How to add a Message Board to your website
Message Boards and forums are public areas of a website where readers can contribute to a series of discussions based on the content of your website. This can be anything from what type of computer game everyone is playing through to vehicle customization and enhancement. Many of the biggest topical sites have forums and message boards for their readers. There is no reason why you cannot implement a message board or a forum for your own site. Many of them are very easy to set up, and as they are hosted on another server, you need absolutely no knowledge of HTML to have your very own. Although there are several to choose from, we recommend the MyIkonboard facilities at http://www.myikonboard.com, and this guide is designed to help you register your Ikonboard and link it to your ZyWeb site. If you need further assistance with your Ikonboard, you can find FAQs and support facilities from the MyIkonboard website. Once you visit MyIkonboard.com, click on the sign up button. This should be located at the very top of the screen, on the right of the Home button:
Fill in the sign up form as instructed. For your own conveniance, try to choose a name for your Ikonboard that is the same, or similar to your ZyWeb username or - if you have one - domain name. Once you have filled in all of the fields, read the terms of use, and then click the "I Agree" button and click on the "Create Account" button. If you have filled in everything correctly, the following screen should appear:
Once you have received the e-mail, click on the link. This should bring up some text which should, at the end, state "Setup Complete", and a link to view your forums. Click on the View your Forums link, and this will bring up a very standard version of your Ikonboard. Note your address; it will be username.myikonboard.com - for example, if you signed up for your Ikonboard with the username joebloggs, then your IkonBoard address will be joebloggs.myikonboard.com.
You can link your Ikonboard from your ZyWeb site in one of two ways - either via a button, or through text. To link via a button, log into your editor and click on the button you wish to link the forum to. You will see at the top three main fields - Name, Link and Addr. Into name, type whatever you wish to appear on the button, then set the Link field to "Link to Addr". In the Addr box, type the address of your ikonboard complete with the http:// tag at the beginning e.g. http://joebloggs.myikonboard.com. Click OK to ensure the changes are made, and then click the Finish button in the top right corner and Save and Publish your page.
To link through text, go to edit your page and add a HTML Object. In the HTML Object paste the following code:
<a href="http://username.myikonboard.com">Visit our forum here</a>
Change the address of the http://username.myikonboard.com to your own Ikonboard address, and change the 'Visit our forum here' text with whatever text you wish to place on your page to link to the forum. For example:
<a href="http://zywebtesting.myikonboard.com">Visit ZyWeb Testing here</a>
This would produce the following link:
Visit ZyWeb Testing here
For any assistance on customising your Ikonboard, please visit www.MyIkonboard.com and take a look at the FAQs or their support pages.
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