The portal page comment field can be a bit confusing as reflected by my original and soon to be found incorrect post contained in the following quote If a post appears on the portal page and if it has zero comments, then there is a clickable link to add a comment; which in reality simply takes you to the original post. You are presummed to know that you need to click on or or to actually create a comment or as it is better know as (reply to a post)
It may take a bit of time for the comment count to change from zero to 1 and may require a browser refresh before it happens, which is why I was originally confussed.
If the post as displayed on the portal page has been replied to previously (there are one or more comments) then the add a comment link will not be present and the link (which may look like "Read 50 times - last comment by SpamCopAdmin" will take you directly to the last reply post for that topic. If you are a registered user, clicking on the last link (userID) will take you the the "User Profie" for the last user to post to that topic.

I don't see that it makes any difference what happens.

The 'portal page' is not linked from the spamcop.net web page (and is not likely to be linked).

I tried all the links at the top of the page and none of them link to the portal page.

Broken record: It doesn't matter how many different ways that are set up to introduce people to the Forum and the Forum UC FAQ. The *only* way that we(tinw) are going to catch the few who don't already find the FAQ on their own is to have a 'guided' access that is obvious when one enters the forum.

The big red announcement at the top has a 'guided access' link in it. If it is renamed 'Always Check Here first', it covers both regular visitors (who need to see current announcements) and newbies who 'might' check it and find the guided access link.

If the portal page is designed to be a 'guided access', then it could be incorporated in the big red announcement. I don't see how it is going to be any more useful than the present guided access.

End Broken Record.

Miss Betsy

For starters, this Forum section is under the How to Use .... nameplate .. there shouldn't be much here other than How to Use .. instructions, tutorials, and such ... debate, suggestions for enhancements, etc. belong in another Forum section. Had I hit here at some other time, this bit of discussion would be split out and moved ....

I admit, I pretty much gave up on geting that accomplished a long, long time ago.

Hover the mouse/cursor over the spamcop.net 'logo' / words ..... most browser (configurations) allow tooltip popups ....

Not sure how to "make things ovbious" when the "other voice" says "things are too cluttered" ...????

And again, why is this comment "here" rather than in the big dicussion about the "big red announcement" ..???

Portal page "just is" at present. Also much discussed elsewhere.

If I provide a link in an e-mail, I use the link http://forum.spamcop.net/ to point someone in this direction. And this actually only now works due to configuration change I made when the 2.1.6 version was installed as the 2.0.4 replacement. The next 'level' of change then basically would 'force' the entry to be he Portal page ... and the existing Portal page is not ready for that forced action, in my opinion ... but I am running out of time for all the things that would be nice to get accomplished ...

Probably not the best writen "how to" post, but that was the intent of the post.
It was actually written during the beta testing stage and copied to the Wiki for save keeping, and just now copied back to the curent version of the Forum as I was updating the Wiki files. It is in need of cleaning up as the original post was actually a combination of question and answer related to the beta version.That was actually added to the announcement some time ago

I think I did see the Portal Page link in the big red announcement, but couldn't remember that I had seen it there.

OK, now you see why people don't 'find' things. It never occurred to me to try the logo. And if it had occurred to me, I might not have tried it because I would assume it would go to spamcop.net. And I don't normally run my mouse over the web page to see what I can find.


It seems obvious to me that the way to 'make things obvious' when 'things are too cluttered' is to eliminate everything except what you want people to see. Since not everyone is new to forums, there needs to be a way for experienced users to access what they need immediately and a way for newcomers to be 'guided' to what they need. Either way leads to the FAQ. There is nothing else except the menus and the current announcements and up to three pinned topics that are pertinent to that particular forum.

I don't see any point to having posts on the portal page so any 'How to Use' instructions are superfluous. Especially ones that point to more confusion about the difference between comments and posts.

Perhaps that's not a proper comment for 'How to Use' but it is an explanation of why there is no comment on what is good or could be improved in the offered 'How to Use'.

If there need to be instructions on how to use the Portal Page, then it has failed in its purpose.

Miss Betsy