FAQ

1. How can I get to know the other users?

If you find an interesting topic of reply and wish to learn more about the person that wrote the topic, you can check their user profile. By clicking the profile picture of a registered user, you can see the
information they have wished to share with other users. This can include a short description, featured
topics or links to websites. Make sure you have also updated your own profile to introduce yourself.

Open Biobord Forum is available for all registered users to introduce themselves, their ideas and co-operation proposals. You can brows through the Open Biobord Forum to find interesting contacts – and of course introduce yourself. Remember – the best way to get connected is to be active yourself!

2. How can I follow content that is relevant for me?

Adjust your notifications: Tags, categories

3. How do I attract the right users to read my topic?

There are several forum features to help you to connect with the right users. To start with, make sure you
are using the correct category by checking the purpose of the category by reviewing the ‘About the
category’ topics pinned to the category. Also, it pays off to check if there are already active and ongoing
topics that are relevant for your topic. By connecting to an existing discussion, you will have a better
chance to meet others who share your interests.

Very important tool for making sure you connect with the relevant users are the Tags. In the open forum
categories, remember to use the pre-set tags to improve your success in matchmaking. The tags can help
you to direct your topic to relevant audience based on bioeconomy theme and region. There is also a
selection of matchmaking tags to attach to your topic.

Tags are easy to add to your topic

Create a new topic
Write a headline
Choose a tag or tags that are most relevant to your topic. You can find the available tags at What are tags and how to use them? - #3

4. Can I share videos in the topics?

Yes, your video can be played directly on a forum post if it is available via a weblink. In other words, the
video should be downloaded to a video viewing service, such as YouTube, and embedded to Biobord
forum topic via the weblink. Video can be embedded in your post with the URL-address of the video. The weblink will be automatically converted to embedded video that can be viewed directly on Biobord.

5. How can I contact people privately?

For private discussion, Biobord Forum offers Private messaging. Private messaging is used similar way as emails and can be used to connect with users that are not online at the moment. Notification of a new private message will be shown in user’s Biobord forum notifications. User can add several receivers or a group tag to a private message and use it as a private group discussion. Writer can also make the text more lively by using the same editing tools as in forum, for example font colours, emojis and bolding. All the forum functions are available in private messages.

Private message -function is available in each user’s profile. Private messages can be sent either to one user with a @username -tag or to multiple users by tagging them individually, or by tagging a group (if one is formed). Receiver will get a notification of a private message on their Biobord notifications.

6. Why is no-one responding to my topic?

It is of course impossible to provide one answer, but please consider these 4 perspectives to help engaging people to your topic.

Did you tag anyone or use matchmaking tags?
By using user or group tags (@username or @groupname), you can ensure that the message reaches these users. In addition, you should use tags in your topic to connect with users that have corresponding
interests.

Did you share the topic in social media, email or other channels?
Social media sharing can be made in two different way.

Directly from Biobord forum. Biobord forum will give a ready-made
URL-address to your topic and a user can either copy-paste this link to his/her own social
media.
Or directly share the topic from the social media icons. Icons will directly move you Twitter,
Facebook or email.

Is your topic involving an activation message? Are you inviting people to interact with you?
Post your topics as first-person accounts. Tell the information from your personal perspective and include
your personal reflections. Emoticons, videos and photos can help as well.

Do not simply attach a document. Try to summarize the main points and the needed actions as text, so
that the reader can react to your topic without opening the attachment.

Involve an action message in your topic. Ask for a specific feedback or include a question, poll or vote.

Respond and react to the topics posted by others. If nothing else, like the topic and let them know you
read their text.

Is your profile updated? Do people at the Forum know who you are?
Having an up-to-date and rich profile is important when engaging in forum interaction. People are likely to engage with you more when they are able to know who you are and what is your background. A good profile picture, short description of the user and an introduction post on Open Biobord, will make users more easily approachable.

The Open Biobord forum introduction should contain these elements:
• Name
• Location
• Line of business/expertise/company
• How can you help others?
• What kind of expertise, knowledge, skills etc. you are looking for?
• Contact information

7. How do I keep track of interesting discussions?

Bookmark interesting topic
Using a bookmark is a good way to save interesting topics on Biobord for a later use. There is a
bookmark -function under every Biobord topic. Saved bookmarks can be found from your Biobord
notifications -bar.

Watch and track interesting tags and categories
Users can follow the topics that they are interested in by following tags and categories of their choice,
bookmarking discussion and following the actions in their groups.

User may follow the tags and categories of their choice in his/her profile settings.

Click your profile picture on Biobord forum
Click your username
Click preferences
Chose ‘Tags’ under Notifications
Select the tags and/or categories of your choice

8. What kind of discussion is allowed?

Remember that this is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion

Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.

These are not hard and fast rules, merely guidelines to aid the human judgment of our community and keep this a clean and well-lighted place for civilized public discourse.

Improve the Discussion

Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve the discussion in some way, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.

The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.

One way to improve the discussion is by discovering ones that are already happening. Spend time browsing the topics here before replying or starting your own, and you’ll have a better chance of meeting others who share your interests.

Be Agreeable, Even When You Disagree

You may wish to respond to something by disagreeing with it. That’s fine. But remember to criticize ideas, not people. Please avoid:

Name-calling
Ad hominem attacks
Responding to a post’s tone instead of its actual content
Knee-jerk contradiction

Instead, provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.

Your Participation Counts

The conversations we have here set the tone for every new arrival. Help us influence the future of this community by choosing to engage in discussions that make this forum an interesting place to be — and avoiding those that do not.

Discourse provides tools that enable the community to collectively identify the best (and worst) contributions: bookmarks, likes, flags, replies, edits, and so forth. Use these tools to improve your own experience, and everyone else’s, too.

Let’s leave our community better than we found it.

If You See a Problem, Flag It

Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this forum. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators, not just janitors or police.

When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.

In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

Always Be Civil

Nothing sabotages a healthy conversation like rudeness:

Be civil. Don’t post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
Keep it clean. Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
Respect each other. Don’t harass or grief anyone, impersonate people, or expose their private information.
Respect our forum. Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the forum.

These are not concrete terms with precise definitions — avoid even the appearance of any of these things. If you’re unsure, ask yourself how you would feel if your post was featured on the front page of the New York Times.

This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links, and images safe for family and friends.

Keep It Tidy

Make the effort to put things in the right place, so that we can spend more time discussing and less cleaning up. So:

Don’t start a topic in the wrong category.
Don’t cross-post the same thing in multiple topics.
Don’t post no-content replies.
Don’t divert a topic by changing it midstream.
Don’t sign your posts — every post has your profile information attached to it.

Rather than posting “+1” or “Agreed”, use the Like button. Rather than taking an existing topic in a radically different direction, use Reply as a Linked Topic.

Post Only Your Own Stuff

You may not post anything digital that belongs to someone else without permission. You may not post descriptions of, links to, or methods for stealing someone’s intellectual property (software, video, audio, images), or for breaking any other law.