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The following is a document which relates to the messages area, which is the area for getting technical support and exchanging about various topics in regards to the developers community.

View message

Has a message solved your problem?

When you receive a reply in your thread about a specific situation, if that message is the answer to your problem, please, take the time to mark that message as the answer to your initial question of the thread. Or, if that message has contributed to resolve the situation, please, mark it as a help.

How can I have my picture online?

See the section in the Account Setup "Your picture online" for all the details on how to have your picture online.

How come I don't see or have access to all forum messages?

To have access to those messages, you have to select which forum you wish to participate in your account setup. Also, from time to time, the Universal Thread is adding some new forums. You might want to update it occasionaly.

This can be done in the Account Setup under the section Update your account/Forums.

View message toolbar

The view message toolbar contains a list of options which will dynamically appear depending on the current message status. So, on some messages, not all options might be present.

ImageDescriptionEnabling
Move to the previous message. That is the parent message of the message you are currently viewing. Dynamic
Move to the next message. That is the child message of the message you are currently viewing. This will not go to the next branch assuming their is no child to the current message. Dynamic
Reply to the message Permanent
Allows you to save that message in one of your folder. Clicking on this image will bring you a list of your actual folders. You just have to click on the one you wish and the message will be saved into. Permanent
Obtain a map of the entire thread. Permanent
Obtain a map of the entire thread from this message. Permanent
Get all the messages for this thread. Permanent
Get all the messages for this thread from this message. Permanent
Save the message into your list of favorite messages. Up to 50 messages can be saved in that list. That allows a fast retrieval of important messages. You can then gain access to them either from the upper toolbar or directly from the Dashboard if you have enabled that ability. Permanent
When you mark a thread, this allows the Agent to work in the background for you. So, any upcoming messages in that thread will be linked to your account. Thus, when accessing your Agent content, you can get a fast access to any message from this thread. Up to 50 threads can be marked. Permanent
Filtering a thread allows any upcoming messages created in that thread to not be shown when you read new messages. If for some reasons, you feel that a content of a particular has no value for you, you can filter it. Up to 50 threads can be filtered. Permanent
Allow you to mark the message as the solution of the thread. Only the thread owner can mark a message. Only one message can be marked as the solution of the thread. Dynamic
Allow you to mark the message as a message which has contributed to the solution of the thread. Only the thread owner can mark a message. Several messages can be marked within the same thread. Dynamic
Allow a member, which is not the owner of the thread, to force a message to be marked as the solution of the thread. That message then goes in the archive of pending message for approval. Once done, the message should be reflected as per that change. Dynamic
Allow a member to update his/her own message. That is only possible for the message owner. It is possible as long as no reply has been done. Dynamic
Copy the message header into the clipboard. This is useful when you want to make reference to that message when replying to another message. Permanent
Send by email the message to someone you think could benefit of it. That is useful assuming you know that a certain co-worker, for example, could benefit of the message. Permanent

Create a new thread

What is the problem?

This might seem trivial, but there are often questions phrased like: "When I close my form, another form is still open". This doesn't give a clue as to what you are asking.

Give as much information as possible

When asking a question, several pieces of information are required for anyone to be able to answer successfully. Suggestions would be:
  • What do you want to happen?
  • What is happening instead?
  • What Product Version do you use?
  • What OS do you use?
  • Examples are excellent!

Ask a question that will receive a meaningful answer

Asking: "Anybody have trouble with printing complex reports?" will get you an answer like: "No" or "Yes" which is typically not the answer you really need. These posts will receive a response like "What problem are you having?" and in turn, are not very productive.

Give your post a meaningful Title

Titles like "Help!!!" or "Problem" or "Question" completely defeat the purpose of a title line. You might as well call your thread "Post". Be as descriptive as you can when naming your thread, so other members have an idea before they read it if they will be of help. If you can, paraphrase your question in the title: "How to hide VFP SCREEN at startup".

Post in the appropriate forum and category

Having your post in a specific forum and category implies certain items to your subject. Also, some users may only follow specific categories, so choosing the correct category may produce a better answer.

