Discussions >> Help

Participation in the discussion forums ended on May 1, 2003.

Section Overview

The Minister for Foreign Affairs has requested feedback on his discussion paper in the form of answers to a number of questions. This electronic consultation is intended to be part of a dialogue between citizens and their elected representatives. Through this section, citizens are encouraged to use the discussions forum to engage in debate and deliberation with each other before and after formulating their responses to the Minister's questions. The discussion is divided into four separate sections reflecting each of the major sections of the discussion paper.

To view the discussion

Any visitor to this electronic consultation can view the contents of the discussion forum by clicking on any of the three links for each subject (Section Name, Latest post, Total Messages).

Registration / Login

Eligible participants may respond or contribute to the discussion but must have registered and logged in . After filling in all required and any optional fields in the registration prompt, press submit to create your account for this electronic consultation. If you receive a 'forum errors' message, it is likely that there is required information which is in some way incomplete. Please follow the instructions and re-submit the registration until it is accepted.

Contributing to the discussion

Once logged in participants can either respond to a message posted by another participant or start their own thread of discussion within one of the existing sections. To respond to an existing message, open that message by clicking on the hyperlink to its title, date or author. After carefully reading the message, click on the 'reply to this message' link and write a message which responds, expands upon or is in some way related to the message and or discussion to which your are referring. In order to instigate a discussion of issues or ideas which have yet to be addressed and do not directly relate to any of the existing threads of discussion, select the 'create new thread' link found beneath the table of existing threads in each of the discussion subjects

Moderation

Responses will not be immediately posted on the website. All contributions to this electronic consultation will be vetted by moderators who are members of the general public and do not work for, speak for or in any way represent the ministry of Foreign Affairs. Moderation occurs to ensure that messages abide by the civil rules and that the discussion stays on topic. The leeway for being off-topic will be greater in the forum in order to encourage a free-flowing discussion. However, moderators will strive to maintain focus throughout so that the discussions forum remains a valuable resource for citizens while considering their responses to the Minister's questions and the relevant issues in general. For advice on how to effectively contribute to this electronic consultation, please consult tips for newcomers.

Privacy

Of the information requested of you during registration, only your self-selected username will be visible to the public. From the menu immediately bellow the text box where responses are submitted, participants may decline to have their response for the Minister's consideration visible to the public. Refer to the privacy statement for further details.

Help is contextual on this web site. This means that in most sections in the Foreign Policy Dialogue web site, you can find a specific help page relevant to that section's elements. Please check the Help listing on the site map for details.