Introduction to Forum posting functionality

An internet forum is a place where discussions between people take place on the internet in a structured comment and reply format. Each discussion on a forum is called a "thread". Any individual comment in a thread is called a post (posted message).

Threads are laid out in a linear manner which each subsequent post appearing below the previous post. On some other message boards a branching format is used where a person can reply to a specific post within a thread. Drugs-forum does not employ this type of messaging. The entire thread is viewed from start to end in the order of posting. The focus of the board is on providing good quality responses to the topic defined in the original post of the thread and so diverging discussions is less appropriate than the single thread method employed. If a user wishes to address something in one particular post in a thread there are options for quoting that post or tagging the member who posted it described in the Replying to a Thread instructions below.

All threads on drugs-forum should be considered public if they are located in a public subforum (i.e. not in a subforum specifically specified as private or restricted to certain members). This means any member can view them. Guests can view most subforums but do not have access to the social forums and some of the About drugs-forum subforums. Forums differ from direct messages. With a direct message the person creating the message defines who is able to view the message. In a forum the information is viewable to all people with access to that forum.

Browsing Forums

Forums are organised into subforums, each with a specific theme. This is done to group threads with similar topics together and help people find them more easily. To begin browsing the forums a member should click on the forums tab of the navigation bar or the forums option in the hamburger menu for mobile users.



This will bring the member to the forum index. Here you will see that subforums are grouped into broad categories. The two categories that people are usually most interested in are Recovery and Addiction where you will find subforums dedicated to threads about specific drug addictions and related matters, and the Drug Information and Harm Reduction where you will find subforums dedicated to the nature and safe use of specific substances.

Organising threads into subforums in this manner allows members to find threads about specific topics quickly amongst a massive number of total threads. Within each subforum a member may also further drill down on the information they are looking for by filtering the threads by prefix.

Starting a thread

Before starting a new thread, please check the search engine to ensure the topic hasn't already been covered and resolved.



To start a thread, click on the post new thread button, found at the top right hand corner of the page on the forum index or in one of the subforums.



If you clicked the button from the forum index you will next be asked to select a subforum for your thread (If you clicked the button from a subforum you will skip this step). Note the scroll bar at the side, there are many different subforums so you may have to scroll down before you find the most appropriate subforum. Please also note that Recovery and Addiction subforums appear before the Drug Information and Harm Reduction subforums. Please respect the choice of people to abstain from drugs by ensuring that if your thread is unrelated to recovery and addiction it is not posted in that area, as it may be a trigger for some people.



This will bring you to the following page.



Now you can post a new thread.
Please use a descriptive title, and fill in the 'Message' box with content for the first post.

Thread prefixes

Thread prefixes are a method of filtering content in specific subforums. Many subforums get a high volume of traffic and when browsing these subforums it is much simpler if the information being sought can be quickly accessed by clicking one of the prefixes. When creating a thread you are asked to add a prefix for the thread so it may be filtered in this way.

Drug prefixes

Addiction
Threads about psychological and physiological addiction issues should go in the addiction and recovery dedicated forum. Do not use this prefix.

Anal use
Threads about the anal use of a substance, specific techniques, preparations and issues associated with such modes of use : anal, rectal, anal muccosa ( topical / external and internal), enema, "plugging", suppositories etc...

Combinations
Threads about combinations of several substances; interactions, synergism. Please post a combinations thread in the forum of the most dominant / important drug.

Comedown
Threads dealing specifically with physical and psychological comedown issues directly after use (which is also covered by "health", but in some cases the amount of posts and importance of the subject justify a distinct category), after use, recovery, sleep disruptions, short term depression, paranoia, exhaustion, short term mental and physical issues directly related to the waning away of a substance's effects. This prefix is not used for permanent or long term issues.

Culture
Threads about myths, anectodes, slang, codes, music, songs, lyrics, poetry, books movies documentaries theatre visual and performance art, literature, history, fiction non fiction, places, people, folkore, urban legends, tales, rumours, gossip, clothing and fashion, body techniques, attitudes, caricatures, prejudice and bias, drug culture, discussion of events

Dose
Threads about amounts, quantities used in relation to effects obtained, ED-50, plateaux, timing and frequency of use within a session, measuring doses (also "weight" if discussion is more specific)

Drug info
Threads about general information and facts about the drug: basics, legality, history, alternative names, ingredients, things needed in preparation of use, punctual facts,
In forums about many different drugs, this prefix is used for general knowledge threads about a specific drug.

