Welcome new members! Navigating the Forums

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Please read the policies, instructions and tips on how to use the forums to get the most out of your time spent here.

Navigating the Forums
You can click on "ODR" at the top left of the screen and it will bring you to the home page with a complete list of the forums.

You can also use the "Quick Links" option (also at the top of any page) to check for new posts in all forums since your last visit. That way, you don't have to browse through every single forum to check for new posts.

Searching the Forums
Before posting a question, you may want to search the forums to look for older posts on the same subject.

To search the forum, click on the Search link in the navigation menu at the top of the screen. On the Search page, you can enter one or more keywords to search with.

You can
*search in just one forum or all forums,
*search for posts by a specific member,
*search for posts by date.

Posting on the Forum
When you want to post, decide which forum is the most appropriate one. That way, you will get more comments and answers to your questions. The subject of a post is also easier to find when they are placed in the right forums.

It often helps to start a new thread and introduce yourself rather than bury your first post within another thread, and please feel free to tell as much or as little about yourself that you care to, minus personally identifiable information.

Please follow the forum rules when posting or replying to someone else's post.

More Information
For more information about using the forum, click on the FAQs link which is also in the top of the screen. This is not to be confused with the FAQs forum (which is used for links, books, and info on how to find a Dr or rehab).

In the FAQs link you will find the information on how the forum works. And if you're not sure what something means, you can find a list of commonly used words in the Forum Glossary

Any other questions? Post to or contact any of the forum moderators or administrators.

Enjoy participating in the forum community!

Give what you can and take what you need

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Revised June 4, 2006

If this is your first visit, please read the Forum Policies below.

You must register as a member if you want to post messages of your own, access the member profiles or contact another member.

Respect Our Members
We are here to share our experience, strength, and hope.
The ODR Forum is dedicated to the purpose of sharing knowledge, experience, insight, advice, support, and encouragement.

To maintain the Forum as a helpful, friendly and educational area for everyone, please follow the rules when participating.

We are a discussion forum for people of varying ages, nationalities, cultures, spiritualities and beliefs all sharing the common thread of addiction and recovery from that addiction.

Please write in clear English, remember your Netiquette, and read over your messages before posting in order to avoid possible misunderstandings.

Play nice while you're here.

No flaming, baiting, insults, or harassment of other members on the forum or via forum email or the PM system.
Lack of respect for other members will result in post removal and/or temporary or permanent suspension of all member privileges.

Absolutely no spamming.

Stay On-Topic
Asking a new question deep within a thread, that isn't directly related to the original topic?
* Post it in a new thread so everyone can follow the discussion.

Tempted to diverge into an unrelated tangent while deep in a thread?
*Show good manners and move your discussion to a more appropriate place.

For example...Politics and religion are a fact of life and a part of life and may be discussed as long as it does not become disruptive and threaten the peace of the forum.
Subjects like these should generally be contained in a thread of their own since they dont directly relate to addiction.

Avoid meta-discussion. Instead of talking about the thread or post itself while you're posting in it, stick to talking about the original topic.

Any concerns about our policies, rules or guidelines should be sent privately to a moderator or to administration for handling.

Quality, Not Quantity
We like thoughtful posts that contribute your thoughts or opinions. Try to stay away from one line messages or post 'Me too', 'I agree', 'Well said' as these will be removed.

Keep personal conversation to email or instant messaging. If your conversation is directed at one other person and is of no interest to anyone else - please take it to a private message.

Respect Our Moderators & Forum Policies
Respect for members also extends to the moderators. ODR's moderators are volunteers and often have to deal with challenging situations and differing views when maintaining the community.....and the vast majority of the time they do a great job.

You can help our moderators out by letting us know if you see something violating these rules or needing attention.

Any queries, concerns, arguments or discussion about a moderator's decisions, actions or behaviour should not be discussed in public. You may instead respectfully contact the moderator in private, or administration if the situation is unable to be resolved.

Forum policies or rules are not to be discussed on the forum in any manner. Disagreement or suggestions for changes may instead be sent directly to administration for consideration.

No Impersonations
Be yourself. No duplicate member accounts or multiple personas. Creating multiple accounts, or impersonating another person or members in order to solicit information or gain access to the forum, will result in a permanent ban.

