Basic questions about this site

An archived post is a post from a long time ago... you can still reply to it. Sometimes the person who originally posted it is still active on the board, sometimes not. The difference between a senior and junior member is how often you post. I think after you post about 100 times (Just a guess, I don't know the exact number) you become a "senior member". I don't think posts are ever moved to a "more appropriate forum". You can post whatever, wherever. If the content of a post is rude or offensive, any member can report it to the moderator... if the moderator agrees that it's inappropriate, it will be deleted. Common abbreviations on this board are dh (darling husband) ISO (in search of) IMHO (in my humble opinion) lol (laughing out loud). Many people use "a-mom" for adoptive mom, "a-parents" for adoptive parents, and "b-mom" for birthmother. In the past people have used the abbreviation "BM" for birthmother, but this is no longer encouraged, as many birthmothers find the abbreviation offensive. Hope this answers your questions. Sincerely, Sharon :)

Thanks! Here's another boring question: Are the old "archived posts" retired to a "archive closet" after they have not been viewed for a certain length of time? Or are they simply the oldest posts, that is, at the end (beginning) of the posts of a thread. Can anyone repost them by just copying and pasting? Sorry folks, I just have these boring questions once in a while as I poke around trying to get to know this site!

Hi Julie, Sharon and Everyone: The archived posts are posts that were part of adopting.org, adoptionboards.com, internationaladoption.org discussion boards and adoptioncafe.com prior to the merging of all of the discussion forums together in one place. The archived posts will remain on Adoptionforums. They will not be retired to an archived closet after a certain length of time. Many of the archived posts contain worthwhile information. When we merged the old discussion boards into Adoptionforums.com we ran some keyword searches to try to weed out the posts that did not adhere to the rules at: [url]http://www.adoption.com/community.php[/url] There were 153,912 archived posts that made the cut. Due to the large amount of archived posts there may very well be some archived post that do not adhere to the rules and should be reported by clicking on the "report this post to the moderator" link at the bottom of each post. Each of you are welcome to report such posts. In fact we appreciate your help on this. Our software on Adoptionforums.com automatically changes a username's membership title from Junior member to Member when their posts exceed 29. A member becomes a Senior Member when their posts exceed 100. From time to time the admin team may move a post to a forum that would allow others to easily locate a post due to the subject matter referenced in the post. Thank you Sharon for your explanations on the abbreviations for posting. Great job! Thanks for all your great questions. Nice to have you here! Warm regards,

What do these stand for? I'm not sure about the capitalization. I like puzzles but have given up on these. Thanks! PGN, tpr, ISRR, and btw

Hi Julie: You have asked some really good questions. The abbreviations you have asked about are listed below: If you need further explanations no problem just ask! :) trp = terminate parental rights btw = by the way ISRR = International Soundex Reunion Registry PGN = similar to an attorney general's office in the United States but for Guatemala Happy to help. Warm regards,

I see that some people have "banned" below their names. What does that mean? It is confusing to me since they are able to post under the same name. I assume it is possible to post using two different identities. Is this true? Does the second identity have to be from a different email address? Also what does "referrals" mean? Something bad or good?! Lastly, what does the "views" column mean? I thought it meant how many people had visited the thread, but when I read postings and then go back to the home page the number doesn't change. And how can a reply be counted if a post hasn't been viewed?? Sorry these are such boring questions! It is hot outside, so I have retreated to the internet. Thanks in advance!

As much as I post here I was unsure on some of this. I just recently learned what LOL meant. One question I would also like to ask is how one goes about being placed in charge of a certain thread/topic like parent advisor, etc. I was just curious how they get these titles. Thank you Judilyn

Hi Julie: Thank you for your questions. Others may have the same questions. I am happy to answer for you. Banning: AdoptionForums is a very popular web site. We have between 100 and 150 new members per day. Some of the benefits of our wonderful AdoptionForums is that many of us can be part of the Adoption Community here and remain anonymous. This helps many of us to open up and feel comfortable sharing with one another. Part of the aspect of being anonymous causes others to act in ways that hurt others in our Adoption Community. It is really sad. As you may know we have rules to keep AdoptionForums going. The rules are located at: [url]http://www.adoption.com/community.php[/url] When the rules are not followed people have been banned. Their posts may remain but they are no longer to participate in AdoptionForums. They will be banned if they post from another computer or identity. You are right the "view" column indicates how many times someone has viewed that thread. To view a thread and then check the home page it may require "refreshing" the page for the view number to change. If that is not the case please let me know. The number represents the number the full thread has been viewed. If a new reply is entered it appears that that reply has had a large number of views but the number is representing the full thread. (Did I explain that okay?) The answer to the referrals question is on this link: [url]http://www.adoptionforums.com/t105632.html[/url] Yes, they are a goooood thing. :) Hope I answered your questions okay. Hope things go well for you and thanks for being here and participating on AdoptionForums!! Warm regards,

Hi Judilyn: Thanks for your questions. We have various moderators for AdoptionForums. Here is the link giving some information about moderators: [url]http://www.adoptionforums.com/t82195.html[/url] If you would like more information please lme know. Many of the moderators that started moderating while our technical wiz was setting up the titles were named "Adoption Experts." We have since allowed our moderators to select a title that that applies to their expertise while is particular to their area of experience such as "Birthmom Author" or similar. We have a new Parenting expert who has years of experience teaching parenting classes and educating others on many of the stages of parenting. She has two full grown sons and is available to help all of us here on AdoptionForums in our Parenting Section at: [url]http://www.adoptionforums.com/f501.html[/url] Nancy Nic has the title of "Parent Advisor." If you are interested and moderating or if you know of others that are please e-mail me at seeme2adopt@earthlink.net or Sabra@adoption.com. Thanks for being part of our Adoption Community here on AdoptionForums! Great to have you here. Warm regards,

Thank you for the info, Sabra. You asked to be notified if the "views" info didn't seem to work as you had expected. I chose a posting that had "0" in the replies column and "7" in the views column to check this out. Twice I read the post, clicked "back" on my browser to get back to the list of "new posts" or "today's active threads", then "refresh", but the number for "views" remained at 7. Just letting you know. Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. :)

Julie, There's a place at the bottom that says "mark all forums as read" I think it tally's based on that, but I'm not positive.