Effects
Threads about psychological and physical effects of a substance, short term effects discussion, descriptions, comments, tolerance and tolerance management issues etc.... however, posts related to physical side effects, long term consequences and health issues would go in the "health" category.

Experiences
Threads describing specific experiences with a substance, trip reports, places and times of use, first times, activities under the influence, favourite music to listen to while using etc...

Health
Threads about physical and mental, health issues, problems, consequences, advice, general warnings, medication issues, positive effects on health, harm reduction, recovery, eating habits and diets, combinations to be avoided, associated with the use of a substance and the specific techniques, long term effects and side effects, preparations involved.

Inhaling
Threads about the inhalation of a substance, like specific techniques and preparations. This includes: huffing, lung absorption of smokeless, non-burning, non-vapourized material ( for gases, solvents etc)

Injecting
Threads about injecting a substance, like specific techniques and preparations. This includes: injection, intravenous, intramuscular, subcutaneous, perfusions and cannulas, and other needle / skin perforating devices.

Opinions
debates, opinions, call for other's opinions, non conformist / unorthodox / polemic statements, rants, polls that do not fit in other categories, more subjective descriptions, preferences, favorite music, clothing, position, tastes, comparisons...

Oral use
Threads about the oral use of a substance, like specific techniques and preparations. This includes: drinking, swallowing, absorption through buccal mucosa, quids, chewing, sublingual

Other
Threads that do not fit in any other prefix.

Overdose
posts dealing with overdose issues, near overdoses, overdose risks and LD50's, lethality, O.D. symptoms. Can be covered in the "health" category if the specific substance does not justify using a distinct category.

Paraphernalia
Threads about paraphernalia, accessories for substance use, kits, advice on accessories, making simple paraphernalia ( more complex techniques going in the "TEK" category), products and brands if relevant, hiding / carrying substances ( not smuggling), decorating paraphernalia

Pharmacology
Threads about a substance's pharmacology, mechanisms of action of a substance and about general pharmacology.

Purity
Threads about purity and adulterants, adulterated substances, dealing with purification, transformation of a substance, quality / purity evaluation and testing, physical aspects and qualities of a substance, aspect smell colour consistency, removal of adulterants / cuts discussion (that do not fit in the "TEK" category), grades of a substance (as in medical / pharmaceutical grade) etc

Sexual
Threads about sexual implications of the use of this substance, positive or negative, physical, aphrodisiac effects, libido and sex drive, experiments...

Setting
Threads about times, places and context in which to take a substance, environment, physical and psychological preparation, social interaction and dangers etc...

Smoking
Threads about smoking a substance, like specific techniques and preparations. This includes: absorption through lungs of burned substances, inhalation / breathing of burning substances

Snorting
Threads about nasal use of a substance, like specific techniques and preparations. This includes: insufflation, nasal inhalation of solids, absorption through nasal muccosa and sinuses, "sniffing".

Social
Threads about social activities and social implications of use, lifestyle, using at the work place, relationships, friendship issues, love, couples, families, comrades in arms, sharing, lifestyles, education, social bias, marginalisation, social status, effects on sexuality, sex drive ( that do not fit in "health"), legal consequences, social and economic dynamics

Spiritual
Threads associating a substance and its use with such subjects as spirituality, religion, divination, transcendence, enlightenment, auras, mysticism, astral planes, new age, cults, visions, entities, gods deities, spiritual energy power and protection, extra-terrestrial beings, contraptions amulets charms curses, atheism (or in "opinions", depends on context), prayers, spiritual healing, predetermination, possession etc

Storing
Threads about storing, storing techniques and discussion of storage accessories ( specifically, otherwise "paraphernalia" can be used) discreet and covert storage techniques, smell protection, temporary and mobile / travel storage but also questions on shelf life, degradation, temperatures, air exposure etc…

TEK
Threads relating to technical questions, extractions, basic substance chemistry ( keeping in mind that there is a specific dedicated chemistry forum : the "TEK" category is for simple procedures directly related to use of the substance and not to substance production, which would be in the chemistry forums), preparations, recipes, technical advice that goes beyond the scope of "paraphernalia" or the specific "use" categories, constructions contraptions and devices, how to's with a really technical twist, teks, pictorials

Topical use
Threads about absorption of a substance through the skin or other body surfaces, mucous membranes, grazing and cuts, contact /dermal / topical absorption, absorption through the eyes, eyedrops.

