Forums, for me, are one of the most useful tools available on the internet. Basically, it’s a place where discussions take place on a specific subject. So, for the Woolbridge forum, those discussions will be about our club, motorsport, cars and anything else relating to the club and what it does.

An analogy would be having a large notice board placed where anyone can see it inviting anyone to leave notes on any subject relating to Woolbridge Motor Club. Someone might write a note asking how they can get started in speed events. A few hours later one of our many speed event competitors might pass the board and see the note. They might then write a reply to the question and put it on the board for all to see.

In the internet forum, the question about starting in speed events and all the subsequent replies would form what is called a “Thread”.

The forum to have well defined sections which at the time of writing are as follows:

General
Marshalling
Autotesting
Trials
Speed Events
Navigational Events
For Sale & Wanted
Technical

So, if you have a question or simply want to start a thread on a subject related to trials, you would start if (or “Post” it) in the Trials section. Similarly, if you wanted to ask for advice on porting a Swift Gti head (for example!) you would post it in the Technical section and probably look forward to a detailed reply from someone who knows about Swift Gti's.

The forum is available for anyone to view, but if you want to start a thread or post a reply to an existing thread, then you need to register. I will attempt to guide you through that process below:

First go the home page of the Woolbridge forum either via the link on the Woolbridge web site or by entering woolbridge.forumup.co.uk into your browser (note that the site address doesn’t have www at the front).

At the top of the page underneath the bit that says “Woolbridge Motor Club, the home of clubman’s motorsport” you should see two lines of options. Select the option labeled “Register”.

You should now be taken to a registration agreement page which you should read and then select the link at the bottom “I agree to these terms and am over or exactly 13 years of age”.

You should now be taken to a page where you will be asked to enter some information. The first job is to think of a username. This will appear on all the posts that you make on the forum. I personally use my own name, but you can use any name or nickname that hasn’t already be used (please keep it polite though!). Next you must enter a valid email address (this is important as in order to activate your registration you will need to click on a link in a confirmation email). Next you must think of a password and enter this.Then, the final compulsory piece of information is to copy a confirmation code from a picture that you will see (this is to stop people using malicious software to automatically set up forum accounts and bombard the forum with spam postings). You can then optionally add information to your profile (location is quite a useful one), but it’s probably best to leave the following Preferences section as it is at this stage.

When you’re happy with what you’ve entered on the page, click on the “Submit” button at the bottom. You should now be sent an email to the email address you specified which will contain a link for you to click on. Once you click on this link your registration will be complete.

The next time you visit the forum home page, click on the “Log In” option at the top of the page (under “Register”) and on the next page enter the username and password that you set up in your registration. There is also a tick box titled “Log me on automatically each visit” which if ticked will “remember” you each time you visit the forum and means you don’t have to enter your username and password each time you visit (if you access the forum on a public internet PC such as at the library then you shouldn’t tick this box).

Now you are ready to post to the forum. To start a new thread, go to the section you are interested in. If you want to start a thread about how good the Longleat hill climb was this year then click on the “Speed Events” heading to be taken to that section. You will see a button labelled “New Topic”. Click this button and you will be taken to a page where you can enter a thread subject and the actual message. In the subject you might put “Longleat hill climb” and in the message body section you would then wax lyrical about the sublime organisation and Merv’s ultra fast internet results service. When you are ready to post what you have written, click on the “Submit” button and the message will now be posted for all to see. If you’d like to see what it will look like first, click on “Preview” and you will see what the post will look like. If you want to make a change you can do so, otherwise click on “Submit”

If you want to post a reply to an existing thread then first view that thread (by clicking on the thread title) and then click on the “Post Reply” button. The process is then the same as above, apart from you will not need to enter a subject, just type your reply in the message body section.