Overview
Forum User preferences are set in the forum control panel. The control panel is accessed from My SDN, by selecting Forum preferences on the sidebar. When you press the link current preference you are configuring is displayed in the centre of the screen (default is dpm:Your watches"), and the control panel is displayed to the right:
The different preferences that can be configured are discussed below.
Your Profile
The profile section lists forum information related to the current user.
At the top is an overview of the user-related forum information and statistics. This includes name and email address (and whether these are hidden or published), the current status level, number of posts and questions. Lists of recent questions and lists of messages posted by the user are displayed under the user information.
The configurable information is the name and email address, and also whether these are public. You can change these from the SDN-wide user profile, which is launched when you press the Edit button.
The forums allow you to set "watches". If you watch a thread you will be then be sent a notification email whenever anyone responds to that thread. You can also set a watch on another user in order to be notified when they make any changes (including new posts).
The "Your watches" settings allow you to specify the following global settings:
- Always watch threads I create (defaults to "No")
- Always watch threads I reply to: (defaults to "No")
- Send watch emails: Immediately (default | Once per Day | Every Other Day| Once per week
It is a good idea to change the first setting so that you are always notified of comments to threads you create.
The section also displays the email address that watch notifications will be sent to. This is configured in your profile.
This section also lists all your currently watched threads and users (and the recent threads they have posted). From here you can delete specific watches that you are no longer interested in.
Note that watches are actually added from threads - see How can I add a watch?
This section allows you to specify
- How many threads are displayed on a forum page
- How many messages are displayed when you view a thread page
- Whether the thread messages are displayed in a flat (default), threaded or tree view.
- The locale and the current time zone
By default, any new post you make is marked as a question. If the question is answered to your satisfaction, you can mark it as answered, and specify whether particular messages were helpful or correct (this functionality is discussed in detail in the topic Forum Question and Answer Feature.
This control panel section separately lists all your unanswered and answered questions. There are visual markers to show you whether your questions have been updated/responded to since your last visited (the visual markers are described in a legend at the bottom of the page.
This control panel section displays your saved drafts. You can delete or edit them from here.
Related FAQs
