Using Horseadvice.com
by Robert N. Oglesby DVM
This document gives you the basic knowledge that you need to use this board effectively. Whether you are a member or visitor affects what information you can access. As a visitor you may read the introductions to the articles and the current forum discussions. Having a membership on this discussion board gives the following benefits:
- Access to the whole articles and the member only discussion areas.
- Create new discussions and post to existing discussions.
- Have discussions or topics emailed to you when updated
To become a member and receive instant access go to the Application Form and follow the instructions.
Let's begin with the structures that are on your screen right now and on every screen of Horseadvice:
Main Frame:
The large window this text is in. In the Main Frame you will find explanatory text, menus with which you bore down onto your topic of interest, the horse articles, and discussions.
Search Form:
The simple search form on every page of the Advisor searches both the articles and the discussions. It is designed to bring up information in order of relevance. If there is an article on your subject, it will appear at the top of the results. Discussions with the search term in their titles will appear next, and lastly if the word is just part of the text those pages where the term is use most often next, etc...
Navigation Frame:
The narrow window to the left of this window. The Navigation Frame allows you to quickly review the menupages and jump to any menu on the site. Although we consist of almost 50,000 pages, you are never more than 3 links from any page on the site using the Navigation Frame.
Navigation Bar:
Consists of the list of links at the top of this page seperated by little arrows ">>". This bar has 2 functions. It tells you your location in the site and allows you to go back up the subtopic menus that lead to the page you are on. Note well: this may be different result than your "back button" if you jumped to a page from a different topic.
Your Back Button:
We bring this up to remind you that this button takes you back to the last page you viewed, which may be different than the next page back on the navigation bar depending on how you got to the page.
Don't let the size of Horseadvice fool you, we are structured like a book. Topics are arranged into organized chapters that we call topics. These topics are divided into more specific subjects called subtopics. A subtopic may be either another menu or an article page. On the article page you will find the article, the list of discussions on that subject, and the create a new discussion button.
The search engine will rapidly display all the articles and discussions a particular term appears in Horseadvice and will arrange them in order of relevance however it tries to avoid menu pages. What if you are not sure what you are looking for? For instance you have symptoms but don't know what diseases might be related to that symptom. Or if you are looking for general information on nutrition. These are cases where perusing menus of related articles and discussions may help you answer your questions. Don't forget by using the rollout menus on the navigation frame you can instantly review all of the menus on the site.
The Topics and subtopics are arranged on menus in logical hierarchies by subject matter. Starting at the homepage and working your way down to your specific subject works best for problem-solving for a couple of reasons:
- The menus help organize your thoughts.
- Menus allow you to view other related information that you may not have thought of.
As you bore down the subtopic menus, examine the choices carefully. Pay close attention to overview and diagnosis topics that further help explain a topic or diagnose a condition. Study the menu itself. It often contains helpful information. Articles are grouped on the menus by their relationship to each other. If the article you selected did not apply, look at the articles around it or look for a more general article.
The article page will contain the article and a forum with a list of preexisting discussions. At the bottom of the list of discussions there will be a "Create New Discussion" button. If the article on your subject did not answer your question or raised more questions you cannot find an answer to, study the article's Discussions below the article. Each article has its own forum associated with it where you can read others topics and post a question. Before posting study the preexisting discussions, frequently you will find your question answered there. If not, post a New Discussion. Do not add your question to the bottom of someone else's discussion, this is reserved for when you want to respond or ask about the orignal poster's topic.
Horseadvice has a open forum system. Any member can post a question or reply. Posts are not reviewed before they are put on the board. DrO attempts to look at every health or disease post in a timely manner. Note that these boards should not be used to take the place of emergency veterinary care. They are answered depending on how long they have been posted, have they been posted appropriately, and their succinctness and clarity. Long rambling posts or posts that have been added to someone else's discussion go to the bottom of the reply list and are replied to as time allows.
Besides the short form on every page there is a search page available from the navigation frame. Here you can do more refined boolean searches arranged by parameters other than relevance or search just the discussions by author, subject title, time posted, or even bring up the discussions that have been posted since the last time you did a search.
We have many dictionaries and illustrtations to help explain and clarify what you are reading in the reference section available from the navigation frame.
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