New ISIE forum launched

Dear ISIE members,

Along with other changes within the society, we are happy to announce a new feature that facilitates a platform for discussion and connection between our members: a new online forum. The forum is part of the ISIE website, available at https://is4ie.org/forum, and it it contains a number of features aimed at making the experience of using it as easy and smooth as possible. We have tried to strike a balance between ease of access and sending out notifications, while also ensuring that the forum remains free of spam and other undesired content. Here is what we came up with:

• The forum can be read by anyone, but only logged-in members can post content.
• There is a separate forum for each section, which is integrated with each section's website.
• A general forum for any content not directly related to a section is also available.
• To ensure that members are kept up to date, while also trying to keep e-mail boxes from overflowing, the following notification system is implemented:
  • By default, every member will get an e-mail when a new topic is created. A topic is a thread of messages around a particular question or issue.
  • This initial notification e-mail includes a link to subscribe to this topic. Only if the member subscribes will notifications continue to be sent when a new message is posted within this topic. Otherwise, the member will not receive any more e-mails about this topic.
  • Members will only receive notifications of topics created in the general forum board, and in the forum board(s) of the section(s) they are subscribed to.
  • Only a maximum of one e-mail per day will be sent to each member with a summary of all new topics and messages in the subscribed topics.
  • In the monthly e-mail digest, a summary of the most active forum topics will be included.
• Each member can turn off these notifications with a few clicks:
  • When editing your profile, there is a setting under SECTIONS to receive e-mail notifications when a new topic is created.
  • On the same page, in the NEWSLETTER section, there is an option to remove the updates about the forum from the newsletter.

We hope that this provides a good balance between keeping informed while still having the freedom to opt-out from these notifications. The forum provides a place where members can engage with one another, and where sections can more directly engage with the members in their group. We hope that it becomes a useful tool for everyone! Special thanks goes out to the board of the Environmentally Extended Input Output Section, who have been a great encouragement to get this forum started.

Please leave any comments or questions you may have in the forum. We look forward to your feedback

Forum rules

1. Always be respectful
2. The forum exists to encourage discussion, questions, debate, and sharing of opinions.
   • Do post a new topic if your message invites others to share their opinion, post an answer, or otherwise engage in a discussion.
   • Do not post a new topic if you would like to merely share an announcement. We have a whole News section dedicated to announcements (as well as jobs, calls for papers, and blog posts). Members can post their announcements here.
3. Please stick to topics that are related to industrial ecology.

More rules may be added as we see fit, but this should hopefully suffice. You can also contact us here if you have any other questions.