Have you ever been called upon to lead a discussion group? If you have, chances are you stressed over it the first time around. If you've not led one before, but are about to, you may be looking for tips on how to go about it. Here are 10 helpful tips for leading a discussion group.

1. Confirm time and place. If your discussion group meeting has been scheduled at a public facility, call and confirm that the room is reserved and ready. You may need to go in person to double-check the amount of tables and chairs, dry boards, and availability of refreshments and coffee.

2. Arrive Early. It's important for you to arrive early to make certain everything is as it should be, last-minute preparations are taken care of, and you have time to relax before people arrive. You don't want to look flustered or be rushing around trying to get everything in its place after people are already present.

3. Greet participants. Greet your participants as they arrive and have them use name tags. Your name tags can be theme-appropriate if you wish. In addition, be sure to pay attention to all discussion group participants–not just the ones you know or want to get to know.

4. Begin on time. Start on the button. Set a precedence–even if several participants haven't arrived yet. Lateness can be irritating to some individuals. When you do begin, your opening words need to grab the listeners and get them excited about what you'll be doing during the discussion group.

5. Cover the format. It's important to let group participants know the format for the discussion group and how the discussion will proceed. Part of the comfort level of any new experience is being prepared for it in advance. Furthermore, this informational time is a good time to lay any ground rules for your discussion group.

6. Read and Summarize. Read your discussion questions or rephrase the questions if they are wordy or confusing. As participants respond, summarize what is contributed, but don't get drawn off-track and start tossing in your own questions.

7. Let everyone participate. When you lead a discussion group, allow all participants to contribute if they wish to, but don't belabor a question and require every one to answer. Some questions need only a simple yes or no answer. Other questions may be more open-ended or call for opinions. This is where you'll get a diversity of answers.

8. Affirm your participants. When personal information is shared, a person is vulnerable. Affirm that person. Recognize how difficult it must be to share personal matters or personal information. If you know the person is shy and has been brave enough to share in a discussion group, be sure to personally thank the person for his or her contribution.

9. End on time. Close your discussion group at the designated time–even if the lesson isn't complete. You'll get repeat participants, if they know you dismiss on time. Remember, people have children to pick up from childcare, errands to run, meals to prepare for family, or work to get to. They will appreciate you not cutting-in on their needed time to take care of life's situations.

10. Announce the next meeting. Pique interest with a teaser about what's coming in your next meeting. Remind participants of any assignments or changes in time, and be sure to thank discussion group participants Finally, stick around for several minutes and allow participants time to socialize. You may never know the value of those few minutes in someone's life.

You can lead a discussion group quite successfully, if you remember these 10 tips. Next time you have opportunity to lead a discussion group, you can do so with confidence.

News Update Discussion

When it comes time to buy a digital camera, it seems like there is a lot to take in. Manufactures put out more and more digital cameras each year with more and more options. There's a ton of things to worry about: zoom capabilities, LCD screens, image quality, price and myriad other things. If it seems like it's complicated, that's because it is.

All these options make it tough to choose. Digital cameras are expensive pieces of equipment that should be worth its cost and last for several years. Fortunately, quite a few sites worry about all these digital camera options to help the budding owner avoid getting burned. Here are three sites with the most comprehensive digital camera reviews on the web.

Digital Photography Review
http://www.dpreview.com/

While this site offers more than just digital camera reviews – with photography tips, galleries, and a forum – its reviews section is one of the strongest on the web. Digital camera reviews are sorted chronologically, meaning DPReview is one of the best places to see some of the most recent and popular digital cameras available. Clicking on a picture of the digital camera leads to a features page, which states almost every measurable fact about that camera. If it's something that's able to be measured, observed, or otherwise quantified, its available here.

After the first page, DPReview's digital camera reviews become quite lengthy, sometimes reaching upwards of nine or ten pages! Every single aspect of the digital camera is explored, from the size of the camera to the white balance and ISO settings. It may be a little overwhelming for a digital camera novice, but it's one of the most comprehensive sources out there. If there's a problem with a digital camera, DPReview will find it.

The biggest problem with the site's digital camera reviews is that there aren't an overwhelming amount of them. DPreview seems to only review a few of the most popular digital cameras out each month, ignoring a large segment of the market.

