A scene of people with various disabilities gathered around a blue lake, enjoying their home, community, the out-of-doors, health, recreation, housing, transportation and education with an accessible path for them to a high mountain and large yellow sun on the horizon.  New Horizons Un-Limited Inc.


Guides


Community

Access to the Internet Community: Guide to Internet Discussion and Message Boards or Forums

April 30, 2006

The purpose of this guide is to provide information for people with disabilities who are 18 to 59 years of age, and does not necessarily offer information specifically for the elderly.

New Horizons Un-limited assumes no responsibility in guaranteeing the services, programs or conditions as described. If you are interested in a resource listed below, call or contact the resource to verify the current situation. Evaluate information and make your own decisions when using this review.


Guide on Internet Discussion and Message Boards and Forums

This guide, written by New Horizons Un-Limited volunteers and staff, provides information on the benefits of using Internet Discussion and Message Boards and Forums and other similar opportunities to Access the Community on the Internet.

Thousands of discussion groups on a variety of topics are going on all the time on the Internet. You can reply to a message or post a message and receive replies. Some are moderated and some are not. Moderated discussions have a person who reads the message before it is posted, keeping the group on topic. If the discussion board is not moderated, the topic can get sidetracked.

Disguise your email address when posting to a discussion board as companies can find email addresses and send unsolicited mail.

Many discussion boards have FAQ, Frequently Asked Questions, that have been posted many times to a discussion board. Check the FAQ before posting a question or you may get a comment from the discussion board.

We hope this brief tutorial will assist you with our New Horizons Un-Limited Community Forum. If you need additional instruction on where you may find particular information, please contact us via e-mail at horizons@new-horizons.org or use our “NHU E-mail Form”


Using our New Horizons Un-Limited Community Forum and Topic Discussion Boards:

To Access our Community Forum, simply scroll down to the bottom of whichever page you may be viewing. Each page contains a menu bar containing several link choices. The menu bar will resemble the following:

Main Categories / NHU E-Mail Form / NHU Community Forum

Simply click on the “NHU Community Forum” link to access the NHU Community Forum. Clicking on this link will bring you to the Welcome Page, which discusses our rules of use. Once you have read the rules of use, you may visit our forum by again clicking on the “Go to the NHU Community Forum” link located towards the bottom center of the Welcome Page.


Once in the NHU Community Forum, you will see the many Categories and Subjects. Here is a list of the main categories on the NHU Community Forum. Each forum has many topic discussion boards and subject messages currently posted. You may view any post, however, if while using the forum, you decide you would like to respond to messages posted by other visitors or post a message of your own, you must register and login.


Register and Login

Although you will be able to access the boards and view messages, you will miss out on all the privileges of posting messages, instant messages and more, unless you become a member of the NHU Community Forum by registering. Joining is free, easy, and only takes a few minutes. We encourage you to join others in the fun! To become a member, enter the NHU Community Forum and click on Register. Once you have become a member, then click on Login and enter your nickname and password to enter the NHU Forum.


Post a Reply

To respond to a message posted by other visitors, simply scroll through the listing of messages and click on those messages that interest you. Once in the actual message you can “Post” and submit a Follow Up message by typing your message into the text boxes provided and by clicking “Submit.”


Post a New Message

To post a new message, make sure you are on the message page. Click on “Post Message” centered towards the top of the page. This will bring up a text box in which you may type your message. When finished typing, click on the “Post Message” button.


Privacy and Security Issues

The Internet can certainly be intimidating to new users. However, you will find that with the proper knowledge, the Internet can offer you many opportunities and much information. Most people that go online have a positive experience, but like anything else we pursue in public in our world, there are risks. It is important that you properly evaluate your sources of information for reliability.

Following are a few things to keep in mind for Privacy and Security while on the Internet:


Creating a Password


The following NHU resource page on On-Line Disability Communities will take you to other on-line meeting places and forums in which people with disabilities may participate. Please be aware of the safety issues concerning the use of such online communities. It is not wise to share personal information (i.e. last name, address, phone number, social security number, etc.) to strangers you meet in discussion boards, newsgroups, chat rooms, etc. Please use your best judgment while visiting these on-line communities. NHU is not affiliated with any of the following disability communities and is not liable for any actions resulting from the visit to the linked resources.


If you have questions or ideas, information and solutions that you would like to share with us, contact us by e-mail at: horizons@new-horizons.org or to use our NHU E-Mail Form or NHU Community Forum, click the links below.

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© Copyright 2006, New Horizons Un-Limited Inc.
[Updated April 30, 2006]
NHU has no liability for content or goods on the Internet.