Forum Information

Hi all Our history site has passed a milestone where the total membership now exceeds four hundred*. This may be a timely opportunity to make us all aware of the fact that people from all sections of our community use this site, members, members & their families, children & schools. The opening remarks on the introductory pages state: "Welcome to The Historic Coventry Forum. Please come inside and join in the fun. You can discuss any topic you like - as long as it's Coventry related! Do you have a burning question to ask - maybe a local feature that you've always wondered about? Or perhaps you have an answer for someone else's conundrum. Or do you want to discuss something from Coventry's past - or criticise Coventry present - or talk about your favourite Sky Blues players? Whatever Coventry related item is on your mind, this is the place to discuss it." The introduction then goes on to state: "The content on this website is safe for children of all ages. School teachers are welcome to use any of the material contained within as a teaching aid for Coventry's local history and heritage." Please ensure that all posted content is suitable with full regards to the above. Vulgarity, obscenity & provocatively offensive posts are simply not part of our site. Please help us maintain the standards that have made this site so inviting to so many people from all over the world. Thank you & please enjoy ps. *Membership now exceeds five hundred. ps *Membership now exceeds nine hundred in March 2013. What a pip!

Further to a topic that has been raised here on our forum on numerous occasions - and to avoid any further confusion; those of you uploading images (photographs) to display on the forum are now asked, at the point of upload, to "tick the box" to acknowledge that you are either "the owner" of the image, or that you have the "owners permission" to use it. We would also ask that for any images that you "link" to on an external site, you include in your post a note of the web-site name where the image is located. For instance, should you link to a photo on the Coventry Telegraph's web site, then kindly mention that the image belongs to them. This simple action should enable Rob to avoid any copyright issues in the future. Thank you all for your understanding and co-operation. Tony

As we are all aware, there are many fine photographs around the internet, many of which we might like to share with other forum members from time to time. Often, a quick email to the relevant site-owner will result in permission being given, a brief credit and a return link being the usual protocol. However, if gaining permission to display someone else's image on our site is not possible, then why not simply place a link to their site in this way....

Take a look at this fine photo on the www.warwickshirerailways.com website.

That way our forum members can still enjoy someone else's photographs without you having to worry about being accused of copyright theft. I've made links open up other sites in a new window, so you won't lose your place on the forum.

In order to make the forum more readable, please can members be a little more restrained when it comes to using the Respond and quote this message button. It can be very useful to use if you wish to respond to a specific point, or maybe to a post made further back in the thread, but if you are simply carrying on from the previous post, please just use Respond to this topic as it will still be obvious what you are responding to. If too many messages get quoted the page soon gets cluttered up with many repeats of the same message, making it difficult to read, which will only detract from your enjoyment of the forum. OK, headmaster hat off again - please carry on with those marvellous tales and memories! Best wishes, Rob

Hi all, A new facility - a reminder diary listing to us all, for future Coventry related diary dates. If your event date is about a subject for which there is already a thread, please feel free to post an abbreviated link or description here for a quick reference, if you like. If you want to give notice of a coming Coventry event, please post only the basic details including the date which is entered via a select box. If discussion is needed, a separate thread can be opened for that at anytime if there is not one. Thank you. Note the Event Diary in the "More links" select bar.

Hi all A Bulletin So that topics can be kept tidy & easily accessed for anyone researching, before posting a new topic, please use the search box to see if there is already a topic that can be used. Otherwise, we finish up with hundreds of topics (I do exaggerate) for people to have to read through, where maybe one or two would be more appropriate. That is the end of this "bulletin". Please carry on!

Can I please ask members, when using links in their posts, to give a brief outline as to what the link is about and where it will take them. There is nothing worse than just seeing the word LINK on its own. Maybe tell us what you have found of interest at the other end of the link you have posted. And on the subject of LINKS - please replace the word LINK with either the name of the site you are linking to, or a one-or-two word description. Changing this word will also make your post more attractive to read and make the invitation to click it much more inviting. Example:- Good: I have found some more info on XYZ street here Wikipedia Not so good: LINK

I'd like to take this opportunity to remind all the membership of something that is at the foot of our Help page under Terms & site information, but which I think gets overlooked.... # It is a public forum, so always be aware that anything you post will be visible to millions of people around the world, therefore please be respectful at all times. # This website is used extensively by teachers and schoolchildren for local history, so bad or inappropriate language is unacceptable and will be removed. # If you are commenting on another person or their opinion, please put yourself in their position, re-read your words, and be certain that neither they, nor anyone else, will be offended by your comment before posting.

