How to use the Forum

On this page you can find information on:

• registering on the Forum;
• logging in to the Forum and sections reserved for members;
• the Forum’s internal search engine;
• main discussions/conferences and side discussions/conferences;
• how to reply to messages;
• how to start a new discussion topic;
• attachment;
• how to receive messages from side conferences in you mailbox.

Registering on the Forum

On the home page, in the “Log in to FSN Forum” section, click the “Not yet registed?” line, fill in the registration form and click “Submit”. In order to keep spammers off the Forum, your registration will be accessed by the moderation team before being accepted.

Log into the Forum and sections reserved for members

Please use your registered e-mail as a username and your chosen password for logging in. Please note that passwords are case sensitive (e.g if your password is “luna”, the system will not accept “LUNA” as the right password). Once you have logged in, the Login box will show sections reserved for members only, including:

• Go to the forum: click this link to reach the on-line forum, where you can read and post messages.
• View/edit your profile: click this link to go to your registered profile.
  

If you forget your password, click the “Forgot your password” line and follow the instructions.

Search engine

When you have entered the web-based forum page, you will see the search engine at the top of the page. You may use this engine to search the messages inside the forum.

The "new posts" button next to the search engine indicates also new post (s) if any and leads you to the new post (s).

How to reply to a post

There are two ways of participating in a discussion or answering a query posted:

• Reply directly to the e-mail message through FSNforum-L@mailserv.fao.org or fsn-moderator@fao.org. Your e-mail will be sent to all members and will also appear in the Web-based forum.
• Go to the Web site and log into the Web-based forum. Open the message you wish to reply to, scroll down and compose your message in the “Reply to this threat” section. When you have finished, click "Post message".  You can edit your message after posting it by opening the message and click the Edit icon (the one with a pencil).

  If you want to reply to a specific message in this thread, click the “quote” icon under this message (the first icon from the left/ first from the right).

We recommend not changing the subject line of a message, so as to keep the same title for a discussion topic.

If you receive messages through the mailing list in digest mode and want to respond to one of them, make sure you quote the relevant part of the message you are replying to.

How to start a new discussion topic

There are also two options for starting a new discussion topic or raising a new question:

• Send a message from your mailbox to the Forum mailing list: FSNforum-L@mailserv.fao.org or fsn-moderator@fao.org
• On the Web site,  log into the Web-based forum and choose the most appropriate conference for your topic or question. Compose your message in the “Start a new threat” section. When you have finished, click Post this message. You can edit your posts after posting it by opening the message and click the Edit icon (the one with a pencil)

In either case, remember to write the topic of your message in the subject line.

Your messages will be moderated before they are posted to the mailing list and the Web-based forum.

Attachment

Web links are welcome, but please do not attach documents to your messages. If you want to share a resource or other material with the group, go to Contribute resources in the Resources section of the home page. Please be sure to provide a short description of the document you are uploading. You can also send long files to the moderator, who will archive them in an accessible location.

Main discussions/conferences and side discussions/conferences

All messages posted to the main discussion/conference on the Forum should fall into one of the following categories:

• Query: A specific question or problem requesting solutions or information can be sent via an e-mail or directly from the Web-based forum, which the moderator will post to the whole community. Other members will offer their advice, experience, contacts and other suggestions. A query is left open for response for two weeks. More than one query can be run on the Forum at the same time.
• Discussion Summaries: When a discussion has been closed, the moderation team compiles a summary of the main points raised during the discussion and academic references, websites, or other resources shared by participants. All discussion summaries are available in the Resources section on the FSN Forum website, along with the repository of relevant resources provided by members.
• Discussion: An e-discussion is spread over several weeks and launched by a formal discussion question from the moderator. An e-discussion can contribute to formulating a knowledge product, such as a lessons learned paper, or it can be a brainstorming activity to collect ideas for a programme or initiative. An e-discussion can be run in parallel with queries.
• Paper for comments: Forum members can be asked to review and comment on a draft paper, such as providing a peer review for a policy proposal.
• For information: Messages in this category include important announcement from the FSN Forum Team, newsletters containing periodic summaries of Forum activity and announcements from Forum members that are of interest to other members, such as new reports, upcoming events, calls for papers.

Messages on the main discussion are automatically sent to members’ mailboxes through the Forum’s mailing list.

The Web-based forum also has side conferences, including:

• FSN Café, for free discussion among members, where they can get to know more about each other.
• FSN Queries and Papers for comments: This is the space where members can post any query/question that they would like the community to help with. Members can also post requests for peer review of their papers. These posts will be automatically hidden. The moderators will post those questions to the Forum successively at an appropriate time in order to get maximum answers from the community.
• Comments and suggestions about the FSN Forum, where members can post their comments and suggest how to improve Forum activities;
• Forum guidelines and user help, for members seeking advice and help about using the Forum’s platform or participating in its discussions. Go to Forum Guidelines.