First, if you want to read all of the replies to one post, try clicking on
"Collate Replies" at the top of your screen. Furthermore, if you hit
"Collate Replies" you will also get a summary of the thread that will allow you
to click on and read more replies further down the thread. But I
suggest getting out of "Collate Replies" before responding to any of the
posts, since it is easy to lose track of which post you were originally
viewing, and to reply to the wrong post. If any of that is unclear, just
try experimenting with "Collate Replies" and see what happens.
Second, when responding to a lengthy post try clicking on "Quote" to the right
of the message box. You can either retain the quoted material from the
original post, or delete it as you compose your answer (which is what I
do). Why bother quoting if you are just going to delete it later?
Because when your answer gets saved part way through you will lose the original
post to which you were responding. Again, try it and you will see what I
mean.
Third, if you are starting a thread, save as soon as you have typed your
subject and even one letter of your message. Otherwise you may lose the
entire post later. Trust me, save as soon as possible.
Fourth, there are all kinds of HTML tags you can play around with if you click
on "FAQ" in the upper left corner of the page. The easiest trick, and the
one I use most frequently, is italics, which you can create with < i > and end
with < /i > (but close the gaps, which I inserted so "and end with" wouldn't be
italicized).
Finally, I almost always proofread my posts by choosing "Preview w/o
Spellcheck" in the lower left of the page. Do not choose "Preview &
Spellcheck" because Spellcheck has bugs. If you need a spellcheck
program, compose your answer on a word processing program and cut and
paste.
“I dislike Allegory - the conscious and intentional allegory - yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must use allegorical language. (And, of course, the more 'life' a story has the more readily will it be susceptible of allegorical interpretations: while the better a deliberate allegory is made the more nearly will it be acceptable just as a story.)” (From Tolkien Letter # 131.)
