Community Discussion Forums FAQ
Getting started
Once you’ve successfully signed into your account, you should be directly taken to the community forum.
If you've already logged in and want to access the forums from other parts of the Breastcancer.org site, you can hover your cursor over the Connect tab at the top of your screen to reveal a drop-down menu. Click All Topics to be taken to the community. From this drop-down menu, you may also access Active Topics, Find Members, or Community Search.
On mobile, once you’re signed into your account, click the hamburger icon (≡) in the top right corner of your screen. In the resulting menu, click Connect. Click All Topics to be taken to the community. From this drop-down menu, you may also access Active Topics, Find Members, or Community Search.
Our discussion forums are structured to help community members better find and participate in discussions. Here is an overview of our terminology:
Categories: A category is a grouping of forums. We have nine categories: Information and resources, Connect with others like me, Concerned about my risk, In treatment, Managing life with cancer, Finished treatment, Living with metastatic disease, Caring for someone, and Tributes.
Topics: Topics are subsets of categories and provide specific topic areas for community members to submit content. For example, if you are a community member who is waiting for breast cancer test results but has not received a diagnosis yet, you would choose the Waiting for Test Results topic in the Concerned about my risk category to submit your concern.
Discussions: Discussions are subsets of forums. Once you have found an appropriate forum in which to submit your content, you can add your post to an existing discussion or start a new discussion that details your specific question or concern.
Comments: Comments are subsets of discussions. After starting a discussion, you and/or other community members can post comments to the discussion. New comments appear at the bottom. So if a discussion has multiple pages, your comment will appear on the last page.
You can access discussions that have recently been created or commented on by clicking the Active Topics link in the navigation bar at the top of your screen, or in the Quick Links menu at the right of your screen on desktop.
On mobile devices, you can access Active Topics by clicking the hamburger menu (≡) at the top left of your screen.
Use our Search feature to find existing discussion topics that may already contain answers to your questions:
From any page on the site, click the magnifying glass icon at the top right corner of your screen and a search bar will appear. Or, from the All Topics page, Active Topics page, or any Category page, click the search bar in the banner at the top of the page.
Type in a keyword or term, a member’s username, or anything else you’d like to find, and press the Enter key.
Search results will appear from all categories within the forum.
You can filter the results by Discussions, Categories, or Members using the buttons under the search bar. You can also sort by Best Match, Newest, Oldest, Top topics, and Hot topics. Additionally, you can filter further using other criteria by using the fields to the right of the screen on a desktop computer, or by clicking Filter Results on mobile.
How to get more accurate search results:
To find an exact word or phrase, use quotation marks: “hair loss”
To exclude a term from your search, use the - symbol: “hair”-“loss”
To find content with multiple queries,use the + symbol: “hair loss”+“taxol”+“cold caps”
Each discussion includes a comments (posting) section where all users can participate and share their thoughts on the topic. You can add a comment in the field at the bottom of any discussion.
To create a discussion on desktop, click the New Discussion button at the top right of any page. On mobile, click the + button and select New Discussion. You’ll be taken to a New Discussion form, where you can configure your discussion.
Click Select a category to choose where to add your discussion.
The Discussion Title is what displays at the top of the discussion once it’s been submitted. It also identifies the discussion on the forum index.
The text field is where you type your post. You can use the buttons at the bottom left to insert images and media, as well as attach files. You can also add emojis from this menu on desktop; on mobile, use your device’s emoji menu.
Tags mark a discussion with certain keywords so it’s easier to search for within the community. By default, up to fifty tags can be used on a post. Learn more about how to tag.
Once the post is ready, click Post Discussion to publish it. Or click Save Draft to store the post under My Drafts.
Edit and reply
To edit or delete a discussion comment, navigate to the post and select Edit or Delete from the ellipse (...) menu.
Confirm you’d like to delete the comment by clicking Okay.
Note: You may only edit or delete a comment or post that you have made.
Many community members utilize the Post Signature to summarize their diagnosis and treatment experiences. Doing so lets other members know more about your breast cancer experience when you post in the community discussion forums, and appears under each of your posts.
From any page in the Breastcancer.org community:
Click Signature Settings in the Quick Links menu on the right side of your screen on desktop, or at the bottom of the page on mobile.
On the Signature Settings page, you'll see a text box where you can fill out as much or as little information about your breast cancer experience as you'd like. Many members use abbreviations to share their diagnostic and treatment information. Read more about common abbreviations.
Be sure to click Save before leaving the page.
Your post signature should now appear under all your posts.
Messages
You can start a private conversation with another user in a few ways:
From your Inbox, click the New Message button on desktop, or the new message icon on mobile. You need to provide the name of the person you want to message.
Click someone’s username to display their usercard, and then click the Message button to start a conversation with them.
From a user’s profile, click the Message button to start a conversation with them.
If you’d like to ignore a member, navigate to your Account & Privacy settings, available by clicking your profile image at the top right of your screen. On your account page, select Ignore List in the navigation bar on the right of your screen on desktop, or at the bottom of the page on mobile. On the Ignore List page, type in the member’s username you’d like to ignore and click OK. The member will be added to the top of your ignore List. At any time, you can unignore a member by clicking the Unignore button next to their username in the ignore list.
1. Navigate to the post you’d like to report.
2. In the Reactions menu below the post, click Flag > Report.
3. In the resulting dialog, you can:
Click the conversation bubble to view the whole discussion
Click View Post to view the full post
Provide a required reason in the text field for the moderators
4. Click Send Report to flag this post for a moderator to review.
Upon sending the report, you will receive a pop-up confirmation at the bottom left side of your screen.
Please use this form to report a technical issue or problem. Providing as much information as possible about your device, operating system, and browser you’re using will help us troubleshoot the issue faster. Sharing a screenshot of the issue you’re experiencing is also very helpful.
Settings
You can bookmark any discussion by clicking the Bookmark icon to the right of any discussion title. Doing so adds it to your personal My Bookmarks page, which lists all of your bookmarked content for easy reference.
You can access your Bookmarks by clicking My Bookmarks in the Quick Links menu bar on the right of your screen on desktop, or at the bottom of the page on mobile. You can also access these by clicking your profile image, and then selecting Bookmarks.
From any page in the Breastcancer.org community:
Click the ribbon person icon at the top right of your page (or your current photo)
In the resulting menu, click Account & Settings
On the next page, in the right navigation menu, click Change My Picture
Click Upload New Picture
Browse your files to select the photo you'd like to choose to represent you and then click Open
Click Edit Profile Photo. Use the pop-up file selector to locate a photo file from your device.
Note: The recommended maximum size for profile images is 500px by 500px.
Click Save changes.
You should now see your updated profile image whenever you're logged into your account.
Click the Profile image on the upper right side of your screen, and then in the resulting pop-up click Account & Privacy Settings where you can control whether your profile is public or private.
In the Privacy section, check the Display my profile publicly box to make it publicly viewable. Uncheck the box to make it private.
All users can mark their profiles as private to restrict their profile from being seen by others users, with the exception of community moderators and administrators.
Note: All users’ profiles are automatically made public by default. You must change your settings to make it private.
If your question is not answered here, please see our Community User Guide for more information. You can also contact the moderators by sending a private message or email to community@breastcancer.org.