Help for the TACH Bulletin Boards

TACH Bulletin Board Help

The Screen Layout

The bulletin board screen is divided into three frames. The top frame (this one) allows you to join the conversation by submitting messages for other users to read. The frame on the bottom left-hand side shows you all the messages currently on this bulletin board. The frame on the bottom right-hand side lists all the users who have recently contributed to the conversation.

Keeping up with the Conversation

Once you're on a bulletin board it's very simple. Whenever you want to receive the latest in the conversation, click on the Update Messages button. Or, you can click on the checkbox marked Auto-Refresh, and then hit the Update Messages button. Now your message window will automatically load the latest messages every thirty seconds. To turn off the auto-refresh feature, simply click on the checkbox again and hit Update Messages.

To view only the most recent messages on the bulletin board, just type the number of messages you'd like to see in the View How Many Messages box.

Sending Messages

All you need to do to send a message is type it into the big text entry area at the top of the page and then click on Post Your Message.

Of course, if you want to be known by something other than the name "Anonymous", it would be good to fill in the box labeled Your Handle before you send something. You should use a short name so other people can easily type replies to you.

If you want others on the bulletin board to access some web page, or if you'd like to include a graphic or sound file, just type in the full address of the page or file you want to point to. For example, 

      http://www.theautochannel.com/images/tacht.gif

Who Else is Here?

The bottom right-hand corner of the screen displays a list of the users who have posted to the bulletin board within the past 20 minutes. To update this list, click on Who's Here. To have it update automatically every 60 seconds, click on the Auto-Refresh checkbox and then hit the Who's Here button. To turn off auto-refreshing, click on the checkbox again and hit Who's Here.