This FAQ will hopefully help you get started with the POP forum found at

http://forum.aplaceofgrace.org

What is a Forum?

For those of you not familiar with the concept of an Internet Forum, the purpose and concept might seem a little daunting at first.

Perhaps it would help to compare this to a real life situation.

Consider a building with many rooms. The door of each room has a sign on it, such as "Baseball", or "Religion". If you pick a room and enter it, you find a crowd of people in it, all  discussing something about what the sign says on the entrance. You discover that there are small groups of people, each group discussing something different about that category of discussion; for example, in the baseball room, one group is discussing Umpires, one group is dicussing the National League, and so on.

You can choose to join one of these groups. The conversation may linger on a particular topic or move on to other topics; however each topic stays related to the small group's particular purpose. You may choose to just listen to the conversation; you may decide you want to comment on something; or you may even decide to start a new topic of dicussion.

This is what an Internet Forum is all about. The forum itself is the building. Each room is a "Category" of related discussion groups. Each group is itself called a "Forum" (or "Board"). And withing these boards you can read topics, reply to topics, or start new topics of discussion.

Since our POP Forum is just starting, and is kind of empty, it may help to look at another discussion forum that is already going. Check out the forum at Augsburg Fortress.

 http://www.augsburgfortress.org/forum/ 

 As you enter the forum you see there are Categories of discussion (for example, "Worship", "VBS 2006 Gospel Express"), and within those categories different "Boards" such as "General Discussion", "Preschool", etc), If you choose one of these boards by clicking on it, you'll find several topics of discussion, where registered users of the forum can participate.

How Do I get Started with POP Forum?

To read the discussions on the POP Forum, you can just find discussions and follow along. If you'd like to actively participate, you'll need a user account. This identifies you to the system so others know who you are when you make comments.

While we are in startup mode, you'll need to have the web administrator's approval when registering. Click on the "register" link on the forum's main page, read the agreement, and follow the instructions. If you prefer you can use the "Contact" section of this web site and contact on of the web administrators if you are interested in having an account created for you.