The
DetroitYES forums are a connected group of moderated forums whose focused on
issues regarding the international family of communities surrounding the
Straits of Detroit, collectively know as Metro-Detroit-Windsor, or just
Detroit for short.
The discussion is broken out into three main forums and
some related forum as described below.
Discuss Detroit
Only topics that concern Detroit are permitted in this forum.
Discuss Detroit is the original core forum started in 1999 and
is dedicated to any topic that relates to Detroit as defined
above.
When you enter DetroitYES website, it is the topic list
of Discuss Detroit that greets you.
Here you will find lively
and informed discussions about our great international
metropolis and meet some of the most unabashedly pro-Detroiters
on the planet. Enjoy!
Detroit Connections
This forum is for discussion among forum members, announcements,
making connections, call outs, and mutual assistance.
As is the
nature of forums, familiarity among members grows over time. As
these forums evolved and grew in size, a need arose for an outlet
of intra-member discussion that was not necessarily
about Detroit. To meet that need Detroit Connections was
created.
In the case of DetroitYES, this further lead to the occurrence
of many
friendships, meet-ups, cooperative efforts and gatherings.
For example, the informal FSC [forum social
club] has gathered weekly, for several years now, at different pubs in
downtown Detroit. Announcements as to its roving location is
typical of the type of ‘connections’ post you will find in
Detroit Connections. [BTW, if you are interested in attending
an FSC gathering, you are sure to find yourself warmly welcomed.]
Other typical
posts include requests for assistance for housing by new
arrivals in Detroit, where to get services, call outs for other forum
members and not- for-profit announcements.
Non-Detroit Issues
While we are all about Detroit, we are also people of the world.
Again as we grew, a need for discussion of things not Detroit
grew. To keep them from spilling over into Discuss Detroit and
Detroit Connections, we created Non-Detroit issues.
By far the
most heated and partisan of the three main forum, Non-Detroit
Issues is a venue for a mix of heated political debates,
whimsical happenings and web discoveries and more. Warning: Bring a thick skin,
keep your cool and remember to keep your self respect and that
for others.
Other Related forums include:
Hall of Fame Threads
Threads from Discuss Detroit forum that are of exceptional
quality are promoted to the Hall of Fame Threads.
Posting may
continue on these threads, but any posts made are queued for
approval by our moderators.
Admission of posts is not automatic
and only posts that add significantly to these threads are
approved. Also, post made while the thread was active in the
Discuss Detroit forum, may be purged from these threads if they
are deemed irrelevant or off topic.
Threads in the Discuss
Detroit forum that are destined for the hall of fame are given a
bright blue
arrow to the left of their subject line.
Soulful Detroit
Soulful Detroit Forum is a standalone sister forum, with a
structure much like the DetroitYES forums.
It is a creation of
AtDetroit parent of DetroitYES and covers, discussion of Detroit
Soul music and related topics centering around the golden
“Motown” era of Detroit music.
A separate registration is
required if you wish to post on Soulful Detroit forums.
Classified Ads
The Classified Ad forum is just that: Classified Ads.
Posting
ads is free to established members by the conditions described
at the bottom of the Classified Ad topic list.
Non-members of
members not meeting the conditions may advertise by paying a
small fee.
Only
registered members can post on this forum.
Membership is open and welcome to
any who agree to and follow the conditions of participation. To become a
registered member you are required to go through a brief registration
process. See "How do I sign up".
Membership
is free.
However, there are many expenses to maintaining this forum and, if
you find your experience rewarding, you are encourage to join the many
others who have supported this forum by sending a donation.
Click the
"Support this Site" link to make a quick, easy and secure credit card donation.
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How do I sign up?
Step
1:
You will be required to read and agree with the conditions of participation on the first page.
Step 2:
You will be asked to create a member account by selecting a
Username and password. [The only information that will appear when you post
is your username. The remaining information is kept private and is for forum
management purposes only.]
You
will also be required to provide your email address, name, city, state or
province, country, age and gender. There are also some additional optional
questions that you are requested to answer. Why?
Click Here for an explanation.
Step 3:
Your request for membership will be added to a queue for approval by our
moderators. When your request is approved [almost always in under 12 hours,
but allow up to 36 hours before inquiring], an automated activation “key” email with
instructions for unlocking your account will be sent to the email address you
provided.
Step 4:
Follow the instructions in the activation “key” email to unlock your account and you
will be able to post immediately. Welcome to the forum!
Your
activation “key” email is an automatically generated email. Unfortunately in these days
of the despised spam email, many “spam filters” exist throughout
the web, perhaps even in your own anti-virus program.
