Here is a collection of frequently asked questions that have been posted here.
Q - "I just posted my question to 'Free English...' and received the answer that it's a moderated forum, and I should wait. What does it mean?"
Post Pending Moderation If the administrator has configured this forum to support email notifications you will receive an email when your post is either approved or denied (if you have emails enabled in your profile).
You have posted to a forum that requires a moderator to approve posts before they are publicly available.
A - It means that it will not be posted directly, but will go to a "moderator's" section where a moderator reviews the post and will either approve it (post it), edit it (make changes to it), or delete it.
Q - "It seems that the ranking of a member is based solely on the number of postings made by that user, however, does it apply to his/her English language & grammar knowledge?"
A - Ranking is based on number of posts. Administration also awards symbols on an individual basis to members who have demonstrated positive qualities in the course of their participation here:
Checkmark = Proficient Speaker
Hammer = Administrator
'Yin-Yang' Taoist symbol = Moderator
Picture of Two People staring at a Checkmark = Professional English Teacher
Angel - Trusted User
These are placed under the avatar to the right of each post. These do not mean that other members, junior or otherwise, are not excellent advisors. The site administration can only do with and monitor so many valued assistants. In the end, this is the internet, and you can only see what you read on your screen: you must consider the advice given and decide for yourself whether it is of value to you.
Q - "I marked all read by mistake, how do I undo it?"
A - It cannot be undone.
Q - "I have posted a question, but no one is replying, why?"
A - There are a lot of posts and only so many people around to answer them. Anyone can post up an answer but many of the learners feel a bit shy about this, so most answers are coming from a fairly small group of people. Everyone is here voluntarily so sometimes, unfortunately, no one has time to deal with a particular post.
Tips for getting answers!
Register and log-in before posting - messages from people we feel we have come to know and regular visitors will naturally be more attractive to us than the hundreds of anonymous posts, where we don't even know that the poster will bother to come back and read our reply. Become an active member of the forum, answering other posts as well, and you will become part of our community and be more likely to get answers in return.
Make the subject line interesting and descriptive of the contents of the post. Just 'hello' or 'help' do not really catch the eye when you are scanning a long list of unanswered posts.
Don't take it personally, we all have busy lives, and sometimes posts just stack up and get missed due to lack of time.
In the Make Friends section, try answering a few requests instead of just posting your own, there are lots of people feeling the same way that you do.
Q - "How can i find more info about an Englishforums.com user?"
A - On the right side of the post you can click on the name of the member which will take you to their profile page.
Q - "I don't know why some of my posts are being deleted?"
A - The post might not have been in the correct forum and a mod moved it, or the post did not follow our guidelines and it was deleted, or the post was a duplicate. For any of these reasons you should get an email informing you of the reason.
Q - "Can you remove some old posts of mine, I don't want them there anymore?"
A - Generally we do not delete any posts inside a thread where answers have already been made. This would cause confusion and disturb the flow of the thread. Requests for post deletion can always be made and we will gladly check the individual requests.
Q - "All the notification messages are sent to my bulk box even though after many times I've tried to put them back to my inbox. Does anyone know why?"
A - If this happens you need to check your junk filter settings. Usually you will find an option to add a "safe sender".
Q - "I want to find some posters that I have posted before, about four months ago. How can i find them?"
A - Click on your name on the top right corner of this website and you will see your profile. Then, by clicking on "Recent posts" you will have all your posts listed.
Q - "How does this member "status" change? Who changes it and why? I mean those "Junior Member", "Regular member", "Senoir Member", "Forum Guru", "Member" and lots and lots of others. What does it depend on? How much of posts has the member to post for those list of statuses?"
A - It depends on the number of posts. It is changed automatically, as a part of the programming. The list can be found here.
Q - "How do I change my username?"
A - Send a PM to an administrator if it is absolutely necessary for you to change your username, and they will look into it.
Q - "How do I post pictures?"
A - Attaching images is only possible in the YUI (advanced) editor. Check in your profile (site options) if the editor is enabled. If it is, you will see a button where you can attach files while creating your post. A java applet will start and now all you have to do is drag and drop your files into the little window (or browse to the file).
Q - "How do I send a private message (PM) to another member?"
A - Either go to the profile of the member and you will see the option on the bottom left, or click on the mail icon next to a member's name in a post. PMs can only be sent to trusted users, moderators and administrators.
Q - "Why can't I edit and delete my posts at any time?"
A - That would be against a basic principle of discussions: you can't erase what you have already said. Every discussion would turn into a mess and couldn't be called a discussion anymore. There is a time frame in which you can edit your post (one week) but only if there are no replies.
Q - "Why are anonymous posts allowed?"
A - It is everyone's right to remain anonymous, and some visitors are prevented from registering by their company or institution Internet policy. Of course we would prefer everyone to register because it is more motivating and personal to answer a question a member has made rather than a post by an anonymous user.
Q - "Why are controversial subjects and all anonymous posts moderated?"
A - The threads in Controversial tend to attract strange posts, simply because they tend to deal with race, religion, politics, etc. If we lifted the moderation, it would of course be possible to delete such posts later; but it would make for a very ugly atmosphere in the meantime. Same goes for anonymous posts. We want to prevent spam, duplicate posting etc.
(more will be added soon)