Getting the Most Out of ACUPA Forums and Blogs

To satisfy your desire for a blog post describing some of the features of our website, my next few posts will address a bit of what is offered at acupa.org.

Blogs and forums have the same purpose, to promote communication between members and share information. However, the order and structure of communication is different between the two. They also differ in how you are notified that someone has posted to a forum or blog.

Forums

Forums are threaded ongoing discussions. Any member in good standing can begin a new topic in a forum, or post a comment in any forum discussion. By default, the latest post displays at the top of the list within a forum. Replies within a forum topic are sorted chronologically, so the most recent reply always appears at the bottom. Forums allow for internal quoting and the member’s profile photo is displayed in their forum posts.

The best way to stay on top of discussions in the forums is to subscribe to those that interest you. You can subscribe to get instant updates in your email anytime a forum has a new post. Or, you can subscribe to the digest, which will email you no more than once per day when a forum has a new post. To learn how to set up your forum subscriptions, hover over the “Forums” option in the top navigation and click on “Forums: How-to” from the drop-down menu.

Blogs

Blogs are always organized so that the latest post is at the top of the page, regardless of the addition of comments. Blogs do not pull member profile pictures, but do link to the posting member’s profile. The site-wide blog, to which all members are subscribed, is called Policy Matters. You receive an email notice whenever a new blog is posted. If you would also like an email notice about any comments made on the post, follow these steps from the Policy Matters screen: 1) Click on “Manage Subscriptions,” 2) Click on the speech bubble icon so that it turns green.

Currently, only members of the Blog Committee can post to Policy Matters, but if you would like to write a blog post, the committee would be happy to publish it for you on the Policy Matters blog. If you are interested, please contact Jessica Teets at teets@purdue.edu.