What are Oracle Discussion Forums?
Oracle Discussion Forums is an interactive community for sharing information, questions, and comments about Oracle products and related technologies. Most forums are moderated by product managers, and all of them are frequently visited by knowledgeable users from the community. Today, Oracle Forums contain nearly 2.5 million messages.

What software do they run on?
Oracle Discussion Forums run on version 4.2 of Jive Forums. An upgrade to v 5.5, originally scheduled for July 1, has been delayed.

Do I have to be registered to use the forums?
Anyone can read messages but must be a registered member to post a question or response. Simply sign in at www.oracle.com/technology/membership to register free of charge.

What is proper discussion forum etiquette?
When asking a question, provide all the details that someone would need to answer it. Consulting documentation first is highly recommended. Furthermore, always be courteous; there are different levels of experience represented here. A poorly worded question is better ignored than flamed - or better yet, help the poster ask a better question.

What about Terms of Use?
A full document is posted here, but suffice to say that spam, defamation, obscenity, and bigotry are not tolerated and perpetrators will be banned. We're adults, let's act like them.

I have login or password problems. What do I do?
Please see this FAQ for all password and login issues.

How do I hide my name or email address from other Discussion Forum users?
Go to Your Control Panel (when logged in) and make sure that your email address is not being used as your handle. (That field is fully editable.) Also, in the Name section, confirm that you have selected the Hide option.

How is forum content organized?
The content in the forums is structured as follows:

• Categories: Categories represent a collection of forums as well as other categories. Often, categories are used to organize forums into a tree structure so members can find the right discussions more easily.
• Forums: Forums are the areas where individual discussions take place as a listing of threads.
• Threads: Threads are the discussions that consist of one or more messages displayed as a list, or in a tree structure of messages and their replies.
• Messages: Messages are the individual discussion posts made by community members.
• Replies: Message replies are posts in response to other messages and are organized in a flat or threaded mode.

Can I change my handle, name, or email address?
Oracle's privacy policy allows you to manage any personally identifying information. You may change your handle, name, or email address (for receiving watch emails only, not your OTN username) by clicking Your Control Panel. In addition, you can choose to hide your name or email address to protect your identity. (Note: If you select a handle that is already in use, you'll get an error message.)

How do I start a discussion or post a question?
Every Forum has a Post New Thread icon above the main index. Click the icon and fill the form to start a new thread. If you are not logged-in, you will be prompted to login. When you are finished, click Preview, reread your post, then click Go Back/Edit to make changes or additions. When you are finished, click Post.

How do I check the spelling of my message?
To check the text of your message for proper spelling, click Spell Check on the post screen. If our spell check dictionary doesn't recognize a word in your message, it will appear in a box. You can correct it yourself by simply typing over what is displayed. If the dictionary has any suggestions, you will be able to see them in the suggestion box. To choose one of the suggestions, select the suggestion you'd like to use and click the Change button for each of the words you would like changed. When you are finished checking your entire message, click on Post Message to save your changes and post the message with your spelling corrections. If you want to continue editing your message, hit Go Back or Edit to return to the post message area.

How do I reply to a message?
Every message has a Reply icon to the right of the date that the message was posted. Click the icon and fill the form to reply to the message. If you are not logged in, you will be prompted to login. When you are finished, click Preview, verify your post, then click Go Back/Edit to make changes or additions. When you are finished, click Post. I can't reply to a thread, it doesn't have a reply icon or link. Why?
If a thread has a "lock" icon next to it, a forum moderator has decided to lock it. No one may further reply to the thread until it is unlocked.

I posted a message earlier, but now it is gone. What happened?
Two things could have happened. The message was either deleted or moved to another forum because it was off topic by a moderator.

How do I search the Forums?
To search for a topic within a forum, use the Search box in the right-hand corner of the homepage. Type in the topic you are interested in, select All forums, a single forum, or multiple forums using the scroll box (hold down the Shift key to click multiple forums). You can also search for topics within the forum you are in by clicking on the Search Forum icon.

What are Watches and how do I use them?
There are four types of watches: Category, Forum, Thread and User. A watch notifies you by email if the Category, Forum, Thread or User you are interested in has been updated.

• To add a Category to your watch list, navigate to the category you want to watch and click the Watch Category link.
• To add a Forum to your watch list, navigate to the forum you want to watch and click the Watch Forum link.
• To add a thread to your watch list, click on the Watch This Thread link at the top of the thread page.
• To add a User to your watch list, click on name of the User you want to watch, then click Watch This User.

Click on Stop Watching to end the email notifications for Categories, Forums, Threads and Users. After 90 days, inactive watches automatically expire. To see the current list of watches, click on Your Control Panel and then Your Watches. From this screen, you can manage each watch individually. You can delete a watch by checking the Delete tick box for the watch you want to delete, then clicking the Delete button.

What are RSS Feeds and how do I get them?
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds are used for sharing headlines and other web content. For the Discussion Forums, you can get RSS Feeds for a category or forum, which will download all messages in that feed so you can view them without going to the discussion forums. To download RSS Feeds, you need an RSS Aggregator. There are many free ones available on the Web. To subscribe to a feed, click the RSS icon on the bottom of any page, then click "Get Requested Feed" and copy that URL from your browser bar. Paste the URL into your RSS Aggregator and it will download the feed and continue updating until you remove it. You can subscribe to RSS Feeds for Announcements, Threads, Popular Threads, and Messages for a particular Forum, Category or get a Global Feed.

Can I attach files to my messages?
Sorry, due to security and legal reasons, attachments are not supported.

What is an Oracle ACE?
The Oracle ACE program formally recognizes Oracle advocates with strong credentials as activists in the Oracle community. Candidates are nominated by the community at large on an ongoing basis and ratified by a nomination committee.