Guide to Community Features

[The Theosophical Society]

Useful Tips:
1. Where to post things: There are many different ways of communicating within the Community. There is a certain “netiquette” when it comes to where one should post something, depending on the content and purpose of the message. In general:

•The Forum is best for dynamic, public discussions, with room for multiple participants to post responses.

•Blogs are presented in a “broadcast” format that is good for posting articles, essays, or editorials. Others can comment, but the comment feature does not work as well as the forums for full-blown discussions.

•Comment Walls are found on each Community member’s personal page. This is a nice way of dropping a line to say “hi” to your friends, and even sometimes for one-on-one discussions. Please keep in mind, however, that comments of this kind are public—anybody can view them.

•Private Messages work just like email. In order to send a private message to another member, the member must be on your Friends list. Private Messages can only be viewed by the sender and the people designated to receive them. These are best used for small, private discussions. Though it is possible to send a Private Message to one’s entire Friends list, as a courtesy to other Community members, please keep messages of this kind to a minimum. This is because every time a member receives a private message, they also receive an email to the address registered with the Community notifying them of it; if they are not interested in the messages they are receiving, this can become a hassle, and this is also regarded as Spam.

•Blocking Private Messages: If a person on your Friends list is sending you too many PMs, you can block them. To do so, visit the person’s page and find the link under their avatar that reads “Block Messages.”

2. Deleting content: It is possible for any Community member to delete certain content. This includes:

-Any comments posted on your own Comment Wall by anybody else

-Comments that you have posted on other people’s Comment Walls

-Blogs, Forum discussions or individual Forum posts that you have made, photos or videos that you have added, or Groups that you have started. Please keep in mind that deleting content can affect content posted by other members. For example, if you delete a forum discussion that you started, all responses posted by other members will be also deleted. The same holds true when you delete your blog posts, photos or videos. Please keep this in mind.

3. Turning off email notifications: Any time you post a response to something, whether it be a blog post, forum discussion or Group, you will automatically begin receiving email notifications of new activity in that area. You can turn these kinds of notifications off—either in individual cases, or altogether.

4. Leaving the Community: It is possible for any member to leave the Theosophical Community, completely terminating their membership and closing their account. When this is done, absolutely everything that the member has contributed will be deleted—including forum posts/discussions, blog posts, comments left on other people’s pages, any photos or videos that the member added, and more. As you can see, this is a heavy decision to make.

From time to time, you may wish to cease being active in the Community for a while. This is completely understandable. If you plan on returning at some point, however, it is probably best to simply leave your account as it is. You do not have to sign in, and you can also put a stop to any email notifications that you receive (see above); so it is not necessary to close your account in order to take a break.

5. How to get help: The Theosophical Community is one particular network out of thousands hosted by Ning. If you need help using any Community feature, try visiting http://help.ning.com. There are excellent resources there for solving any kind of technical issue. Also, below are links to Ning’s help pages covering the major Community features. For technical help, this is your best bet. If you need personal attention and are not finding the answers you need at Ning’s help site, feel free to contact a moderator and ask for help.

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A few words about the Groups Feature

The Groups tab can be accessed by clicking on the word “Groups” from the top menu bar. Groups are like little “sub-communities” within the larger Theosophical Community. When first creating a group, a number of setup options are available.

The Groups tab is very rich with features. You can set up a group to create an area on the Community dedicated to some existing group, such as a Lodge or Study Center or Federation, or alumni of various programs. See the Community's Groups page and explore some existing groups to get an idea of some of the different uses for a Group.

The most obvious example, in the case of the Theosophical Society in America, is to set up a Group in the name of a Branch or Study Center. The different features of Groups can be a valuable resource for members of any lodge. Some suggestions:

-The group’s Discussion Forum can be used in several ways. Was there a great discussion at the latest group meeting that had to be cut short? Continue the discussion online and see where it goes. Additionally, this can be used to fill in members who were not present at the meeting.

-The Text Box can be used to post videos from YouTube and other sources. Was there a special event at a recent meeting that you’d like to share? Upload video of it to YouTube and embed the code into the Text Box to share it with other Group members. The Text Box also accepts HTML code, so you can add widgets to it!

-Do you keep minutes of business meetings? Want to make them available? Post them regularly.

-Simply keep up with each other online, in a space especially designated for members of the Branch or Study Center.

The sky is the limit. Any member of the Community can set up a group, and it is easy to do—so use your imagination!

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Help Topics:

"My Page"

Members

Events

Forum

Videos

Blogs

Photos

Groups

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