Woooooo.
People sometimes call what we do "liquid time" though I'm not really sure it matters whatcha call it. XD
Basically, the date of the thread is assumed to start on the date that you first posted it. So if we were to start a thread today, the date would be 04 May 2010, and even if the thread runs till next year, it'll still be 04 May 2010 for that particular thread.
If you start another thread tomorrow, the thread date would be 05 May 2010. So the board/time doesn't explode even if you seem to be roleplaying in two threads at the same time because we assume the first is on 04 May, and the second is on 05 May.
You can start two threads on the same day and say "this first thread is in the afternoon" and "this second thread is at night" but most people who RP here are not *that* fanatical about timelines, so don't worry about that unless you want to.
Some people go really into it and post actual times, I don't think I've seen that here. XD
The forward/back dating comes in when you want the thread to start on a different date for whatever reason. Typically, people will forward or backdate because they: a) want the thread to take place before or after another thread, or b) they have started two threads on the same day and they don't want to worry about the specific time that the thread was started.
this thread has a lot of information about forward and backdating, and
this page on the RP guide has some information on it, too. ^_^
Further questions, please ask! <3
