Where can I find the basics of navigating Air Forums?

[synapticon]

As much as I appreciate the camaraderie and sage advice I have found here, it is extremely frustrating to get simple answers to understand how to navigate this site. I come to this area and find 1508 threads, where do I start?. I'd like to find out how to simply send a PM and how to "qualify" to do so. Wandering around sorting through all the well meaning comments is daunting and discouraging. I tried following he directions in the faqs and still wonder how to circumvent the "spam protection" mechanisms to make contact with a member that was recommended as a valuable resource.

While I see newbies dive in and be warmly accepted, I'm still intimidated with the prospect of randomly "diving in". Where is the bunny slope?

[HowieE]

As far as finding something on this site using Search that does not work and never has. Your best bet is to search using google and scroll through the list looking for items that appear on Air Forums. Sounds nuts but that works.

To send a PM click on the user's name and in the drop down box you will see "Send a private Message" Once you have sent a PM you will get an e mail notice that you have a response. You will also see a highlighted notice under the Welcome synapticon in the upper right of the home page. If you click on that notice it will open your PM section and working within that is straight forward.

You should see one now.

If you have posted to a topic and any activity is added to that tread you will get an e mail of new activity. You can subscribe to any thread you are reading. While the tread is open you will see Thread Tools at the top of the tread. Open it an you will see subscribe to this tread. You will get a e mail if something is posted to the tread.

[OTRA15]

Welcome to the forum!

Above is a "FAQ" link in the blue menu bar, which is a good place to start.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/faq.php

Also the Forum Admin sub-forum has lots of earlier useful thread topics listed like a table of contents:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f138/

You could always start a new thread there with specific questions.

Cheers,

Peter

[time2play]

One suggestion is to do your search on Google with a reference to this site.

For example, if you are trying to find a discussion on Honda generators, type the following in Google:

site: airforums.com "honda generator"

Google will return a list showing discussions at this site, with a link to view more. I always have good luck with this method.

Quotes are not necessary when you type your search parameters, but it helps.

Good Luck!

[Hittenstiehl]

Not intended to sound trite, but it will get easier with practice. This was my first social media and forum participation and it was a little difficult to get the swing of things.

It will also help to know on what kind of device you are using Airforums on. A stand alone computer, a tablet, a cell phone and then apple products all navigate and show things slightly differently. When you ask for advice that will allow people to give you the correct steps for your method.

There are also some space and data limitations once you start posting more. That can be overcome with a supporting membership for 20$ a year and then you get more storage/data space.

Hang in there.

PS one if my go to moderators is Janet. When I had/have a question I send her a PM, (private message)and she graciously answers me back.

[CruizinDux]

synapticon, Welcome to the forum.

This is a link that I keep handy that has help me a lot.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f138...tml#post613497


It does get easier over time. I'm still learning and other posters continue to make suggestions....especially those re "search" which IMO is pretty cumbersome (at least to me).

Note too there is an edit function for typos and afterthoughts, available for after "sending" the post.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f441...-150664-2.html posting # 17.

Bob

[DKB_SATX]

It is true that the internal vBulletin search leaves much to be desired. However, please note that when you click the Search button in the top menu, you'll see TWO search fields. The second one is a Google search that does essentially what a couple of people have recommended, uses Google with a reference to this site so you get the advanced search capabilities of a Google search while limiting the results to AIRForums.com.

If you have concerns or frustrations with the site that members' helpful hints don't help you resolve, feel free to contact a moderator. You can see which moderators are online (or have been very recently) in the "Online users" list at the bottom of the Portal page, our usernames are on the list in bold print.