Imaging Resource
http://www.imaging-resource.com/

Imaging Resource has more digital camera reviews than DPReview does, and they're easier to find as well. Digital cameras are sorted into categories based on megapixels and manufacturer, and the site also highlights the latest digital camera reviews they've posted. Dave, the editor of the site, also chooses a few digital cameras that he recommends and gives these cameras their own section.

The biggest benefit of Imaging Resource is that the site helpfully condenses each of its digital camera reviews onto a single page. This executive summary allows the novice digital camera user to skip the more technical information, while still feeling that they have a good handle on what the digital camera is capable of. For the more advanced user, Imaging Resource's reviews are just as exhaustive as DPReview, opining on the design, optics, exposure, performace and other attributes of each digital camera. The site also gives sample images from each digital camera taken in different real-world situations to help give the reader a better idea of what the digital camera acts like in real life.

Steve's Digicams
http://www.steves-digicams.com/

This is probably the most poorly designed site of the three, but that doesn't mean its digital camera reviews are any less valid. Steve's Digicams is still a great place to come for exhaustive reviews of a lot of different digital cameras. The layout isn't as intuitive, but Steve's Digicams offers most of the same information on each digital camera as both Imaging Resource and DPReview. It's a good place to come for another opinion, if not the best place to start looking.

What's best about Steve's digital camera reviews is that he uses a lot of different pictures of the digital camera itself as he goes along. This gives a better of how the camera's interface works, and highlights digital cameras that aren't as intuitive to use. In this way, the site can even become a manual of sorts, helping users figure out their new digital camera after they've purchased it.

These sites are run by hobbyists, who clearly love what they do. This means their digital camera reviews are often better and more complete than a site like CNET or a magazine like PCWorld because they have more time and more love for digital cameras. But time is money, and running these sites can be expensive. When it comes time to buy that brand new digital camera, click an affiliate link on the site and buy through there. These sites receive a percentage of their sales, enabling them to write better digital camera reviews more often.

Free Forum

In the management of an HIV infection, there are a variety of therapeutic agents on the market today. If you have been diagnosed with the virus that causes AIDS, it is important to discuss your treatment options and be cognizant of the variations in drugs and what benefits and risks are associated with each.

In many cases of HIV treatment, the physician will recommend the use of a cocktail of prescription medications. With each medication posing its own unique set of health side effects, you can expect there will be changes in your prescription medication regimen until such time as your laboratory tests indicate there is a slowed progression of the virus replication.

When considering medication options, in the management of your HIV infection, your physician may prescribe Isentress as part of your cocktail therapy. As a general rule, Isentress is only prescribed as a combination therapy when your laboratory results indicate the HIV virus has continued to replicate despite the aggressive use of other antiretroviral medications.

As a convenient dosing formula, if your physician prescribes Isentress for your HIV therapy, the dosing will be recommended at 400 milligrams, twice per day in combination with your other therapeutic medications. In most cases, Isentress can be taken with or without food and will simply depend on your daily routine and the timing by which you take other medications in your HIV therapy.

Side effects most commonly seen with Isentress are typical of other HIV antiretroviral medications. The most common side effect involves gastrointestinal pain with the development of diarrhea in nearly 20 percent of the HIV patients who utilize Isentress. Nausea and the development of headache pain are also quite common.

While there are many health complications that are associated with the HIV virus, your continued use of Isentress should be carefully considered if you develop specific co-morbid health complications. Health conditions such as anemia, hepatitis, herpes simplex, kidney failure or renal complications, and cardiovascular risks such as heart attack, all result in the discontinuation of Isentress in the management of HIV.

As with any form of HIV therapy, it is important to understand the risks and benefits of the medications you have been prescribed. While most HIV therapies involve a cocktail of antiretroviral medications, you may be inclined to simply utilize the medications without much thought as to the side effects or risks. If you have been prescribed Isentress as part of your treatment, be certain you understand the health complications that may prevent continued use and discuss changes to your HIV therapy when, or if, these health complications manifest.

