To register as a user of this discussion forum, you need only provide two pieces of information:

1. Your date of birth
2. Your email address

There are two main reasons why we ask for this information:

1. We need your date of birth because we require parent or guardian consent to participate in this forum if you are under 18 years of age
2. Requiring a valid email address can help prevent automated spamming. It also allows us to notify you if your post has been replied to by a moderator, or if it needs to be changed or removed.

We also ask you to agree to the ‘terms and conditions’ and ‘participation guidelines’, as well as confirming a verification code to ensure your registration is genuine and not automated.

This new discussion forum provides a much greater variety of features and useability functions than our old forum, and once you have become familiar with the basic features such as creating new topics and making comments, you might like to explore some of the more advanced features.

Some of the basic features that you might like to use while posting topics and comments are:

• Show some emotion in your post with "Smiley faces"
• Add pictures to show us what you mean
• Link your ideas to existing websites
• Use HTML text features such as bullets, fonts and justify.

And once you are comfortable with the basic features, you might like to explore:

• Personalising you profile by adding an ‘avatar’ or picture and more
• Customise how the forum is displayed on your computer
• Find out who’s online now, and who made a recent post
• Subscribe to RSS feeds so you never miss out on a new comment.

Click here to go to the registration screen.

Please go to the "Need help using the forum?" topic to leave a comment or suggestion.

If you are experiencing any problems with your registration, please email the project officer.