Vaporizing
Threads about vapourization a substance, like specific techniques and preparations. This includes: absorption through lungs of burned or vapourized substances, inhalation / breathing of burning or vapourized substances

Weight
Threads about weight and weighing measurement, weight terminology and denominations, scales and scale using techniques - in case this category is important enough to justify a specific category. otherwise "dose" or "general use" or "paraphernalia" can be used.

Plant prefixes

Cultivation
Threads about cultivation, germination, sowing, growing, harvesting, drying of fresh vegetable matter, soil, lighting, hydroponics, pots and growing techniques and accessories, light cycles, growing cycles, hygrometry, sun exposure, nutrients, genetics, environmental conditions etc

Extraction
Threads about extraction of plants, cacti and mushrooms belong in the chemistry forums.

Thread titles

Descriptive thread titles

Use descriptive Topic Subject. This will help others find what they want to read. Topics with bad Topic subjects may be deleted! - there's nothing more annoying than looking at all those stupid "A stupid question" subject lines, that doesn't specify 'about what'. I mean, I'm damn lazy, but how hard is it to type "A stupid question about (insert drug here)"? As a rule of thumb, most thread titles should include the full name of the drug discussed.

This means that posting a thread title 'smoking' instead of 'smoking salvia divinorum' or 'using RC's ' instead of 'using research chemicals' will get you a warning. The home page shows thread titles only, so it is vital to have understandable titles.

Editing thread titles

Please note: When editing a thread title you need to open the edit a post screen, and then select "More options" to be taken to the full edit screen, where you will have the option to edit the title. Editing is available only for five minutes after posting for newbie members.

Creating Polls

Polls overview

What are polls?

Online poll is the simplest and most straightforward way to collect data on the web. It is easy to set up and quick to respond to - click to vote. Polls are not intended to collect complex, multivariable data. The entire functionality is based on a single question and a selection of multiple choice answers. Voters can only vote once and can see the results as they do it. Although you don't have to vote to be able to view the results - simply click on view results link.
drugs-forum has an inbuilt functionality for poll creation. Titanium or higher and donating members can add a poll as an optional extra when they start a new thread.

Why post polls?

Researching particular topic

Polls can be very helpful when researching substance related behaviour, age-groups, geographic peculiarities, gender differences, etc.

Evaluating particular subsance

You can also get useful information of substance side-effects, optimal dosages, dangers, etc

... what's your favourite ...

Finally you can have some fun with results by asking questions about music tastes, music experiences on various substances, substance effects on various mental or physical abilities and more.

Who responds to DF polls?

DF community

Potential numbers of voters are very high. As of 2018 there are at least 240,000 members. Each and every one of them can participate in online polls.

Guest visitors

There are even higher numbers of guest visitors who drop in to simply read a few posts and find out what the drugs-forum is about.
These guest visitors can also vote in online polls - and again, as of 2018 there are 4.1 million visitors per month.
This shows that the data can be collected from potentially hundreds of thousands of people. And as the voting part is very easy, members and visitors alike are more than happy to participate in these data collection/research activities

How to post polls

Guide to adding a poll to your thread

Step 1: First of all make sure that you are posting your new thread in a correct forum/sub-forum.

Step 2:Once you decide to start a new thread, you will be taken to the create thread page where you will choose the title of the thread, relevant pre-fixes, actual original post and all the relevant tags as described above.

Step 3: Towards the bottom of the create thread page there is a section called Post a Poll. This is where you add the poll to your new thread. Simply add your question , and possible responses. You can add more possibly responses by clicking the "Add Additional Response" button (maximum of 100 allowed).



Step 4: Choose the number of possible responses each respondent may select. The possible options for this are to choose just one response (Such as would be the case if your question was "Have you used drugs today?"), choose unlimited responses (Such as would be the case if your question was "Which of these drugs have you taken today?"), or choose a specific number of responses (Such as would be the case if the question was "What are your top five drugs?").

