[KimberlyOnline Facilitator January 10, 2012 at 5:32 pm Post count: 4288]

#1058793

Welcome to the online forum hosted by the Graves’ Disease and Thyroid Foundation! You will find this board and its members to be a great source of information, inspiration, encouragement, ideas, and support. Here’s what you need to know to get started…

[size 32]Prior to your first post, please review the forum’s posting guidelines here: http://gdatf.org/forum/topic/43571/%5B/size%5D

Posters will be asked to accept the guidelines prior to their first post and then at intervals of approximately 90 days. If you see the guidelines pop up when you log in, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Accept” to continue.

1. If you are having a medical emergency, please call 911. The members of this forum have a great deal of collective expertise and are happy to answer general questions. However, this forum should NOT be used as a substitute for proper medical care or medical advice.

2. Prior to posting for the first time, you will need to register with a valid e-mail address. The “log in” button is in the box at the the top right-hand side of the screen. Select “Not Registered Yet?” and complete the info. The system will send a verification e-mail to your chosen e-mail address; once you click on the link, you should be ready to post. If you do not receive the verification link in a few minutes, please check your spam/junk folder.

3. Your first post must be manually reviewed and approved by a facilitator, which can take up to one business day. This step is needed to keep spammers from clogging up the bulletin board. Please do not submit multiple versions of the same post, as this slows down the process. As soon as a facilitator has approved your post, it will appear online. Once your first post has been approved, all of your subsequent posts will show up immediately. Please note that facilitators will be very aggressive with blocking posts and banning users, if we have reason to suspect the post originated with a “blog commenting service”. (Posters from blog commenting services are basically spammers who try to masquerade as legitimate forum members). If you believe that a post was blocked in error, please contact us at 877-643-3123 or info@gdatf.org.

4. Need a quick answer? Try using the “Search” function. The “Search Posts” feature is located in the box in the top right-hand corner of the screen. Simply type in keywords such as RAI, methimazole, pregnancy, or surgery. Enclose phrases in quotes, such as “orbital decompression” or “strabismus surgery.” Hit the “enter” key or click on the “Search” button to start the search process. You must be logged in to use the “Search” feature.

5. To start a brand new topic, click the “New Topic” button, which is located on the top left-hand side of the screen, just above the announcements. To reply to an existing topic, click on the thread title and then click the “Reply” button, which is located at the top and bottom of the thread on the left-hand side of the screen. (Note: This thread is closed, and does not have a reply button showing). You must be logged in to start a new topic or to reply to an existing topic. For new topics, it is helpful to make the subject line as descriptive as possible, as some members with limited time will only open thread topics that they have personal experience with. Examples of descriptive headers: “Questions about Tapazole Side Effects”; “Anyone Experience Eye Issues after RAI?”; or “Looking for Personal Stories From Thyroidectomy Patients”.

6. If you have a general question that you do not wish to post on the forum, you will receive a faster response by sending an e-mail to info@gdatf.org or calling 877-643-3123, rather than PMing a facilitator.

7. If you would like to receive an e-mail notification when a reply is posted to a particular thread, open the thread, scroll down to the bottom, and click the “Subscribe” box on the right-hand side of the screen. You must be logged in to use this option. This is a notification service only – if you wish to respond to that person’s reply, you will need to log on to the forum in order to post. Replying to the notification will only send your reply to the general GDATF e-mail box.

8. You can send a private message to another user by clicking the PM option in the menu in the top right-hand corner of the screen or by clicking the PM option when you are looking at one of the person’s posts (located to the left of the post, below the screen name). When you send the private message, a notification will be sent to the person at the e-mail address they used to sign up for the forum. You must be logged in to send or to view private messages.

Use of the Private Messaging system is subject to the forum guidelines (see link at the top of this page). If you ever receive an inappropriate PM, please e-mail (info at gdatf dot org) or call (877-643-3123, x101) the GDATF with the following info:

a) sender’s screen name
b) your screen name
c) date/time of message
d) the digits that appear in the last part of the web link in your browser when you are viewing the message. (For example, 4012, 3564, 1694, etc.).

Please do NOT delete the PM from your in box until you have received confirmation from the GDATF that your message has been received; otherwise, we will not be able to view the message.

9. Views vs. Replies – Please don’t be discouraged if a post has a large number of views, but few or no replies. Anyone with Internet access can view this forum, but only registered members are able to reply. Those who take the time to register and reply are a very small subset of the larger Internet population.

10. Questions or problems? Please contact us at 877-643-3123 or e-mail us at info@gdatf.org.

Quick Links (note: you will need to click your browser’s “back” button to return to the message boards after viewing the links below):

Graves’ Disease and Thyroid Foundation Home Page: http://gdatf.org/
Listing of local support groups: http://gdatf.org/community/find-a-support-group/
Free publications from the Graves’ Disease and Thyroid Foundation: http://gdatf.org/about/about-graves-disease/patient-education/
Graves’ Disease and Thyroid Foundation Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/GDATF
Graves’ Disease and Thyroid Foundation YouTube Page:
https://www.youtube.com/user/GravesAndThyroid

[KimberlyOnline Facilitator June 30, 2014 at 9:22 am Post count: 4288]

#1170060

Bumping to the top of the announcements section…

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