The BearingNet Forum provides an online discussion facility for members. To access the forums select ‘forum’ from the top toolbar. You will be taken to the following page:
There are nine work related forums. All new postings since you last logged in are marked as ‘new’. The numbers of topics and individual postings in each forum are also shown. The After Hours and Sport forums are not work related. If you wish to participate in these forums you will first be shown a box warning you about some of the content.
For access click ‘Continue’ and the forums will appear.
Click on the forum heading. You will be taken to a page listing all the topics under that heading. Topics with the most recent postings are at the top of the list. Click on your chosen topic and you will be able to view all the postings by BearingNet members relating to that topic. Each entry provides:
The name of the commentator
Their company
Their country
The date and time of the posting
There may also be a photo included with the commentator’s details To upload a photo click on ‘Your Account’ in the toolbar, then select ‘Change contact photograph’.
You can navigate your way through the forum pages by clicking the page numbers at the bottom of the page.
Select the appropriate forum heading from the Forum Index and click on ‘post new topic’. A box will appear showing your name and company. Enter a suitable title for your topic in the ‘Subject’ box. Write your comments in the ‘Message‘ box and click ‘Post new topic’.
Your topic will appear at the top of the topic list.
To add your own comment to an existing topic, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on ‘Post Reply’.
A box will appear appear at the top of the topic thread, showing your name and company. Type your comments in the ‘Message’ box and click on ‘Post Reply’. Your comment will then appear at the bottom of the page, or if you click on ‘cancel’ the message box disappears.
To include all or part of a previous forum posting in your message click on the 
icon at the top of the message you want to include and the ‘Post reply’ box will appear with the entirety of that message, surrounded by [quote] [/quote]. Elements of the quoted message can be deleted from your posting if required.
With the exception of the Trading Dispute Forum, postings in the Forums can be edited or deleted by the individual user from the company who made the posting. To edit the posting click on the 
icon. To delete the posting, click on the 
icon.
All postings in a particular thread can be deleted by the individual user who started the thread if they consider them to be irrelevant or inappropriate. The content of the forums is moderated by BearingNet. Companies can request that postings or topics be removed from the forums if they are detrimental to their company. To request the removal of a forum posting contact support@BearingNet.net.
Topics in the ‘Can you Supply’ and ‘Lots for sale’ are automatically deleted after 30 days.
The Trading Dispute Forum is intended to try and resolve any serious trading issues between BearingNet members. It should only be used after all other attempts at negotiation have failed. To report a new issue to the BearingNet Trading Dispute Forum go to the Company Details page and select the company with which you are in dispute
At the bottom of their company details page in the Trade Recommendations Section select 'Report a problem to the BearingNet Trading Dispute Forum'
You will be shown a warning message which is intended to deter frivolous or malicious postings. If you click ‘Continue’ you will be taken to the page where you can post your message.
For more details refer to the 'Company List' user guide
If a Trading dispute forum posting already exists about the company you will see 'View Trading Dispute' on their company details page. Click on this and you will be transferred to the relevant forum page. You can add your message by clicking on 'Post Reply'
To search the forums for stories, or keywords, click the Search box at the top of the page, enter the words you wish to search for and click ok.
A list of all threads containing that search term in a posting will appear.
If there is a particular thread that you are interested in following you can tick the SUBSCRIBE box.
An email will be sent to the user notifying them that a new post has been made to this topic. No more notifications are sent until the post has been read. You can unsubscribe by clicking on a link in the email.
The Icons displayed in the ‘Icon’ box can be used to indicate the nature or content of the message.
The icon you choose will display at the top of your message next to the date it was posted. The default icon is 
- Message.
The forums use markers at the start and end to format text eg [b] formatted bold [/b]. So to bold some text, surround it with the [b][/b] markers, e.g.
forums are [b]really good[/b] to use. Will display as: - forums are really good to use.
To italicise some text, surround it with the [i][/i] markers, e.g.
forums are [i]really good[/i] to use. Will display as: - forums are really good to use.
To underline some text, surround it with the [u][/u] markers, e.g.
forums are [u]really good[/u] to use. Will display as: forums are really good to use.
You can simply click the relevant tabs to insert the code for you.
The BearingNet forums recognise links you type in, for example: Check out www.bearingnet.net. Will display as: - Check out http://www.bearingnet.net.
The "http://" is not necessary if the address starts with "www".
To quote some text, either use the “insert quote” button 
or surround it with [quote] and [/quote] e.g.
[quote]To be or not to be[/quote]
To post an image use [img]url_of_image[/img] E.g.
Here's an image: [img]http://i.bearingnet.net/logos/bluetrans200px.png[/img] The "https://" is necessary here.
If you no longer wish to see comments from a specific forum user, you can hide their contributions. To do this find an entry by that user, and hover the mouse on the post. A red icon appears as shown in the picture below. If you click this you will hide their contributions in the entire forum system. Once you have blocked a user there will be a prompt on their hidden posts with an option to unblock them if you wish to do so.