Don't post your question more than once, under different categories

This will only serve to dilute the quality of both threads. It may waste time answering one of your threads, when someone else has already answered the same question in another thread. Also, a productive debate must be split over more than one thread.

Don't start a new thread when continuing a problem

These "orphan" threads often refer to information posted in another thread that is difficult for the reader to find.

Don't post two completely unrelated questions under the same thread

Different people have different areas of expertise, and they usually read threads that either interest them because they want to learn the answers as well, or because they think they can contribute. When a single thread contains more than one subject, members are forced to share "thread space" with topics they cannot contribute to.

Chatter category

Non technical threads are allowed only in the Chatter category as long as they don't interfere with any other rules.

No political message

We would like to write a special mention about political messages. The Universal Thread has members from all over the world. We recommend to avoid creating a thread about a politic topic. We all have different opinions. It would be greatly appreciated to not see types of threads online.

Create a thread to a member

Never create a new thread to a member when the purpose of the question is for the general audience. It is really impolite to do something like this.

The purpose of this option is to allow members to create a new thread to a member when justification is applicable. Such an example could be that, based on a previous thread, you would like to proceed on that topic with a member that was involved in the discussion. Another example could be that you are posting a question in a category from a vendor and you would like to specifically redirect the question to him/her.

Creating a new thread to a member when the topic is for the general audience forces that member to reply to you. By doing that, that member will receive a reply from you. It may not be in the member's intention to reply to you. Every member on the Universal Thread is free to help when they want to. Doing that forces the member to reply to you.

Adding code to your message

In all forums, whenever you want to add some code in a message, encapsulating it between the HTML PRE tag. Your code will appear in coding syntax with a white background properly aligned.

Basically, when you create a message with some code in it, right before the code starts is where the <PRE> tag starts:

Message sample when creating it 
Here is my code:

<PRE>
If Request.Cookies("ReminderTimes") Is Nothing Then
   Dim MyCookie As New HttpCookie("ReminderTimes")

   MyCookie.Values.Add("TestAlarm", Now)
   MyCookie.Expires = Now.AddHours(1)
   Response.Cookies.Add(MyCookie)
End If
</PRE>

If someone knows the answer, please send it back to me.

Don't forget to include the </PRE> tag at the end.

Your message will then appear like this:

Message sample when viewing it
Here is my code: 

If Request.Cookies("ReminderTimes") Is Nothing Then
   Dim MyCookie As New HttpCookie("ReminderTimes")

   MyCookie.Values.Add("TestAlarm", Now)
   MyCookie.Expires = Now.AddHours(1)
   Response.Cookies.Add(MyCookie)
End If

If someone knows the answer, please send it back to me.

For members posting messages in a Visual FoxPro forum, the parser will also take in consideration the syntax coloring of Visual FoxPro. When adding some code in your messages, do as usual by encapsulating it between the PRE tag. However, don't auto format your code for syntax coloring. This will be done automatically.

Message sample when creating it 
Here is my code:

<PRE>
PUBLIC oform1

oform1=NEWOBJECT("form1")
oform1.Show
RETURN

DEFINE CLASS form1 AS form

	DoCreate = .T.
	Caption = "Form1"
	Dockable = 1
	*-- XML Metadata for customizable properties
	_memberdata = ""
	Name = "Form1"

	PROCEDURE BeforeDock
		LPARAMETERS nLocation

		IF NOT INLIST(nLocation, -1,4)
			_screen.AddProperty("oForm", Thisform)
			Thisform.LockScreen = .T.
			_screen.AddProperty("oTimer", NEWOBJECT("DockTimer"))
		ENDIF
	ENDPROC

ENDDEFINE
</PRE>

If someone knows the answer, please send it back to me.

