What are the DetroitYES
forums?
How can I post on this forum?
How much does it cost?
How do I sign up?
I signed up but did not get my activation “key” email. What do I do?
New? Welcome to the Forum! A note about
forum “Netiquette”.
Why do you request personal information while signing up?
Are there any
restrictions to what I can post?
How do I post a message?
How do I start a new discussion
thread?
How do I post a picture?
How do I format my posts?
Can I edit a
post that I have already posted?
Can I delete a
post I have already created?
How are the
orders of posts and threads determined?
How can I search the forum and its archives?
What happened to my Post? What
happened to my thread??
How can I get help?
What can I do if I
forget my password?
How do I report abuse on the forum. What if I have an issue with the
forum?
Who posts on this forum?
Who is DetroitYES?
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.
^RETURN TO TOP
How do I sign up?
It’s
easy. Just click the
“JOIN” button at the top where you will be instructed to follow these steps.
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, month and year you signed up and your post count.]
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. The information you provide is kept private,
is for forum
management purposes only and will not be provided to any party outside
DetroitYES management.
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 provide.
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.
^RETURN TO TOP
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.
^RETURN TO TOP
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
of inserting images:
“Old School” and “Newbie”
Old School Method:
While
you are authoring the post, enter the following code where you want the
image to appear.
\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.”
Finish, preview and post your message as described earlier.
^RETURN TO TOP
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 collectively have 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 started in 1999 to bring audience input
into the project.
^RETURN TO TOP
|