Keep it Legal
This should go without saying: do not post any messages that are knowingly false or misleading, obscene, profane, sexually-orientated, hateful, threatening, invasive of someone's privacy, or otherwise in violation of any laws. This espeically includes the discussion of illegal drug trades and/or sales.

Our Disclaimer
Forum administration reserves the right to delete, edit, close or move any thread or post at any time, at our discretion.

Accounts will not usually be deleted, though personal information may be removed and accounts set to inactive upon request or if the member is in violation of forum policies.

Requests for mass post deletion will be denied in the interests of maintaining thread integrity.
Deletion of individual posts will be handled at the discretion of administration and/or moderators, tho you are able to delete your own posts and may do so if you decide to.

By posting on the ODR Forum, you give permission to ODR to reproduce your posts...for example, when managing threads and posts or copying the database to another server.

The above Forum Rules are intended to be a general guide, and are not exhaustive. We reserve the right to change these rules at any time, and to take actions in the interest of the Forum as a whole to remove disruptive members and/or posts.

Above all, use your maturity and common sense when participating in the ODR forums.

Give what you can and take what you need

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Why should I register?
In order to fully utilize the abilities of this forum, the administrators require that you register as a member.

Registration is free, and allows you to do the following:
*Post new threads
*Reply to other peoples' threads
*Edit your posts
*Receive email notification of replies to posts and threads you specify(subscription)

How do I register?
To register, you will need to choose a username and password, and specify a valid email address. Entering your email address will not leave you open to 'spam', as you can choose to hide your email address, and messages sent to you via email do not reveal your address to the sender in any case. (To verify this, you can try sending an email message to another user.)

The administrator may have configured the forum to send you the final part of the registration process by email, so ensure that the email address you provide is valid and working.

If you are under the age of 13, the administrator may require that a parent or guardian provides consent before allowing you to complete the registration process. More information about this is available during the registration process.

How can I change the information in my profile?
It is your responsibility to keep the information in your profile up-to-date. You should especially ensure that your email address is kept current. You can alter any of the fields in your profile, except your username. Once you have registered your username, it becomes yours for life. Certain circumstances arise when you may need to change your user name, you may request that the administrator change your username.

What is the signature for?
After you have registered, you may set your signature. This is a piece of text that you would like to be inserted at the end of all your posts, a little like having headed note paper.

If the administrator has enabled signatures, then you will have the option to include your signature on any posts you make. If you have specified a signature, then the forum will automatically append your signature to any messages you post. You can disable signatures on a per-post basis by un-ticking the 'Show Signature' checkbox when you compose your message.

You may turn the signature on and off on posts you have already made by editing the post and altering the state of the 'Show Signature' option.

You can set your signature by editing your profile.

I lost my password, what can I do?
If you forget your password, you can click on the 'Forgotten Your Password' link on any page that requires you to fill in your password.

This will bring up a page where you should enter your registered email address, and an email will be sent to that address instantly, with instructions for resetting your password.

The administrators do not have access to your passwords.

Can I send email to other members?
Yes! To send an email to another member, you can either locate the member you want to contact on the member list, or click the button on any post made by that member.

This will usually open a page that contains a form where you can enter your message. When you have finished typing your message, press the [send email] button and your message will be sent instantly. Note that for privacy reasons, the email address of the recipient is not revealed to you during this process.

Note that if you can not find an email button or link for a member, it either means that the administrator has disabled email functions for this forum, or that the member in question has specified that they do not wish to receive email from other members of the forum.

Another useful email function is the ability to send a friend a link to a thread you think they may find interesting. Whenever you view a thread, you will find a link somewhere on the page which will allow you to send a brief message to anyone you like.

How do I use the Member List?
The member list contains a complete list of all the registered members of this forum. You can view the member list ordered alphabetically by username, by the date that the member joined the forum, or by the number of posts the members have made.

What are announcements?
Announcements are special messages posted by the administrator or moderators. They are designed to be a simple one-way communication with the users. If you wish to discuss announcements, you will have to create a new thread in the forum, since you cannot reply to announcements.

Can I search the forum?
You can search for posts based on username, word(s) in the post or just in the subject, by date, and only in particular forums.

