Help: Table of Contents

Joining the Community

User Dashboard - MyCommunity

Account Administration - My Account

Friends - Connecting With Other Users

Viewing Other User Profiles

Events

Searching the Community

Joining the Community

Registration

To register for the community click the “Join Now” link on the login or 'home' page. Once you are on the registration page enter the required information. You will receive a confirmation email sent to the email address you registered with. Click on the link in the email to confirm your registration. Once your account is confirmed you will be granted access into the community. Click HERE for more information about selecting your product(s).

Logging In

To log in to the community enter the email address that you created the account with along with the password you created and select "login". You can select “Remember my Email” (not recommended for public computers) to remember your account email address. If you forgot your password you can reset it by clicking "Forgot Password" which will send a new password to your account email address.

User Dashboard - MyCommunity

Creating a User Profile Photo

The user profile photo is the main image that represents you and is associated with all your activity within the community. To change profile photo click the on the profile photo block on the MyCommunity page. This will take you to your profile where you can click on the camera button on the block to upload a photo. You can click 'Make Primary Photo' upon upload or select an existing photo as your primary photo. Click HERE to read more uploading a profile picture.

Recent Community Activity

The recent activity box shows you the latest activities that you and community members have participated in on the site. You can click on the user and content links inside of the recent activity box as well as view previous updates to view other popular content.

Site Wide Message Center

The 'My Messages' icon at the top of the page shows your outstanding friend requests and new messages in the internal inbox. This inbox is only for messages sent within the community and does not email your account email address unless you have message notifications turned on.

Bookmarking Content

The 'My Bookmarks' area gives you a way to quickly get to specific content items on the site that you have bookmarked. You can bookmark items including photos, videos blog posts and groups.

Viewing Groups

The 'My Groups' area gives you a quick way to access the groups that you are already a member of. It shows the title, image and total number of group members for each group.

Viewing Events

Click attend events for a quick way to access the events that are happening in Community. You can filter events by month and by product(s).

Viewing Your Friends

The My Friends area lets you see your friends and provides a link to visit their profiles. It also shows you the total number of friends that you have. Click HERE to read more about what your friends are up to in Community. Need more help with the MyCommunity page? Click HERE.

Earning Points

For every action you take in Community - you earn points! Those points relate to your Community rank and Community authority level. Click HERE to learn more about earning points in Community. If you earn enough points, you will make the Community leaderboard!

Earning Badges

You can earn badges in Community by taking a variety of actions. You can earn activity badges, authority badges, and (if you qualify) a certification badge for being certified in a Blackbaud product(s). Learn more about badges HERE.

Account Administration - My Account

Managing Account Information

In the 'My Account' area you can update the main account details for your account including username, first name, last name email address and password.

Privacy Settings

The Privacy Settings tab in the My Account area gives you control over who can see your content. There are three settings for each area that can be applied: friends only, everybody and nobody. The areas that you can control privacy for are profile comments, profile information and all content. You can also restrict access to limit the ability for other users to send you a private message.

Email Notifications

The email notifications tabs allows you to control what areas of the platform send you an external email to your account email address when there are updated to content you uploaded or are participating in. You can also unsubscribe from all site notifications in this area.

Managing Content - My Content

The My Content area allows you to manage all of your photos, videos, files and audio. For each item you upload you can add a title, description and tags. For all of the items you can share them in the associated site wide galleries. In the photos area you can select a photo to be your main primary site photo. For photos you can also choose to upload or link to a photo to be shared in the community. For videos you can embed videos from other sites such as You Tube or upload a video from your computer. For files the maximum file size you can upload is 20 megabytes (mb).

My Connections

The My Connections link allows you to view, remove and accept friends from the community. If you have any pending friend requests you can select one of the following options: “Accept” to add them as a friend, "Decline" to not add them and "No Action" to leave them as a pending request.

Site Wide Messages - Your Inbox

The site inbox or private system messages allows you to communicate privately with other users on the site. The inbox view allows you to see latest messages you have received from other users. Within the Inbox you can open and read a messages by clicking on the subject header of each message. You can also delete a message, click check box and then click “Delete Selected”. To view sender’s information profile click the user name.

Invite Others to the Community

Use the invite page to invite your friends and contacts to the community. Your name and the email subject are automatically populated all you need to do is add email addresses by typing them in the next box. Separate each email address with a comma. If you’d like to add a personal message, do so in the box below the email address box. The message body is an automatically generated email from the community. Once you have all of the information populated click on "Send Invitation".

Setting Up and Editing Your Profile

To edit your profile, click the edit profile link on your profile page. When finished with each section click "Save" and the information will display on your user profile. Read more -- How to Create a Rock Star Profile: Part One. How to Create a Rock Star Profile: Part Two.

Viewing Your Profile

From the profile page you can see and change your main profile picture, view your community badges, see messages on your wall, and view a list of your friends. You also can see your profile details such as your education or work information.

