The Aleutians Forum

The intent of our Aleutians Forum is to provide a means whereby members of the Aleutians community, including those who simply have an interest in the Aleutians, can readily get in touch with each other, express their opinions about various matters, and relate a few war stories.

The Aleutians Forum is a place where you can just visit and view what others have posted. You can, by Registering with and becoming a member of the Forum, create additional forums of your own, post messages, contact other members of the forum either publicly or privately, respond to posts, create your own posts, check the calendar for birthdays (which will only work if you supply your birth date), and vote in polls we publish periodically.

While our Aleutians Forum is divided up into several sub-forums to help organize information, any one can participate in any forum regardless of its title. The sub-forums are set up to make it a bit easier to find folks associated within a specific time frame, and to organize information in somewhat of a focused manner...hopefully making it easier to find who or what you're looking for. We have the following sub-forums established within our Aleutians Forum:

ALEUTIAN POLLS
WWII ALEUTIANS
POST-WWII ALEUTIAN
ALEUTIANS GENERAL
MISCELLANEOUS REMOTE SITES

ALEUTIAN POLLS: This forum was set up with the intentions of providing various subjects for which you could express your opinion by casting a vote for your choice. I've started this off with two polls as a result of the fevered-pitch being exhibited by the many politicians hoping to gain control of the USA. One poll is in recognition of political candidates who seemingly have the most face time on TV and who have also voiced their desire to become President. A second poll covers a slate of candidates who have not announced their intentions, but may some day become a candidate. If you have an idea for additional polls, let me know and I'll set them up. You must be a registered member in order to cast a vote.

WWII ALEUTIANS: This forum is for the use of our WWII veterans, family, friends, and others interested in the Aleutian Islands as they were during WWII. Registered members can start topics of their choice in this forum, or respond to others.

POST-WWII ALEUTIANS: As the title of this forum indicates, this forum is for the use of our post-WWII veterans, family, friends, and others interested in the Aleutian Islands during this period of time. Registered members can start topics of their choice in this forum, or respond to others.

ALEUTIANS GENERAL: Some subject matter may bridge all time periods and islands, and be of equal interest to those focusing on any of the other forums. If you have general subjects relating to the Aleutians, or can't otherwise decide where to post a question, comment, or where to start another forum, visit this forum. Registered members can start topics of their choice in this forum, or respond to others.

MISCELLANEOUS REMOTE STIES: There are many other remote sites associated with Alaska that aren't located in the Aleutians. One we've featured on our site is Murphy Dome. There may be others, but so far we've not been in touch with anyone from one of these remote sites. This forum is focused on Murphy Dome and/or any other remote site located in Alaska, not necessarily located in the Aleutians. Registered members can start topics of their choice in this forum, or respond to others.

HOW TO USE THE FORUM

REGISTERING: When you first bring up the forum page and you've not yet registered with the forum, you can visit the various sub-forums, view posted comments, and you can view the calendar. You cannot view the member list, post replies, communicate directly with other members, vote in our polls, or create new topics. If you've not yet registered, you can do so by clicking on the "Register" menu button located near the top right-side of the page. You'll then be presented with the Forum Rules and Policies page. By clicking "Accept" on this page in order to continue, you agree to abide by the forum's rules, policies, and you certify that you are above the age of 13.

You are then presented with the "Register New User" page. This page is broken up into four different sections as follows:

Registration Details:

Fields with an "*" require an entry.

Username* - This is the name displayed when you use the forum. It is typically a single short name, nickname. You will use your Username as part of the forum login process. Make sure you write this down and keep it in a safe place.

Password* - Make up a secure password and enter it in this field. A good password will be a mix of upper and lower case letters, along with a digit or two. The password should be at least six characters in length. Make sure you write it down and keep it in a safe place. You will need this password to log into the forum.

Retype Password* - You will need to retype your password into this field as a way to confirm your password was entered correctly the first time.

Email - This is not required. However, if you wish to be notified by email when someone answers one of your posts or if you lose your password, you will need to have your email address entered here.

