Local Community Forum FAQ
This FAQ is being compiled as we go, so please excuse its sketchiness*. I wanted to make it public in order to provoke comments and suggestions to flesh it out and make it more useful. Would you like to read an overview? Do you need a How To Get Started? Please don’t hesitate to Contact me!
The Way It Looks: Its being built with various generic themes to test and modify. Bits may be displayed in the wrong place, some bits are to small or too large or a bit wonky and some of it is a bit confused. This will get fixed with your help! Please register and visit the 5fields forum to make changes.
Profile: This is your online identity on this site. Residents can register and receive login details in order to use this site fully. Users control their own profile and its details but Group Admins may not accept requests from users without sufficient identification.
Groups: Individuals with common interests can form a connected group to communicate and coordinate with each other. For instance, residents could find a local community group or join their Residents Association to receive news and updates, discuss issues and organise events. Registered users can request to join any group but their request is subject to approval by the Group Admins. Groups can be public, private or hidden at the discretion of the Group Admins and its members. Read a techie explanation of Groups.
Group Forums: Each group may have a Group Forum to discuss topics of interest to its users. These Group Forums are restricted to members of that Group and may be public, private or hidden at the discretion of the Group Admins and its members.
Sitewide Forums: These forums are not linked to a specific Group and may be used to discuss general interests and issues. They would normally be public and open to all registered users but can be set to private or hidden if required.
Creating new Groups or Forums: The system allows registered users to create their own Groups and Forums. It will be switched on when you all want that to happen. In the meantime, you need to put in a request so I can do it manually.
Moderators: Each Group or Forum can appoint one or more Moderators to help approve registrations and keep discussions healthy.
Admins: The people who administer Groups or Forums. They have a good deal of control over the way their Group or Forum works. They can also act as Moderators.
Profile Privacy: Different people want different types of privacy. I’m trying to set things up so you will be able to choose the levels that are comfortable for you. There may be times when your own privacy needs are different from the Group or Forum you want to participate in, so I’m looking at ways to balance your preferences – see Activity Privacy below. Until then, this site is set to deny indexing by search engines and won’t appear on Google until a reasonable implementation has been achieved.
Activity Privacy: You can choose the level of privacy on group posts. Text entry boxes on Groups have a dropdown menu to select your choice of visibility for that item. It’s set as ‘Anyone’ by default, but you can click to restrict it to a defined circle of people. Read more about the plugin used. Now I have to see what can be done about Forums, but that’s more problematical because different people would see entirely different conversations depending on each reply’s privacy setting. Hmm…
Privacy Policy: Mostly done – here’s a draft version waiting for your comments.
Terms of Service: Under construction. Help required!
*This FAQ will evolve in response to the needs of users and the development of this site.
What else do you want to know?