Starting a Community group site

Starting a site for your group is easy. The system leads you through three screens to provide some basic information, to design the look of your site, and to enter text and a graphic for the group's Home page.

Don't worry if you don't have all the information when you set up your group. You can change any of this information at any time.

To start your group:

1. Click the "Start a community group" link on the Community Home page.

2. Fill in basic group and leader information. Fields with an asterisk are manditory and must be filled out. You can omit information at any field that does not have an asterisk. The table belowexplains more about each field on these three screens.

3. Click the Next button.

4. At the second screen, choose a page layout, color set and type (font) style and click the Next button.

5. At the third screen, type a description in the box, up to 20,000 characters. The description can include simple HTML tags for formatting (see "Simple HTML" in "Community Help and How To" Part 6, Using the features of a Community group). You can also add a graphic file to your page by browsing to a graphic file located on your local computer.

6. Click the Done button.

7. Choose the features that you want to use on you page, by choosing yes or no, to each feature.  In the same manner, choose what membership settings and privleges that you want used in the group.

8. Click the Next button.

9. If you press Show new group, you will see what your group page looks like.  Or, you may invite members to you group by listing their email addresses, separated by semi-colons, in the Invite New Members box. You may write a subject and an email message, then press send.

10. Click the Done button or send more invitations. Your group will be sent to the Community Editor who will review it.  You will either be accepted, accepted pending changes to the site or not accepted, if your site does not meet Community's criteria.

Information about the Fields

First Name, Last Name	Enter a name for the group leader.
Email	Enter an email address for the group. A member of your group should check this mail box address regularly for messages from Community users.
Group Title	This title appears at the top of your Home page and in lists of Community groups.
Type: Listed or Unlisted	If your group is private, choose Unlisted. Only members to whom you send email invitations will be able to view any part of your unlisted group's site. The site is not included in any list of Community groups and it is not found when users search. If you choose Listed, you can control who can access and participate in a variety of site features (only the group leader, all members, or everyone, including guests). The Community Editor must approve all listed sites. Your newly created site will be unlisted until the editor approves it. (For approval, a few simple standards must be met; please see "When does a group get listed?" in Community Standards of Content and Conduct). You will receive an email when your site is approved. If your site does not fit the requirements for listing, the editor will either specify that it remain unlisted, or the editor may remove the site. You will receive an email regarding the editor's decision. You can change an unlisted site to listed status after you have created it, but then it must be approved. You will see your site in the list only after you receive an email that it has been approved.
Category	Choose a category. Your listed site will be included in this category when a user browses to find a site. You must choose a category even if your group is unlisted. Don't worry, your unlisted site is never listed anywhere on the site. Providing a category now simplifies any later change in the status of the group from unlisted to listed.
Adult Content: Yes or No	Indicate whether your site will include material not appropriate for people under 18. If you choose Yes, the system displays a warning before it displays the site. If you choose No and the Community Editor receives complaints that your site contains adult content, we may change this setting to Yes. (NOTE: pornography is not allowed on Alberta's Community.)
Keywords	Community users can enter keywords to search for listed groups. Unlisted groups: You must enter keywords in this field. Don't worry, your unlisted group is never found when a user searches for groups. Providing keywords now simplifies any later change in the status of the group from unlisted to listed. Listed groups: Ask several people what words they would use to look for your group. Enter several words to help users find you. Separate keywords with white space or tabs. It's usually best to enter all lowercase letters. If you enter all lowercase, users will find your site regardless of how they enter a keyword. If you use an uppercase letter, your site will appear in the search results list only if the user matches the case that you have entered. Examples: Suppose you entered these keywords: investments investing stocks Mutual funds. Your listed site will appear in the results list if a user enters any of the following: investments investing stocks Mutual or Funds or Mutual Funds
Phone / Fax	Enter only numerals (no alphabetical characters) and hyphens or parentheses. You can leave these fields blank.
Custom URL	Enter a word to be part of the Web address (URL) for your group's Home page. Your group members can enter the entire URL shown here to reach your Home page directly.
Location: This group has no physical address	Click this box if your group does not have a headquarters or real-world address. You can skip the next address fields.
Location: Street, City, State, Neighborhood, Zip code	Click this box if your group has a headquarters or real-world address. If your group has a physical address, enter the address of your group's headquarters, playing field, or office. Choose a neighborhood from the list. When you fill in these fields, your group members can easily get directions and maps to your group's location. The neighborhood field enables searching for groups by neighborhood.
Layout 1, 2, 3, or 4	Choose a layout for the Home page and for any additional pages.
Style 1-9	Choose a style, which includes background and colors for text, headlines, and three states for links. An Active link is one that a user is in the process of clicking. A Visited link is one the user has already clicked. Remember that you may change the style at any time. Your members will probably come to associate your site with a particular style, so it's best to change the style rarely.
Type style	Choose one. Many people find the type styles in the top row the most readable for onscreen text.
Description	You can enter about a screenful of text (up to 20,000 characters), including HTML tags to create simple formatting. The first 150 characters are included in group lists and search results. If you expect to change the text on the Home page often, try writing in a word processor and then copying and pasting the text into this box. Many word processors have a feature for counting the number of characters.
Picture	1. Click the Browse button to locate a graphics file on your hard disk. 2. At the operating system dialog window, click the Select file list to choose All files *.* Once you have finished filling in fields at this third screen and you click the Done button, the system uploads the graphics file to our servers. The image will be displayed on this group creation screen as well as on the group Home page. You can replace the graphic at any time by editing the group and uploading a new file. The new file can have a new file name or the same name.
Other links: Headline above list of links	Enter a headline to label your list of links. For example: Related Web sites. The headline is automatically displayed in bold.
Link Name	Enter the text to serve as the link to another location on the World Wide Web. You can link to any site you wish, either your group's Web site on another service or to sites of interest to your members.
URL	Enter the Web address of the site to which you are linking.