Security Code Confirmation (required):

We are paranoid about maintaining as much forum security as possible in order to keep out spammers who mostly attempt to post garbage information electronically without actually visiting our forum. To this end, we implement this Security Code Confirmation process. To make this work, you've got to have your browser's "cookies" enabled. A graphic code is displayed as an image. For example, you may see the word "Bass" displayed. Type the code "Bass" in the text box below the code image presentation. If you cannot read the displayed code, click on the "Load New Code" link until you get a fresh display that you can read, then enter that code. The code is case sensitive, and may include upper and lower case letters and numbers.

Profile information:

This is where most folks get really concerned about entries they'd make. There's always the concern that their personal information will be revealed for some nefarious purpose. Our database is stored in a protected folder on our web site, and is not directly available to anyone intent on phishing for data. The information you choose to reveal IS viewable by other registered members only. We do NOT share any of this information to anyone at all outside of our registered members, for free or for profit. Data is strictly for use by our forum and its members. ALL entries in this section are optional.

Real Name: Here's where you should enter your actual name. This is optional. However, if you don't provide your real name here, then other registered members may not know who you are and thus may not be willing to get in touch with you. They'll know you only by your Username, which may not mean much to most who would be trying to locate you.

Location: Select here the country in which you live. My guess is most will select United States.

Homepage: If you have a web site, this is the place where you can supply its URL.

ICQ/AIM/MSN/Yahoo/Skype/ information: if you subscribe to any of these messenger services and want to supply your contact ID/Number so others can reach you via those services, please enter them here.

Occupation: Enter your Occupation here. Hint: You may want to list your military job code or description while with the military, or your civilian occupation description. A general description works here as well. Again, this IS optional.

Interests: If you're a model airplane enthusiast, build bikes, or are a golfist, for example, enter that info here.

Date of Birth: As of this writing, the Forum "year" only reaches back to 1932. Until the software author corrects this limitation, consider entering only the day and month of your birth so the calendar can display your birthdate. When the Forum gets updated with the next release, you will be able to go back in and select your correct birth year.

Select Avatar: Some of us are visual people, and chose to recognize the presence of someone or something on the forum by casting a quick glance for a known icon that corresponds to someone they know. This icon, or Avatar, is the small icon shown next to your posts. Select one of the listed graphic icons if you wish by left-clicking on a selection of your choice. The selected graphic will appear in the preview window to the right of the selection list. That's all you need to do here.

Signature: Enter text that you'd like to have appear at the bottom of your posts in the form of a signature. There's a maximum of 200 characters allowed. If you want to get fancy, you can enter Forum Codes as a part of your signature. If you want to play with this, select the "Forum Codes" link. If you want your signature to always be attached to your posts, select "Yes" at the "Always attach my signature to posts" selection.

Forum Preferences:

This is where you can elect to implement various forum features (or not).

Show my Email Address: If you really want to keep your Email address private from other users, select "Yes." However, no one would then be able to get in touch with you via the forum's email  process.

Notify me of replies to posts: You can elect here to set a blanket rule for your posting notifications. If you select "Yes," then you will get an email sent to you when someone replies to a topic you have posted (only IF you've supplied your email address).

Notify me by email when I receive a Private Message: Within our forum, you can privately and directly message any other forum member. By selecting "Yes" here, you'll receive an email when someone posts a private message to you (again, only IF you've supplied an email address).

Enable the WYSIWYG post editor: If your browser can deal with rich text you can enable this feature which is used to compose your message postings by selecting "Yes."

Automatically log me in when I return to the Forum. Would be good to select "Yes" to this one unless you just like logging in each time you visit.

Time offset from forum time: Here's where you can offset the forum's reported local time on your PC from the server's time by adding or subtracting hours. Our server is located in Harrisburg, PA, which runs on Eastern Standard Time. I live in the Mountain time zone, 2 hours earlier than Eastern time. As an example, I would subtract two hours (-2) to have the Forum display my local time on my PC as opposed to displaying the Eastern time zone time in which my server is located.

Date Format: In some other countries, they place the day before the month. In the USA we typically place the month before the day. Set your preferences here.

Click on "Register," and you're done! Now, go ahead and log in, and get in touch with the rest of us!

Once you've logged into the Forum, there is additional extensive help to be had by clicking on the "Help" menu button at the top-right side of the page. All clickable links are underlined, and will drill down to the next level of that forum. Go for it!

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