Each league has it's own message board to allow users to communicate with one another by posting new messages and replying to existing messages. Each message post and subsequent replies make up one message thread. There's also an option to allow the five most recent messages topics to appear on the home page. See For Commissioners > Setup > Appearance Setup > Home Page Modules & Tabs Setup to add.
Franchise Capabilities
Post A New Message
Click on the [Add Topic] link to create a new message thread for your board. You will be taken to a separate page where you can define a topic Subject and the Message Body. Emoticons (various smiley faces), bold, italics, and underline type are all supported along with any image. There's also an option to have the system email a message when someone has replied to your post. When finished, just click on the Post button to add your message.
Editing An Existing Message
In order to make changes to a message that you have already created, click on the [Edit] link associated with the specific message or reply.
Viewing An Existing Message
Click on any of the Topic titles from your league's main message board screen to view the message thread containing the current message and all replies.
Replying To An Existing Message
When viewing a message thread, click on the [Reply] link that corresponds to the specific message to which you wish to reply. Enter the same information as defined in the Post A New Message section above (excluding the Subject). You can also copy a previous message into your reply via the [Quote] link. Optionally, you can edit out any of the test you don't want quoted in your reply.
Search Messages
You can search league message board posts both on keywords, as well as who posted the message. Simply click on the [Search] link in the "Message Board Options" section at the top of the page.
Private Messages
These messages are like email, but they offer the league a way to keep all communication within the league itself. There are two ways to send a PM:
a. Go to the league message board, and click on the [Private Messages] link in the "Message Board Options" section at the top of the page.
b. Go to the Franchise Information
report for a franchise, and click on the "Send A Private Message" link in the "My Options" section.
NOTE: You may only send private messages to league-mates after they've visited your league message board for the first time. Also, you will by default receive an email message from the system when you do have a new private message (this can be disabled in the "Options" section).
Avatars
The system will use the franchise icon you've specified on your Advanced Franchise Setup
page as an avatar to be displayed next to message board posts you make.
User Setting
The "Options" link offers users the ability to:
a. Add/edit a signature.
b. Enable/disable the receipt of private messages (PMs) via email.
c. Enable/disable the receipt of email for some/all topic replies.
d. Set the number of topics displayed per page.
e. Set the number of posts displayed per page.
f. Display/hide all user avatars (franchise icons on the message board).
g. Display/hide all user signatures.
h. Collapse topic branches without new unread posts.
Legend
Icons
  
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Yellow icons indicate new posts respectively topics or boards with new posts.
In this forum, 'new' means a post has been added since your last visit. Even
if you have just read it, it is still a new post, and will only be counted as
old on your next visit to the forum.
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Checkmarked icons indicate that the post respectively all posts in a topic or
board have been read. Posts are counted as read once their topic had been on
screen or if they're older than a set number of days. Since new/old and
unread/read are independent concepts in this forum, posts can be new and read
as well as old and unread at the same time.
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Icons with dotted outlines indicate topics/posts that are invisible to other
users, because they are waiting for approval by an administrator or moderator.
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The lock icon indicates the topic has been locked for some reason and no new
posts (except by administrators and moderators) are allowed.
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Commissioner Capabilities
In addition to all of the above, the commissioner has added options available to manage the league's message board.
Locking A Thread
Use this option to prevent anyone from future replies when a thread is either getting too long or you simply want to close the current discussion/debate.
Moving A Thread
This option is only available when the Other (Appearance) Settings
to have message board posts indented has been selected. To move a reply to a message in order to make it it's own new thread, click on the 'Branch' link for the message. You'll need to define a new subject for the message. Click on the 'Promote' button to move the reply to the main message listing as it's own topic.
Sticky Topics
A topic can be change to "sticky" (always appearing at the top of the list of topics) by going into the topic, and clicking on the "Stick" link in the "Administration" section at the bottom of the page.
Guest Readable
This option, defined in the For Commissioners > Setup > Appearance Setup > Other Settings screen, will allow guests to view (but not post to) your league message board.
Layout
Thread replies can either be indented or non-indented. If you've set up your league message board to be the latter on the For Commissioners > Setup > Appearance Setup > Other Settings
page, the overall layout of the view one topic page will look similar to most common public message boards, with the poster and avatar in the first column of each post, and then the date, post body, and reply/edit/quote links in the second column. Previously, when setting up a new league the default message board layout was "indented", where now, the default message board layout is "non-indented". In addition, indented message boards now offer a more elegant way of collapsing branches.
