The Forum
About this website
The Forum is for A.A. members to share about using technology for accomplishing the primary purpose of A.A. We range from technology giants to complete novices just interested in the subject. All are AA members or support AA technology, and all are welcome.
To join the forum, sign up or email: info@tiaa-forum.org.
You can come here to:
- Share your experience about using technology in A.A.
- Ask questions about how to use technology in A.A.
- Just follow the many discussions to see how technology is being used in A.A.
- Share your progress as you explore or develop technology in support of A.A.
Wondering what a forum is or whether to join this forum? Here is information that may be helpful.
- What is a forum?
A primer for those who are new to online forums.
- What’s it like?
A guide to the TIAA Forum: About Categories, Topics and more.
- Categories in the Forum
Categories that help us find what we’re looking for.
- A list of topics recently active on the Forum
Last but not least, a comprehensive list of all the topics that have been or are currently being discussed within the Forum.
What is an online forum?
An online forum is a space online where people with similar interests can hold discussions. In particular, the Technology in AA, TIAA Forum facilitates discussions among those with an interest in how technology is being used, or might be used, to help carry the message.
Unlike social media sites, an online discussion forum is arranged into discussions of topics started by members. Once started, other members can choose to enter that discussion by responding. Still other members may choose to follow the conversation, or not. A topic conversation can be started by any statement or question that might serve to start a discussion.
Online discussion forums differ from chat rooms in that conversations can happen over time; not everyone in the discussion needs to be present at the same time.
The TIAA Forum is organized into a number of categories, in which members can post their questions or discussion prompts and reply to each other. Members can share multimedia content as well as text, and forum posts are often longer than those on social media sites or in chat rooms.
The Forum is for A.A. members to share about using technology for accomplishing the primary purpose of A.A. We range from technology giants to complete novices just interested in the subject. All are AA members or support AA technology, and all are welcome.
To join the forum, sign up or email: info@tiaa-forum.org.
What's our Forum Like?
A guide to the TIAA Forum: About Categories, Topics, and more.
If you are not familiar with forums, it can feel a bit like you have entered a new world. It isn’t that hard; you will figure it out pretty quickly. But perhaps a little introduction will help.
How it works.
The forum consists of various discussions or conversations, each beginning with a conversation starter, followed by responses. In our terminology, such a discussion is called a topic. A topic can be posted by any member of the Forum and other members can post responses, or replies, that keep the conversation going. The conversation continues, often back and forth. If a topic remains idle for 30 days, the topic is closed, but is still available for search.
To organize topics into similar subject areas, topics are arranged into categories. The creator of a topic specifies which category to assign the topic to. Examples of categories include “How To”, “Help Wanted”, and the more general “Technology”. For a complete list of categories on our current forum, see here.
You can choose which topics to follow and only see topics in the categories that interest you. Similarly, when a new topic is started, you can choose not to follow that topic. Thus you can eliminate all the “noise” and just see the categories and conversations that interest you.
One member can also send a Personal Message, or PM, to another member, like an email within the forum.
The TIAA Forum is a moderated forum. That means a team of moderators follow the forum to keep it orderly and safe. We have a set of guidelines for use in the forum which you can see here. Things like being polite, staying on topic, etc. So for example, a moderator might move a topic from its category to a more appropriate category, or PM the creator of a post reminding them of our guidelines and asking them to edit their post. This Forum is fortunate that our members are generally polite and thoughtful in their postings.
Forum Categories
This category is for those who want to offer solutions to problems either on the forum or in the accomplishing of some task that others might have interest in.
A resource for members who need some technology assistance, e.g. setting up a new website, modifying a website or other service, email server problems, telephone system issues.
This category is for general discussion of technology issues and ideas.
Used for announcements to the general membership and for topics that do not really fit in other categories.
In this category, TIAA-Forum members can provide technology informed opinions on those things on the upcoming General Service Conference agenda that are technology related.
Use this category to share about experiences at the NAATW workshop. Workshop announcements leading up to the workshop. Continued discussion of workshop topics after the workshop.