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Community Introduction

So we installed Community Builder (CB)... so what?  Well, CB is kind of an interface to access fun stuff like a Profile page where you can see information about you and your friends.  Upload an interesting movie or youtube video, showcase a song and tell people about yourself and what you're doing.  Rate other people's Profiles. 

Privacy. All personal information defaults to "Private", viewable only by the user and moderators.  When you edit these fields you can change the selector next to them to keep them private, make them public, only viewable to Registered members or only viewable to Connections (Friends).  Even if you want to share your e-mail it will only show on the Profile page as a link to a contact form.  Only put in the information if you're comfortable with this. 

More importantly, you can create Blog entries that can be seen when people visit your profile and click on your Blog tab.  They can either Blogview them from your profile tab or you can go to the menu item "All Blogs" and see all blog entries people have written recently.  In the "Users Content" sidebar you can see all the blogs the most recent submitters created by clicking on their portrait or name. The blogs can be sorted by catalog.  This can be seen by the two menu entries I set up for "Jon's Games" and "Andy's Games".  Although you can technically If requested I may set up a devoted blog page for you too!  Time allowing????  You create a blog entry by going to your profile, clicking on "Blog" then click on the green button "+New Blog" located above your list of existing blog items (if you have any yet).  You edit an existing Blog entry by clicking on the three vertical dots to the immediate right of your blog listing.  When you view your blog you can often get an option to edit your entry but this isn't always reliable.  If possible edit your blog from the Profile page.

You can also Add Articles.  Crickets.  What's an Article you ask?  Its basically a single web page.  It's not as easy to set up as a Blog (which is basically type and go) Articlesbut you can format them, imbed pictures, change the background color (requires a HTML code) and link to other Articles with a menu (linked URLs to your other Articles).  Bam, you have your own web pages.  These are viewed by clicking on the Articles Tab to show the list of Articles written by that the Profile user.  They can only be written by clicking on "Submit and Article" on the User Menu sidebar.  These will have to be approved by a Moderator before they are Published.  Articles cannot be edited from the Profile page, but when you go into the Articles you will have an option to edit it.

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User ListThe User List has a list of all the people in the Community who has signed up.  You can get there by either the "User Menu" sidebar under "User List" or the top menu "Our Group".  Its also the default page when you log on!  It has three different views (for now) which can be selected from the drop-down.  Some items can be searched.  Hopefully, people have selected a neat looking avatar (Portrait) and background banner (Canvas).  You can vote on people Profile from this view.  Click on their portrait to go to their Profile.  As a side note, the Portrait default size is 200x200 and the Canvas is 700x200.  It should resize so exact dimensions aren't critical.

Connect to other people through their Profile pages.  From the profile list go to someone who looks interesting and click on that big green button "Request Connections1Connection".  This sends a request to connect to the persons whose Profile you're on.   When they goto the "Connections" tab on their Profile page and then "Manage Connections"  they can accept this Connection request.  It's pretty much a Friends request.  When you log on you will be told if you have any outstanding Connection Requests on the "Login" sidebar.

CalendarThere is an Event Calendar on some pages (Andy's and Jon's Blog for the moment).  The calendar can help keep track of events and if popular I would okay with paying for additional functions.  Basically I enter a category and from there on in people can enter events and times under that catalog entry.  Thus Jon's games has a category for all his events and Andy has a category for his activities.  If you plan to use it I can add a category for you too upon request.  There is also a related Upcoming Events sidebar.  Generally, this will only be present where the Calendar is, but they really aren't inherently connected.

mail1Private Messaging (PM), we have that too!  Click on "Messages" (or "Mail in the "User Menu sidebar").  Send a PM to any member mail2whether they are online or offline.  They also get notified by an e-mail so they will know about it even if they don't log on.  When you log on you will be told if you have new mail on the "Login" sidebar.

  

 

ForumThere is a Forum.  You can get to it by the User Menu sidebar "My Worlds Forum" or in the top menu under "Our Forum".  This is an open forum.  Anyone can read it but only "Registered" members can post in it.  Currently, it has a section for some games information, a section on my books, a suggestion section.  Start a Topic and let's talk!

 

 

*NEW*  We just added the modules in JiveGroups.  These add on the base functionality above.  

InvitetabFirst of these is the Invite feature.  At the bottom of your profile is a series of tabs.  The Invite tab can only be seen by you.  If you click on the green invite button a form pops up where you can enter your friend's e-mails, a short message and send them an invite to this web site.  This is a great method to get your friends to use the same social site as you. A list of the people you invited appears in this tab.  Again it is only visible to the user and moderators.  It will identify if they have joined the site or not.

InvitetabNext is the Groups tab.  You can start a group.  It can be a club or simply a shared interest.  When you create it you can upload a background and a picture just as if it was a person's profile.  You can't choose from the defaults on the site for people, so it's up to you.  You can leave it blank but that would be boring.  You also choose whether the Group is open to anyone to click and join,  Open only upon invitation or open upon approval (they enter a queue and are accepted by the creator of the group).  Invitations can be issued under the "Invites" tab in the Group.

Under the Group there are tabs to post Events.  Others in the group can view these events and notify the group that they have accepted.

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 Members can also post photos to the "Photos" tab.  They can post videos to the "Video" tab, however, these must be links.  If you want to post actual videos you'll have to use your own profiles Gallery as discussed above.

If there are PDFs or other documents you want to post you can upload them under the "Files" tab.

Walltab1The "Wall" tab, is a shared bulletin board.  start a conversation that all members can be involved in!  No more 60 e-mails to discuss Friday's game.  Go to the group's Wall and talk about it!

There is a private "Forum" function in the JiveGroup module and we now have it working.  Create a group and during the creation enable Forums.  A category for your group will be created in the Forum and any posts to this category will be listed under this Forum tab..

 

Also down at the bottom Tabs are ProfileBook, ProfileBlog, ProfileWall.  The "ProfileBook" is a short message.  Like signing a guest book.  Say hello, comment on the awesome Profile or just mumble a pearl of confusing wisdom. This is editable by the profile owner and you can comment on the "signatures".  The "ProfileBlog" tab is identical to the Blogs described above, except there is no selectable category.  The other blogs aren't shown here and these should not be displayed with the other blog entries under the "All Blogs!" menu. The "ProfileWall" is similar to the ProfileBook except everyone can share a post and comment.  It's intended for ongoing public conversations attached to your Profile.  While the "GroupsWall" likely focuses on the Group's interests, I would think this wall would focus on the Profile owner.  Again this belongs to the Profile owner and is editable by the Profile owner.

If you click on the three vertical dots on the Profile you can view several items, Quick Message, Activity and Last VisitorsQuick Message simply sends the profile Activityowner a quick Private Message using the website's Private Messaging system.  The Activity option will list all the activity from that person (that isn't marked private in some way).  This includes Wall Posts, Signatures Files, Videos and Pictures. This does Include the ProfileBlog but NOT include other Blogs and Articles.  Last Visitors simply lists the last Registered users to view the user's Profile.

 

 

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