Navigating this web site is much easier if you are aware of the features available to you. Listed below are brief descriptions of the site's more complex features, along with suggestions for using them in the most efficient ways possible. If you question is not answered below, please e-mail your question to webmaster@faithfulfollowers.org. Thanks for using our web site!

Message Boards
Message boards are an exciting, easy way to communicate about a wide range of topics with others with similar interests. Our message boards are divided into categories (for example, "Prayer & Praise") to designate the type of messages that should be posted. If analogies are helpful to you, you could think of a message board like a filing cabinet, with each category being a separate drawer.

Within each category are listed various forums (for example, the "Prayer Requests" forum). Each forum further designates the types of messages that should be posted within the forum. To continue our analogy from above, forums are like the folders within each drawer.

When you enter a forum, you will see a list of topics that have been posted by people who have visited this forum before you. Continuing our analogy, a topic could be thought of like a report in a folder. You can generally read and respond to any topic that you see in a forum. (You can also start a new topic for discussion if you like.)

When you respond to a topic, your response is called a message (or post). A message can either be attached to the original topic or to a previous response to the original topic (this is called creating a thread). Using our analogy from above, this would be similar to stapling a new sheet of paper to the last page of an existing report. Since many threads can result from a single topic, the ensuing discussion can eventually become difficult to follow. To simplify things, it is sometimes easier to post your response as a new topic, creating a new line of discussion that is separate from the original topic.

Before you can post your first message on our message boards, you are required to register with us. After registering, you will have a user ID and password which will allow you to logon to the message boards. This process allows us some control over the management of the message boards and protects the community as a whole.

Our message boards also allow you to do many more advanced things with the messages you post, such as including pictures or voice clips with your messages. For full details on using our message boards and all of the features available, please visit EzBoard (our message board hosting partner) where you can take a tour of message board communities, learn about how the message boards are structured, or get answers to frequently-asked questions (FAQs).

Sound complicated? Don't worry - it's all much easier than it sounds and the intuitive software we're using will have you posting and responding to multi-threaded messages before you know it!

Of course, we want you to feel free to express your views and concerns clearly on our message boards, but please use Christian consideration when posting. Messages that harass, abuse or threaten other members; have obscene or otherwise objectionable content; have spam, commercial or advertising content or links to such content may be removed and may result in the loss of your ability to post to our message boards. Please do not post any private information unless you want it to be available publicly. Never assume that you are completely anonymous and cannot be identified by your posts. All opinions expressed on our message boards are solely those of the persons posting the messages, and do not necessarily reflect the views or beliefs of the Dunbar First Church of God.

Shortcut Buttons
Several sections within the web site contain buttons which act as shortcuts to perform common tasks. For example, the Prayer & Praise page has a banner which looks like this:

Prayer Requests

The buttons on the right side of the banner are shortcut buttons that let you perform common tasks related to the banner topic (in this case "Prayer Requests").

The (or "e-mail") shortcut button lets you easily e-mail us regarding the banner topic (in this case, you can e-mail your prayer request to be added to our listed Prayer Requests. Clicking on the e-mail shortcut button automatically opens your default e-mail program's new message window and addresses the new message to the address associated with the button. Although most current web browsers and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have standardized on e-mail transmission techniques, there is always a chance that this button may not perform as expected, especially if you are using an older version of an e-mail package or a non-standard way of accessing the Internet. If this shortcut button does not work for you, then you will have to manually start your e-mail package and address the e-mail yourself.

The (or "message board") shortcut button takes you to the message board forum associated with the banner topic (in this case, to the "Prayer Requests" forum on our message boards). Once within the forum, you can read or respond to existing topics within the forum or post a new topic of your own.

The (or "help") shortcut button takes you to the web site help screen, where you can learn more about the features available to you on this web site.

Most current web browsers will display a pop-up description of each shortcut button when you position your mouse pointer over the button for a couple of seconds. Try it, the buttons displayed above are active!