Further notes on forum registration and posting

[admin]

This post is out of date, and is kept here for the record.

Over the past few months, upon request I have activated many new registrations for the 3DNA forum. To my surprise, however, very few of those newcomers have posted, certainly at a much lower percentage than perviously. As I've (hopefully) made clear in the several posts in the "Site announcements" section (see below), the content of the forum is open to public for viewing. Thus, unless you would like (and strongly encouraged) to get more actively involved, i.e., to post in the forum, there is really no need to register.

Note that the 3DNA forum is not a mailing list. According to the wikipedia entry on "Internet forum":

One significant difference between forums and electronic mailing lists is that mailing lists automatically deliver new messages to the subscriber, while forums require the member to visit the website and check for new posts. ... Visiting and participating in forums normally requires no additional software beyond the web browser.

Technically (and specifically), the 3DNA forum does not have email functionality. Thus, even those with active registrations cannot receive emails, or communicate with each other (including to the admin) by sending messages, directly through the forum.

As stated in my "Welcome message", this forum was created to make 3DNA-related "Q&As open to the community, archived and searchable". By making the content public, I've been putting pressure on myself to respond professionally. On the other hand, you may (as is often the case) choose to remain anonymous by not revealing identifiable information with your registration.

To make the forum spam free, some rules must be enforced, but they all boils down to just follow common-sense "netiquette". Over the years, I have strived to "make the 3DNA forum a more pleasant virtual community for all of us to learn from and contribute to".

Welcome  to register, but more importantly, do not hesitate to post! After all, that's the whole point to register.
 
Xiang-Jun Lu, the 3DNA forum administrator