The following tutorial has been developed to help guide you through creating a Message Forum. When you hit the Save button at the end, you will have created a Message Forum as part of your personal Portfolio. Again, it will have its own assigned seven-digit ID number enabling you and others to access this particular item very easily using the WritingML item tag designations. Additionally, each post within the forum has a number assigned as well to enable a more refined access. For instructions on how to link the forum and posts, please read: WritingML Help for item and WritingML Help for post.

Note: Before using this Tutorial, you might want to open a different tab or internet window so you can actually create a Message Forum while referring to these steps. To open a separate window right-click on the Writing link in the main navigation to the left, and select "Open in a New Window" or "Open in a New Tab" so you can have this tutorial and the "create" windows open simultaneously. Now, click on Message Forum to open a window entitled Create a Message Forum Item.


STEPS TO CREATING A MESSAGE FORUM ITEM


Section 1: Basic Item Information
As the name implies, this section contains the basic information about your item. Essentially, this is what people will find when they see your item listed within a search or on a list.

 Item Title: Your title is a critical part of an item's basic information. The name of your Message Forum cannot exceed 40 characters. Even more important, this title becomes a clickable window when properly used in one of the many Item Tags offered in WritingML. This clickable link enables anyone searching through various lists to go directly to your forum. Your title should help identify what your forum does or is all about.

 Folder: You may have created a folder within your port to house your forum items. You can select that folder by clicking on the drop-down list, or you may leave in in your main Portfolio.

 Item Type: The following types of Message Forums are available in this window: Activity, Contest, Debate, Discussion, Game, Promotion, Q & A, Review, or Social. A brief explanation of each can be found in "Message Forum" .

 Brief Description: Displayed in your Portfolio, in public listings and in other places on Writing.Com, this short description can provide additional information about your message forum. Essentially, you have 90 characters to create a small billboard for your item.

 Intro Rating: This rating applies solely to the title and brief description, and allows for one of two options: E and Non-E. An E rating is used when your title and description contain nothing offensive or inappropriate. As the least restrictive rating, it ensures your item can be listed or advertised much more widely across the site.

On the other hand, if you have anything in this section that might be considered inappropriate or offensive to anyone, including our younger members, you must choose "Non-E" for this rating. Since Non-E rated items are not listed in many places, it might be advantageous for you to clean up your title or description so you can assign an E rating and gain a wider listing base. Please read "Content Rating System (CRS)"  for complete information. If you have questions regarding what rating is warranted for your content, you can always ask a Moderator, Senior Moderator or Staff to assist you.


Section 2: Content and Access Control Settings
This section allows you to identify who will be able to read and edit your item, and to limit that access to any level you desire. You may wish to have all of your work available to everyone on the Internet. Or, you can allow a few friends, or just the members of Writing.Com access to your work. It also allows you to warn people about the content within your item should it be necessary.

 Content Rating: Completely separate from your Intro rating, the Content rating pertains to the actual content of your forum. Even if your Intro Rating is 'E', you can choose whatever is appropriate for the content here. For help understanding the different content ratings, please see "Content Rating System (CRS)" .

 Access Restrictions: These restrictions allow you to choose who can see your item. If you leave this as Make Public, Allow EVERYONE!, anyone, whether a member of Writing.Com or not, will be able to see it. Your item will show up on internet-wide search functions. Click within the box to see the options available to you.

 Membership Restrictions: These options allow you to limit access to your item from within Writing.Com by specifying the membership level needed to view your item. All of the options involve paid memberships so be certain you know what you are limiting here. Click within the box to see the options available to you.

 PassKey: A PassKey option is available to members with an Ugraded membership or above. If you have limited who can view your item in any way, you can set a PassKey that allows others to see your item. For example, you might want selected members to have access to a forum you previously set to Keep Private, For My Eyes Only. A PassKey enables this to happen. PassKeys may contain only numbers, must be between 4 and 8 numbers long, and should not begin with a zero. For more information, please see "Passkeys" .

 Group Edit Access: This option offers you the ability to allow other members to edit your item. Currently only groups of which you are a member are listed here and may have edit access. You cannot give a single person edit access, unless that person is the only member of the forum with you. Warning: There is no ability to limit two or more members from editing simultaneously--one edit may override another, so it is advised to come up with a schedule or plan for your multiple-member edits.

 Group Edit Level: Not all group members may need all the available edit levels. This option allows you to choose what aspects of the item may be edited by various forum members. For more information about the Group Edit Levels and what is authorized at each level, please see Group Edit for Items.


Section 3: Genres and Keywords
Perhaps this is the most neglected section within any item creation. The genres and keywords you select here set the stage as to how your item is found on the internet, or by members on Writing.Com. Search engines and various lists on Writing.Com use these genres and words to highlight this item. It also helps people to easily find those specific items in which they are interested.

 Select Genres: You can select up to three different genres to help define your Message Forum. Choosing the appropriate genres could get your item more views simply by having people looking for that genre. In the main navigation on the left side of Writing.com is a listing called Browse by Genre. Choosing the most relevant genres for your forum puts it in front of the appropriate readers.