Your message will then appear like this:

Message sample when viewing it
Here is my code: 

PUBLIC oform1

oform1=NEWOBJECT("form1")
oform1.Show
RETURN


DEFINE CLASS form1 AS form

	DoCreate = .T.
	Caption = "Form1"
	Dockable = 1
	*-- XML Metadata for customizable properties
	_memberdata = ""
	Name = "Form1"

	PROCEDURE BeforeDock
		LPARAMETERS nLocation
		IF NOT INLIST(nLocation, -1,4) 
			_screen.AddProperty("oForm", Thisform)
			Thisform.LockScreen = .T.
			_screen.AddProperty("oTimer", NEWOBJECT("DockTimer"))
		ENDIF
	ENDPROC


ENDDEFINE
If someone knows the answer, please send it back to me.

Proper etiquette

General notes

Enjoy the fact that you are a member of a great community! But remember that we are strict with individuals that have an inappropriate attitude online. We will not tolerate someone who blasts other people or any such similar message. The Universal Thread is to be used for technical support. When discovered, depending on the severity of the situation, we may or not send a notice to the user. It may result in the deletion of the account.

The same goes with spamming. Here, we do not accept any advertisement on the messages area. If you wish to advertise something, use the appropriate category in the Classified for that. If you wish to announce a new available file, use the Files section to add your entry. If you wish to advertise a Web site, a product or any other thing, you may contact the Universal Thread owner.

The following are not allowed and are not tolerated:
  • personal attacks
  • political attacks
  • religious attacks
  • other group attacks
  • malicious use of expletives or obscenities
  • any use of expletives or obscenities in the title of a thread
  • any use of profanity
This applies to all members. If your account is deleted, any prior payments are not reimbursable.

If you have some concerns with this policy, you may contact us for more details.

No need for carriage returns

There is no need to do manual carriage returns when you create a message. This should be handle automatically by your browser. This will help the readability of your message. However, you may add manual carriage returns where appropriate for paragraph separators, etc. Writing everything in one big message makes it difficult to read.

Use acronyms when needed

When adding a funny quote at the end of a technical message, make sure you use the appropriate acronym. This will make sure the destinator will know that the technical message include a funny quote. You can access the list of acronyms from the main menu under Help - Acronyms. In case of doubt, the :-) smiley is always a safe bet.

Use only a dynamic signature

At any time, when creating a message, you should always avoid to put a static signature. There is no need to do that as the system will always use the dynamic signature which is defined in your account configuration. This is really important for various factors. One of them is to avoid seeing your static signature at several places in the same message where the thread become long. One other benefit will be to always have your signature up to date because when you update your signature, it will be reflected on all previous postings you have done before.

Your signature can be defined in your account configuration. Once logged, just click on the account setup to access your profile.

No personal information in the messages area

Do not post any personal information regarding your subscription in the messages area. Those requests should be sent directly by email to the owner of the Universal Thread.

Comments regarding jokes

Jokes, funny comments, etc. are allowed everywhere as long as they are not the main subject of the thread.

Acronym expansion

Some acronyms are updated when reading a message so they will fit within the HTML tags. The following represents the list of acronyms currently supported for auto recognition so they will be formatted to be shown as acronym and not as an HTML tag:

<s>
<g>
<bg>
<vbg>
<snip>
<beg>
<eg>
<gr&d>
<sg>
<wg>
<grin>
<*grin*>

The Universal Thread also contains an acronym table. Whenever an acronym is found, it will be expanded if you have show acronym enabled.

How does the autolink work?

The Universal Thread engine will auto link specific items within a content. Specific requirements need to be found in order for the auto link to grab the items. For example, the item should not be already hyperlinked. For items such as FAQ and THREAD, the item need to exist. Specific naming conventions need to be found as well. For example, a Microsoft Knowledge Base article need to be entered as required.

