MAJOR RAKAL'S BBS TIPS 3: RESPONDING TO A MESSAGE

When you click on a subject line, either on the main screen or in the Navigator section of a message screen, the message is displayed on the screen. If you want to respond to this message, click on RESPOND TO THE ABOVE just below the message text, and the message input screen will appear.

If RESPOND TO THE ABOVE does not appear on the screen, it means the message you are reading is at the lowest available level (only the original message and four levels of response are available) and you cannot post a direct response. One way to handle this situation is to go back to the previous level (the message that this one responded to) and post a response there, with "response to so-and-so's message" in the subject. Another possibility is simply to start a new thread and refer to the old one.

The response process is essentially the same as starting a new message thread, but there are a few important differences to keep in mind.

• The text of the message you are responding to will automatically appear quoted in the message box, with one or more > symbols at the beginning of each paragraph. This makes it easy to insert your comments directly after the portion of the message that the comment refers to, making your response easier to follow.
  
  

• You can delete any or all of the quoted message, leaving only the parts you are directly responding to. This is particularly important when you have a comment on only one part of a lengthy post. Why force readers to scroll through a long quoted message (which they have already read) only to find that your message refers only to the last paragraph? Delete the irrelevant material, including long sig files. One warning, though: don't delete the leading > symbols if you aren't deleting the entire paragraph. This can cause confusion in interpreting what is original message and what is your response. Also, if you insert a comment in the middle of a paragraph, make sure it does not have any > symbols in front of it, and insert the appropriate number of > symbols in front of the portion of the paragraph that comes after your insertion.
  
  

• The subject line will also be automatically filled in with "Re: original subject." You can, and should, edit this when necessary to shorten or clarify it, for example, when the original subject line is uninformative, or when your response somehow changes the direction of the topic. In particular, if the original subject ends with (nt) or some other "no text" variant, delete the (nt) indicator from your response subject. (A later BBS Tips will contain more hints on modifying subject lines when responding to messages.) One "bug" note: if the original subject line contained quotation marks, everything following the opening quote will be gone from your "Re:" subject.
  
  

• In some cases, your reply may be contained entirely in the subject line. Not only should you indicate (nt) at the end of your new subject line/answer; you should also delete the entire quoted message from the message box. This doesn't make the main board any more compact, but it does relieve the storage load on Decipher's BBS server. In addition, if someone wants to respond to your no-text message, he will have to load your message into his browser, which will be fastest if it is empty. Note that you do not have to insert any character in the message field. A blank message will not trigger an error.
  
  

• Fill in your name/nickname, email address, and optional URL exactly as you do for a new message thread.

The rest of the posting process is identical to posting a new message. When you click the BACK icon in the Thank You screen, you will be returned to the main screen, not to the message you were replying to. Your posted response will be at the top of the screen (that is, you will be returned to the point in the main screen where your message was inserted).

You may have noticed quoted text appearing in different colors in a response message. The color coding distinguishes the level of the original message or response, and is determined by the number of > symbols at the start of each paragraph. As each message is responded to in turn, the older text gains another layer of > symbols, and the color changes. If you read a message that is a response to a "new subject," the original message will appear in orange, and the response in black. If you read a response at the lowest level, and all of the previous text has been left intact, this is what you will see:

>>>>Original message: green text
>>>First level of response (i.e., direct response to original): brown text
>>Second level of response (i.e., a response to the first response): magenta text
>Third level of response: orange text
Final (fourth) level of response: black text

Jolan tru,

Major Rakal

MESSAGE BOARD TOPIC CHOICES

YOUNG JEDI
gameplay
trading
card auctions
miscellany
deck designs and
dream cards

STAR WARS CCG
gameplay
trading
card auctions
miscellany
deck designs
and dream cards

STAR TREK CCG
gameplay
trading
card auctions
miscellany
deck designs and
dream cards