Background

The Gas-News forum is one of the most powerful available. We have the upgraded Discus Pro. As we own and control the forum it is installed on our secure server at webfusion and completely free of advertising. The skin adopted is the updated classic although there are a range of options available at the touch of a button.

There are superb online instructions. If you have a dial-up account, simply load the relevant page and Save-As a web page. You can then study that page at your leisure when off line. We recommend printing the formatting section at least as a handy reference guide.

Open House

The whole of the forum is open to all visitors. There is no members only section. Therefore what you see is what you get and what you see is all there is. For security reasons we have to request that visitors register before they can post messages.

Privacy

Gas-News is concerned about privacy. Although we request visitors register before posting messages, the only required information is a real or valid email address. That is it. Only your username and real name will appear in any posting by default, not your email address.

There are options for you to add further information but that is your choice and you can alter the information at any time 24/7 through the Edit Profile link on the forum.

That is the way all defaults are set up. Unless you activate something, nothing will happen. Only your name and username will appear on postings unless you alter the preferences.

No one else ever has access to the forum mailing list as that is also secure on the webfusion server. We never store passwords in cookies and most are memorised latin names written phonetically.

Registration

Anyone can register 24/7 using a valid email address and the account activation suite. Registration is therefore instant. The few people who do not receive an instant email response have invariably made an email address typo. If the system does not work for you simply try again and our Admin will automatically weed out any errors after 24 hours.

Passwords

We cannot see passwords but can reset passwords. The Discus Pro we have now is able to handle lost password enquiries automatically. The system is configured to require both your user name and registered email address.

Email Address

Registered visitors can now change their email address automatically but we have configured mail-from security. In other words an account reactivation key (one off password in effect) will be supplied to the new email address to ensure a valid email address is provided. That also guards against typo errors.

Features

The Discussion Board hosts a vast array of features including the ability to upload pictures, active URL and email links as well as a complete range of text and layout options. All that is covered in the Formatting section shown under the Documentation heading on the forum.

One new facility is private messaging from one registered user to another. By default you cannot receive private messages but you can alter that in Edit Profile on the forum. Enabling private messaging will not reveal your email address to anyone.

We have created a summary of default settings in the forum manual. Most of those have been configured by us. You can change many options but by default your privacy is assured.