Forum Boards

Building backlinks is a vital part of any online marketing campaign, and using forum profiles is a great way to build lots of backlinks on high authority domains quickly and easily. This method has been around for several years and has proven itself to be very effective at improving a websites position on the search engine result pages, or SERPS for short. In the past, many webmasters were forced to purchase “backlink packets” that would show you which websites you can place links on, but this is simply not needed. Anyone can find forums to place links on with a little time and some creative searches.

The first step is to go to: http://www.google.com in your internet browser, and use the following search phrases to find some discussion forums:

“Powered by vBulletin”
“Powered by SMF”
“Powered by phpBB”
“Powered by IP.Board”
“Powered by MyBB”
“Powered by ExpressionEngine”

If you want to find forums related to your niche, simply add +keyword after the search phrases, making sure to replace “keyword” with whatever keyword you want to use.

Remember, the higher the domain page rank, the more the link will do for your site. There are several toolbar extensions available for IE and Firefox that will display the page rank of the site. Alternatively, you can search Google for “pagerank checker” and you will find many websites that will show you the page rank of any URL you enter into it.

You must be sure that the profiles can be viewed by guests, otherwise search engines will not be able to see the links. Do this by clicking on a username on the site. If you get a message that tells you you don't have permission to view the profile, this forum will not work.

Once you have found some forums that you would like to place links on, you need to register an account with them. Most forums require you to verify your account by clicking on a link in an email they will send to you. Once you have done this, log in to the forum and look for a link that says “Control Panel” or “Settings” or something similar and click on it. You will need to find and click the link to “Edit your profile.”

Enter your URL in the field labeled “URL” or “Website” – this is an easy link to get, but will only be the URL, and will not have any anchor text. Some websites will display your forum signature on your profile, others only show your Bio section – check other profiles on the site to see how that particular forum works, then head back to the edit profile screen.

Enter your backlinks with anchor text in the correct section for that site (Bio or Signature). Most forums will have a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor that you can use to easily place your links. If not, check to see if this forum requires HTML or BBCode. If you need help formatting BBCode, check out the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBCode.

It will take some time for the search engines to find all the links, but there is a way you can speed up the process, as well as boost the effectiveness of the backlinks. On each forum, in addition to placing a link to your website, place a link to the last forum profile you created. This will create a long “chain” of forum profiles all linking to each other and to your site, which will make it much easier for the search engines to find and index all the profiles.

Using these tips, you should be able to find literally thousands of forums to place your link on, giving you the ability to drastically boost your websites search engine rankings. In addition to not having to pay for backlink packets, you will also be able to find forums specifically related to your niche, helping you build quality relevant backlinks, without spending a dime!

All Topic Forum

Whether you have a website for a particular topic or wish to start your own online community without a website attachment, a forum is a great idea. A forum can be search engine friendly, can be monetized with various affiliate programs and advertising network, and can be useful in both social and business networking.

In order to build a quality forum, you have to complete several important steps.

One: Focus on a Niche or Topic

Specific niche forums will be much easier to market and maintain than a general discussion or social chat forum. Of course, all quality forums, no matter what the niche or subject, should have a general chit-chat area where members can let their hair down.

Two: Pick Your Forum Script Well

There are several different forum scripts, or programs, that are recommended. One free solution is phpBB. It is easy to set up and update and relatively easy to customize with templates, graphics, and add-on programs. Perhaps the ultimate forum solution is vBulletin, which is a high-powered professional script that does, of course, cost more money.

Three: Hosting Your Forum

As with any internet business, you should really host your online forum community on professional, paid hosting with your own domain name. This does not have to be expensive as domain names usually cost under eight dollars, and forum hosting can be as low as two or three dollars per month. There are many free forum hosting solutions but they are not only less professional, but they often display off-site ads that will detract from your community.

Four: Setting Up Topics and Sub-Forums

When you first begin your online forum community, you should make a limited number of topics and sub-forums for people to visit. This, when topics are started and discussions ensue, will make the forum look more active by concentrating the posts. If you make too many topics or sub-forums to begin with, the small amount of posts will be more spread out and less impressive. As time goes by, your members should be able to request new topics, or you can divide into more on your own.

