Woo! people! (and pics!)

[Ms Dynomite]

you guys react fast. :) psyched to see people joining this little corner of the web. I'm particularly amused that I've forced each member to answer the Peanut Butter and Pickles preferences by making those required fields. hee hee. so now everytime I approve a profile I get a giggle.

Also psyched to see so many people adding pics to their profile. it's great to see them popping up on the home page. :) I think that right now members are busy checking out the site, playing with the features, updating their profile and such. I think once y'all start to get the hang of this place we'll see threads beginning to develop.

edit: 11/09 added pic happyness rather than start another thread

[Cecile]

Hey girl! Thank you for the invite and I am glad I had to answer these questions!! hahahah
Though I would have to add something about the peanut butter: I love it but it gives me yeasts! So no more organic crunchy peanut butter for me! :(

[Dusty Nipples]

Okay, I'll fess up. I'm not intuitive when it comes to using networking websites. I can't figure out what the difference is between a Forum and a Group. And when I try to reply to a posting you have in a Forum, it keeps asking me to join the Playwear group, and re-enter all my login information. Am I doing something wrong? Tribe is the only site where I participate in discussion threads really, so if you can help me relate the structure of this site back to how Tribe is structured, it might make more sense to me? I can be pretty dense sometimes :-)

[Ms Dynomite]

Hey Dusty. :)

Ning is a new animal, so it took me a little time to get used to the interface too. It operates a bit differently than Tribe. Hopefully this will help clear things up...

This site has a global forum (the forum tab at the top). That forum can be categorized as you see, such as General Chatter. The forum works like most others as far as posts and threading. Recent posts will appear on the main page, you can click each category title for a list of all posts in that category. To reply to any post you should just be able to type in the Reply To This box above, or click Reply To This under each member's post. There shouldn't be any signin required unless you aren't already signed in here.

Groups are like subdivisions of the site. They operate entirely separately from the forum. For example there is a Burn Bright group to discuss illumination. The Burn Bright group has its own mini-forum. This allows people to jump right to a specific discussion area without dealing with the clutter of the many topics of the main forum. Think of Groups like individual tribes, without the photo sharing feature specific for each tribe (there's actually a way to do this but I don't want to complicate things at this point).

For example, lets say you wanted to talk only about Tattoos and Piercings. I could create a forum category for that, or you could make your own Group. By making your own group you could keep the discussions condensed to a specific area. You'd also have the opportunity to set privacy settings for who could join the group. Whereas a forum category is open to everyone.

If you're getting weird results when trying to reply to a post, please let me know exactly what's happening so I can help identify if it's a bug. :) Post back with:
- your operating system
- your browser and version
- what steps/actions you took
- any error messages you got

You can also do a screenshot of what you see when trying to respond to a thread (I think it's alt+printscreen on a PC), then upload it using the Would You Like to Upload Files link below.

I've posted some Helpful Links and FAQs on the home page that may also make it easier to get around here. :)

[^Rhino!]

What can I say, Ms. Dynomite? You've done the work, why should we be the only ones to benefit from it? Soooooooo, I may post harmless little images from time to time, ones that trip my trigger like Godzilla meets BRC. I hope everyone else enjoys as well.

[Ms Dynomite]

bumping thread to remove admin posts from home page list

[Lone]

Still learning. and WOW still a long way to go...It is a totally new creature. So different.
I'll admit it was good to see known "faces" when I found this place just going randomly through "all networks".

[Ms Dynomite]

Lone,
happy you found some familiar faces. :) don't feel pressured to learn it all at once. most of it gets intuitive after a few rounds. And there are instructional posts for the stuff that might not be. I think we're all learning together. :)

[Lovemonkey]

i have a shirt with this patch!

[Ivy]

Oh, I really like the pickles and peanut butter fields. Feel free to add more like that~

:)

Also, is there anyway to change the general look of the profile: color, font, layout?

Thanks for doing this!

:)

[Ivy]

Oh! Thank you! Now I can waste even more time!

:)

[Ms Dynomite]

Briar Rose,
not a dumb question. :) The big difference between Ning and Tribe is that Tribe allows a single profile and a way to track all your various tribes/networks in a single source. This has benefits and drawbacks. :) to help clarify:

First, you have a Ning.com profile. This is the minimal, bare bones thing you use to access the Ning system itself. It's what allows you to join and create networks. That is the unifying profile. So when you signup to a new network your Ning.com profile name and image are automatically transferred to that network. You can of course change your username and profile image to be unique for each if you want.

Setting up multiple profiles on Ning doesn't amount to "alts" because you're still using the same Ning profile to sign up for each, and usually the same name and image as I mention above. Think of them as more extensions of your original Ning self, rather than false fronts. :) You can navigate between your networks using the Ning bar at the top. I'm also trying to make it easier for members to jump between related networks by including those links in the Other Networks box on the home page.

Second, you have your network profiles. The reasoning here is that each network on Ning is a separate entity, and therefore requires a separate profile. While some may have commonalities, each remains independent. This is actually a good thing. For example, a sewing network would want different profile questions and site layout than a movie fan network. It allows each network creator to tailor the site to meet the member's needs.

The down side is that if you happen to join several networks you have to do the repetitive work of entering profile answers, uploading photos, etc. Since Ning is relatively new and gaining ground I don't think the developers expected Ning members to join multiple networks. Hopefully in time Ning will allow more profile bleed over or transfer to make it easier for members.

It sounds like you've approached things the right way in dealing with multiple profiles/networks. I've kept a text file of my profile answers here so I can copy them to other networks that may ask similar questions. I also try to tailor my profile info, including pics and blog entries, to each network's theme so the content differs somewhat from network to network.

Finally, regarding the other Tribe networks and gathering up friends...
I wasn't aware that other Tribe-related networks existed when I created my own sets. I just discovered that today and sent each network creator a message asking if they'd like to combine efforts to reduce the tedium for members and prevent a dilution of our member base.

[Ms Dynomite]

Briar Rose,
so glad that explanation was helpful. I imagine you're not the only one wondering this, so when I get a chance I'll convert that to an FAQ post. :)

the network-within-a-network threw me the first week I was setting this up too. I must've re-written the How To Join section 3 or 4 times trying to make sense of it and give the right info. ;)

and yes, that donut badge is da BALLS!