What is Forum?
Forum (http://forum.cam.ac.uk/) is a discussion service that has been created to replace the Usenet news service long in use in the academic community. The Janet Usenet news service is being discontinued in the summer (see http://ucsnews.csx.cam.ac.uk/articles/2010/03/30/newsgroups-and-bulletin-boards) and so we need to discontinue our local service. Certain, existing, active newsgroups have had their content migrated across to this new system.
Forum is a Raven-authenticated service using phpBB3, software which was originally developed as a 'bulletin board' but is highly customisable and easy to use. When you initially access Forum you will need to accept the site's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, and confirm your choice privacy settings controlling which lookup-derived information may be used by phpBB. There will be a standard FAQ at http://forum.cam.ac.uk/faq.php
How do I request a forum?
The service is to be launched with a range of forums, based on popular newsgroups in the Usenet news service. Users cannot start their own top-level forums, instead they need to request one through help-desk@ucs.cam.ac.uk. Forums can be set up as 'no reply' - in particular this is set for advertisements, where discussion is not useful.
Creating a new topic in a forum
Once you have selected a link into a forum, to create a new topic you need to click on the 
button, at the top or bottom of the page content. You will need to name your topic and then fill in the post. You can use BBCode to add formatted text to your post (see http://forum.cam.ac.uk/faq.php?mode=bbcode for full information), and you can also add attachments, including images, may be shown either as links or inline in the post - you do this via the 'Upload attachment' tab at the bottom of the screen:
There are maximum sizes for attachments of 2MB for a file and 256kB for an image.
You can add a signature for your posts via the User Control Panel, found via a link at the top of your screen directly beneath the breadcrumb navigation trail.
It's a good idea to be cautious about adding formatting and attachments. By pressing the 'Preview' button you can see what your post looks like before it is submitted.
Replying and adding to a topic
Once you are reading a topic, you can reply by clicking on the 
button, at the top or bottom of the page content. To reply quoting another post, you need to click on the 
button by the right side of the post.
Editing an existing post
When you have written a post yourself, you can edit it by clicking on the 
button by the right side of the post. Once you have submitted this edit there is a line underneath it recording when the last edit took place.
How to complain about offensive contents
If there is an article that you want to complain about, click on the 
button by the right side of the post. This generates a post that records all the details and all you need to do is select a reason for complaint from a pop-down list and add a comment if you want to.
Logging out of Forum
Forum is Raven authenticated, so (as with other Raven-authenticated services) to log out you will need to close your browser (not just the tab or window you have opened). For more information about Raven see http://www.ucs.cam.ac.uk/raven.
Last updated: September 2011