Five: Making Your Forum Active

Making your forum active is the most important, and most difficult, aspect of online forum ownership. It is rather ironic in the fact that, if your forum is not active, visitors will not be compelled to stay, but without visitors staying, your forum will not be active. You can get around this by posting threads and conversations yourself under multiple user names, getting friends and family to post with you, or by hiring a paid posting firm to boost your forum's post counts.

Six: Admin and Moderator Duties

After the online forum community is set up and busy with many conversations and posts, you must constantly monitor it or assign moderators to do it for you. Not only should you make sure that no one is spamming or breaking the rules, but forum members like to know their admin is involved actively.

Building a quality forum can be a daunting task. Getting and retaining members is the most difficult part of the whole thing. However, if you set it up by following these basic steps, your chance of building a quality forum will be greater than if you just build it, and hope that people show up.

Your Topic

In 1954, the United States Supreme Court handed down one of the most talked-about decisions in American history when the justices ruled on the Brown vs. Board of Education case. More than 50 years later, the implications of the court's decision are still being discussed today and were recently made relevant once again as Supreme Court justices decided on two cases with roots in Brown vs. Board of Education.

On Dec. 4, the Supreme Court handed down decisions on two different court cases – one in Seatlle and one in Kentucky in which white parents sued because of a policy that they felt gave minorities an advantage.

In the Seattle, Washington case, a school board accepted a policy that gave nonwhite students an advantage if they enrolled in a high school with a majority white population. The policy is currently under suspension.

In the case of the Kentucky school district located in Jefferson County, the district stipulated a specific percent range of the number of black students that should be at each of the elementary schools. District officials said that 15 to 50 percent of the population should consist of black students.

In both instances, (white) parents sued the school districts on the basis that the policies were unconstitutional. The parents in both instances lost in the lower courts. However, the Supreme Court justices voted to hear the appeals of both cases in June. Lawyers from the Bush administration were actively involved in the cases.

In both instances, attorneys for the parents used the Brown decision as a basis for their arguments. While many see the Brown case as the end to segregation, the decision also meant the beginning of how American society defines the agenda of school officials when it comes to policies on integration. It is a decision Americans have yet to come to a consensus on as the two most recent cases in Seattle and Kentucky prove.

The question posited for today's school board members and district officials is whether their policies should be centered on integrating schools or if their agendas should be that of not assigning students to schools based upon race. The quandary is what Brown means in the context of today's world where the issue of segregation is not as outright and obvious as it was in the decades leading up to 1954 when the decision was read.

Students most certainly are no longer grouped with students of the same race when it comes to what school they attend. However, many officials have taken up policies that ensure a fair mix of ethnicities and races at each school. The question is whether it should be that way.

Within the Los Angeles Unified School District, 54,000 students are enrolled in the district's magnet program which selects participants on the basis of race. Is that fair? Some would say that this does nothing to support the issues that were at stake in the Brown vs. Board of Education debate. Others however, would argue that the magnet schools and LAUSD's race-based guidelines are an interpretation of Brown fitting the context of today's world where some communities are generally racially homogenous.

In addition to the 54,000 magnet students, another 3,500 LAUSD students are bused to a different school to ensure that schools are integrated.

More than 50 years after Brown, it is hard to conclude on whether school district policies are indeed echoes in the vein of what was meant to be implemented from the Brown decision or if we are only moving in reverse to create yet another set of those who are entitled or at an advantage and those who are not.

Forum

Forum games are a fun, creative, brain-teasing way to liven up any online discussion forum or chat room. They provide zest and interest to boring forums, while enabling members of discussion groups to bond and learn more about one another. Here are the top five best forum games for people looking to brighten a message board and challenge their minds.

Best Forum Game- #5 The Banning Game

A message board classic, The Banning Game is as easy as it is entertaining. To play, each participant must metaphorically “ban” the author of the previous post, usually for something ridiculous and unrelated to the actual rules of the discussion board. For example:

2- Person 1 is banned for having too many animated GIFs in his signature.
3- Person 2 is banned for discriminating unfairly against dancing smileys.
4- Person 3 is banned for pretending to care about smileys' rights.

Best Forum Game – #4 The Person Above You

This forum game could be considered the polar opposite of the Banning Game, though its basic rules are similar. Instead of saying something “bad” about the above poster, each game participant says something nice, or at least neutral, about the other person. For example:

2- Person 1 is really funny and creative.
3- Person 2 thinks everyone is funny and types “LOL” all the time.
4- Person 3 has been on these forums for two years.

