In order to be a part of group communications, you must join/subscribe to the forum!
Q: How do I join/subscribe to a group?
A: Under “Forums”, click the “My Subscriptions” link in the top navigation. Here, you will see a list of available communities. Select one of the delivery options (Real Time, Digest, PDA or No Email) for any groups you wish to join and then click the “Save” button at the bottom of the page. You will get a red message confirming that your subscription options have been successfully updated. This can take around 30 seconds if you change your settings for several groups at the same time.
Q: What options are available for e-mail delivery?
A: At the top of the “My Subscriptions” page within Forums, there is an option for “Text” or ”HTML”. By default, this is set to “HTML”, and we encourage you to leave it set to this if your e-mail client can support it. However, if you are having problems viewing the HTML version or if it takes too long to open, please switch to the text version.
Under each group, you have the following delivery options:
Real time: sends an e-mail every time a new message is posted
Daily digest: sends one e-mail to you each morning, consolidating all of the posts from the previous day
PDA: sends real-time text versions of the posts, which are compatible with Blackberries and most other handheld devices. This option also allows you to reply without logging in to a web browser, but it does NOT allow you to include attachments with your post.
No E-mail: allows you to be part of the group without having e-mails sent to you. You can still post and read other’s messages on the integrated online discussion board.
Q: I’d prefer to have certain forums go to a different e-mail address. Is this possible?
A: You can use different e-mail addresses for different forums. For example, you could have one forum go to your personal e-mail and others go to your work e-mail. On the “My Subscriptions” page within Forums, under each group to which you’ve subscribed, you’ll see “subscribed as [e-mail address]. Change.” Just click the “change” link, enter a different e-mail address, click “OK”, and click “Save” at the bottom to confirm the change. If you change your main e-mail address in your profile, it will update all of the forums that used your former e-mail address. Those that use a different e-mail address will remain the same.
Q: How do I leave a group?
A: Under “Forums”, click the “My Subscriptions” link in the top or left navigation. Here, you will see a list of available forums and those to which you’ve subscribed. Select “Not Subscribed” to the right of the group you wish to leave and click the “Save” button at the bottom of the page. You will get a red message confirming that your subscription options have been successfully updated. This can take several seconds if you change your settings for several forums at the same time.
Q: How do I respond to others’ posts?
A: From a received e-mail or the online discussion board, you can click either the “Reply to eGroup” link to send your message to the entire forum, or the “Reply to Sender” link to send your message only to the sender; both links are located just to the left of the posting. We recommend replying only to the sender for comments like “me, too” that add little value to the discussion.
Q: How do I start a new discussion thread?
A: In an e-mail (HTML version) from a particular discussion forum, you can use the “Post Message” link in the right navigation bar. You can also use the “Post Message” link found in the left navigation under “My Egroups”. We recommend bookmarking or adding this link to your favorites list in your web browser to make it easily accessible.
Q: I’m having trouble viewing the HTML e-mail messages. How do I fix this?
A: If images are not appearing, it is likely that your e-mail client is set to suppress images. This should be something you can change in your security or viewing options. If you would rather receive text-based e-mail, go to the “My Subscriptions” page and select the “Text” format option near the top of the page. Be sure to hit “Save” at the bottom of the page once you’ve made this change.
Q: Why do I have to post messages and reply to them through the website?
A: There are many features in the Online Community that are made possible because of the Web interface:
- When you send an attachment through this new system, it automatically places it in the egroup library and sends a link to members instead – no more blocked attachments because of file size or type.
- Auto-responses like "out of office" won't clutter up this new system.
- Since the system automatically adds your signature, there are no more anonymous postings. The "transparency" of the group (being able to see who is posting info) is part of the community culture.
Q: Can I search for postings across all the forums?
A: Yes. Click “Advanced Search” in the left navigation. This will let you search based on keywords in the posts, search all or specific forums, and select the date range in which you’d like to search.
Q: How do I change the information showing up in the signature block?
A: We have set a default signature, but if you would like to change the information that appears or the order in which it appears, click the “My Signature” link within "Forums". You can add, delete or reorganize the fields that show up in your signature.