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As well as being an exceptional place to spend a social hour or two, they're where you can tap the collective knowledge of over 400,000 runners, from first-timers to wizened oldies like the RW staff. Here’s a guide to help you get started – peppered with helping hands from the forum folk themselves. First StepsOn the forum, no beginner is too new, no question too obvious - and sometimes, no conversation too far removed from running. To keep things intelligible, there are separate folders for different topics - including beginners, training, events, and general nonsense."What can a beginner expect? Help, friendship, advice, invitations to socials, people to meet up with at races, P45…" - Nessie You can ask how to get rid of a stitch, whether anyone is going to the Deenes Doone Run, what the new Asics Gel Kayano is like - or on weightier matters, who you fancy most on ER. An automated email message (if you want one) will tell you when someone's replied. If you click on the main forum tab (circled below), you'll see folders for various forum topics. In them, you'll see all of that topic's conversations (or 'threads'). The conversations with the newest replies will be listed first. To jump to another topic folder, you can either click the main forum tab again, or click the folder names in the dark-blue bar under the tabs.
Here's a swift guide to the folders:General: Perfect if you've got a running question or point that won't fit into another folder. There's some non-running chat in here, but it mostly belongs in the 'Clubhouse ' folder (below)
Beginners: A total safe haven for newcomers. As well as beginners finding themselves in the same boat, many old-timers drop in to offer advice.
Training: This is purely for training advice - but for all levels, from the ultra-simple to the totally technical
Health + Injury: This includes some excellent long-running weight-loss threads, as well as advice for getting crocked runners back on the trails. Our readers have thousands of injuries-worth of experience - but on a sensible note, there's no substitute for getting an injury professionally looked at.
Gear:
Product loves, hates and questions. Often linked to our product reviews.
Events:
Going to a race? Just been? This is where runners ask and answer questions and sometimes arrange to meet up at events. Often linked to our race listings.
Clubhouse (incorporating URWFRC): Home of general chat and miscellaneous rants. Yes, everyone seems to know each other. Yes, it's home of the funniest threads in the forums…
Flora London Marathon Busy throughout the year... Triathlon / Ultra / Adventure racing etc: (Gasp!) Non-conventional running... Speed-reading the forumsAbove the forum topic folders you'll notice a function that can make navigation even easier. It looks just like this:
The discussion bar has four links, which do what their names suggest:
Another useful starting point is the 'Best of the Forum' pod – usually towards the top-left of the forum. The Best of the Forum pages are a good place to start if you have a question that you think may have been answered already - they're hundreds of hand-picked links under different headings.
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How to add an image or movie to a forum post
You can insert an image or movie from another website into your forum post. Click the square 'insert image/movie' tree icon,then put the web address (url) of the image into the popup form and submit it. You can also add a YouTube or Google video like this (movies do not appear until the post is submitted).
How to quote other people's messages
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| How to change the appearance of the forum page
(showing and hiding member stats, avatars, signatures and images, and using an advanced vs simple message editor)
How to control forum notifications
The forum can send you an email alert when someone replies to a thread you have taken part in. The site's default is to send you one email after the first reply, then no more until you have visited the thread . | ||||
How to change your privacy settings
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Press this to paste it as a quote:
(2) The Notifications section on your My Forum page lists your current notifications:
(3) Change your notifications default in the Settings section of your My Forum page:
Forum folk and forum etiquette
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Joining in the forums is like turning up at a huge running club that welcomes runners at all levels. Just being yourself is a very good rule of thumb, unless you're naturally obnoxious, in which case trying extra hard to be polite and interested might be a fine idea.
In the forums, you'll find 'normal' running threads, chatty threads, a few very, very long threads, and some familiar faces cropping up again and again. Many of those forum regulars drop into all sorts of threads to offer advice or encouragement - you'll soon find out who's most specialised in what. The very long threads are often a kind of meeting place for like-minded runners (eg on weight loss, or starting out).
You don't have to know anything at all about the other people in your conversation, but here’s a tip: "If you lurk for a while, you’ll realise that xxx is actually a really experienced runner, so suggesting they try different shoes is not going to be that useful, or that yyy understands very well the normal rules for improving your running but has other issues which mean they just won't work for them. And you're less likely to accidentally put people’s noses out of joint." - lp
"Lots of forumites have very specific areas of knowledge and it is a learning process knowing who to ask what." – Plum
"We have doctors, dentists, accountants, lawyers, techie peeps, nutritionists, and everyone else under the sun. You'll soon get steered in the direction of the person who can help you best." - Nessie
Click on a person's name in the forum to see whether they've filled any details in their profile.
"I think it is important to keep your profile up to date. It helps when people want to give you advice as well as let you see how experienced the people giving advice are (ok, so people could lie, but I don't think that happens round here)." - Jen*
Forum conventions
We try to be grown up about managing the forums, so the only real rules are the heavy terms and conditions you signed up to (no obscenity, no commerce, no impersonation...) But you might find these guidelines helpful...- For security, don't post your phone number or address on the forum.
- "99% of the people who post on here are nice. Don't be put off by the 1% who are nasty." - Nessie
- "Don't forget good manners - if you post a problem and people help, then don't just read it and be done - a quick thank you takes no time at all and acknowledges that you have returned to your thread as well as bumping it up the page." - Inux
- Don't get too offended if someone posts a view that you're not in agreement with. "Everyone is entitled to an opinion... whether you disagree or not." - The Count
- "Boasting is bad.... although achievements are good (does that make any sense?) " - Fat Buddha
- No blatant promotion of events; only ask for charity sponsorship on our dedicated thread; no selling of goods. Your post will be removed and you'll get a ticking off – they're the rules!
- "Don't type in CAPS or LiKe ThIs - and text-message speak is not cool either."
- Some threads are there to provoke a reaction so don't take things too seriously
- "Don't feed the trolls unless they're being really entertaining!" - Lp
- "Never drink when reading a funny thread unless you have screen wipes... " - The Count
- "Never, ever, ever use the R word on here. R*n, is acceptable, r*nning is not much better, but never the full word. It's just not what these forums were designed for." – Dan Dan
Forumites in real life...
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There are also regular forum socials around the country. They're amazing. You just turn up to the designated pub, spot the likely people, and then start conversations with friendly runners you've never met before.
"Do go to socials or meet at events if you can, as you get to see the people behind the names. Jon doesn't even have two heads; Waapster does look like his picture." - Dodge
There's a great photo archive of forum events and socials at forumite Richk's website.
The forum moderators mainly work in response to reader complaints (fortunately, there are very few). If you come across a thread or post that offends you, drop us a line.
Press this to ignore a member (via the forum):
This is confirmed in your My Forum page, where you can manage your list of ignored memebrs
Here's how it looks:
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- If you don't like a particular forum members, you can hide their posts and any threads they start, from your view of the forum.
- Do this by clicking 'ignore member' under any of their forum posts; or by going to the 'Members I'm Ignoring' section of your My Forum page, and using the 'Add a member to your ignoe list' button. You can also 'unignore' members from this page.
