MLFHS Member Forum: Detailed Instructions
This document provides detailed instructions on the tools available to manage your Forum membership.
Contents
Accessing the member interface
Selecting single or digest mailings
Registering multiple addresses
Why don't my messages appear on the Forum?
Can I get a virus from a Forum message?
Joining the Member Forum
The Member Forum is free to all paid-up members of MLFHS. You MUST be a member of the Member Forum to receive Forum messages from and to post messages to the Forum.
- Click the 'Join The Member Forum' button
- Complete and submit the Affinity registration form. Note that when you set a password it must be at least nine characters long.
- You will receive an email from Affinity asking you to verify your email address. Click the button in the email to do this.
- Confirming your address will take you to the List Information page for the MLFHS Forum.
- Click the link "Click to subscribe to this list" (there is no acknowledgement of this).
Your application will be checked and approved by the Forum Moderator and you will receive an email when this is done. This may take up to 24 hours.
You are now a member of the Forum.
The member interface
The member interface allows Forum members to select single message or digest mailings, unsubscribe, get a password reminder and change their password, to suspend mail delivery during a holiday and to change between delivery of individual messages or 'digests'. All of these changes can be made without the need to involve the system administrator. Some functions require you to log into the user interface using your password.
Accessing the member interface
IMPORTANT NOTE! If you were a member of the Forum before the new software was introduced on 11 March 2021, you will continue to be able to send and receive messages BUT you will not not be able to sign into the member interface using your old password.
To register your password (you do not have to use the old one) simply follow the instructions to JOIN the Forum (above). You will not be required to confirm your request or have it approved by the moderator. The process will simply set your new password so that you are able to sign in.
To access the Member Interface
- Click the 'Manage My Forum Membership' button
- On the next page click the word "Guest" at the right end of the header bar
- Enter your e-mail address and password in the boxes provided (note the password is case-sensitive)
- Click the button labelled 'Sign In'
Resetting your password
If you are having difficulty logging into the member interface, please note that the password is case-sensitive and must be entered exactly as it was originally specified when you joined the Forum or last changed your password. If you still have difficulty, you can get a password reminder mailed to your registered e-mail address.
To reset your password:
- Click the 'Manage My Forum Membership' button
- On the next page click the word "Guest" at the right end of the header bar
- Click the link "Forgot Your Password?"
- On the next page enter your email address
- Click the button "Send Password Reset Link"
- You will be sent an email containing a link to click to enable you to set a new password
Unsubscribing
You should ONLY unsubscribe if you wish to leave the Forum permanently.
If you wish to stop Forum messages arriving for a short period, for example when you are on holiday, you should suspend mail delivery as described below.
To unsubscribe:
- Access the member interface as described above
- Click on your name at the right end of the header bar and select "Update Profile"
- Click the large red button labelled "Delete This Account"
- Click "Yes" on the pop-up form to complete the process
An e-mail will be sent to your registered address. This contains a link to the system. Click this link. Your browser will open with a confirmation message. You are now no longer a member of the Forum. Please note that you MUST do this within three days of the message arriving.
Change your e-mail address
If you change your Internet Service Provider (ISP) it is likely your e-mail address will also change. Until you change the address registered with the system to your NEW address, Forum messages will continue to be mailed to your OLD address and messages sent from your new address be rejected.
You CANNOT directly change your email address but must Unsubscribe your OLD address and re-join with your NEW address using the instructions described above.
If you wish temporarily to have both old and new addresses registered on the system, see 'Registering two addresses' below. This can sometimes be useful if you are having teething troubles with a new ISP.
Change your password
You may occasionally wish to change your password either for security reasons or to replace the password with something more memorable.
To change your password:
- Access the member interface as described above
- Click on your name at the right end of the header bar and select "Change Password"
- Enter your new password in each of the two boxes provided
- Click the button labelled 'Change Password''
Disable/Enable mail delivery
You may occasionally wish to stop Forum messages arriving, for example while you are away on holiday. The following method retains your membership of the Forum. If you wish to stop messages PERMANENTLY then Unsubscribe as described above.
To enable or disable mail delivery:
- Access the member interface as described above
- Click on your name at the right end of the header bar and select "Update Profile"
- Under "Global Preferences" click the selector box "Delivery Status" and select "Enabled" or "Disabled" as required
- At the bottom of the section click the blue button labelled "Save Preferences"
Select single or digest mailings
When you first join the Forum, you will receive individual messages by default ("Regular" delivery). You have the option of receiving each message posted to the Forum bundled into 'digest' messages which contain several individual messages in a single e-mail.
To select digest mail delivery:
- Access the member interface as described above
- Click on your name at the right end of the header bar and select "Update Profile"
- Under "Global Preferences" click the selector box "Delivery Mode" and select "Summary Digests"
- At the bottom of the section click the blue button labelled "Save Preferences"
Registering multiple addresses
Although most members will find registering a single address adequate, it may sometimes be desirable to register two or more addresses. For example:
- You may wish to post messages to the Forum from both your home or office addresses
- You may wish to maintain an old address while a new one is being set up
- You may wish to divert your mail to an alternative address when your ISP has a problem
- Your provider may use two address formats such as gmail.com and googlemail.com
To register an additional address:
- Register the new address as described in "Joining the Member Forum" above
You will now be able to send mail from either address and you will also receive copies of each Forum message to BOTH addresses.
