A: You must be a registered member to post in the forums. If you have not yet registered, see the Registration page.

If you registered but did not click the link in your confirmation email, then your membership has not yet been activated and you must still click the link.

You may not be logged in. If the top of the forum page has the User Name box visible, fill in your User Name and password and click Log In.

Certain threads are closed to new posts, including threads in which only the administrators can post, the threads in the AA-MDS-TALK Archive, and threads the administrators have decided to close for any other reason.

A: There may be problems with the forum system. Check back later or try to contact us. If you cannot contact the administrators, they very likely know of the forum problems and are working on them.

A: The forum software checks for a common mistake - accidentally submitting the same post twice in a row. Your post should already be in the thread you were posting to.

A: To reduce clutter from people who might tend to make many short posts in a row, the forum software requires a minimum time interval between posts. If you combine your comments into a single post rather than make many short posts, you won't have this problem. Otherwise, wait a few minutes and your post will then be accepted.

A: No. You can simply type the questions or comments you want to post in the text box and click the Submit Reply button.

The icons give you features like a simple word processor, so you can make "fancier" posts with bold, italics, indenting, choices of colors and fonts, links to web pages, numbered lists, and other formatting features.

A: Certain forums are closed to new threads or allow new threads only by the administrators. They include the Site Announcements forum and the AA-MDS-TALK Archive.

A: You can fix typos or formatting errors by clicking the Edit Post next to your post. You can also delete your post entirely by clicking the Delete Post next to your post. If you choose to delete your post, you can start over to make a new post, which will show up at the bottom of the thread.

A: If another member's quoted text contains a mistake you would like to see fixed, click the Send Alert Message icon next to a post to send an Alert Message explaining the problem to the administrators. They will correct it for you when they get your message.

A: The administrators are not always online. Sometimes a response will be quick, but this is not always the case so no guarantee can be given. Please be patient.

If you reported a problem in the forums using the Send Alert Message feature, the administrators may have decided that it was not necessary to change any posts. If there was a rules violation, they may have sent a reminder or warning message to another member.

A: When members use pictures in their posts, they put the URL of the picture in their post. The picture itself can be anywhere on the Internet. If that picture is later removed from that location on the Internet, the forum software can no longer find it.

Only the member who made the post can fix it, by correcting the URL in the post or by removing it if the picture is no longer available. Otherwise, the broken image symbol remains, but does little harm.

A: Following this procedure:

1. Go to the Lost Password page.
2. Fill in your email address and click the Request Username / Password Now button.
3. You will receive an email message with a link. Click the link to reset your password.
4. You will receive another email with a new temporary password (all digits).
5. Go to the User Email & Password page. When prompted, log in with your User Name and temporary numeric password.
6. Fill in the passwords to change from your temporary numeric password to a new password that you choose for yourself. Then click the Save Changes button.

A: If someone else sends you unpleasant, inappropriate, or repeated unsolicited Private Messages, someone tries to sell you something, someone causes problems for you in the forums (e.g., follows you around the forums making negative comments), or someone makes you uncomfortable in any other way, send a Private Message to an administrator and explain the problem.