Faq?

[PHI]

For me, as a new member, the lack of an easily accessible FAQ has been telling a few times.

The forums area has one, but there isn't one for the rest of the site. Questions that aren't answered on the site, once asked, should probably be promoted to such a page.

Ex: What's the difference between a junior member (me) and a senior member? Posts? Moderator's decision? Both? Neither? Luck?

Ex: Under what conditions do the checkmarks reset on the forums? I've read threads, gone back and refreshed the page a level above that, but the thread still shows having new content - but it doesn't.

Anyway, lots of things that are obvious to me, probably aren't to the next person over, and vice-versa. So I suggest the addition of a general FAQ page to accumulate questions and answers re the site in general.

[Doug Nelson]

I didn't write the FAQ, it comes with the software. My own solution is the "Forums Q&A" subforum under this very forum you're reading right now. Ask individual questions (ie: one per thread) and I'll answer them, then they're there forever.

To address your own questions, the user titles (junior member, senior member, etc) is a function of how many times you post. I set the levels, but don't publish what they are.

There are several threads about the whole read/unread issue. This software is written to run on shared servers, so they had to make compromises to keep from overwhelming them with queries (it's a dynamically generated forum via a SQL database). That compromise was to put in a 15 minute timeout. That is, what you've read or haven't read doesn't get sorted out until you've left, and it decides you've left once it sees no activity for you in the last 15 minutes.

It's not a perfect system, but I didn't write it, and it is the best system out there for my purposes (and budget).

[PHI]

Thanks for answering my questions, and for pointing me to your FAQ.