Forum, messages and profile — what goes where

What this is for

LOS has three separate community areas: a public forum for discussions in topic sections, private messages between users, and a public profile with a bio and short posts. Society is the user directory through which you find someone's profile or write to someone.

How to get there

Area	Where	Address
Forum	People → Community	/community
Forum notifications	Bell in the top bar	/community/notifications
Messages	Envelope in the top bar	/messages
User directory	People → Society	/society
User profile	Clicking a name in Society or on the forum	/u/{handle}

Visibility of the People group depends on Settings → Modules, Dashboard & Today.

Step by step

1. Find someone through Society — clicking a row opens their profile, the envelope icon starts a new message.
2. Go to the forum, pick a section and read or start a thread.
3. Hold private conversations in messages.
4. Fill in your public profile so others see your bio and your thoughts.
5. Follow replies, likes and mentions under the bell in the top bar.

Fields and options

Forum notifications (reply, comment, like, mention) and the unread-message counter are separate channels: the bell covers only the forum, the envelope only messages. The counter next to the envelope can be turned off in Settings → Notifications.

Common mistakes / pitfalls

• The forum is public — thread and reply content is visible to everyone who is logged in; private messages are visible only to the conversation participants.
• Hiding yourself in Settings → Account & profile → Society does not delete your account or your forum posts, it only removes you from the Society directory.
• The public /blog page (no login) holds notes from the LOS creators, not forum content.