Discussion Group Instructions
Our discussion area is a text based section of our website where we encourage you to read and post messages of interest to the body. These message systems are typically referred to as "Bulletin Board Systems (BBS)" or "Threaded Discussion Groups" on the Internet, and are a popular method of forming discussion groups in the online community.
The discussion area is divided into a number of categories, called "forums", with each forum focused on a particular topic. Example forums are "Ministry and Evangelism", which focuses on discussion related to ministry and evangelism, and "gifts of the Spirit", which focuses on the gifts.
Reading and Searching a Forum:
The first screen you see upon entering the discussion group asks you to select a forum and other parameters for searching the forum. The forums are discussion categories, such as ministry, open forum, politics, ... etc. Details of the discussion group categories are given later on in this document.
Once you have selected a forum, you can fill out other optional fields to search the discussion group (only the "forum" field is required). The search fields are described below:
- Forum: (required)
- This field describes the appropriate topics for
the forum.
- Display messages with what keywords: (optional)
- Only messages containing the keywords you enter
will be displayed.
- Exact Match for keyword search: (optional)
- If this check box is checked, only messages
containing exact whole word matches to the keyword
will be displayed. For example, if "pray" is
entered as a keyword, and the exact match option
is chosen, then documents containing the word
"pray" will be matched, although the word
"prayer" will not be counted as a match. If more
than one word is entered as a keyword, then the
matched documents must contain all the listed
keywords (known as "logical and").
- Range of Dates Posted (First date in range to view messages
ie 12/03/98): (optional)
- This field narrows the search to documents posted after
the selected date.
- Range of Dates Posted (Last date in range to view messages
ie 12/03/98): (optional)
- This field narrows the search to documents posted before
the selected date.
- Range of Age of posts (earliest number of days old to view
msgs): (optional)
- This field narrows the search to documents posted less than
the number of days entered. For example, entering 20 in this
field will list messages entered 20, 19, 18, ..., or
1 days ago.
- Range of Age of posts (latest number of days old to view
msgs): (optional)
- This field narrows the search to documents posted more than
the number of days entered. For example, entering 3 in this
field will list messages entered 3, 4, 5, ... days ago.
Once you have entered your data in the BBS entrance form, click on the "Enter the BBS with these parameters". You will then enter the forum, with message links listed that match your search parameters. An example of the listing is given below:
- New Discussion Room (2/3/97 6:50 PM) (Thread Modified:2/3/97 6:52 PM)
- Re: New Discussion Room (2/3/97 6:52 PM)
The first line above is the start of a new topic, titled "New Discussion Room". The second line is a response message to the first message. Clicking on the link for either message will bring up the text of the message (The above list example does not have links, it is just for illustration).
A typical message, corresponding to the second link in the above example is given below:
Name: John Doe
E-Mail: John@Example.com
Date/Time: 2/3/97 6:52 PM
Subject: Re: New Discussion Room
Body:
Praise His Holy Name!
God Bless those who enter this room!
John
John Doe on 2/3/97 6:50 PM said:
>>The LordofHosts.com BBS is now online!>>
>>Praise ye the Lord!>>
>>
>>
Replies:
Note that the message includes the Name of the individual posting the message, their E-Mail address, Date/Time of message, Subject, and text body of message. Since this is a reply to a previous message (also from John Doe), the text of the new message is given, followed by the text of the original message that prompted this reply. Note that the original message is set off by ">>" marks. TRY TO LIMIT THE AMOUNT OF TEXT LISTED IN THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE (the part set off by ">>"). Readers can tell what you are replying to by reading the original message itself.
Posting a Message:
Within a particular forum, you can post a message in response to a previously posted message, or start a new topic for the forum by submitting a new post topic. Posting a response is accomplished by clicking the "Post a Reply" button in the "Replies" section of a message. Posting a new topic is accomplished by clicking the "Post a Message" button. To return to the list of posted messages, click the "Message Archive (Top Level)" button.
Typically, somebody starts a discussion by posting a new message on some topic of interest, for example speaking in tongues. This would be a natural for a discussion group since the church has widely varying opinions on this matter, and is sure to elicit a response from somebody out there! Feel free to comment on anything of interest to Christians, just keep it Holy, mature, and even tempered (discussion groups get quite heated at times - so keep the "flames" down, and remember you are a child of God.) It is recommended that you include bible references in your message when possible.
Forum Topic Areas:
- Open Forum:
- This is an open area, so feel free to post messages
on anything.
- Politics:
- This area is focused on political matters
- Gifts of the Spirit:
- This is focused on discussion of the gifts of the
spirit, such as prophecy, tongues, healing...
- Ministry and Evangelism:
- Looking for comments on a sermon idea, or trying to
find evangelical materials? Try putting a message here.
- Church Government:
- Lets here your thoughts on church government!
- Doctrine and Theology:
- For serious discussions on matters of faith and belief.
- Health, Nutrition,...:
- Suggestions on food, vitamins, exercise, etc., needed to
keep the temple of the Holy Spirit healthy.
- Entertainment:
- Let's here your thoughts on proper entertainment for
Christians.
- Children and Family Life:
- Post a message about raising children, and the Christian
family life.
Discussion Group Rules
The message board administrator (Job) reserves the right to delete any message, for any reason, at any time. If you conduct yourself in a Godly manner, this will not be a problem.
- The Lord of Hosts Website is a service to our Lord and savior Jesus, the Christ - So we expect our guests to behave in a Godly manner. It should not be necessary to give detailed rules, however, violation of the following will result in immediate expulsion from the board:
- NO Profanity or name calling
- NO Personal attacks
- NO Links to offensive material
- NO impersonation of others (using another persons name or email)
- Try to post your messages in a forum that is appropriate for the subject matter.
- Limit posting of copyrighted material:
- Observe copyright laws when posting copyrighted material, including material from other websites. Short message summaries and excerpts of copyrighted material is OK. Posting entire articles, or chapters, is usually a violation of copyright law. Give citations, crediting the original author, if a copyrighted segment is given.
- Do not post lengthy messages:
- Limit messages to a few hundred words at most.
- If you are replying to a message that was previously posted, try to limit the amount of text in the original message.
- When you reply to a message, check the outgoing message text box. This box is the place on the form where your message text is entered. It may include previous messages (and sometimes every message) on this topic since the topic began... These older messages can get lengthy and slows the download. If some of the message history is obviously off-topic, we would appreciate it if you would just delete off-topic or irrelevant text. The earlier messages (the ones you are replying to) are marked off by ">>" signs, like in the example listed below:
Name: John Doe
E-Mail: John@Example.com
Date/Time: 2/3/97 6:52 PM
Subject: Re: New Discussion Room
Body:
Praise His Holy Name!
God Bless those who enter this room!
John
John Doe on 2/3/97 6:50 PM said:
>>The LordofHosts.com BBS is now online!>>
>>Praise ye the Lord!>>
>>
>>
Replies:
Since this is a reply to a previous message (also from John Doe), the text of the new message is given, followed by the text of the original message that prompted this reply. Note that the original message is set off by ">>" marks. TRY TO LIMIT THE AMOUNT OF TEXT LISTED IN THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE (the part set off by ">>"). Readers can tell what you are replying to by reading the original message itself. Since message topics are indented in the indexed list of topics, it will be clear from the index which message you are replying to.
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