How to Post/Reply to a Forum Question

Revised August 12, 2022

Formatting a Post

1. The formatting buttons “b” for bold, “i” for italics, etc., can be used to make the text more legible.

2. In particular, it is good to use the “link” button to provide a link to another post on this website or an external web page. To describe the procedure, let us assume that you want to provide a link to the “Abhidhamma – Introduction” post on the website.

  • Open that post in a separate window by clicking the following link: “Abhidhamma – Introduction.
  • Copy the post’s title (“Abhidhamma – Introduction”) and paste it into your text window.
  • Select that text with the title (“Abhidhamma – Introduction”) and click the “link” button. It will open a new window to put in the web address.
  • Go to that other open window with the “Abhidhamma – Introduction” post and copy the web address from that web page (which in this case is “https://puredhamma.net/abhidhamma/abhidhamma-introduction/”).
  • Come back and paste that to provide the link at the URL input. Note: Don’t forget to check the little box “Open link in a new tab” so that when someone clicks on the link, it will be opened in a new window.
  • That is it!

Follow the same procedure to provide an external link.

3. You can edit your comment within an hour. If you try to edit after an hour, it may delete that comment.

To Post a New Question/Comment

4. Select a suitable forum from the list of forums (“Abhidhamma” forum, “Dhamma and Science” forum, etc.) and click on it.

  • That will open that particular forum with a list of already existing topics.
  • Go to the end of that list and start typing a suitable topic for your question in the box, “Topic Title (Maximum Length: 80):”
  • Then type the question in the box below and hit the “submit” button. If you need to post a link to the question, please follow the steps in #3 below.
  • You can edit your question/comment within an hour. If you try to edit after an hour, it may delete the question.
To Reply to an Existing Post

5. If one types in the default window, the comment will appear at the end of the discussion as a new thread. Anyone can see that as the latest comment.  but then one needs to refer to the comment that he/she is responding to.

  • It is NOT a good idea to hit the reply button. If you do that, your comment will appear directly below that comment. Then a reader will need to scan to find the new comment (especially if there are newer threads at the bottom).
  • Therefore, it is better to type your comment in the default window at the very bottom. If you need to, you can refer to an earlier comment by the poster’s name and date or copy and paste the part of that post you need to comment on.
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