Step 5: Select what additional options you would like for your poll. Options available are to allow people to change their vote, to display votes publicly, to allow the results to be viewed without voting and to close the poll after a specific period of time.

Step 6: When you're satisfied with your question, responses and options click Create Thread below the poll options to post.

Try to include the sample details in the original post. This will be helpful for external researchers or reporters, who might want to use our data for their purposes. Telling them who is the potential respondent and how many of them are there, could be significant. Most of this information can be found on the the forum home page.

Selecting a question

Question does not have to be identical to the thread title. But it has to have some relevance. Question should be easy to understand and unambiguous. Voters shouldn't be in a position where they need to interpret the meaning of the question themselves. In addition, it helps if the question addresses the primary objective of the data collection in precise, clear manner. Here is an example: "Worst comedowns?" - this isn't very descriptive and can be interpreted in more than one way. Would be clearer if the question read " Drug comedown experiences, which one was the worst? ".

What to do after your poll is posted

Regularly giving updates to members

Visitors to the polls might like to know more than what the graph shows, as the graphs are not always self-explanatory. Try to update users regularly on what you think are the interesting outcomes. You don't have to do this every day, but doing it relatively regularly gives the poll a living character.

**** PROGRESS UPDATE (1) ****
Early days yet, but it's starting to look interesting.
It's a bit of a surprise how few people so far consider addiction to be a disease.
Thanks and keep on voting.
****************************

**** PROGRESS UPDATE (2) ****
Very close between it being a medical issue and it being something else so far if you add the corresponding categories together.

A good point made that the population of df isn't representative of the wider population so the results may differ from a different survey sample. Keep on voting though, the opinion of people affected by addiction does have value.
****************************

Pointing to interesting figures

As mentioned above, some trends can keep changing throughout the life of the poll, so keep the users informed.

Summary

Finally, when you think the trends have settled and the variations in the figures have stabilised (or alternatively if you had predefined a closing date for the poll in the options as described above), you can produce a summary post. Something that does a general overview of the results with a few interesting facts.

****SUMMARY****

It looks as though the votes are not going to change much now, so this post may be considered as a summary. As noted in the progress update this result needs to be understood in the context of this being a survey of predominantly people with experience of drug use and addiction, and not a survey of the wider population. The sample size is unfortunately also a bit small, and 100+ responses would have been preferable to increase the confidence interval.



More research is needed to draw firm conclusions, but some suggestions from the results are:

• The sample surveyed overwhelmingly don't consider addiction to be a disease.
• The sample surveyed do by a small margin consider addiction to be a medical issue.
• Very few people surveyed dismiss addiction as a being a real issue.
• An important avenue for future research is, if these results are confirmed, does this present a potential barrier to people treated for addiction if they do not accept the prevailing wisdom in treatment programs that addiction is a disease.

**************************

Replying to a thread

To reply to a post in a thread, first scroll to the bottom of the page to find the reply box.



The more options button if selected will open your reply in a new window, much like the create a thread window (without the poll option obviously). Here you can additionally select options to watch the thread or receive email alerts. You don't have to click more options unless you want to, you can reply just by filling in the reply in the reply box at the bottom of the thread page.

Quoting

With the quote function, you can reply to a specific users post, quoting their post first so that it is clear what the context of your reply is. Quoting is very useful for busy threads that may have a lot of discussion going on, however it is unnecessary in many instances such as when the discussion is not busy or when replying to the last post.

You can quote by clicking the quote button on a users post, and this will automatically jump you down the page to the reply box and insert the necessary bbcode for the quote. The quote button can be found in the bottom right hand corner of the post.



A better way to quote in many cases is to just highlight the part of the post you would like to quote, and then select the quote option that pops up on the highlight.



Your reply should be outside the bracketed quote tags that surround the comment you've quoted.



When you are happy with your quote and reply, click "post reply" at the bottom of the reply box.

Writing a post

Copy pasting content into a post

When content is copy/pasted into a post it will include any formatting and links from the source. It is good practice to remove these before submitting the post. If formatting and links is required you can apply that as necessary after first removing the original formatting and links. Use these buttons to do this

Remove Formatting	Remove hyperlink

Links to other sites

Links to other sites are of dubious value because in time the links become dead as the site hosting the content updates and removes things. This leaves posts on drugs-forum missing context and the information consequently of less value to others. It is better to create content on drugs-forum than link to other pages. Summarise the other page in your post if you received advice from it. For files and images on other sites, these can be attached to posts as described below.

