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Computing Q&A Board
By Michael Hanst, Member, Lake-Sumter Computer Society, Leesburg, FL; member of Smart Computing Q&A Board
editor@lscs.us
www.lscs.us

Jen Clausen from Smart Computing discussed many aspects of the Smart Computing website that are available to paid subscribers during her presentation here on February 23, 2006. These guidelines will help you to get the most out of Q & A Board.

The responders that answer questions on the Q & A Board are unpaid volunteer subscribers and NOT paid employees. While most responses are accurate, sometimes there are incorrect responses which many times can be attributed to incomplete or erroneous information provided by the poster. I suggest that you do NOT do anything radical to your computer based upon one response – wait for a consensus!

1. First go to: http://www.smartcomputing.com/

2. If this is your first visit since becoming a subscriber or if a cookie did not keep your Log In data, you will need to Log In manually. Checkmark to make a cookie and future Log Ins will be automatic. DO NOT Log Out of Smart Computing or manually delete the SANDHILLS cookie– if you do, you’ll need to Log In again.

3. Click on any link to the “Q & A Board”. (There are several on the Home page.)

4. Click on the link “How To Use The Q & A Board” located on the right side above the questions. This is useful information, so I’ll only emphasize key points in this article.

5. Now click on the link “Set Options” in the same area. You should enter the specifications for your computer. This greatly assists responders and they will assume your question relates to that computer unless you specify otherwise. Plus, there are settings on how you would like to review the postings.

6. Before posting a new question, scroll to the bottom of the page and Search to see if your question has previously been answered.

7. If a Search is unsuccessful, then click “Post A Question” on the right side at the top of the list of Board links.

8. Pick a Subject name that best describes your question. Put some “eye-grabbing” details in the first couple of sentences, as this is what potential responders see as they scroll through the posts.

Then, provide as much specific information as possible including program, hardware, error messages, etc. that will narrow down the problem. That detail plus complete computer specifications in “Set Options” will allow responders to zero in without time-consuming follow-up posts to get more information! When you are finished typing, REREAD your post – you will not be able to edit or remove your post! Smart Computing moderators do review the Board for and may remove inappropriate posts, but they don’t “correct” posts. When you are ready, click the Send button ONCE and wait for it to be accepted, which can take some time if the Board is busy.

Suggestion: If you have a complicated question, type it up first in a word processing program. This will help organize your thoughts and improve your post. Then you can copy the text and paste it directly into the Question block. Remember to enter the Subject.

9. Once returned to the main page of the Q & A Board, you must REFRESH/RELOAD the page to be able to see your post. It may take a minute or two for the post to show up.

10. Now you can click on the “View Full Question” link in your post.

11. From this window, you can click “Subscribe To This Message” to get an email alert if a response is made. If you want to clarify or add something you left out, click on “Click Here To Answer Or Reply”.

12. To come back later and review your post, click “View My Questions” near the top right of the Board’s main page. Then under the desired question, click “View Full Question and # Answers”.

13. Review any responses. If you need to reply to a responder or add anything, click the link “Click Here To Answer Or Reply”.

It is important to keep threads together for continuity. DO NOT make another post about the same Subject unless your original post is “stale” and there have been no responses for several days. Please give feedback/thanks ON YOUR ORIGINAL POST as to whether suggested solutions worked or not. This is courteous to the responders and assists other subscribers who read your post.

14. Likewise, if you wish to respond to someone else’s post, click the link “Click Here To Answer Or Reply”. If desired, click the link “Subscribe To This Message”. 

You should also come back later and review all the posts you have answered by clicking “View My Responses” near the top of the Board’s main page. Provide a follow-up response if needed.

If you ever want to reference another post, create a clickable link by typing “#” immediately followed by the post number without spaces or punctuation; for example: #123456 will create a link to #123456

If you reference another website, provide the entire URL to make a clickable link. If the URL is very long, use this site recommended by Smart Computing to make a “tiny” URL: http://tinyurl.com/

15. The “My Personal Library” is a convenient way to store links to both Q & A posts and Smart Computing and other Sandhill’s articles. ⁭⁭⁭

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author.  The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.