If you are not already a member of the KOS, have found the KOS website useful and enjoy using this forum, please could we encourage you to join us? Membership of the KOS equates to just £1 a month. We are the Society which provides the ornithological evidence necessary to preserve threatened, wildlife rich areas of our county. Your support is invaluable. The more members we have the louder our voice becomes. You can click any of the links below to join us and can now even pay by PayPal. Simply click on the 'Paypal Payments' button below!

KOS Forum replaces KOSNet and is available to both members and non members. It offers many more features than the old email format and you can now choose which messages you wish to read. (A quick way to view most recent posts is to scroll down the page and  under Forum Statistics simply click 'View the 25 most recent posts on the forum'). Membership of the General Forum is free. To assist you better with registering, it is suggested that you print out the joining up instructions below.

KOS Members’ Area
KOS Members will additionally have access to a Members Only Forum which we really hope that you will enjoy. You'll be able to share your views, sightings and requests with both other KOS members and the committees themselves. KOS Members will be able upload photographs or other attachments in the Members’ Area. Minutes of meetings and other Society-related information will now be accessible to paid up members of the Society only and will no longer be accessible to non members.

So, to sign up, please follow the instructions below. Then, once you have signed up to the Open Forum, please send an email with your username in the Subject and your real name in the body of the message to the moderators. Here is the email address you will need:

kosforum@kentos.org.uk

We will then check your membership status and sign you up to the Members' Forum. It is strongly recommended that all KOS members with internet access join this Members' Forum so that we can keep you in touch with Society news and events.

Signing up instructions
Many of you will be familiar with forums and need no instructions with regard to how to join and use KOS Forum. However, for those less certain, detailed instructions follow. These are also available under the 'Welcome and Forum Features' thread on the Forum itself. It may sound complicated but it isn’t! You’ll only have to do this once.

When you click the link below you will go to the forum.

http://kentosforum.proboards.com/

Please click on 'Register'. You will then be taken to a page where you can enter all necessary details. You can choose what information to give to preserve your privacy but some fields are necessarily mandatory. No one else can view what you submit apart from the moderators. Please choose your username carefully as it will be used for logging into this forum. This username MUST be just one word such as 'John123'. Please make a careful note of your username and password as, if ever you reset your computer, you will need to re-enter it.

Please enter the Security check numbers then read the agreement terms. If these are acceptable, select the ‘I Agree’ box then click ‘Create Account’ at the bottom of the page. You will then receive an email with a code in it. Please copy this code and go back to the Log In page. Enter your Username and your own password. Use the drop down menu and choose how long you wish to stay logged in for. We suggest you select Stay logged in ‘Forever’ and this means you won’t have to log in every time you visit the forum.

When you have entered your log in details, click ‘Log In’. You will be taken to a page where you will be asked to enter the code you were sent in the email. Paste that in (it may already be there), click ‘Activate Account’ and that’s it! You will find yourself in the Open Forum.

KOS members should then follow the guidance above (which is repeated in the Open Forum thread 'KOS Members' Forum - signing up instructions') in order to gain access to the Members’ Area. Again, you’ll need to do this only once.

Now please enter your Display Name. To do this, click 'Members' at the top of the page. A list of all Forum members is displayed. Please locate your own username in the first column and click it. Your details will appear. Click 'Modify Profile' and, on the next page, in the 'Display Name' box just type in the name you'd like to be shown with your messages. Scroll to the bottom of the page. Click 'Modify Profile' and you're done! You can reset this at any time.

Once in the Forum please read the Society’s Forum Rules which differ from the Proboard Terms you accepted when you signed onto the Forum.

Using the Forum
Once you are in the Forum you will be presented with various areas you can visit. If you only wish to see bird-related postings then you can simply click that heading. If you wish to discuss wider issues eg landowners, dog walkers etc. then postings should be placed under the ‘Off Topic Discussion’ heading. Please keep threads under the correct heading or they will be removed.

KOS Members have many more choices in their Forum and, we repeat, will be able to post messages on both the Members’ Forums and the Open Forums.

So, how to use the Forums? If, for example, you want to share your day’s sightings, click on the ‘Birds’ heading. Then click on 'New Thread'. Enter a title for your thread, write your post and click 'Post Message' at the bottom of the page. Your message will appear under the correct heading on the site! When you read each post, above it is a 'Reply' button. Click that, type your post and submit it in the same way. All related postings are tidily grouped together under the Thread name.

The Forum is hosted by Proboards which is American, and certain aspects of the Forum we cannot amend. For example, we cannot change 'Hey .... you have 0 new messages' at the top of the page nor can we amend the spelling of 'Center' lower on the page! Sorry!

That’s all there is to it. No longer will your Inbox be jammed with KOSNet emails! If you have any problems or questions please contact a moderator by sending an email to:

kosforum@kentos.org.uk

Many thanks!