About the MooMilk Discussion Forum 

MooMilk’s Forums are a Web-based implementation of threaded discussions like those found in Internet Newsgroups. The idea is to provide a way for audience members to share information and exchange ideas. Each topic created in the forum becomes a public conversation between participants as well as those who wish to simply read questions, statements and comments posted to the topic. In this way, many people can benefit from the knowledge exchange.

MooMilk Forum Content

Many people are just learning about dairy farming, milk, and food production in general. As consumers of these products, they are naturally interested in the story behind the scenes. The MooMilk Web site presents information about that process and will always be adding more material. But answers always lead to questions. The Dairy 101 forum is a place for people to ask those questions and learn more about dairy from other audience members.

And please, always remember that Dairy 101 is the primary discussion forum for MooMilk’s youngest audience members. Message postings which contain any content considered by MooMilk.com as inappropriate for young children will be removed from the forum immediately.

Using the MooMilk Forums

The following information is provided for those audience members who have not previously used a discussion forum and wish to read about its operation prior to participating. Audience members familiar with discussion forums on the Web or within information services (e.g. AOL, CompuServe) will find the MooMilk Forums a standard and comfortable discussion environment.

To register, select a forum to enter and press the REGISTER button on the logon page. This will bring you to the registration form where you enter your specific name, e-mail, and desired password information. The system will process your entry and prompt for any needed changes that must be made. Once your registration is accepted, you can return to the logon page and enter your new username and password for entry.

If you have previously registered but have forgotten your username, you can search for it in the registration file by pressing SEARCH on the logon page and entering your e-mail address. Passwords cannot be retrieved, however, because this would allow anyone to lookup your password and then enter the forum with your identity. If necessary, you can create a second username and password by re-registering your name and e-mail address.

Please note that your username and password must be entered exactly as registered. This includes specific capitalization! The entry "Frank" will not match "frank".

2. Reading topic entries - To read through the contents of topics currently open for discussion, simply click on the name of the topic you want to read. The topic message contents will be displayed on your screen along with a list of the reply messages already entered (if any). You can continue reading through the threads of reply messages by clicking on the names of these entries. You can also return to the main Open topics page (using the TOPIC LIST button or your browser’s back button) and continue selecting entries from there.

3. Creating new topics - If you have a topic you would like to discuss with others on the MooMilk forum and it seems different from all the others currently open, press the CREATE NEW TOPIC button on the "Open topics" page. The following form looks and works just like an e-mail form. Fill in the information about your topic and press the SUBMIT button. Be sure to include a descriptive name for your new topic in the "Subject" field because this is the label that will appear on the "Open topics" page.

4. Posting a reply - As you’re reading a topic, you may decide that you have information or further questions you would like to add to the discussion. To do so, press the ADD REPLY button at the bottom of the "message contents" page. On the page that follows, you will be able to enter your message just like on an e-mail form. The subject will default to an "Re:" format that indicates the name of the forum posting you are replying to. You can change that subject label in order to make the nature of your reply more clear. After typing in your message press the SUBMIT button. You will be returned to the "Open topics" list where your reply will be displayed in the topic outline.

Please note that you can add a reply from any point in the topic outline, not just at the end. Your entry will appear in the outline underneath the message you were reading when you pressed the ADD REPLY button.

5. Have fun! - You’ll have the most fun and get the most out of MooMilk’s forums by participating in the discussion. After your first few messages, the forum will seem like the most natural way to communicate online. Who knows, you may even become a famous MooMilk personality yourself!

Suggestions

This document will be routinely updated as additional information seems needed. If you have difficulty using the MooMilk Forums and feel that something should be better explained in this document, please e-mail specific suggestions to the MooMilk Webmaster.

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