In my mind, the word subscriptions has a rather negative connotation, propagated by the flood of junk snail mail I receive from certain magazine publishers starting eight months before my current subscription is due to expire, and continuing almost forever, if I fail to re-subscribe. Subscriptions, as the word applies to the ICON Members' Forums, however, is a very positive, timesaving feature over which the subscriber has complete control.

In forum-speak, subscriptions are a way for a forum member to be notified via e-mail whenever a post is made to the topic, forum, or group of forums to which the member is subscribed. The forum member must choose to subscribe and may unsubscribe at any time with the click of the mouse.

How Do I Subscribe?
First, you must be an ICON forum member AND be logged in to take advantage of the subscriptions feature. As an example, assume that you have posted a question to the Windows forum. To be notified via e-mail that someone has posted a response to your question, all you need to do is go to the Windows forum (where the topics are listed), and in the row next to YOUR topic, click the icon that looks like this: (It's a sheet of paper, an envelope, and a pencil; if you hover over it, the tool tip will say "Subscribe to this topic"). You will be asked to confirm your subscription. That's all there is to it. The forum administrator will notify you via e-mail whenever anyone posts to that topic. The e-mail will come to the address contained in your member profile, which is the one you submitted when you registered as a forum member. If your e-mail address has changed, you must update your member profile with the correct address. (Log in and click the Profile link at the top of any forum page.)

Likewise, you can subscribe to an entire forum or group of forums. Simply go to the row next to the forum to which you want to subscribe, click the icon, and follow the steps above. In this case, the tool tip will read "Subscribe to this forum").

How Do I Unsubscribe?
Once you are subscribed to a topic, forum or group of forums, another icon appears that looks like this (It's a sheet of paper, an envelope, and a trashcan; if you hover over it, the tool tip will say "Unsubscribe to this [topic, forum, etc]. Just click the icon, confirm that you want to unsubscribe, and you will receive no more e-mails regarding posts to that topic or forum. That's lots easier than dealing with a magazine publisher!

When the forums first went live, I subscribed to ALL of them. Soon my inbox was crowded with e-mails advising me of every post to the forums, so I would not advise you to subscribe to all forums. Now I scan the forum daily for new posts (log in and look for the pink folders), and I only use the subscription feature when there is a post I particularly want to keep tabs on, such as the current discussion about future ICON classes.

Thanks for listening. See you on the forums!