To access the search feature, click on the "search" link at the top of most pages.

You can search any forum that you have permission to search - you will not be allowed to search through private forums unless the administrator has given you the necessary security rights to do so.

Give what you can and take what you need

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Are there any special codes/tags I can use to markup my posts?
For the most part, your posts will contain plain text, but on occasions, you may want to emphasize certain words or phrases by making them (for example) bold or italic.

Depending on the rules of the forum, you may use HTML code to produce these effects. However, more often than not, the administrator will have disabled HTML code, and opted instead to use Forum Code: a special set of tags which you can use to produce the most popular text-effects. Forum code has the advantage that it is very simple to use, and is immune to malicious javascripts and page layout disruption.

You may also find that the administrator has enabled smilies, which allow you to use small icons to convey emotion.

Can I edit my own posts?
If you have registered, you will be able to edit and delete your posts.
To edit or delete your posts, click the edit icon below the post you want to edit.
If your post was the first in the thread, then deleting the post may result in the removal of the entire thread so you may want to edit your first post instead by removing the text and (since you can't post a blank message) replacing it with a * or other such mark, then click on "save changes".
After you or a moderator have made your modifications, a note will appear, which notifies other users that your post has been edited.
Administrators may also edit your messages but this note will not appear when they do so.

Why have some of the words in my post been blanked?
Certain words may have been censored by the administrator. If your posts contain any censored words, they will be blanked-out like this: ****.
The same words are censored for all users, and censoring is done by a computer simply searching and replacing words. It is in no way 'intelligent'.

A suggestion about "where" to put your post
I've noticed that sometimes a member will sandwich their post within someone elses thread. The post oftentimes gets lost in the shuffle and is ignored mainly because it is not seen.

You will get your questions answered more quickly, find the support you need, etc if you start a new thread introducing yourself followed by your concerns and comments. You will get better results if you choose the correct forum to start your thread in.

For example: If you are seeking help because of an addiction to pain pills, post in the "pain meds" forum.

Please feel free to roam the board and comment and reply where ever you wish to.
But if you have a specific comment or question, you will get the best results by posting in the forum that closest fits your subject matter.

Post In The Right Place
First, use the search feature. There are over 300,000 existing messages in our forums. Your question might have been answered - there may already be a whole thread on the topic.

Make an effort to find the most suitable board for your question, so you will receive more replies. Don't cross-post or repeat the same message in more than one forum.

Summarise the topic of your thread in your subject line. This way, it takes fewer clicks to see what your message is about, and it assists everyone else (including you) in finding the thread again later.

Give what you can and take what you need

[spring]

Glossary

The Board and the Forum
The site as a whole is usually called "the board", which houses the individual seperate topics called forums or rooms.

Thread
A collection of posts in chronological order under a single heading.

Post
A single message.

Poster
The member who writes a message. The author of a post.

User Title
A title that appears under your name which is to the left side of your post.

Signature
The tag-line that appears under your posts. A signature is optional.

Profile
The information about yourself which is visible to other members and subscribers.
Your profile contains your user name, real name(not required or recommended), gender, your location, your signature, join date, your autobiography, and any other info you desire to share such as your favorite quote and interests.

What are moderators and administrators?

Moderators are members who look after one or more forums to help ensure that discussions flow smoothly and the posts stick to the forum rules.
They generally have the ability to edit and delete posts, move threads, and perform other actions.
Becoming a moderator for a specific forum is usually rewarded to users who are particularly helpful and knowledgeable in the subject of the forum they are moderating.

The administrator runs the technical side of a forum, and sets rules and policies.
Administrators are the people who have overall control of everything that happens on the board. They oversee how the board is styled, what forums to create and how to organize them, what information to require from members and who to appoint as moderators.

Give what you can and take what you need

[spring]

Use Of Full Names is Discouraged

Many newcomers dont realize the space that requests your name will show up as your user name on your posts. If you should use your whole name, your profile will be edited to delete your last name and will be replaced with the initial instead.

This is something we encourage to insure that you remain anonymous and save future possibilities of stalking, etc Be Safe.

You can make any changes to your profile except for your user name. If you should decide to change your user name please contact an administrator via PM with your request.

Glad you're here and hope you'll stick around.