The order of auto link is the following:
  1. Any keyword entered in the Universal Thread link table
  2. Any Universal Thread item like FAQ#, FAQ #, THREAD#, THREAD #, FILE#, FILE #, MESSAGE# or MESSAGE #, ARTICLE#, ARTICLE #, DOWNLOAD#, DOWNLOAD #, WISH#, WISH #
  3. Any Microsoft Knowledge Base item like MSKB# or MSKB #
  4. Everything that starts with HTTP://, WWW., HTTPS:// or FTP://
  5. Any email
Forbidden tags when writing a message

Some tags are not allowed in messages for security and and formatting reasons. The following are not accepted: <IMG, <TABLE, <SCRIPT, <HTML, <BODY, <FORM, <BLINK, <OBJECT, <SERVER, <META, <STYLE, <IFRAME, <%, <TR, <TD, <SELECT, </TR, </TD, </TABLE, <HR, <DIV, <SPAN, <FRAME, <BUTTON, <INPUT, <TEXTAREA, <TBODY.

However, if those tags are included in a PRE tag for code display, then they'll be accepted.

How do I create a link to a file, FAQ, etc?

The Universal Thread engine supports autolink for messages, threads, files, FAQs and articles. The recognition is based on the keywords THREAD#, MESSAGE#, FAQ#, FILE# and ARTICLE#. After the keyword, add the ID. A link will be established to the related item.

Replying to a message

Do not start another question in the same thread

When you have a question which does not belong to the actual thread, you should create a new message. It is very impolite to reply to someone, who have helped you with your original question, by replying to ask another question. Also, you are limiting your responses this way.

Be conscious about your auto quote

If you have defined your account to auto quote a message when you reply or if you are replying from the mailing list interface, when writing your reply, there is no need to keep the entire message. Just keep the appropriate message section that your reply is related to.

Example: If the message you are replying contains 4 paragraphs and your reply contains 2 sections for 2 out of those 4 paragraphs, just keep the 2 related paragraphs with your reply. This will help the readability of your message and will optimize the reading for all members. This will also avoid long messages for nothing.

Reply to the original person when following an answer

If you are replying to several members with the same information (as when thanking several people for solving your problem), please leave a single message to the first person who answered you and CC the others.

Auto quote

When replying to a message, you have the ability to configure your account to auto quote the original message. This can be done by the use of the Options menu or from your account setup.

CC forwarding

This option allows you to select some members who participate in this thread for CC forwarding. That means they will receive as well a reply in their inbox as if you would have replied directly to them.

This is needed if there is really a good reason to check some members in here. Assuming your message contains some information that relate to a previous message in this thread on a particular topic a member have written, then, in such circumstances, there might be a need to check that member.

When this is the case, go down the list of people who have participated in the thread, and only include people that you think might be interested in the post. Don't just go down the list and check everybody, even though you have no idea what or when they contributed to the thread. The UT has a feature that lets readers mark which threads they are interested in. If they want to read every single message in the thread, let them mark the thread themselves. Some people participate in a LOT of threads here, and reading relevant message takes a LOT of time. Be courteous, this messages may be considered junk mail.

The member who created the thread appears in bold.

Not all members may appear in here. If a member has configured his/her account to not appear in the list of CC forwarding, you won't see him/her in here.

Create a private message

Assuming the member you wish to send a private message is online, you can do it by clicking on the icon to obtain all the members currently online in the messages area. You then click on the icon to send a private message.

Assuming the member is not online or if you want to do it directly, you can click on the search for members icon. Proceed with the proper search. From the list, click on the member to obtain the profile. You can then send a private message by clicking on the private message icon from the account profile toolbar.

You can also use a more direct way by the use of the private message icon, assuming you would have enabled it, from the upper toolbar. That icon appears at the right part of the toolbar. It will only appear if you have enabled it from your account setup for PUTM options. When clicking on it, you can use the search selection icon to use the list facility to select the member.

Proper etiquette

Never send a private message to a member to sollicitate technical support in private. It is really impolite to do something like this.

The purpose of this option is to allow members to exchange messages in private when justification is applicable.

Sending a technical support message in private to a member when the topic is for the general audience forces that member to reply to you. It may not be in the member's intention to invest some time to help you in private. Every member on the Universal Thread is free to help when they want to. Any technical support message should be posted in the threading environment.

In such a situation, you are most than likely to never receive a reply from that member. Or, if you receive one, it might be a rude reply as sollicitation on the Universal Thread is forbidden.

