Community Center™ FAQ
Do I have to be registered to use the community center?
The community administrator may require you to register in order to view, post or reply to topics. Some forums may be open for posting without registration. To register, just click Register and fill in the appropriate information.
How do I login?
To log in to the community, click Log in/Register. Then enter your name and password (NOTE: both are case-sensitive; capitalization, spaces, etc., do matter). If you would like to be automatically logged in when you visit, click the checkbox next to "Automatically log me in". (Note: You must have cookies enabled for this feature. Your login information is encrypted and stored in a cookie.)
What do I do if I forgot my password?
To reset your password, first click Login/Register and then "I forgot my password". Follow the directions in the email that is generated to the address you entered when you registered. Note: Many of the community features are available only to those using valid email addresses.
What are forums?
Forums are discussion areas that allow members to share ideas, opinions and information quickly and easily. Organized by topics in an easy-to-follow format, forums are designed so you can quickly locate information, find other knowledgeable members and participate in conversations. Your community has standards of conduct that explain the rules of posting; please familiarize yourself with the rules prior to posting.
How is forum content organized?
The content is structured as follows:
- Forums: Forums are the areas where individual discussions take place as a listing of topics.
- Topics: Topics (also known as "threads") are the discussions, consisting of one or more posts displayed as a list, or in a tree structure of posts and their replies.
- Posts: Posts are the individual discussion contributions made by community members.
- Replies: Replies are posts made in response to other posts, and are organized in a flat, tree or threaded mode.
How do I create a topic or post a reply in the forums?
To start a new topic, choose the appropriate forum and click Post New Topic. Type your topic header in the subject line and type your text in the message box. Before you submit your post, you can spell check your text by clicking Spell Check. When you are satisfied with the text, click Preview to see how your post will appear when published. Or you can post without previewing by clicking Post.
Topic options:
- To mark a topic as a question, click Mark as Question (if available).
- To post a reply to a topic, click the Reply icon next to the post to which you would like to reply. If you want to respond to specific text from the original post, click Quote Original to add the text from the original post to your new text.
- Edit options: If your community administrator allows editing of existing posts, you will see an edit icon in any post that you authored. Editing privileges may be restricted to a certain timeframe or limited to any posts that have not yet received a reply. Any edited post will display a time-stamped 'edited' notation.
What is a profile?
Profiles are personal publishing spaces for information that members want to share with the community. If the community offers forums, profiles include all the content created by the specific member who authored them. To view all your own contributions to the community, log in and click My Profile.
What is a blog?
A Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal that is frequently updated and intended for public consumption. Blogs often
represent the personality of the author. To start your own, go to My Profile and click Create My Blog. In some communities,
you can post a comment to another member's blog.
How do I set my profile and view other member profiles?
To create or update your profile, click My Preferences. Your profile, privacy settings, signature line, display preferences,
avatars (if enabled in your community), subscription settings, storyboard preferences (if available), and blog preferences
(if available) are set from here. To edit settings, fill in your updated information and click Save.
To view the profiles of members who have posted in the community, click their member names wherever you see them as links.
You can also use the search feature to locate their member names. You can elect to "ignore" a member's posts by clicking Ignore Member in the member's profile or in the member information
area of any post the person has authored.
How do I search the community?
From just about any page of the community, click Search and type your term(s) into the search box, selecting where you'd
specifically like to search by choosing from the Content drop-down menu, and clicking Go. You can also search by specific
member name, and date ranges.
What does subscribe mean?
A subscription notifies you via email when a content area that interests you is updated. Similarly, you can subscribe to
any content added by a specific member.
To add an item to your subscriptions list, click Subscribe at the top of the page. Clicking on Unsubscribe ends the
subscription (and cancels the email notifications you may have set). After 30 days, inactive subscriptions automatically
expire (unless you elect to cancel the expiration in your subscriptions list in your Preferences). To see your current list
of subscriptions, click 'My Subscriptions'. Click 'My Preferences' to change or update how often your receive email
notification on each of your subscriptions.
How can I format the text of my posts, replies and comments?
To format text (bold, italics, underline, etc.), you can use the format buttons (in enabled in your community) in the
posting view. Type your message and then highlight the word(s) you want to format; then click the appropriate button. Small
bits of code indicate the formatting, such as in this example: "This is [b]bold[/b] text, and this is [i]italicized[/i] text"
text" will appear as "This is bold text, and this is italicized text" in your post. To insert a
smiley face, first click the smiley button and then the expression you want to use.
How do I check the spelling of my posts, replies and comments?
To check your text for proper spelling, click Spell Check on the post screen. If our Spell Check dictionary doesn't
recognize a word in your text, the unknown word will appear in a box. You can correct it yourself by typing over what
is displayed. If the dictionary has any suggestions, they will appear in the suggestion box. To choose one of the
suggestions, select it and click Change.
When you finish checking your text, click Post Message to save your changes and post the text with your spelling
corrections. If you want to continue editing text, click Go Back or Edit to return to the posting area. Your community
administrator may or may not elect to allow edits of your own posts after they are published. If allowed, you will see a
pencil icon next to the post where it appears in the list.
What are RSS feeds?
If RSS feeds are enabled in your community, you may click the RSS link on any page to copy the code required to regularly
add any new content as it is posted, making it available to via your RSS reader software.