Tagging a member

Sometimes you may want to bring a post to the attention of a specific member. The quote function can be used for this when it's appropriate, but in cases where it is not you can tag the member by typing a @ symbol immediately followed by the members username (no space between the symbol and username). After having typed the first few letters of the username a popup will offer suggestions of valid usernames that begin with those letters. Keep typing if the username you want doesn't immediately appear and the suggestions will update. When the username you wish to tag is available from the suggestions, select it and the tag will be inserted into the post.

An example of how this works:

@aemetha

How you would use it in a post:

"@aemetha was talking about this the other day, he might be able to offer some insight."

As you can see the username has turned into a link to the members profile. This will generate an alert for the member as long as they have not turned the option to receive alerts for member tagging off.

Formatting and bbCode

Creating links

You can turn text into a link with this button:



Highlight the text you want to be your link, press the button and then paste the URL for the page you want the text to link to into the dialogue box. You can do the same using the following BBcode.

[URL="http://www.the_link.com"]Text to be hyperlinked[/URL]

Creating Tables

To make a table, use the following code.
[TABLE]Cell 1 | Cell 2
Cell 3 | Cell 4[/TABLE]
or

[table="head"]head col1|head col2|head col3
row1 col1|row1 col2|row1 col3
row2 col1|row2 col2|row2 col3[/table]

This will produce:

Column 1	Column 2
Cell 1	Cell 2
Cell 3	Cell 4

or

head col1	head col2	head col3
row1 col1	row1 col2	row1 col3
row2 col1	row2 col2	row2 col3

Headlines

If you want to create a index in your post, then use the headline code. This creates an index with links to chapters of your post. You can see this in action in this very wiki.
There are seven forms of headlines you can use. Each adds a new layer of depth to your post.
To make a line into a headline, just place it between [h=1] code. Like this:
[h=1]some title[/h]
h1 is one level above h2, which is one level above h3, etc. This is how you get paragraphs, subparagraphs, etc.[/comment]

Typeface

Typeface can be edited using these buttons. The button can be toggled as you type your post, or applied retroactively to highlighted text in your reply before you submit it. Please note, this function should be used sparingly. The purpose of it is to highlight specific words or short phrases, not entire paragraphs or posts as that may come across as aggressive.



Alternatively you can use the following BBcodes.

Text to appear as bold
[I]Text to appear as italics[/I]
[U]Text to appear as underlined[/U]
[S]Text to appear as strikethrough[/S]

Lists

Ordered (numbered) and unordered (bullet pointed) lists can be created using these buttons. The button can be toggled as you type your post (Add a line break to cease applying the list by hitting enter), or applied retroactively to highlighted text in your reply before you submit it.



Alternatively you can use the following BBcodes.

Ordered list:
[LIST=1]
[*]Entry 1
[*]Entry 2
[/LIST]

Unordered list:
[LIST]
[*]Bullet 1
[*]Bullet 2
[/LIST]

A complete list of BBcodes may be found here.

Smilies

Smilies may be inserted into replies using this button:



Alternatively you can use the text shortcuts for these, which may be found here.

Attachments

Adding an attachment

The forum functionality allows you to browse your device for and attach files to the post which will appear at the bottom.

To add images or attachments to your post click on the Upload a File button...



or simply click and drag the file you wish to upload into the create post box.

Inserting attachments into the body of the post

If the file you have attached is a recognised image format, you will have options to insert the image into the body of your post. Position the cursor at the point in the text you wish the image to appear, and select either the "Full Image" button or the "Thumbnail" option depending on the desired size of the image.



Non-image files may be inserted into the body of a post once attached to the post. This is done using the attach BBcode surrounding the name of the file attached as follows. For example:

Including an image already on drugs-forum in your post

If your image is already hosted on drugs-forum, you can include it in your post with the following BBcode

[img]URL of the image[/img]

Images in the media gallery have this option already created for you to just cut and paste into your post.



Please note: Only use the [img][/img] code for images that are already hosted on drugs-forum. This prevents the image from becoming inaccessible if an offsite host takes it down.

Why shouldn't I paste images from another site?

When pasting an image from another site, the image is in fact a link to the other site. Once the other site moves or deletes the image, your image is dead.

