Compuserve Forum Manual has been updated!

For those of you who are familiar with the Compuserve Books and Writers Community, which is the online community where Diana Gabaldon hangs out, I have an announcement to make:

We have just released a new edition of the Books and Writers Community User's Manual. John S. Kruszka and I have been working on this new version for about a month, and we're delighted that it's finally finished!

This version of the manual is NOT just for newbies. Even if you have been a member of the forum for a while, please take a few minutes to look through it. The manual contains a lot of useful information, and has been extensively updated.

What's New:

• Pictures! <g> We have added screenshots of many of the most commonly used windows, menus, etc.
  
  
• An updated list of folders and forum staff in Section 2. This list is current as of August, 2010.
  
  
• A new section about spoilers (section 3.10)
  
  
• A new section describing the Message Options menu (section 3.11)
  
  
• Revised instructions for pasting text into a message (section 1.11) and formatting private messages (section 3.6.2)

Many thanks to John S. Kruszka for his meticulous attention to detail in reviewing this document, as well as for his advice, suggestions, and gentle editing. <g> This was very much a collaborative effort between myself and John, with both of us contributing ideas and proposing text for the new sections. As some of you may know, I'm a software developer; the only technical writing I've ever done has been fairly informal in nature. I'm not used to having my writing edited (by anyone, for any reason), but John's suggestions were very helpful and we worked well together.

Thanks also to all of the staff members who offered their input, especially Ron Wodaski, who gets credit for suggesting the addition of screenshots to this version of the manual.

There's a thread here if you want to post your comments on the forum.

If you've never posted on Compuserve before, I would really encourage you to read through the manual before you post for the first time. But do feel free to post there if you have a comment or a question about the books. Diana likes to hear from her readers, and we're always happy to see new people there. Hope to see you on the forum soon!