View message - Tools menu

The Tools menu appears at the upper right of the form when there are dynamic settings which may be applied to the current form you are using.

Depending on the form you are using, the list of options will vary.

If you find that the Tools menu wraps or wraps too much, you may want to diminish the width of the message area in order to make some additional room on the right of the form for the menu exposure.

Switch color theme

The Universal Thread offers presently three color themes. You may select the one you want. Combined with the ability to change the background color of the data entry fields as well as the message area background color, this should allow you to benefit of an interface which will fit your needs.

Select message background color

When viewing a form, if there is a memo field, you will have the ability to change the background color. This applies presently to the View message, from the threading environment and to the Private view message form.

Select data entry field color

When in a data entry form, this gives you the ability to change the background color of all data entry fields.

Select message area width

This allows you to change the value of the message area width. If you are working in pixel mode, the value which will appear will be the pixel value. Otherwise, it'll be the percentage value.

Adjusting the message width

The message width setting, by default, in your account setup, is configured to work in pixel. Thus, a precise value has to be entered. For those of you who work with two setups, such as one at work and one at home, where the resolution is different, you may want to switch your mode to use a percentage value instead. That can be done by the use of "Enable message width in percentage" which is below in the menu. Once done, the rendering of the form will be done in percentage.

Note that when changing that option, if you are within a data entry form, you will be prompted for a confirmation. This is necessary as, if you have done some changes in the form, you will loose them after the refresh.

Change toolbar background color

When a toolbar is present, such as when viewing a message from the threading environment, you'll have the ability to change its background color.

Adjust message text font size

This allows you to change the message text font size for forms which are showing a memo field and for those data entry forms which contains a TEXTAREA field.

Note that this does not apply to any other field. There are important reasons for that. If we would allow the member to change all the fields we have layed out on several forms, it wouldn't just make sense. In order to preserve some specific layouts on our forms, we need to control how they should be shown. This is standart to several software you may have installed on your PC. We already allow a large range of account setup features as for the interface. This is pretty much more than what you'll find on several other sites.

View a reply to you

ImageDescriptionEnabling
Reply to the message Permanent
Move the message to the list of read messages Dynamic
Move the message to the list of unread messages Dynamic
Remove the message from your inbox list Permanent
Email the message to yourself Permanent

Toolbar

This section provides information on the dynamic portion of the upper toolbar. That section is updated at a given interval in order to provide you actual stats about new messages, your replies, etc.


Click on it to get all the new messages. You may want to click on this icon when the count is increasing which indicates new messages have been creating. Clicking on this icon will overwrite the upper panel containing the mapping of all the new messages since you logon. Be sure you have finish reading the new messages before clicking on it.

When you are reading the new messages it is more than likely that new messages will be created. If you want to get those new messages without overwritting the upper panel, you may click on the number next to the icon. This will result in showing the new messages that have been created during your session in the transactional frame. In that way, you can follow an active thread by using this link and continue to read all new messages from the upper panel.


This lists all the replies to your messages.

Note that this also contains any message that other members have checked you to receive. That is doable from the list of all participants in a thread which appears whenever someone makes a reply. A member may check you, assuming it concerns you, so you'll receive that message as well.

Note also that you can disable that ability. In account setup for PUTM, there is an option to avoid being CCed in such an action.


This is the Agent section. It contains various features which relates to an Agent which works for you when you are not logged in.

Marked threads

Contains the list of marked messages coming from the list of marked threads you have selected. To mark a thread, you do it when reading a message. It is part of the list of options at the bottom.

Word searching

Contains all the messages the Word Searching Agent has found for you. This applies to any new upcoming message in that thread. You may configure your account to enter various words you would like to Agent to find out.

Subscribed users

This contains a list of all messages from users you have subscribed to. You may configure your account to enter several member IDs. So, whenever a message is created from one of them, you'll receive it here. This is really useful is you want to follow someone else activity on the Universal Thread.


Contains private messages sent to you. Click on it to get all the list of private messages.


