An important part of being part of an online web-forum is the ability to instantaneously communicate to others by posting your messages on a topic of your choice.

To create a new thread, go to the forum that you want to post your message, and click the New Thread button:

To post a reply, go to a thread that you want to post your reply into, and click the Post Reply or Reply buttons:

Now that you know how to get to a point where you can write your message, let's take a look at the actual interface where you will be writing your message.

The posting interface should look similar to the following image:

[ post message posting interface]

The message area is where you compose your actual message. By default, you should find yourself in a WYSIWYG interface featuring icons and functions that are similar to popular applications such as a word processor or e-mail application. You can add images, change text size/color/name/style, add hyperlinks, include pieces of code, insert smilies, and more to your message. After you type your message, you can press the Submit Reply or Submit New Thread button:

You are also provided a text field for title. For the title, you can write a brief descriptive sentence about what your post will be about, but the title is more important when you are creating a thread as opposed to replying in an existing thread. When you create a new thread, your title is the only thing visitors will see when they are browsing through threads in a forum. Titles play a smaller role when replying to posts because the prominent title is that of the thread creator anyway.

You can personalize your thread with a small icon that appears to the left of your thread title on the forum. The post icons area is where you can specify  that small icon that appears to the left of your title. It's optional, so you don't have to use it. But, it's a cool thing to add to your post though!

On the next page, you will learn more about some fun posting features.