A: The discussion forums are organized into 5 broad categories, each containing a set of named forums. Some forums have subforums. Each forum contains an unlimited number of threads, and each thread is a discussion of one particular topic, with posts in chronological order.

The forum categories don't change, but the threads are determined by the members, who create them to discuss each new topic of interest to them. Some threads may have only a few posts on a single page. Other threads may run to many pages.

A: No one person will be interested in all of the topics that patients and their families discuss. The forums let you look at the lists of threads in specific topic areas, without reading those of less interest to you.

For example, in the Bone Marrow Failure Diseases category, you are probably most interested in the forum for the disease you are dealing with (the AA forum, the MDS forum, or the PNH forum).

A: There are three basic ways to start browsing the forums:

• Do a search for topics you are interested in. See Searching the Forums.
• View the main forum page to see the list of forums. Under each forum's name is a description of its purpose.
   
  The main forum page shows, for each forum, how many people are viewing the forum, the most recent post made in that forum (thread title, poster, date and time of post), and the total numbers of threads and posts in the forum. You can click any link or icon to go into a forum or one of the threads shown.
• Look for new posts as described in the next question.

Use any of these methods to find new threads and posts:

• Click the New Posts link at the top of any forum page to see recently updated threads, with the most recently changed thread first.
   
  For each thread shown, you can click the thread title to go to the first post in the thread or click the Last Post icon to go to the last (most recent) post in the thread.
   
  If shown, you can click the First New Post icon to go to the first post that was made since you were away from Marrowforums.
• Click the Today's Posts link at the top of any forum page to see updated threads from the past 24 hours, with the most recently changed thread first.
   
  For each thread shown, you can click the thread title to go to the first post in the thread or click the Last Post icon to go to the last (most recent) post in the thread.
   
  If shown, you can click the First New Post icon to go to the first post that was made since you were away from Marrowforums.
• Use a RSS reader application or the RSS feature of your web browser or email client to watch one or more Marrowforums forums for new threads. See the RSS reader question and answer below.

If you are using Forum and Thread Subscriptions to to have Marrowforums keep track of new threads and posts for you in particular forums and threads, you have these choices as well:

• Click My Settings at the top of any forum page to see a list of changes to threads you are subscribed to, and to see the latest updates to each forum you are subscribed to.
• Watch your email for notifications of new posts in threads you are subscribed to, if you have the email notification option set.
• Watch your email for daily or weekly digests of new threads in forums you are subscribed to or new posts in threads you are subscribed to, if you have the email notification option set.

See the Forum and Thread Subscriptions FAQ for more details.

A: Each forum display page, such as the Tell Your Story forum page, shows the latest threads, with the newest ones at the top. For each thread, it shows who started the thread, who made the most recent post, the number of posts in the thread ("Replies") and the number of times the thread has been displayed ("Views"). You can click any link or icon to go into one of the threads shown.

For each thread shown, you can click the thread title to go to the first post in the thread or click the Last Post icon to go to the last (most recent) post in the thread.

If shown, you can click the First New Post icon to go to the first post that was made since you were away from Marrowforums.

You can sort a forum display page using the Display Options at the bottom of the page. You can also click page numbers to see more threads in that forum.

The forum display page is also where you can click the New Thread button to start a new thread in that forum. See How do I start a new thread?

A: Some icon meanings are explained in a legend at the bottom of the page. Others are explained when you hover (hold the cursor) over them.

A: Marrowforums supports RSS ("Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary"), a technology that lets you bookmark or subscribed to a forum "feed" and monitor the forum for new threads.

To use RSS, you must have software called an RSS reader, which reads and interprets website feeds. There are dozens of such applications. Many web browsers and email clients have builtin RSS readers or can use free or commercial RSS reader plug-ins. This list of RSS readers shows the variety of choices.

To watch a particular forum in a web browser, save a bookmark of the form where ## is replaced by the forum number. Forum numbers are shown at the end of the URL in your address bar when you are viewing a forum. For example, the News and Events forum is forum number 10, so bookmarking will let you watch for new threads in the News and Events forum.

To watch multiple forums, you can save multiple bookmarks or use a single bookmark with a comma-separated list of forum numbers, e.g., to watch for new threads in the AA, MDS, and PNH forums.