Best Forum Game – #3 The Answer is a Question

This is a popular forum game, which is also entertaining (although difficult) to play in person. Each participant is required to respond to the previous post with a question. This can lead to a chain of hundreds, or even thousands, of questions– but still leaving the original question unanswered!

1- Do you guys like cheesecake?
2- Have you ever eaten vegan cheesecake?
3- Is it still cheesecake if there's no cheese?

Best Forum Game- #2 Throw It Here

A very enjoyable exercise in creative thinking, the “Throw it Here” game involves forum participants “throwing” an object in each post. Each person who responds will metaphorically use the object in some way, turning it into something else, and then “throw” it to the next forum participant.

1- buys a farm, raises animals, throws a sheep to…
2- sheers the sheep, gets some wool, throws the yarn to…
3- tries to crochet, can't make a sweater, throws leg-warmers to…

Best Forum Game- #1 Three Word Story

Another creative forum game, the Three Word Story creates an unusual but cohesive story made entirely of three-word segments. Each poster adds their own twist to the plot of the story, continuing the statement made by the previous message. Variants are the Five Word Story and the Neverending Sentence, which is a story made of one very long sentence.

1- The big cat
2- found a purple
3- walrus under his

There are many creative, brain-teasing possibilities offered by all forum games, and these five are especially ideal for those seeking a break from forum games that fail to challenge participants. These top five suggestions are a great way to get to know others online, while also creating a fun activity to fill your spare time.

Website Topic

Role playing game or RPG are games that do just that; you act out a role of a character. Most RPG that is played on message boards is considered RPGs.

If you go into the science fiction arena, in addition to RPGs, they are also called simms. This is something I know very well as I have been playing these type of games for over six years now and for the most part I have enjoyed them but they do have their issues.

In a sense, RPGs when it comes to playing them on message boards are considered creative writing to me.
What you are doing is portraying a certain character in the game. If you know how to write a story, you should not have any problems learning how to role play.

Since I know a whole lot when it comes to star trek role playing, I am going to use that as my backdrop here to help explain it all to you. The first thing you should do when joining a role playing game is choose your character's name. Then you create a bio for your character and the best thing when you do that is be as detailed about them as you can. The more detail the better, but leave yourself room to develop your character as you will develop your character as you play them longer. Your character will be like your baby.

Now in order to start playing, someone has to start the game somehow. If you are playing a star trek role playing game, then usually the captain starts the mission. I really don't know how the other genres play the game as I have never played anything other than star trek when it came to role playing games.

Most of what you do when it comes to playing is common sense so once the game has started up, you then start posting if you can. Usually the first post can be the hardest. It's even harder when it is in the middle of the mission or episode.

Most games are divided into missions or episodes depending on what is decided by the person whom is running the game.

Now when you do start jumping in and playing the game, you have to read what everyone has written in order to understand what is going on so that you can join in. If you don't read, you can mess up what is going on.
A lot of people end up skimming when in fact they should be reading it. A lot of important things are missed when they skim but people still do it from time to time.

Some people also write long and short posts, put when posting you want to have something that is of a decent size. You do not want to see one liners. I'd say the minimum should be four sentences if you can handle it. The whole idea about role playing is to have fun as it is really a good way to escape even if it's just for a little while from real life. Don't forget to have fun as that is the most important thing when it comes to roleplaying. Why would you want to role play if it's not fun?

Discusion Forum

Many people know that Disneyland is a popular among a lot of people all over the world. However, not everyone is aware of just how important Disneyland is to some people. For some people, Disneyland is actually their favorite place in the world, and has special emotional significance to them. Recently, members of a popular Disneyland themed online discussion board were asked why they loved Disneyland. These are some of the most dedicated Disneyland enthusiasts in the country, and their answers were both surprising, and touching. If you have ever wondered why some people seem addicted to Disneyland, the following reasons may shed some light on the subject.

