Instructions & Important Short Cuts that Will Speed Your Use of FixingThePlanet.com

THE STRUCTURE OF FIXINGTHEPLANET.COM (FTP) SYSTEM: We have over 40 different forums which make up the FTP system. More are added as we get requests and find leaders to help build these additions. Our forums span a wide variety of related environmental topics and interests. You can access all of the forums from the FTP home page and view the available forums on the left side of the page. A simple click will take you into the forum of your choice.

SETTING UP & MANAGING YOUR USER ACCOUNT: You can “hang out” and search the existing FTP posts but before you can post to one of our forums, you will need to set up a user account. This is free and you can do it by simply selecting the "Join the Community" button. Pick a user name and enter your email address, lastly pick a password to manage your account. Note: Bogus email addresses will NOT work in our system as each account is sent verification.

We have also added optional questions in our user account set-up that will display information about yourself, (but only if you wish), to our other members. Many users enjoy this way to interact with other members. If you do, fill in the optional information in your user profile -- if you don't want to have anything displayed, just leave those optional fields empty. There is a "view profile" button just behind the username in each post and if you click that button, that is where the user profile is displayed.

TO CHANGE FORUMS: Within any of the forums you have two options for changing your place: 1. You can simply click on the FTP logo on the top of the page with the Globe and Butterfly to take you back to the Home Page, there you can then select to enter another forum from the list on the left side of the page or 2. You can select the “Forums” button on the top right of the page in the menu tab. By clicking on the Forums tab you will then see the list of forums to choose from. To enter simply click on any one of links once to be taken to that forum.

TO VIEW POSTS IN OUR FORUMS: Once you have arrived at your desired forum, you can "lurk" in the forum, view posts and get to know the community before posting. (Highly advised unless you have a pressing problem and need an answer quickly; in which case feel free to post immediately or use the "Search Posts" button to locate any currently archived information that meets your search criteria.)

ADDING NEW POSTS TO A FORUM: Once you have set up your user account, simply select the “Post New Forum Topic” button. This will bring up a new page in which you can add your message, preview the message before posting (if you wish to do so) and finally approve the message to add to the forum.

REPLYING TO AN EXISTING POST: If you see a post on one of our forums that you would like to respond to, you may reply by simply having that post open in your browser and then scrolling down to the bottom of the post. On each post is a link “Add New Comment” that allows you to directly respond to that post. Once you fill it in and hit the send button, the post page now reflects your new entry.

If you need any other help in using FixingThePlanet.com please contact: support@fixingtheplanet.com