On behalf of Temple Emanu-El, it is my privilege to welcome you to the new Website forums for our congregation. It is my sincere hope that this becomes an important and constant source of information, ideas and goals for you as a member of our synagogue.
I hope that you visit often, post often and most importantly contribute often to the Temple community - whether through your time, your prayers or your donations. This is our extended family, and my hope is that this fourm brings us all just a little closer in the vast Sinai of cyberspace.
How to use the Forums
Using the forums are simple - first, you need to register to post messages. Be sure and select an avatar when you register (an image people will see under your name when you post to the forums) - they add more "personality" to your online presence.
Once you've registered, simply click the "new topic" button in any forum to start a new discussion, or the "post reply" button to reply to an existing conversation thread. Clicking on the "quote" button will initiate a reply that includes the full text of the posting you are replying to. You can also apply text effects to your posts, including:
Bold
Italics
Underline
A wide range of text sizes and colors as well
Just select the text you want to change and use the button bar at the top to add your effect. You can also add "emoticons" (aka smilies) to your text by clicking on the list you will see when you write a message - they make your text look really cool
but don't overuse them 
Some forums are listed as "privileged" - this means the moderator(s) is/are the only person who can start new discussions in that forum - but ANY REGISTERED USER can reply to these posts. For example, only the Rabbi can post new discussion topics in his forum, but any user can reply to his thoughts or ideas there. All other forums allow ANY REGISTERED USER to post discussion topics.
Registered users also have the ability to send instant "private messages" (also known as PM) to other members - these PMs will pop-up immediately if the recipient is online in the forums. Private conversations via PM are possible in this fashion. If a user is offline, they will receive an email informing them someone has sent them a private message that they should retrieve by clicking the link in the email message.
Remember that you can always click the Temple Emanu-El logo in the upper left hand corner of your screen to go back to the main Forum window. If you have any questions about how to use the Forums, click on the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) button at the top of each page - you'll almost certainly find your answer there!
The basic groundrules of the forums are simple:
No profanity or pornography - this is a family site and users in violation will be banned by me for all time without warning.
No FLAMES of other users - You are more than welcome to express your opinion, so long as that opinion does not directly (or indirectly) attack another user - violators will be warned once, then banned with extreme prejudice.
That's pretty much it - please do enjoy the forums and welcome to our online community!
cheers, JH