If you wish to only receive one copy of each Forum message:
- Sign in to the member interface using the address which you wish not to receive mailings
- Disable mail delivery as described above
Sending messages to the Member Forum
Messages to the Member Forum should be addressed to
You are strongly advised to format your messages as TEXT and NOT as HTML. All messages will be delivered in TEXT format regardless of how they were sent. Additionally, the Mailman software used to manage the Forum mailings may either corrupt HTML format messages or fail to deliver them at all.
To Change to Plain Text Format - Microsoft Outlook:
- Open the contact card for the recipient
- n the E-mail box, double-click the recipient's e-mail address.
- Select the Plain Text option
For full details CLICK HERE
To Change to Plain Text Format - Thunderbird
- Select Options (Preferences) - Composition - General - Send Options
- Click the 'Plain Text Domains' tab
- Click 'Add'
- Enter list.mlfhs.org.uk
For full details CLICK HERE
Do not attach any files to your messages. These will be removed by the system.
Why don't my messages appear on the Forum?
Messages posted to the Forum address should be delivered to Forum members, including a copy to the sender) within a matter of minutes. If you post a message and you do not receive a copy (and you are receiving Forum messages from other members) there may be several possible causes:
- Wrong system address - You are sending your messages to the wrong address. See Sending messages to the Member Forum above
- Unregistered address - The address from which you sent the message is not your registered address. Such messages are trapped by the system and will usually be bounced back by the Forum administrator. This may take several days. See Changing your e-mail address or Registering multiple addresses above as appropriate.
- Message too big - The system will not forward any message larger than about 64kB in size. This should be adequate for a very long text message but an HTML format message with large (and particularly animated) graphic content may fall foul of this limit. Some free mail services load extra advertising content onto user messages. Use TEXT format or change mail provider if it is not possible to reduce message size.
- Messages being moderated - Your address has been made subject to moderation and messages will only be forwarded to the Forum after the Forum administrator has examined them. It would generally only be used in the event of a member posting unacceptable content. Any member in this situation will have been informed. Contact the system administrator if you believe this to be the case.
Alternatively, you may not be receiving ANY messages from the Forum, in which case possible causes are:
- Mail delivery disabled - You may have disabled your mail for a holiday and forgotten to enable it on your return. Alternatively, if the system detects that messages to your address are being continually 'bounced' (possibly due to a full mailbox or ISP fault) then your mail will be suspended automatically. Follow the instructions under Disable/Enable mail delivery above to check whether delivery is suspended and to enable delivery if necessary.
- Spam filtering - it is possible that you have inadvertently set up a spam filter to divert MLFHS messages to a spam folder (or to delete them completely). Check your spam filters and folders.
- ISP spam filtering - Occasionally the Forum address can be incorrectly identified as the source of spam and messages from the system deleted by the ISP. This usually lasts no longer than 24 hours.
- System faults - if the mail system server fails, delivery may cease until it is restored. Messages sent to the Forum will usually be stored in the mail network for several days before being bounced back to the sender if the problem persists.
Can I get a virus from a Forum message?
The simple and unequivocal answer is NO! Viruses are mailed as files attached to e-mail messages and the Forum system removes any attachments before distributing messages to members.
However, there are two circumstances in which you may be exposed to risk:
- Infected links - If a message is generated by a virus infection and uses a sender address which is registered with the system (this may not be the address of the infected PC), it will be delivered to Forum members. Such a message will not carry a virus but it may contain a link to a web site at which an infection may be contracted. DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK IN A FORUM MESSAGE UNLESS YOU ARE SURE IT IS SAFE. Any Forum message which consists of only a link or which promotes a product or which exhorts you to click on the link is almost certainly spam and should be deleted
- Carbon Copies - If a Forum member answers a message by clicking 'Reply All' this will produce a reply to the Forum address and a carbon copy to the original sender. If the respondent has a virus infection on their PC then both messages may be infected. The reply via the Forum will have the virus attachment removed by the Forum system, but the direct reply will deliver the virus file.
Can I access old messages?
Yes. To access the Forum archive:
- Access the member interface as described above
- Under "My Lists" select "forum(at)list.mlfhs.org.uk" (the only option!)
- On the blue menu bar select "View the Archives"
The archive listing shows the message "threads" in descending order by date and time of the most recent message posted. There is currently only one other sort option, which sorts the threads by popularity - those with the largest number of postings first.
The default listing shows all threads but it is possible to filter this long listing down to a specific month and year back to the start of the Forum in 2011.
The list of threads shows, for each thread, the subject line and the date of the most recent message. There is also an indication of the contributors to the thread in the form of a series of coloured spots with the contributor's initials or avatar. Hovering over a spot produces a pop-up label showing the contributor's name.
You can post a new thread by clicking the blue "Post New Thread" button at the top of the listing page.
You can show the full thread by clicking on the subject. This shows a listing of the contributions in date/time order with the earliest message first.
You can reply to any message in any thread by clicking on the "Reply" link at the bottom of the message.