Morse, Lewis, Endeavour Blog FORUM and How To Get Started.

Many of you may have noticed that I have been upgrading my blog. My main upgrade is the addition of a forum. I have been having a few problems setting it up but my son, who is studying computer science at university, visited today to help me resolve these problems. My wonderful son has resolved the problem. Hopefully everyone can now enjoy the forums.

Here is a step by step guide on how to participate in said forum.

Step One – To use the forum you must be subscribed to my blog. You also need a WordPress account. WordPress are the company that  run and manage and maintain the blogs on their site. Don’t worry setting up a WordPress account is simple and you don’t need to start a blog to have a WordPress account.

Step Two – Open your search engine i.e. Google, Bing, Firefox etc. Type in wordpress.com and press enter.

This is the page that will greet you. On the top right of the page you will see the link ‘Get Started’.

Click on it.

The page below will open.

Step Three – In the field box that asks “What would you like to name your site?” Put anything in there because you are not going to create an actual blog or website. Then answer the next question, “What will your site be about?” Again put anything in there. (Yes you can write the word ‘anything’ in there).

Then put a tick in one of the boxes below where it asks, “What’s the primary goal you have for your site?” Again tick any box. Then click any number below where it asks “How comfortable are you with creating a website?” Doesn’t matter you are not creating a website you are just opening a WordPress account. Click on ‘continue’.

Step Four – After you press ‘continue’ you will get this page below.

In the field box type any name you want followed by .com

Now you may be unlucky and the name has been used by someone else. But don’t worry just type in something else until you see these options open up.

I entered inspectorlewis to make a dummy account to help show everyone what to do. Anyway, when you have chosen a name you will get the options you see above. Click on the first option that has the word ‘free’ on the right hand side. Click on the word ‘select’.

Step Five – After clicking ‘select’ you will see the page below..

Click on ‘start with free’ where I have circled in red.

Step Six – After clicking ‘start with free’ the page below will open.

You must enter the same email address you used to subscribe to my blog. I cannot emphasize this enough. The same email. Then choose a username. Remember this username will be the one that shows on the forum so be careful what you choose. This box will be filled in with the site address you choose but you can replace that with something else that you will find easier to remember. You may be told that the username has already been taken so choose another one.

Then choose a password. Make sure it is not an easy to hack password. Make it have numbers letters and at least one capitalized letter. Remember to right down your username and password as you will need it later. Then press continue.

Step Seven – When you have clicked on ‘continue’ you will see the page below.

DON’T click on the ‘continue button on this page.  Pay attention to the area I have circled.

So, go to your email account and hopefully you will see an email from WordPress like this below.

 

 

Open the email and this is what you will see below.

Click on the ‘click here to confirm now’ button.

Step Eight – After clicking the button ‘click here to confirm now’ this page below will open.

If you still have this page open below close it now.

Now you have created a WordPress account. Close the page that has the words ‘the journey begins’ on it.

Go to my blog.

Click on the ‘register’ option that I have circled in red.

Step Nine – The page below will open after clicking on the ‘register’ option.

Now enter the SAME username you created for your WordPress account and the SAME email address you used for your WordPress acount.

Click on the register button. This will take you to a page like this below.

Click ‘log in’ the green button and it will take you to the page below.

This is your profile page where you can add a profile picture and a bit of colour some biographical information etc. Scroll up and down this page to have a look at all the options.

Now click on ‘my sites” at the top left of the page and this will show my Morse, Lewis and Endeavour site as shown below.

Click on that and this will take you back to my blog.

Then click on ‘forum’ that I have circled above and this will take you to this page.

The forum looks a bit dull but I hope to make it more colourful some time soon. I have created seven different forums but if you want me to add some more let me know.

Step Ten – Click on one of the forum names and a page like below will open.

 

In the ‘topic title’ box type in a topic. Then below that in the other white box write what is on your mind.

Then move to the next box.

‘Topic tags’ is where you enter key words that give your reader a flavour of what your forum piece is about. If you enter more than one word you must separate the words with a comma. Tick the box next to ‘notify me of follow-up replies via email’ if you wish. It is a good way to know if anyone has replied to your topic or query etc without having to continually check the forum.

Click submit.

The page below will be shown.

Then you can return to whatever forum you entered a topic in where I ahve circled in red. I was in the ‘general discussion forum so I would click on ‘general discussion’ circled in red. Or to go back to the front forum page click on the word’ forums’ circled in red.

That is it all very simple. I hope you enjoy the forum and have many happy times there.

I will of course be updating the look and choices in the forum over the next few weeks or months. Have fun and take care.