The majority of topics in the CCC Discussion Forum do not require user registration for you to contribute to discussions, but there are significant advantages to doing so:
As a registered user you only need to enter your username/password each time you post a message, rather than having to type your full name;
As a registered user you will have a "user profile", which other forum users can view to find out about you, and how to contact you;
As a registered user you will have a facility to indicate which topics or discussions you are interested in, so that you can be automatically notified by e-mail whenever someone posts a message to that topic/discussion. This saves you having to visit the forum regularly to check on new messages;
As a registered user your messages, images and attachments can be larger. For unregistered users, messages are limited to 10kb (approx 1500 to 2000 words), and images/attachments are limited to 50kb. For registered users, these limits are 50kb and 250kb respectively.
To register as a forum user simply follow the link at the bottom of this page. There is no charge for this service.
When you register you will be asked to choose a username and to provide your Internet e-mail address (ie. yourname@yourdomain). Please note that you can only register one username per e-mail address. You are advised to use your initials as your username. However, if someone has already registered with the same initials you will have to select a different username (you can simply add a number to the end if you want). Do not use something that is too common, such as just your first name.
For the purposes of security you will not be shown a password directly, but your initial password will be e-mailed to the address you provided. When you receive the password, take a note of it and then log in to your User Profile (using the forum navigation bar). You can then change your password to one you will remember. You can also take this opportunity to complete the rest of your user profile, including the topics/discussions you are interested in for E-mail Notification.
Please note that as new topics are added you may need to revise this part of your user profile. It may be useful to include the Your Comments topic in the list of those you are interested in as this is the topic for discussions that have no other obvious host topic.
By default, the only immediate security privilege your user profile gives you is the ability to post to discussions that have been set up by moderators to accept messages only from registered users (of any group). However, many secure topics will have been set up to require the registered user to be a member of the same group as the topic, and initially the only group you are a member of is the general one called "default".
If you wish to contribute to a topic that initially prevents you from accessing it for reading and/or posting then you should contact the relevant moderator by e-mail or phone and ask them to add your user to the group. If your request is approved you will be notified by the moderator and will then be able to access the group. You can find a list of moderators via the Contact button on the forum navigation bar.