New forum features.

We've added a few new features to the forums at the request of some of our students.

First, to avoid duplicate messages and multiple fragmented conversations about the same topic, we've added a message to the top of the post window reminding people to use the Search function before posting. You will see this at the top of the post window each time you post and it's just a little reminder - even those of us who have been on the forums a long time sometimes forget to check!

The second feature is an in-forum bookmarking system. I'm sure most of you have come across forum threads that you would like to bookmark for later reference. All web browsers include bookmarking functionality, and you can always use those to bookmark a part of the forums. But a lot of us already have tons of bookmarks and things can get cluttered. You also don't usually have access to your bookmarks if you are on a different computer than the one you normally use. The forum bookmarking system is specific to the forums here. The bookmarks are listed only in the forums, they don't clog up your regular bookmarks, and your bookmarks for forum discussions will always be available when you are logged-in to the forums, from any computer. This makes it a bit better than standard bookmark system in your browser.

To use the new bookmarks feature, just click the Add Bookmark button in the row of "action buttons" at the top of each forum discussion. To visit a list of your bookmarks, or remove some of them, click My Bookmarks on the top menu.

We hope these new functions prove useful and we're glad to have feedback on them if you have any questions, concerns, or comments.

- Oshyan