Welcome to CHOICE.Community, the online forum for Australian consumers.
With your help, we hope to create a place for all Australians to get help with the products and services we use every day, and to have their voices heard so that we can have fair, just and safe markets for all.
If you’re not a member of the forum yet, click here to join now. You should also sign up for our free Informer newsletter to stay up to date with all things CHOICE.
Here are a few quick tips to get you started:
Navigation
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To search the forum, find your user profile or find more options, use the icon buttons at the upper right.
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Click the Community icon on the top left to visit the homepage.
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From the homepage, you will see the latest posts. New posts are highlighted in bold.
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Clicking on a topic title will always take you to the next unread reply in the topic.
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Using the menu towards the top of the screen, you can also browse the top posts, unread topics, bookmarks (more on this later) or drill down into specific categories from the homepage.
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While reading a topic, quickly jump back to the top by clicking on the topic title.
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Press the ‘?’ key for a list of super-speedy keyboard shortcuts.
Creating a new topic
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To start a new topic thread, visit the home page and click the ‘New Topic’ button at the top right (under the profile and menu icons)
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You will see a box pop up that will allow you to enter a topic title, category and text for a post. Fill in each section and then click on the ‘Create Topic’ button at the bottom left of the screen to finalise your post. Clear and succinct topic titles are advised, and don’t forget to include any important or interesting details in your post!
You can format the post using the buttons in the pop-up window. For example, add bold text, italics or an emojii 
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If you copy a URL link from another website in the text box, the forum will create a preview for you. We encourage you to link to articles, videos or any other relevant content when you are posting to the forum.
Replying
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To reply to an existing topic in general, scroll down to the very bottom of the thread and use the
button. -
To reply to a specific person, use
on their post. -
To insert a quote, select the text you wish to quote, then press any reply button.
- To notify someone, type ‘@’ and start typing their username. A list of users to choose from will pop up.
Actions
There are action buttons at the bottom of each post:
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To let someone know that you enjoyed and appreciated their post, like it using the heart button.
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If you see a problem with someone’s post, privately let CHOICE staff know about it with the flag button.
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You can also share a link to a post, or bookmark it for later reference on your user page (you can access your bookmarks from the homepage, as noted earlier).
Notifications
- When someone replies to you, quotes your post, or mentions your @username, a blue number will immediately appear at the top right of the page. Use it to access your notifications.
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Don’t worry about missing a reply – you’ll be emailed any notifications that arrive when you are away.
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You will see the blue ‘new and unread’ number indicators next to topics with new replies:
- You can also set notification state per category, if you want to watch every new topic in a specific category. You can change your notifications for any topic via the notification control at the bottom of the topic.
Your preferences
You can access your site preferences at any time by clicking on your profile icon at the top right (the circle with a letter or a photo if you have added one), and then clicking on your username (highlighted in yellow below).
Then, click on the preferences menu button, displayed below.
In the preferences menu, you can manage your:
- Email settings
- Notifications
- Username
- Profile
- Password
- And more
To change any of these settings, see your user preferences.
Deleting account
You can remove your account from the preferences section of your profile. If you have more than 15 posts, an admin will anonymise your account, just send @BrendanMays a direct message or get in touch at community@choice.com.au.
Community trust
As you participate here, over time you’ll gain the trust of the community, and new user limitations will be lifted. At a high enough trust level, you’ll gain new abilities to help us manage our community together.
We believe in civilised community behavior) at all times so please take the time to read our guidelines and Terms of Service, and we hope you will enjoy your time in the CHOICE Community.