This is the notification of replies whenever someone makes a comment in one of your entries out of messages area content such as Toledo Wish List, Universal Thread Task Tracker and Downloads.


This lists the number of members presently online in the messages area. You can click on the link next to the icon to get them.

Searching for messages

The search in the full archive of messages allows you to search within our million of messages since the beginning of the Universal Thread by the use of various search criteria.

As simple as it is, just enter a search string and select from the various listboxes to apply any required search criteria. When you want to search for multiple words, just separate them with spaces. Don't enter any operator. The search engine is configured to locate messages where any word you enter are found.

The search engine requires a subscription.

Search for

This search extracts all messages containing the word(s) entered which match the search criteria. Multiple words represent a logical AND search. You have to enter at least three characters. The words FROM, NOT, HAVING, LIKE, HAVE, FOR, AND, WITH, WITHIN, THEN, .NOT, HAS, NEAR and WITHOUT are reserved.

Period

By default, the search will be done on the current year. If you wish to search on all messages, you may adjust the selection to All years. Note that you can check the option in your account setup for PUTM options under Settings to default the search on All years.

This selection also allows you to specify a search for a specific date range. When you know that a message you are searching for was posted during a specific period, you may adjust that setting and enter the beginning and end dates in the related fields.

Type of search

By default, the type of search is executed to retrieve all messages that contains the word(s) you have entered. However, in some cases, you may want to search for an exact match such as "The Report Writer". When this is the case, simply change this selection to "The exact phrase needs to be found". This will proceed with an exact search.

From/To

By default, a search is done on all members who posted the messages. If you want to filter the search on a specific member, enter the member ID in the member field either in the From and/or the To fields.

Thread ID

This search displays the map of a thread which correspond to the thread ID entered.

Message ID

This search displays the message which correspond to the message ID entered.

Searching in the calendar

The search engine in the messages area based on a monthly archive is widely used. As simple as the previous search, and located next to it, it allows you to display a calendar result based on your search criteria. This is really useful for specific reasons such as when you know in which month specific messages you are searching for can be located or when you want to improve your knowledge skills by filtering a specific month for threads that don't have an answer.

You just select the proper search criteria and the calendar will be refreshed. Then, from any day, clicking on the link, will give you the thread map in the upper frame. If there is less than 1000 messages, you will have the ability to get them all. There will be an additional link at the bottom of the calendar.

Retrieving new message

When you enter the messages area or when clicking on the refresh icon to get the new messages recently created while you were working in the messages area, you usually get a map of messages displayed like this:

When there is less than 400 new messages, which is likely to be the case if you use the messages area on a regular basis, you will always get all new messages within one download. You can then click on an message to get it shown at the bottom.

However, if you've been way from the messages area for a while, such as on vacation, a long weekend or for any other reason, there is a good chance that more than 400 new messages are available. Sometimes, this can represent thousands of new messages or even more if you have been away for a long time. As it wouldn't make sense to download all that data in one download, the messages area include a dynamic message retrieval which will take place when necessary.

That means whenever this will be necessary, you will get all new messages in a summary format first. This is how it could look:

The display will show all forums with their categories with the number of new messages in them. The map allows you to click on a category or on its icon to open its map.

When that occurs, in order to let you know that this is happening, you will receive a notice.

This can be turned off from your account setup once you get use to this automatic display of the map. You can go in your PUTM settings to turn it off.

When that map is displayed, once you click on any category, we will first show you all unconnected branches. Then, when clicking on any item, you will get the entire map from that branch.
An unconnected branch is either the first message of a thread or a specific message from the thread which connects to a parent message which is not part of the new messages. As there is no way to make such an unconnected branch to connect to a parent message, it will be displayed from the top level as well.
Note that you can go back, as usual, to any prior messages when viewing a message (by its use of various options in the toolbar) or when using any other option such as the calendar.

Here is a view of a display which shows the first level of branches when clicking on a category:

And, as usual, here is out it looks when clicking on a branch:

Dashboard

The Dashboard is a small frame which can appear on the left of the messages area window which acts as a monitoring status and allows you a one click access to important features.