As long as the image stays up on the other site, the owner of the other site has to pay for bandwidth of everyone viewing the image. By way of comparison: a 100kb image can cost around 0.10 - 0.20 Euro per view. We have over 4 million readers per year, so you may imagine that if the owner of the other site is unlucky and a lot of people view the image, he/she could get a substantial bill. To avoid or stop that, the site owner is likely to disallow viewing or delete/move the file.

So please upload images to posts, the image gallery or your profile.

Orientating content within posts

You can orientate content so that it appears to the left or right side, surrounded by text, and doing so may make a piece of writing easier or more enjoyable to read. To do this, a different BB Code format is used.

This is the format used to orientate content to the left hand side:

Content you wish to appear on the left hand side

This is the format used to orientate content to the right of the text:

Content you wish to appear on the right hand side

Any kind of content can be oriented in this way, including blocks of text. It is particularly useful for orienting images to one side with the explanation of an image to the other side.

Editing a post

Post editing overview

Editing a post simply means that you can go back to the post you have written and make some amendments. Once you reach silver membership you will start seeing an edit button under your posts (For mobile users it is found in the "Controls" hamburger menu in the bottom left hand corner of your posts). Simply click on this to open an editing window, which is identical to the one you used to post the article in the first place.



When you select the option a dialogue box opens without the "Upload a File" option. You can use the more comprehensive interface by selecting "More Options" if you want this functionality.

See also the section above on Writing a post for posting basics.

Who can edit a post

Only newbies are not able to edit their post. This means that you need to exceed five reputation points and reach the silver membership to be able to edit you posts. As a silver member you can also give out reputation, attach files to posts, and view and post in all unrestricted forums.



See also 3 - Member groups for more details on various permissions.

Why edit a post

There are two main reasons for editing your post:

(1) - to correct an error
(2) - to add extra information

(1) - As a regular poster you will realise that some errors are not as bad as others. If, for example, you have accidentally misinformed the users, or given them an incorrect advice, you should urgently correct the offending content. I am saying accidentally, because there should never be a case of posting advice or information you are not sure about, or can not back it up. On the other hand, grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and typos are usually not as high priority as the mistakes above, unless of course the mistake changes the meaning of the word or a phrase completely. Do, however, ensure that you make your best effort when posting your articles or discussion topics.
Please never delete your post that is important for the thread, as this will make it harder to follow the discussion and possibly 'derail' the thread altogether.

(2) - Often you might want to add extra information to your post. This could be to update a reader with new information, give extra details, or expand on one or more subjects discussed. You might also need to add images or other attachments that you didn't have when initially posting.

See also 9 - Forum posting tips for more "dos" and "don'ts".

Please also note that moderators can view the edit history. The forum does not allow the removal of relevant content. Edits that have the purpose post destruction will be reversed to preserve the integrity of information in the threads. This is also a violation of the rules with the attendant consequences, including but not limited to warnings and bans.

Thread tags

On the bottom of every thread, you can find the tag function, which will allow you to tag threads. When you type a thread tag, you will see that several options become visible as you type. (With AJAX) You can either select one of those or add a new one.



If done well this will greatly enhance forum search possibilities and will help you find related content.

See here for an example: Illinois bans salvia
The tag I added there is 'salvia divinorum ban'. Clicking on it leads you to other threads that have the same tag. Please do not add fractions of a phrase like 'salvia' and 'divinorum' and 'ban' but add 'salvia divinorum ban'.

Please make sure that you spell tags right and that you separate tags with commas.
i.e. write:
'thread tags, faq' (correctly creates 2 tags)
not
'thread tags faq' (incorrectly creates 1 tag)

The tag has to describe a complete concept. A concept that is discussed in the thread.

Note that when searching for tags, you can not combine tags. So when creating a thread about travelling from california to tijuana, then the tags 'travelling', 'travel' may be useful, but 'california' and 'tijuana' are not, because the thread is not about either of these places.