Friends - Connecting With Other Users

Viewing Other User Profiles

To connect with other users on the site or become 'friends' you will need to send them a friend request. To send a friend request you will need to view their profile and click on the "Add as Friend" link. If you are already friends you can also remove them in the same area. Depending on the specific user's setting you may also send a private message, invite them to a group you are already a member of or leave them a comment on their profile. You may also be able to view all of the profile information and click on the links to find other users with similar interests or experiences.

Blogging

Creating a Blog

Click HERE to submit a blog for Community. You can create as many blogs as you like. The Community Team will review your blog and consider it for possible publication. Click HERE for information on how to write a compelling blog post.

Posting an Approved Blog

To post to a blog, click “Post” under the name of the blog you want to post to under “My Blogs”. Add a title/subject in the field provided and enter the first portion of your blog (what you want to be visible on the main page) in the first box. Enter the rest of the blog post in the next box. You can format the text for your post as we as add photos and links that are relevant to your blog post. Once you have completed your post you can add blog categories, tag and other photos associated with blog post. You can modify the time and date posted with the time and date drop down fields and determine if you want users to leave comments on your post by clicking “Allow Comments.” When finished, click “Save and Publish.”

Forums

Participating in Forums

Forum discussions are open to the entire community to create, comment and read online discussions relating to the community. Categories can only be created by community administrators. Click HERE to read more about discussion posts in Community. If you find a post spammy or feel like a post violates the terms of Community, you can report it.

Creating a New Topic or Post

To create a new post click the category title and then click the forum post topic that you would like to participate in. You can also create a new topic by clicking 'Create a New Post'. Once you have selected go to the bottom of the page and enter your comment. To see your comment before it is public, select “Preview". Once you To post your comment select “Submit" and your post will display in the category selected. Want to know more? Here's how to add photos to a discussion. Here's how to add a URL to a discussion. You can also sort discussion topics.

Events

Creating an Event

To create an event select “Add Event” HERE and then select the category you would like your event added to. you will then be presented with the create event form. Enter the title of the event (required), then a description, select a beginning and end time (required), if the event is all day select “All Day”. Next enter where event will occur in “Venue." If there is a link associated with your event, enter the website address in “Link”. Select the privacy level by choosing either “Only friends & people I invite” or “Anyone, make it public” and weather or not invitees can bring a guest. If you’d like the guest list to be public, select that box. Invite people to your event by selecting friends from your friends list and entering email address in the text box below.

RSVP'ing to an Event

To RSVP for an event you can select one of three options. Yes, no or maybe. If you select yes you can then provide the number of people in your party that will attend if the event creator as enabled that option. You can also tag the event with relevant keywords and leave comments.

Ratings & Reviews

Finding Items & Reviews

Ratings & Reviews allows you to browse community items and reviews of those items based on the categories set for the site. A featured item is prominently displayed on the main reviews page as well as a featured user review. The most recent reviews are displayed in the “Latest Review” section and the “Browse Categories” area displays all the categories reviewers are writing about. A selected community member who has submitted reviews is displayed in the “Featured Reviewer” section of the page and the “Top Reviewer” area displays the users who have written the highest number of reviews.

Creating an Item to be Reviewed

To create an item click “View all Categories” and select the category you want to post in. If there are subcategories you will need to select a subcategory as well. Once you are on the category or subcategory page click “Add Item" to go to the create an item page. On that page you will need to enter the item title and description(both required). From there you can fill out the rest of the fields are as associated with the item category. If there is a link associated with item, enter the website in the “Link” field. If there is a file associated with item, name, describe and select file. Once you have completed the form select “Save” and you will be taken to the "add a photo" page which will let you select a photo from your "My Photos" area or upload a new photo from your computer. These photos will display on the item page when viewed by other users.

Reviewing an Item

To create a review of an item select “Write a review". You will then be able to rate the item giving it a value based on the number of stars (1-5) for your rating. You can also enter text for your review in the “Your Review” section then click save to post the review to the item.

Searching for Content and Other Users

Member Search

Member search is an easy way to find other people with the same interests or experience in the community. You can filter down by job title, non profit, product(s), and geographical location. Click HERE to read more about finding people in Community.

Basic Keyword Search

To search quickly using a keyword or phrase type the keyword, name, or topic you are looking for in top right search box located in the site header or navigation area. You can select a specific area to search in from dropdown box to the left of search field. When you are ready click “Submit” and you will be returned a list of all content items an users relevant to your search terms. Read more about finding answers to questions: part one and part two.

Advanced Search

THIS SECTION WILL NEED TO BE MODIFIED TO MATCH THE SITE CONFIGURATION FOR PROFILE FIELDS

To search for specific words in a community area, select the type (Members, Photos, Videos, Blogs, Events, Groups, Forums, Files, Reviews) and then enter keyword, Username, or Email address. To Search for members, enter email address. You may specify searching for members with photos only, that are online only, or members of groups created within the community. To search for users through their basic information, enter their gender, location, contact information, words in their “About Me” section and/or city. To search for users through their education and work information, enter their college name, degree type, high school, employer and/or position. To search through their social medias aliases, enter their Twitter handle.