The nano.org project is currently in early beta testing. However, the features described below are already in effect. One exception to the description below is that, during beta, all users automatically have the scholar rank. Read more about the beta test here.

As a registered Member you can contribute to discussions in the General forum, or start new discussions. If you have the Scholar rank you can also contribute to discussions in the Articles section. In either case, the procedure is the same.

To Contribute to an Existing Discussion
As an example we will suppose that you are interested in contributing to a thread in the General forum. By clicking on General in the navigation bar (the black bar immediately below the nano.org banner at the top of the page) you will be taken to the General forum, where there will be a number of discussion threads listed by their titles.

In fact there will be other ongoing discussions that are not initially listed on your screen - those listed are the ones most that have been recently created. If you do not initially see the discussion that interests you, then you can use the list of topics in the grey panel on the right to filter out other threads until you do see the one that you are seeking. (Note also that there is another, separate set of discussions in the Articles section, where Scholars debate research papers.)
Once the discussion thread you are interested in is displayed, just click its title to go into that thread.

You will see a list of contributions, or 'posts', from nano.org Members. The posts are displayed in chronological order. If there have been many posts, then they will be divided up into pages with about 15 posts per page. You can use the small numbered links at the bottom of any page to navigate back and forth though the entire record of the discussion so far.

When you wish to make your own contribution, you can click the words "Post message" which appear at the top of the page, and at the bottom.
You will then be shown a page where you can compose your post. Optionally you may provide a subject line; below the subject field there is a large blank field where you can type in your remarks. Notice there is an option to post anonymously - this should only rarely be used, as explained here. When you have finished, use the "Preview post" button at the bottom to move to new screen that shows you exactly how the post will appear to other readers. If you are satisfied with the appearance, you can click Post to make your remarks publicly available as the latest contribution to the thread. Be aware that once your contribution is posted, it cannot subsequently be changed without direct intervention from a site Operator. Therefore it is important to look though it carefully at the Preview stage to check for typos, etc.

The text field into which you type your contribution can only receive plain text, nevertheless it is possible to produce bold or italic text in the final post seen by other readers. This is achieved by using a simple syntax called BBCode. If, for example, you wish to make some text appear bold in the eventual publicly displayed post, then you simply mark the beginning of that text with [b] and the end with [/b]. In the image above, the word "certainly" has been marked as bold in this fashion. At the Preview stage, the text will properly appear in bold, and of course the [b] and [/b] markers will have been removed. Similarly, other special forms of text such as italic, underlined and so forth can be indicated using other markers - the appropriate codes are listed in the panel to the right of the text field on the posting page.

As a convinient alternative to explicitly typing the [b] and [/b] delimiters, you can simply highlight the text that you wish to appear bold using your mouse, and then click on the option "[b]...[/b]: Bold" which appears in the list on the right - the delimiters will then be inserted for you. The same is true of all the other markers listed on the right.

It is also possible to include non-textual content such as images and equations within your post - this is explained on two separate pages for inclusion of images and inclusion of equations.

To Start a New Discussion Thread
Before starting a new discussion thread, be sure to look through the relevant forum (either the General forum or the Articles section) to check that there is not a previous thread on the subject you wish to debate. This is especially important in the case of discussions focused on specific pieces of research. You can also use the search facility to help check for prior threads. Having established that no previous thread exists, you can create a new one by clicking the words "Create general thread" (for the General forum) or "Submit article thread" (for the Articles section).
For new threads in the General forum, you are then presented with a simple page requesting the thread title, the "Brief description of thread", and the first post for that thread. The title should be as brief as possible while conveying the basic theme of the discussion - you may use the conventions of newspaper headlines to compress the text, for example "Use of nanoparticles in cosmetics unsafe?". The brief description can be a longer line of text, elaborating on the title in a single complete sentence, for example "Are retailers prematurely marketing nanotech-themed high end cosmetics?". The First Post field is composed precisely as one would create a normal post to an existing thread, as described above. BBcode can be used to mark bold text, etc.
Finally, at the bottom of the page there is a topics with which this new thread can be associated. It is possible to choose multiple options here. For example, a thread on nanotechnology and cosmetics might be associated with "Medical Nanotechnology" and with "Nanotech impact on society", however it would not be relevant to "Information Processing". It is important to select at least one topic, because these labels help users to find a given thread (by filtering others out).

New discussion threads in the Articles section normally focus on specific research articles that have recently emerged. You can create a discussion thread about someone else's research article by checking the box next to "A thread about an article hosted somewhere else", and filling out the following fields. Please take a minute to correctly paste in the title, abstract, author list and a URL link to the paper - this is a service to other nano.org readers who may wish to obtain the paper. Where possible, provide a URL to an open resource. However, if the manuscript is only available from a restricted source, such as a journal site like Nature.com which limits content to paying subscribers, then such a link is perfectly acceptable.