Automatically
generated email can and sometimes does get falsely tagged as spam and thereby
may result in your activation “key” email being blocked.
If you have had no response
within 36 hours from the time you signed up please click our
Help & Support
button. There you will find a form for requesting help. Our moderators
will manually enable your account and reply to you, usually in 12 hours or
less but, again, allow up to 36 hours.
We want
you in the forum and wish there was a better way to avoid these difficulties
but, rest assured, we will do all we can as soon as we can to complete your
registration.
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Why do you request personal information
you ask for when signing up?
The information you provide is kept strictly private by the DetroitYES
project and AtDetroit. It is only to satisfy our curiosity of the
demographics of the forum such as you see in the
“Who posts on this forum”
question. Your email address may be used by DetroitYES to contact you
directly or for group announcements. In the seven years of the forum
this has only been done three time.
If you are really uncomfortable, then
[shh] put in anything you wish. We ask that
you be honest just help establish an accurate picture of the forum. Note: One
thing you cannot fudge is your email address as you will not receive your
activation
key.
Be nice, be pleasant, treat others with respect, stay on topic,
and discuss issues, not personalities. If you follow that simple
dictum, as the vast majority on these forums do, you will find
your experience rich and rewarding.
If you are making your first post a short note about yourself
always warms up the situation. We don’t expect you to
reveal your identity or tell your life story, just a little friendly “Hi-I’m-new-here” type greeting will go a long
way to toward getting likewise friendly responses to your
question or comment. It is sure to elicit like mannered
responses and you will find yourself warmly welcomed.
Current members are likewise encouraged to [and frequently do]
welcome newcomers, offer friendly guidance to them and patiently
point them in the right direction if they make a newbie mistakes, such as posting a question on a previously discussed topic.
It goes without saying that all people who post of the board may
not agree on some topics. There is, on occasion, friendly
debate. Remember to roll with the verbal punches and
let your humor win the day.
Please respect EVERYONE on the board and address other members only by their forum names in
a polite manner.
Posts that include name-calling, are offensive,
badgering or needling will be removed upon discovery. Flagrant
or repeated violations of netiquette can result in immediate
loss of your forum membership. Please refer to the
Conditions of Participation for full details.
For readability, please break up your posts into short paragraphs.
PLEASE DO NOT "SCREAM" [WRITING IN ALL UPPER CASE]. IT IS
DIFFICULT TO READ.
Absolutely yes. Please carefully read and observe the
Conditions of Participation, the note about forum “netiquette”
.
The rule
of thumb is simple. Be nice, be pleasant, treat others with respect, stay on
topic, and discuss issues, not personalities.
Please refer to the descriptions of the forums to make sure
you post in the appropriate forum.
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How do I post a message?
It’s
easy; write your post in the message box at the bottom of the thread. [Hint:
to go to the posting box at the bottom of a thread, click the little yellow P [[
post] icon
to the left of any post. To jump to the top of the thread from any post click the little
T [
top] icon.]
After you
write your post, enter your username and password and click the
Preview/Post Message button.
You will be sent to a preview page where you will see your post as it would
appear on the forum. Edit any changes you wish in the message box and either
Preview/Post Message again to preview your changes or, if you are satisfied with
its appearance, click the Post Message button [above the post box].
You will be returned to the thread and your new post will appear at the
bottom of the thread.
To start
a new topic of discussion, called a "thread" in forum-speak, simply click the
“Start a New Thread” link at the top or bottom of the forum topic page.
The
process is the same as the posting a reply with the exception that you will
asked to provide a subject for the thread.
Choose
your subject carefully. Make sure the subject line you choose clearly
describes the subject of your post. For instance, don’t write a subject like
“Guess what I saw”; instead title it like this example, “New
Renovations to the Book Cadillac Spotted”. Then write, preview and post
your message
as described earlier.
First,
prepare your image.
To insure images don’t slow down the threads their size
is restricted. Images cannot be any larger than:
Images must also be saved in
either .jpg, .jpeg, or .gif file formats.
Many image editors have methods
for doing that. Photoshop, for instance, has a 'save for web' option where the
image size can be reduced by simply moving a slider.
Second, add the
image coding in your post.
There are two methods
“Old School” or “Newbie”
Old School Method:
While you are authoring the post, enter the following code.
\image{text description of image}
To keep the text from wrapping around the image, add a line before and after the code as in this example:
Start of message…
\image{text description of image}
…rest of message.
Replace your description of the image where it says ‘text description of
image in the example above. When you post our message you will be
instructed to upload your image. For a description of that
process, read on.
When you have completed your post, have clicked
the Preview/Post Message button and been taken to the Preview page, you will
notice a Your Image Here placeholder where you wrote the code.
