Especially if you are new here, it can be a little overwhelming when you first sign in. Besides reviewing our terms and privacy policy, we created this page to more quickly get you acquainted with the forum.
How posting works
Posts are organized using Tags. Think of these as the main topics or categories. When you post you may either choose the appropriate tag at the beginning of the posting process or if you forget you’ll be reminded at the end. Simply choose the tag which fits best. You may read a quick blurb describing each tag here: https://www.sitbreathe.be/tags.
Most of the tags are self-explanatory; if you want to post anything related to this forum itself (suggestions, help, etc.), please use the Meta tag.
We also support hashtags. These are treated differently and are mainly used here to quickly link to other posts with the same hashtag mentioned. Clicking a #hashtag will perform a search.
Citing what you are posting, if you are in fact referencing a book, article, web page, is important. Down further on this page you will see our citing rules and suggestions.
Our post editor is not the type that shows you the formatting. It will instead show the markdown or bbcode. But, if replying to an existing topic, you can see a preview of your post behind the post editor box. Also, there’s a question mark in the bottom right corner of every page as well which will help and/or review our full formatting guide here.
Auto Media Embed
With certain URLs, all you have to do is paste them into your post. Then, we'll automatically convert that URL/link into a nice looking card, image, video, etc. The sites which are support are listed here.
Reposting & Citing
Here are guidelines on how to re-post an article. It is required that you cite anything you are directly quoting. Depending on the situation, you may not need to do exactly what we are suggesting here. At a minimum you must make it obvious that you are quoting something (use the quote button in the post editor, regular quotation marks, and/or italicize the text) and then state where that quote is from, ideally with a link back to the original work. The following suggestions are mostly for situations where you are wanting to re-post an article from another website, or if you are doing a lot of quoting.
Article Re-posting
- Write your own title for the article rather than copy the original.
- Write an introduction paragraph in your own words. Avoid any exact copying for this paragraph. If you must copy a sentence or two, use quotes and cite.
- Optionally, you may include a short excerpt of the article as your next paragraph. Typically, this should be the only part of the post which is an exact copy of something. Keep the excerpt length to 1 paragraph max. The more you copy, the more likely you'll get in hot water for copyright infringement.
- Use the quote button within the post editing box or use regular quotation marks and italicize the text to set the excerpt apart.
- Include a link to the article/source.
- Write a closing paragraph; include any additional original content you'd like to include.
Multiple Quotes
Another way you may cite a sentence here or there within your post is by using the Chicago Notes Style. This is where you put a number at the end of the sentence. Then, at the bottom of your post you list footnotes. Look at this post as an example.
To add the superscript style number at the end of a sentence simply add a space and then type ^1. The next citation will be ^2, then ^3 and so on. At the end of your post, you may copy the following code and edit it to match your citations. This will give you the formatting needed. The three dashes you see at the beginning will auto convert into a nice light horizontal line to separate the footnotes from your post. By the way it is a dash, space, dash, space, dash. Then you have an ordered list in the Chicago Style. The underscores you see will convert that text into italic format.
Example:
- - -
1. Robert Aitken, _Taking The Path Of Zen_ (New York: North Point Press, 1982), 3-4.
2. Aitken, _Taking The Path Of Zen_, 10.
3. Aitken, _Taking The Path Of Zen_, 14.
4. Aitken, _Taking The Path Of Zen_, 27.
The above is citing a book. If you are citing a website, your footnote might look like this:
1. “About Yale: Yale Facts,” Yale University, accessed May 1, 2017, https://www.yale.edu/about-yale/yale-facts.
Sometimes, especially if citing an online journal, they will tell you how they want you to cite the page. It’s fine to use their format. For example, if you view this journal page towards the bottom you’ll see they have the citation text which you may copy and paste.
Your Profile
To see or edit your profile click on your username (top right of site) then click on Profile. Click on Controls near the top right corner of your profile to edit your cover image. Click on your default avatar (profile picture) to change that. Click on Settings on the left hand side to change your notification settings, password, email, and more. You will also see other helpful options on the left side. If you are on a mobile device, to get to the options which are typically on the left side, including your Settings, tap on the bar at the top. To get to the Controls mentioned above on mobile, click on the vertical three dot menu. To update your bio, just click/tap within the area just above where you see your points. Type out your bio and hit enter or click/tap anywhere outside of that area to save. Finally, since points were just mentioned, you get points every time you post new topics or reply. The points don't matter much but it's a way over time for you to get an idea of how much you've posted here. You get 2 points for a new topic and 1 point for a reply.
Still need help?
Post within the forum using the Meta tag.