NA Discussion Forums Tips

Good manners (Netiquette)

When you register you can either use a pseudonym (to protect your anonymity) for a username, or use your real name. If you do use your real name and it is a common name, we suggest adding your surname's initial to it as your name might get confused with others.

A descriptive title for your post will help visitors immediately see what the subject matter is (Even when replying to someone's post, you can give your reply its own title if your subject is different from the original. In such a case it is preferable though to start a new post though).

Short paragraphs with line spaces in between are easier to read. There are ways of keeping a reader's attention in long paragraphs, such as highlighting a word in each paragraph by making it bold (see Text Effects below).

UPPERCASE SENTENCES (SENTENCES IN CAPITAL LETTERS) ARE CONSIDERED BAD MANNERS. Entire phrases or sentences written in bold are also considered bad manners. They are the equivalent of shouting.

Emoticons (smileys etc.) and abbreviations may help convey your mood and avoid misunderstandings, which are common, given the lack of facial expressions or body language on message boards. Examples of emoticons are:

We find that an angry statement followed by a smiley makes it even worse, as sarcasm tends to invite similar reactions from others.

Hide my e-mail address

If you wish to change your profile, such as make your e-mail address visible or invisible, click on the "My Profile" link.

Remember that most fields you may fill in when you register at the forums, are optional. We only need a username and a password. It's advisable to leave an e-mail address though, as we can send you your password when you forgot yours.

E-mail replies directly to me

When you post a message, you can use the tick box to have replies automatically e-mailed directly to you.

What is a discussion forum?

A discussion forum is a message board. You can post, reply to others' posts, or just read through them.

You can also search for a particular subject by clicking the Search link.

There are plenty of older posts that are not featured on the first page of each forum. Click on the Older Messages link at the bottom right hand side for more.

Remember that this is not a chatroom, i.e. you are unlikely to get live replies. It may take days before someone replies to your post. If you need help urgently, rather contact us >

Forum structure

The Forum page contains several forums. Each forum contains several posts (messages or shares) by NA members or visitors like you.

Threaded view

A series of messages that are replies to one original post or to each other, is called a thread.

By clicking on the View Threads link, you will see all the titles of replies in addition to the original posts. This can make navigation easier, but will cause the first page to load much slower.

Text effects, links & pictures

For the adventurous, this is how you can spice up your text (or even add pictures to the Coffeeshop Forum):

Have fun! ;-)

Having problems? E-mail us at .

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