The configuration of the Dashboard is a benefit of the subscription.

The search allows a one click search into the messages area. It will use your default setup to know if the search has to be done on the actual period or on the last four periods. When doing the search, you'll be forwarded as if you would have done a search from the upper search icon. Your search value will be pre-filled in the form and you will be able to proceed with additional searches.

The time warp is very useful. It allows to go back in time as if you would do a login. Assuming you would like to retrieve the messages as if you would have just logged but based on a specific time period, you would be able to use this option to get them.

The list of members online and offline is based on your account setup for the Dashboard. The list of members you have entered in your account setup will be bound to those two lists.

The list of favorites messages is bound on your list of favorites messages. The upper toolbar already contains a button to give you the list of favorites members and messages you have defined. However, the Dashboard also offers the ability to include it so this gives you a one click access to those messages. You can add a message in your list of favorites messages when viewing it. You can do the reverse process by doing the same.

The list of replies gives you the last 10 unread replies to your messages. The upper toolbar also gives you a button to get into your replies. However, the Dashboard offers the ability to give you a one click access to the last 10.

The dashboard refreshes at the same time as the upper toolbar transactional icons. That is based on your account setup.

As soon as the status of online/offline members changes, the change will be reflected here immediately.

Configuring the Dashboard

Under the Account setup, in the Update your account (PUTM)/Dashboard, the first checkbox allows you to enable or disable the Dashboard.

Shortcut to add members to the list of online members

When viewing someone else's profile, you can add that member to the Dashboard by simply clicking on the 4th icon in regards to adding and removing members to your profile. When the member is part of your list of monitered members, you can then click on it to remove it.

Comparing the Universal Thread with other technical support engines

Here is a very good comparison between the Universal Thread and the newsgroups given by a Microsoft MVP:

The threading of messages and the monitored style of the Universal Thread is much better for the discussions that go on. I am one who is present on Compuserve forum, the Universal Thread, and the newsgroups. I find that I spend the least amount of time on the news groups because they are not efficient for me. The amount of spam is disturbing.

For example, try seaching the entire message base on the newgroups to see if your issue has been discussed before, you can do that here. Try addressing a reply to a specific person witout cluttering up their email on the newsgroups, you can do that here.

I, for one, absolutely abhore getting email asking for free support. I spend an alotted amount of time each day here, on compuserve, and sometimes in the newsgroups to help folks out. My email is my private mailbox and I use it for business and personal correspondence. Anytime I reveive an email message asking a Fox question or replying with additonal questions about some thread in a newsgroup or even here, I ingore it and won't repsond.

Here in the Universal Thread folks can easily send a message to me and the next time I log in I will be notified of that message and can read and respond to it. If you have posted a question the responses you get will waiting for and you will be notified of there existence. None of that happens on the newsgroups.

Lastly, I have never seen a message here on the Universal Thread that was titled "Watch my sister do something discusting", or "Make $50,000,000 in two days at home". Any messages that have ever been opsted here that were of questionable content are rapidly handled by the sysop staff (who by the way do a fabulous job).

Jim Booth
Microsoft MVP

Retrieving messages from another member

The best is to do a search on a specific member. Then, you click on the name to obtain the profile.
  1. Click on the search for members icon
  2. Search for a member
  3. Click on the name
  4. Click on the Messages distribution icon from the account profile toolbar

Retrieving members from my region

You can access the list of members in your region by clicking on the Reports icon from the upper toolbar, proceed with Canada repartition, United States repartition or with Country repartition. You will be able to proceed by filtering a region. You can also use the Search, which is also on the toolbar, to search for members by entering several criteria.

Does Microsoft support the MVP program on the Universal Thread?

Yes, Microsoft supports the MVP program on the Universal Thread. Some Microsoft MVP program representatives are monitoring the Universal Thread on a regular base to keep track of the activities of the current MVPs and to detect possible new ones.

How to differentiate regular members from subscribers?

The email icon can be used to difference a subscriber from a regular member. The difference is in the color.


This represents a subscriber.


This represents a regular member.

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