After you
make any final edits and click the Post This Message button, you will be
taken to intermediate image posting page where you will read: Please provide
the files for the following referenced images/attachments. Then click on
"Upload" to continue.
Click the Browse… Button to browse you computer’s file system to locate the
image you wish to post and click Open.
This will cause the path to your file
to be written in the Browse box. Do this for each image, if you are posting
more than one.
Now click the Upload button [only once] and your image and
message will be uploaded. [Allow time for the file to process.]
When the
upload is complete, your new message with image[s] will appear at the bottom
of the thread.
Newbie Method:
Alternatively you may at anytime, while you are authoring your post, click
the Upload Attachment… button.
Doing so will pop up a small “Add Image or
Attachment” window where you will be asked for a description of the image or
attachment and to browse to the location of image. You will then click the
Upload button.
A success message will follow reading as in this example:
“File Uploaded
You will see the code added to the end of the message you were typing.
This code represents the image or attachment you uploaded. If you wish, you
may cut and paste this code in your message to move the image or attachment
around.”
Again be sure to place the code ON A SEPARATE LINE to keep the text from
wrapping on the image as in this example:
Message text…
\popjpeg{84924,description you wrote}
…rest of message text.
Finish, preview and post your message as described earlier.
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When a
new thread is started it appears at the top of its forum’s topic list..
When
a new post is added to a thread, that action will also cause the thread to
move to the top of its forum’s topic list.
As interest in a thread declines
and posting ceases, you will notice the thread fading down the topic list.
Each week the topic list is pruned back to 150 topics.
Faded threads are
move to a hidden archive or, if so destined, to the Hall of Fame. Past
threads may be located by using the forum’s search engine, accessed by
clicking the “Search” button in the forum menu bar.
Since the
DetroitYES forum is huge and covers a wide range of topics it is useful to
do a quick search on a topic before creating a new topic that may put egg on
your face for ‘reinventing the wheel’.
Clicking the “Search”
button will lead you to two search options, a button
to a Google search of the DetroitYES sites and a lower area just to search
the forum and its archives.
As you will discover you can search for a term, a member, or a Subject
[Thread] Title along with other refinements.
Yes. You
can edit your post up to 24 hours after you post. To the upper right of your
post, you will notice three tiny icons. Click the first one [[ pencil and pad
icon] to edit your post. You may be required to login.
Yes. You
can delete your post up to 24 hours after you post. To the upper right of
your post, you will notice three tiny icons. Click the second one [[ with red
X] to delete your post. You may be required to login. Note: If you created a
new thread, you cannot delete the thread, only the first post you made in
the thread.
If your
post has been removed, it may have been removed for being abusive, off topic
or other violations of the Conditions of Participation. It is rare, but
possible, it has been moved to another thread where it fits..
If you thread does not appear, first make sure that it simply has not faded
down the forum topic list. Also it could have been moved to another forum.
For instance if a topic that is not related to Detroit is created in Discuss
Detroit, it may be moved to Non-Detroit Issues, or vice versa. If it is no
longer on any forum, it could have been archived or removed for abusive or
irrelevant content.
Simply
click the Help & Support button and fill out the support form. Our
moderators will generally respond within 48 hours, but most likely less than
24.
Click the
Help & Support button and follow the
password recovery link in the upper
right. You will be asked to enter your username, then create a new password.
A new activation “key” email will be sent to the email address you used when
you created your account to unlock you account. If you still have problems,
fill out a support form, but please save our time by trying the password
recovery. It will get you back up in minutes.
Click the
“Email Lowell” Button to direct your issue to the moderator. Do not start a
new thread for otherwise post your issue on the forum. Any such posts will
be immediately removed and can cause loss of your posting rights.
There are
thousands of members who have collective created over one million posts
since the forum began in 1999. The forum and website now experiences over
two million visitor sessions yearly, so there are far more “lurkers” than
participants. For a statistical profile of the forum membership, derived
from the signup data, please
click here.
DetroitYES was created by Detroit fine art painter and web
artist
Lowell
Boileau. It is owned and managed through his partnership
AtDetroit, LLC which also owns and manages the related websites
Soulful Detroit [www.SoulfulDetroit.com] and
“The Lost Synagogues of Detroit” [www.Shtetlhood.com].
DetroitYES evolved from “The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit” created in 1996-7,
an award-winning fine art website touring the great abandoned buildings of
Detroit. That original 300 page tour now forms the
“Classic Tour” of the
website. With successive tours added since then, the website is now over
2000 pages in length. A forum for discussion was added in 1999 to bring
audience input into the project.
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