Adding more pages to your site

You can add pages to your site and arrange them into a hierarchy below your group's Home page. Each page can have a graphic and text up to 20,000 characters (about a screenful). Additional pages share the layout of the Home page.

To create a page where you want it, go to the parent page and click Add page there. For example, if you want a page to be listed on your Home page, click the Add page link at your Home page. Later, you can alter the hierarchy if you wish by editing the additional page (however, the Home page is always at the top of the hierarchy).

Adding graphics

It's easy to add a graphic to any page.
1. At the page, click the Browse button.
2. At the dialog box, set the file type to All files *.* and click OK.
3. Locate the graphics file on your hard disk and click OK.
4. Click the Done button.

The system uploads your file to our servers automatically. You can change the graphic any time simply by repeating the process and browsing to find a different file (you can upload a file with the same name if the file has changed).

Controlling access to your listed group

If your group is unlisted, only members you invite to join can gain access to the group site through the Community site. Guests (non-members and people who have not signed into the Community site) are not able to access an unlisted site. You can control the privileges available to members of the group, such as posting news items or events. It is possible for someone to reach the Home page of your site if a member provides them with the URL. But only a member can reach pages beyond the Home page.

If your group is listed, you as the group leader can decide to allow or restrict guests and members in several ways.

To control privileges, click Change settings at your group Home page. You should see a page like this. Only the group leader (or our Community Editor) can change these settings, but you as group leader can do so at any time.

Note in the linked picture the ways in which you can control a listed group's membership and access privileges. The photo shows the default settings, which allow members to perform all actions. So unless you go to this page and make changes, your members will be able to issue membership invitations, create message board topics, events, newsletter postings, and links, and send group mail. They can also delete their own postings and events.

Making changes to site information and settings

You can change all of the information on your site as well as site settings.

• Like any other member of your group, you can change any of the information related to events and news items that you yourself have added. If you have given members permission to add events and news items, you as the group leader will be able to make changes to their postings. Just follow the same procedures that a group member follows to make such changes. Go to the event or news item and click the Edit button.
• As the group leader, you can change the information you set up when you created the site: leader, group, and location information, the page layout, the Home page text and its graphic.
• Be sure you are signed in with the same user name and password that you used when you set up the group.