Help: OpenDebate Question / Message Top Banner The top banner displays the debate area, topic, question, and various buttons. Click on the debate area icon or area name to see other topics and areas. Click on the topic name to see other questions in this topic. The question, when visible, is breviated to fit the banner. When viewing a message, click on the breviated question to see it in full. The question may be attached with the following icons: indicates you have voted on the question. (*) indicates the question is currently in a official weekly poll. Question / Message Box The box below the top banner displays a question or message. It shows the author of the question or message, its status, the time and date it was created, and the body text. You may click on the author's user name to see his or her profile. The display for a question contains the question text, choices, poll result, URL references to background information, and Author's Comment. You can click on the URL references to read about the question's subject matter. Author's Comment is made at the time of the question was submitted. It is saved as Message #1 for the question. Question Status The above diagram illustrates the possible statuses of a question. When first proposed, the question has 14 days to attract voters. If more than 5 users votes on the question, then the question enters the Debate status. Otherwise it expires into the archive. The debate status is 8 weeks long, during which the question is eligible to be selected for the official weekly poll. Each Wednesday morning at 12:01 a.m., one question from each debate area with most votes is selected for the weekly poll. Those questions are upgraded to the Weekly Poll status for the 2 weeks that voting is open. After voting it is advanced to Closing status for two more weeks during which the users may post closing comments on the poll results. After closing, the question expires into the archive. If a question is not selected for poll by the end of its 8th week in open debate status, then it also expires into the archive. Message posting for a question is allowed for all statuses except Archive. Voting is allowed for all status except Closing and Archive. Action Buttons Underneath the message box are the action buttons. You will find Previous and Next to navigate through the message list sequentially. Respond and Edit (when applicable) let you respond to a message or edit your message. Editing of messages or questions is possible only during the first 30 minutes after the initial submission. However, you may still email our webmaster for further changes. Vote and Result Demographics are self explanatory. Message List (When Viewing a Question) There are several ways to view the message list of a question. The display is limited to 50 messages. So the index buttons determine which messages are listed. All or numeric numbers displays messages by their numbers. Last 24 Hours displays messages posted within the last 24 hours. Best Of lists messages that have 5 or more responses. (Duplicate responses from the same user or from the message author are not counted as responses.) Unread lists unread message(s) that are addressed to you. The message list only displays the first line of each message. Click on one to see it in full. The following icons may also be attached to the one line summary: one for every 5 responses (up to 4). indicates the message is posted by you. (*) indicates the message is responding to your message. (*) indicates an unread message addressed to you. (*) Response List (When Viewing a Message) When viewing a message, only its response(s) are displayed in the message list below the action buttons. The list may contain the same icons as above with one addition: indicates a message in a series of two users responding to one another. Spam Protection See User Profiles / Your Profile for instruction. (*) To activate the features marked (*), you must use the Login URL given in the Weekly Polls' Help page. © 1998-2005 www.OpenDebate.com - All Rights Reserved. . Feedback - Staff - Awards .