All pages look a bit the same and some can feature the same posts as others. E.g if you stumble into the 'Active Topics' page you will see posts that you already read in another section. So.....
1) If you get lost, click the 'phpBB' logo towards the top left of the page. That always gets you home.
2) The top right of every page is the Search feature. That searches THE WHOLE SITE. If you enter more than one word, it will restrict you to topics where all search words appear. There's a little settings cog next to it to change that behaviour. Tend to use words that are pretty specific or you will be swamped by results. Tend to use few words, one or two.
Each sub-forum (this site actually calls them forums) has its own search box, just below the forum name. That searches just that sub-forum.
3) Below that logo is a 'quick links' menu for such things as 'Active topics' or 'unread posts' To be honest, I don't use that because the summary pages it takes us to straddle so many topics.
4) New users should first read the site rules They are in the 'Welcome' section. The very first section listed on the home page. Rules can be summed up as 'Be courteous'
The welcome section is NOT where you introduce yourself. Indeed, apart from the rules, there's not much there.
5)The second section New Members Start Here is where you click 'New Topic' to make a post introducing yourself. Nothing specific. No name needed, just maybe your rough location and what you might be prepping for. Some members click into an existing 'intro' message and click 'Reply' instead of 'New Topic'. It's not a crime
They are just merging their intro into someone elses. Note that you can 'reply' by clicking 'reply' or you can reply with a quote by hitting the " double quotes to the top right of an existing post.6)Many members Introductions trigger a whole host of replies from established members. Those replies turn into whole conversations and often give the same tips, but there's some gold dust in there, so well worth reading.
7)A few sections are FAR more busy and useful. From the home page, I suggest you frequently look in on 'How are you preparing' That section has one MASSIVE thread that is so long it had to be broken into 8 chunks, the top thread there by far: What Preps are you doing this week? Part 8. That thread contains lots of chat about what we preppers are actually up to. But it also has some great links out to resources. You can add to that thread, and although it dominates the section, there's a few other good threads there which may go un-noticed.
8)Preppers need equipment, such as stoves, torches and dehydrators. A popular section. All that and more in Equipment
9)Other popular sections are the 'Lists' section and the very busy Food, Nutrition and Agriculture. There you will find everything from how to dehydrate carrots to where to buy bulk pasta.
10)Wherever you see a user's name or user Id. you can click on that to get info about their posting history and you can start private messages with them. User Id's in green are forum moderators.
11)Keep an eye on the 'notifications' link to the upper right of each page. It will alert you if one of your posts has been quoted or if you have a new private message.
Hope that helps and didn't step on a moderators toes.
