Greetings and welcome to the ArmyStudyGuide.com forums.
Consider this a sort of unofficial orientation to help you better integrate to our community.
First, if you haven't already, read the Terms of Service. If you should ever forget what they are, there's a handy link at the bottom of every page.
By virtue of your membership, you have agreed to abide by these terms.
Internet message boards in general
An internet message board or forum is a place where people can share ideas, make announcements, ask questions, or just have a conversation.
A forum is not like a chat channel or instant messenger. People come by at different times of the day. Some come by once or twice a day, some once a month, some only once. Some people have a lot so say, some just come to read (they are called 'lurkers'). Due to the nature of the forum, your messages may not be answered quickly (but compared to a chat room, you'll more likely to get an intelligent answer)
You might see a variety of account types on a forum. Typically you'll have basic users, moderators, and administrators (some may have different titles). These different account types have varying permissions. For example, on ArmyStudyGuide.com, a normal member can only edit his/her own messages, but a moderator can edit any messages.
Accounts with special privileges can normally be recognized by a custom title.
Specific to ArmyStudyGuide.com
This website was started to help Soldiers develop professionally by helping them study for boards. It has grown to more than that, and these forums are a big part of that.
We are for the most part a community of and for professional Soldiers. Our membership seems to be composed mostly of NCOs (I don't think there are any real statistics) who genuinely care about the Army and Soldiers. We appreciate the Army values, and aspire to do things the right way. That said, people who don't believe in the Army values generally do not find a lot of sympathy here.
Our members are very knowledgeable and eager to help. We have a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. We have officers and enlisted, senior NCOs and privates, retirees and future Soldiers, family members and even civilians with no military affiliation.
Some other forums are very strict about their etiquette, others are very lax. ArmyStudyGuide.com is in the middle, somewhere between Defensivecarry.com and Zombiehunters.org. We expect a bit of civility, but can accept a degree of crude language or heated discussion (we are mostly Soldiers after all). Explicitly vulgar or profane language is not tolerated. Messages that are contrary to the Army values will be edited (this includes but is not limited to: posting information on cheating on correspondence courses, or methods of shirking duty).
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