To give you an idea of what is currently going wrong and what the idea of tags is, please read the following tags which are useless, because they are not descriptive:

'dipped' (dipped what?)
'experiment', 'sublingual' (not descriptive)
'cuttings', 'extraction', 'laced', 'filtering', 'overdose', 'pills', 'synergy'( of what?)
'head', 'help', 'sick', 'sleep' (generally useless)

'Lancing' should be 'Lancing UK'
'pods' should be 'poppy pods'
'pain' should be 'pain suppression'
'raid' and 'police' should be 'police raid'
'rue' should be 'syrian rue'
'toad' should be 'toad licking' or 'hallucinogenic toad'

I have to review all tags in my administration panel. Please make sure you spell tags right. There are many tags which needed to be removed because of wrong spelling. Tags are not editable. I can remove them from the database.

If you go to: http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/tags.php
The "tag cloud" page is displayed, which shows the 200 most used thread tags on the forum and allows you to search by them.

Thread Ratings

Rating threads is quick and simple, and it helps to organize the forum. Informative, interesting, and otherwise valuable threads should be rated highly so that others will know that it is a good resource. Threads can also be rated if they are useless, against the rules (these should be reported), blatantly offensive, etc.

In order to rate a thread, all you need to do is click on any thread in the forum to open it. On the top left, above the first post in the thread, immediately below the title is an option to click one to five stars.



In order to rate the thread, all you need to do is click on the Rating tab and the dialogue box will open. You can rate a thread Excellent (5 stars), Good (4 stars), Average (3 stars), Bad (2 stars) or Terrible (1 star). You can optionally include a review of why you feel the thread deserved that rating. When you're happy with the rating, click Submit Rating. A message will briefly flash up saying your rating has been recorded.



If you go back to the forum to see the list of threads, you should see a certain amount of stars to the right of the thread title, like this:



If you are the only one who has rated the thread, this should be your vote. The amount of stars will change according to the average of all the ratings that it has received.

Ratings are not editable, so be sure to double check the rating you are giving is what you intended.

Obviously the rating system is a bit ambiguous. Rating threads is essential but many members neglect to do it because they forget or just don't notice or know of the option. If two people rate a thread, one 5 stars and 1 one star, it will greatly skew the rating which appears. That is why it is important that many members participate in the rating of threads.

Here are some general guidelines for rating threads, although it is also important that you choose a rating which expresses how you feel. One person might see a thread as deserved of an Excellent rating, but if you are opposed to the thread for a legitimate reason than it is still alright to give it a low rating. In this case it would probably be a good idea to post in the thread or leave a reputation comment to justify your rating. In fact, it is a good idea to leave a reputation comment in addition to a rating if you feel the thread is particularly valuable. These systems go hand in hand in order to create a system in which it is evident how the community feels about certain information or how much a certain member's input is valued.

Examples of Ratings:
Excellent (5 stars) thread: Important information on harm reduction concerning a particular substance, a novel synthesis in the Chemistry forum, a fascinating experience report, etc.
Good (4 stars) thread: A basic explanation of the interaction between two drugs, a poll which poses an interesting or important question, some good suggestions on growing cannabis indoors, etc.
Average (3 stars) thread: Anything that is of value but perhaps only to a certain audience or an interesting news article, etc.
Bad (2 stars) thread: A poorly constructed post asking questions which could obviously be answered using the search engine, a particularly offensive thread, etc,
Terrible (1 star) thread: Any thread which you deem basically unsuitable or useless for the forum.

Obviously these ratings aren't exact, again you must use your own judgment. As a rule, if you think a thread should get 1 or no stars (which doesn't exist), it is probably a good idea to report it if you think it really shouldn't be there. Just remember that post reports have to be reviewed by the moderators, so you should have good reason to file a report.

Reporting a post

You may from time to time need a moderator to look at a post. This could be because it violates the rules, was posted in the wrong place and needs to be moved, or requires editing but you have not yet reached silver membership level to do it yourself. In these types of instances there is a report button found at the bottom of the post (For mobile users it is found in the "Controls" hamburger menu in the bottom left hand corner of your posts).



Simply click on this to open an dialogue box in which you can give a reason why you believe the post requires moderator attention. Once you're happy with your explanation click "Report Post".



A moderator will review the report and approve or reject it (reports are rarely rejected) depending on whether they agree with your assessment. Please only use this function if there is a genuine need to do so, but also keep in mind that reporting posts in this way largely saves workload for moderators because they don't have to trawl the forum looking for those posts that need attention. Having approved reports can earn you badges and trophies which are used as criteria for promotions above the level of silver.