 Relevant Keywords: Many people search for desired items by typing selected words into a search window that they think may be related to a specific genre. You can be proactive by adding keywords here that appear in your story or that relate to your genres; perhaps you'll gain more views as a result.


Section 4: Item Body
Here you can include a longer description of this message forum. You can make this description as detailed or as simple as you like. This will be what the reader sees first when entering your message forum, so impress them enough to come back again and again. This is the place for instructions to those who'll be posting in the forum, including any general discussion guidelines. We suggest keeping this description under 500 characters. Remember, this is not the real meat of your forum; that comes as you add posts.

Upgraded members and above may add images to this section that you have on file. For more information on adding images, please check out "Create/Edit an Image" .

You may type your text directly into this window, or you can cut and paste your document from another program. Bear in mind that not all formatting may properly transfer from some programs--check carefully to be sure your final item is how you wish it to look. See the WritingML link at the top of this box to see the special things you can do with your text. Used sparingly, these codes can really enhance your writing. Also, consider that many people will likely read your item online. As such, leave plenty of white space to allow for ease of reading, such as a blank line between paragraphs.

Some helpful WritingML codes for this section include using the opening command {b} and closing command {/b} to make selected words bold; the {i} and {/i} commands to italicize words; and the {u} and {/u} commands to underline words. Just remember, when you open a command, you must close it, and if several commands are used, close them in the reverse order they are opened.


Section 5: Cover
This section allows members to replace the standard itemicons of the Item types with that member's preferred cover image. An item's cover image will be displayed to the left of the title/subtitle and is shown in site listings, within your portfolio and in the item's header.

 Cover Image: To update a current item to include a Cover Image, open the item's edit window and scroll down to Section 5: Cover Image. Browse and upload a file image of your own, click on Writing.Com Stock Cover to use one of ours, or use an item's ID.

 Image Sharing: Your cover image may be shared with all or selected members using the drop-down box in this section. Or, you may choose the default Do Not Share This Image setting to display the cover image to all, but keep it unsharable.

 Remove a Cover: To remove a cover from an item, click into the item's edit screen, scroll to Section 5: Cover and check the box to remove it.


Section 6: Item Type Specific Settings
These are settings that are specific to the Message Forum item type.

 Direct-Deposit "Posted" Gift Points: Members can send Gift Points to the forum owner when they post to the forum. This setting allows those Gift Points to be deposited directly to a group item of your choice, such as a bank.

 Group Only Posting: This setting is allowed only for a Premium or higher membership level. When working on this Message Forum with a Group, you can set the forum to both allow posts only by the group members and a minimum level a group member must be in order to post in the forum.


Section 7: Item Preferences
This section simply gives you the opportunity to add a few more preferences to your item before offering it up for final submission. You can choose how people can review your item, and if you'd like to automatically give them gift points when they do.

 Preserve Spacing: Do you have it exactly how you want it to look, and you don't want to deal with code? Check this box and your spacing will be preserved exactly as you put it in.

 Double Space Paragraphs: Checking this box provides a double space any time you hit the carriage return key. This is convenient for giving you a bit more white space within your item, if you should find it necessary or desirable.

 Rating/Reviewing Preference: You can exercise a vast amount of control over the method of feedback you hope to receive on your item through one of the available options here. For more information, please see "Rating/Reviewing Preferences" .



 Auto-Reward Gift Points: This option applies only to reviews you receive on this item. You may wish to entice people to review your item by offering them a reward in Gift Points for their review. If you put an amount here, it will be awarded to anyone who gives a review of 250 characters or more, including WritingML. Remember, this reward is automatically awarded to the reviewer based on achieving that 250 character level. It makes no provision for the quality of the review. For more information, please see "Auto-Rewards" .


Section 8: Copyright Information & Save Item
This section is relatively self-explanatory. It provides information about the Copyright and Privacy policies for Writing.Com.

The final part of creating your Message Forum is saving it. You have three options for saving your work. Your work can only be saved permanently on WdC by using one of these options.

 Save Item: Selecting this option saves what you've been working on, and then takes you out of the creation screen and back into your main folder. A link to your item will be provided at the top of the page so you can click on it and see it if you wish. Note: After you save your item for the first time, this button will change to Complete Edit for all subsequent revisions.

 Save And Edit: This option allows you to save your work and continue editing. You should use this option frequently, especially when working on longer or more complex items.

 Save And View: Clicking this option saves your item, and then moves you into the item itself so you can see what it looks like. To edit further, you'll have to re-open the edit window.


Congratulations!
You've just created a Message Forum and added it to your portfolio. This item may be edited at any time, and as many times as you wish. Your item now has a unique Item ID number associated with it, which will never change as long as the item exists. This number is located on the line above your title, and may be used to reference this item using WritingML links.

Remember to save your work before leaving any creation or edit window. Currently there is no automatic save mode on Writing.Com. You may wish to prepare your work in another program and transfer the completed document into the Message Forum. 1