Last revised: November 13, 2015

Forums are where you will find groupings of related threads of discussion that you can reference and contribute to; if you have a question or are looking for information you cannot find by searching the site, post your inquiry in the most applicable community forum. As a contributor to any of the community forums, you have:

• The ability to subscribe to a specific community forum or thread so that any articles posted are sent to your email client
  
  
• No email address associated with postings, minimizing Spam and identity theft

Forums are an integral part of each community that makes up the communities as a whole. There are different "groupings" of communities on the site, each serving similar, yet slightly different purposes. Below is a list of the communities you can post to: 

• For Bentley product technical support, please start on http://communities.bentley.com/support.
  
  
• For anything other than technical support, we recommend starting on Community Central.
  
  
• For information and feedback on this site, go to http://communities.bentley.com/help.

What follows provides some additional information regarding community forums.

What is a community forum?
What is a thread/topic?
What are the community forum page OPTIONS and commands?
How do I post code?
How do I reply to a post?
When I view a community forum I do not see any thread/topics/posts?
I just posted a message, how come I do not see it?
I cannot access a community forum I know exists.
How can I contact a member who has posted already?
How can I edit my post?

What is a community forum?

A community forum is a grouping of related thread/topics of discussion.
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What is a thread/topic?

A thread/topic is a grouping of related posts. A thread/topic contains one or more posts. The first post becomes the thread/topic and replies to the original post increment details on the thread/topic, such as the reply count or last post.
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What are the community forum options and page commands?

When looking at a community forum, there will be a set of available commands in various areas of the forum homepage that are the actions you can perform in that forum. The list of "common tasks" may differ according to the level of permissions that your administrator has granted to you. Some of the common options include:

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How can I post code?

Refer to the Communities Upgrade: SyntaxHighlighter blog article for information on how to do this.

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How do I reply to a post?

[NOTE: you need to be signed in to post anything to Communities.]

1. Navigate to the appropriate forum, thread/topic, and:
   1. Click the Reply button to open the reply box directly under the post you want to reply to

      OR

   2. Click the "Advanced Reply Editor" link to open the Advanced editor
2. Compose your response.
3. If using the Advanced Reply Editor, add relevant tags by clicking from the tags presented or typing in your tags. Separate tags with commas.
4. Review Optional Tabs.
5. Click the "Post" or "Reply" button.

When I view a community forum I do not see any thread/topics/posts?

A community forum may not display any thread/topics if there are no thread/topics in the forum that meet the criteria of the forum tab you have selected.
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I just posted a message, how come I do not see it?

A forum may or may not be moderated depending upon how the forum has been configured. After posting a message in a moderated forum you may receive a message stating that the post is awaiting moderation. Once the moderator(s) approve your post it will become visible. The moderators may choose to move, edit, or delete your post to ensure that the post is topical to the current forum. In unmoderated forums, moderators may move (or split) a thread to a more appropriate forum.
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I cannot access a community forum I know exists.

If you are attempting to access a forum that you have visited before, but receive an error, there are two likely causes:

• The forum you are attempting to access is private and you are not signed in.
• The forum has been removed.

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How can I contact a member who has posted already?

By selecting a post from that member, you can contact them via email or Conversation, depending on what they have "Allow Conversations From" set to in their Communities Settings.

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How can I edit my post?

With the exception of forum and Site administrators, you can only edit your own posts in some community forums.

1. Select the post you want to edit
2. If you see a "More" link below the post, click that and if you have edit abilities in that forum, you will see an "Edit" link
3. An editing screen will appear
4. Make your edits, then click the "Post" button

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