Hi all Please note that in order to make an internet link live, the HTTP line (Web address (URL) must be entered into the top line of the drop-down entry box. The second line is for your description if needed. Example: Using our own weather bulletin page, if we post the link straight into our posting page we get: ../main/forum-posts.php?id=14621&s=630&show_cats=all#bottom The above is not live, but entered into the drop down entry box becomes: ../main/forum-posts.php?id=14621&s=630&show_cats=all#bottom The drop-down entry box will appear each time you click onto the "Add link" icon. Hope that helps.

Hi all FORUM USE INFORMATION At the top left of your monitor screen, there is a word or phrase search facility that enables anyone to find, either as a title, or included in the body of a posting, any word or phrase that has been used. Using this helps to cut down on duplicated subject titles as well as enabling an easy encyclopaedia-style search for subject matter. Your use of this will help us maintain an easier to use forum. Thank you.

Hate Crime What is hate crime? Hate crimes are any crimes that are targeted at a person because of hostility or prejudice towards that person's: •  disability •  race or ethnicity •  religion or belief •  sexual orientation •  transgender identity This can be committed against a person or property. This issue is relevant to our web-site, as we are committing an offence if we post any offensive comments in relation to the above, no matter what we ourselves might believe. Hate Crime Whether we agree with the law or not, or even if we believe that there is an elephant in the room, we must moderate our language with regards to anything that we post, particularly with regards the above subtitles. Facebook, along with other websites providers have been forced to close sections of their website because of such violations. Please help us avoid such actions to our website. Thank you.

We are always grateful for the amount of research undertaken by members, and the resulting information which is posted onto the forum, for the benefit of all However, we cannot allow screenshots, images, etc. to be posted directly onto the forum from subscription sites, such as Ancestry, Find my Past, etc. We are content with members transcribing information taken from such sites, but not with images of the pages containing such information We thank our members for their understanding in this matter

After some inter-moderator discussion, we're going to try and stick to a plan to keep the vast majority of the forum's conversation in a Coventry-oriented vein. Whichever way we turn, we will always please some and annoy others, knowing full well that any subsequent attempts to appease the annoyed will then only reverse the situation. So, the best we can hope for is to keep the majority happy most of the time. (Anyone fancy being a moderator??? ) Anyway, we're going to try a compromise and walk a fine line. Rather than simply removing the "Today (Non-Coventry)" and the "Food and Drink" topics, hence pushing any such conversation onto other social media platforms, we're going to keep those here, where members feel comfortable with each other. But, we will keep those threads trimmed, keeping only the most recent posts - perhaps between a week and a month's worth of posts at any time, depending on the depth of a subject. There are many other long forgotten non-Coventry topics, too, that have overstayed their welcome, so a few of those can easily be removed without any detriment to the forum. But may I take this opportunity to thank every one of you for such super contributions, that have collectively added such a lot to our understanding of our wonderfully historic city. Long may it continue. Warmest wishes, Rob

Philip asked "My friend, JRL, is trying to post both text & pictures, but something is preventing him from doing so."

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I can see that JRL has successfully uploaded two images today. All he needs to do is begin to make a post, then.... [1] Use the drop-down list just above the text-entry-box to select the image he wishes to display. Once selected, an extra "Insert selected image" button will appear in the little toolbar above the text-area (RHS). [2] Clicked this button in order to insert the image in the chosen location (wherever your cursor is currently placed). Steps [1] & [2] can be repeated as many times as necessary if more images are required in one post. I hope this helps! (This and much more can be found any time in the "Help" page, linked on the RHS of the toolbar at the top & bottom of every forum page.)