Disneyland treats everyone like they are special. One of the most striking reasons given as an answer to the question of why fans love Disneyland, was that of a mother who has a disabled child. Her answer stated simply, “Because they treat my daughter like this”. Below the statement was a touching photo of a beautiful little girl in a wheelchair getting some one on one time with Cinderella.

Disneyland lets guests check their troubles at the gate - Many people responded to the question of why they loved Disneyland with answers that echoed the same sentiment. Disneyland is a place where they feel they get to separate themselves from the rest of the world for a little while. Many answers spoke of being able to forget everyday problems while at Disneyland. And while this may sound corny to someone who hasn't experienced it, lots of people love Disneyland for this very reason.

Disneyland helped a lot of adults cope with their troubled childhood - This was probably the most surprising answer given on this particular discussion board. To the question of why they loved Disneyland, many people who answered articulated how childhood visits to Disneyland offered glimpses of happiness and brief refuge during otherwise tumultuous years of their youths. Some actually feel that this is why they developed such a strong emotional attachment to the park.

Disneyland is an easy place to make happy memories with your children - Another common reason that responders gave as to why they love Disneyland, was that it is the place where they have witnessed some of the best moments of their children's lives. This seemed to be another reason that those who love Disneyland to the extent that they do feel they had become emotionally attached to the park. For people who visit Disneyland many times during the years that their children are growing up, it becomes a place where parents can still feel strongly connected to the memories of when their children were young.

So the next time you hear somebody say that they love Disneyland, maybe it will be easier to understand why.

general discussion

The program of Alcoholics Anonymousoffers a wide range of meeting formats. While each and every type of AA meeting is beneficial to members of the program, it is quite natural to expect that individuals in Alcoholics Anonymous would develop preferences for certain types, or formats of meetings. Personally, after being a member of Alcoholics Anonymous since 1999 and having attended literally hundreds of meetings, this writer has also developed a preference for certain types, or formats of AA meetings.

Among the most satisfying and effective AA meeting formats that I have found are Open Step Discussion Meetings. As the name implies, this type or format of meeting focuses on the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, with group discussion also offered. With the Twelve Steps being at the epicenter of the Alcoholics Anonymous program, Open Step Discussion meetings are undoubtedly very important and useful.

Quite often, Open Step Discussion meetings feature fairly small numbers of attendees, which lend an air of intimacy and oftentimes, relaxation to the meeting. The smaller – sized meetings, as opposed to meetings with many attendees, often provide an atmosphere wherein it is easier for some members of Alcoholics Anonymous to focus on specific subjects and to be able to share their thoughts, feelings and comments with other members of the group. When studying and focusing on a subject such as the 12 Steps, a certain amount of focus and attention is required, which the smaller – sized AA groups are able to offer.

Generally, at Open Step Discussion meetings, participants read in unison from copies of the book “Alcoholics Anonymous”, or the Big Book, as it is commonly referred to. Usually, meeting participants at Open Step Discussion meetings take turns reading aloud from one specific Step chapter of the Big Book. Standard procedure at this format of AA meeting calls for each participant to read one or two paragraphs from the designated Step chapter aloud, then allow the next person to read a paragraph or two. Each participant, or reader has the opportunity to inject their own tone, inflections and style to the reading of the Step chapter.

When the Step chapter has been read all of the way through, at most Alcoholics Anonymous Open Step Discussion meetings, the various participants enter into a discussion regarding the Step chapter that they had just read. Participants generally express their opinions concerning what they just read and frequently offer insights and observations, including ways in which they can relate to the Step chapter.

Because each member of Alcoholics Anonymous offers unique observations, insights and opinions regarding the specified Step, other members of the group can often benefit and glean new insights and information, which may help them to interpret the chapter in new ways, which can also help to benefit their own individual sobriety.

Whether it be a single sentence, a paragraph or the entire chapter, usually, certain parts of each Step chapter contain particularly significant elements for each member of the Open Step Discussion meeting. One of the benefits of this meting format is that participants receive the opportunity to reflect upon how the specific chapter relates to their own experiences and struggles with alcoholism. No matter if the AA member is a newcomer or a seasoned veteran of the program, each and every participant in this format of AA meeting can benefit greatly from the information that is offered to them.

Sources :
Personal experience with the Alcoholics Anonymous program and AA meetings

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