’
New reply options
  • when posting a reply, it is possible to quote all or part of the original post or an earlier reply
  • new ability to Like or Dislike a post
Extra features
  • when adding a link, it is possible to specify the text to be displayed in the post in preference to the URL to which you are linking
  • new ability to tag someone in a post
Privacy and security
  • runs under SSL to ensure posts can’t be intercepted between the server and your browser
  • simple option to report a post in breach of the Code of Conduct with a single click and confirmation

And finally…

Only registered users are able to see posts to the various forums; if you aren’t already signed up, please complete a Registration Form.

This User Guide in combination with the FAQs should tell you everything you need to know about the operation of The Lee Forum 2020, but if there’s anything we’ve missed then please contact us or raise a query in the Forum Support forum.

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