How to use the Swahili Discussion Forum
We do not provide technical support for the Swahili Discussion Forum. Please read this page for information that may answer your questions. If the discussion forum site appears to be completely out of service, please contact us and we will try to fix the problem right away.
To use the discussion forum, you must be registered with the Kamusi Project. Registration is fast and free, and we will never spam you or give away your personal information. You can register here.
NOTE: ALL THE INFORMATION BELOW IS OUT OF DATE. WE HAVE CHANGED THE DISCUSSION FORUM SYSTEM, AND WE HAVE NOT YET HAD A CHANCE TO UPDATE THIS PAGE TO REFLECT THE NEW SOFTWARE. WE'LL FIX IT, EVENTUALLY, WE PROMISE.
Once you have registered, you will receive an e-mail with a temporary password. You should login and select "User menu" and then change your password to something you will remember. Click here to see a picture of exactly where to click (look for the red circles!) to get to the User menu and to change your password.
If you cannot remember your password, click here. A new password will be sent to you, and you should then go to "User menu" and then change your password to something you will remember.

You should also edit your profile, so that we can know who you are and how to contact you. Your name, the city and country where you live, your institutional affiliation (if any), any biographical information you wish us to have, and your website (if any) will be available to the public on our Participants page. All other information will be kept private, but will help us to better know the people who are using our project. To edit your profile, click "User menu" and then select "Edit your profile" as shown in the red circles when you click here and here.
To post a question, you first must be inside a folder. (Don't ask us why the system is designed this way. We bought the discussion forum software off-the-shelf to save money. Although the software is generally quite good, it does have some quirks. Your donations will help us with future software and programming improvements to the project.) Click here to see how to get to the list of folders. Click on the name of one of the folders, and now you will be inside that folder and you can post your message. Click here to see a picture of where to click to post a message - look inside the red circles.

We have five public folders. "How do you say" is the place to ask questions about how to say things in Swahili, or to discuss specific translations. "Ideas" is the place to make suggestions for how to improve the Kamusi Project in the future. "Edits" is the place to discuss particular dictionary entries - if you think an entry needs improvement, but you would like to discuss the entry with others participants before making changes in the Edit Engine, "Edits" is the place for you. "Africa" is the place to talk about history, travel, politics, or whatever else you would like to discuss - the focus of the discussion is usually East Africa, where Swahili is spoken. "Wanafunzi" is the place for students of Swahili to correspond with each other - if you are learning Swahili, you may not have many other people to talk with, so use the "Wanafunzi" forum to meet and talk with other learners.
You can subscribe to receive updates about the topics in particular folders, and you can also subscribe to specific topics. To subscribe to a topic, click on "Subscribe to this topic" at the top of the topic page. To subscribe to a folder, click on "Subscribe to this forum" at the top of the list of topics inside a folder. To unsubscribe, click on "User menu" and then choose the appropriate button to change your subscriptions, as shown here and here. Please do not ask us to unsubcribe you from a forum or topic - if you figured out how to subscribe, you should be able to follow the steps just described to unsubscribe.

You may wish to change various other options, such as the date limit for how far back you want to see messages, and your time zone. To change your preferences, go to "User menu" and then click on "Edit your preference" as shown here and here.
The discussion forum has many other features that you may enjoy, such as the ability to rate topics, post "polls," and use emoticons in your messages. More information on those features is available on the FAQ page prepared by the folks who coded the discussion forum. We do not have more information to share about those features, but you can read about them here.
Welcome to the Swahili Discussion Forum!
 
Questions / Maswali