Accessing the community forum

To acess the forum you must have a valid membership and be logged into the website.  Non-members are not allowed to browse the forum sections publicly, post new topics, reply, or subscribe to ongoing discussions.

 

    • Login to the website: /login
    • Enter your FULL email address as your username
    • Enter your password

If you have forgotten your password, use the forgot password feature and an email for pwd-reset will be sent out.

 

Anatomy of the community forum

The forum is made of several private sections that you will navigate relevant to the type of interests and discussions we have in the community.  

    • General Announcements
      – HMS will use this section to share daily / weekly / monthly updates and events happening in the global community.
    • Archived Messages
      – History of Helpmesusan listserv emailed discussions from April 2020 and back.
    • Topic related sections  …
      – These will grow as we more post discussions are created by you and various member replies going forward.

Click on a section that interests you and you will see various topics to read about and reply to if you have something positive to share.   Get bragging rights and be the first to create a new post!

 

HMS Forums

How To Create New Topics, Subscribe, & Reply

The  community forum is easy to post and reply to.

    • Create a new post or subscribe to a post
      Create New Topic or SubscribeClick on the Create New Topic button to start a new discussion.
      — Title your post (ex:  “Luncheon Meeting  Theme Needed in September”)
      — Type in your message, story, questions for discussionNote: Highlighting any part of you message and clicking a button in the editor will wrap that text in a bit of code that can add Bold/Italics/Links to external web/ etc.  This formatting takes effect once you submit your Topic. You can easily edit this again after you have posted.** Below your message you can add a TAG to your post that gives the topic more search visibility. Feel free to add multiple tags separated by commas. (ex: Luncheon, September)
      ** Use checkbox to be notified (by email) when someone replies to the topic. (Optional)
      ** Attach a pdf,txt, or word doc if you have a resources to share for others (Optional)

      — Click Submit and you have posted a new topic!

       

    • Replying to a Topic
      Much like posting a topic, this means you are simply adding to a message someone else posted. All rules apply as with other posts you have made.

 

    • Subscribing and Favoriting a TOPIC or Forum section.
      The primary purpose of Subscribing is for members who want to find that Section, Topic, or Favorite person/image/discussion again without having to search for it again.  The secondary purpose of Subscribing to anything is so that your member Email Digest update will later go out to tell you what has happened since the last time you visited.
Create New Forum Topic Post Reply
Add Attachments To Forum Posts

How to configure member Email Digest

Your email digest is a daily/weekly/monthly email update of what has happened over time. It consists only of Forum discussions or topics that you have explicitly subscribed to as a member.  You must configure your digest preferences to get that email started.

 

    • How to Enable your Email Digest
      — First you must access your Member Account on the website.
      — Then click on your  Forum Profile link from account-menu to access your profile page.
      — Next click on EDIT from the profile menu on the page.
      — Click check box to Enable Forum Digests
      — Enable/disable instant  topic/replies email notifications as well (On by default)
      — Enable/disable @your-username notifications on the forum (On by default)
      — Click to save your settings with Update Profile at the bottom of the page.
Access Member Account Settings
Edit Forum Profile Settings
Enable Forum Digest Email Notifications

How to manage forum subscriptions

Subscriptions are a way of keeping track of different topics in the forum. You can choose how you are notified about updates by visiting your Member Account / Forum Profile link.  Next click on Subscriptions and your page will show you what you have already subscribed to.

 

    • How To Remove a topic from your subscribe list
      While you are viewing the topics that you are subscribed to, you can remove any old or unwanted from your list by clicking on the RED X in the topic that you see.
      This will take effect immediately. Be sure that you want to remove that item from your subscribed list or you will have to search the forum to find and subscribe to it again.

Remove topic from subscribe list