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What do those little buttons next to each Username do?

A yellow smily-face indicates that that Member is logged in now, otherwise a greyed-out sleepy-face is shown.

The "P" button allows you to view that Member's Profile, which includes her Personal and Professional Profiles, her optional "Random Thoughts" or Journal mini-site, and her "Community Contributions".

The "E" button allows you to send a Private Message to the Member.

The "C" button allows you to send the Member an invitation to join your Connection Network.

The "G" button allows you to view and comment on that Member's Gallery photos.

The "F" button allows you to send that Member a Feedback Point.

The "T" button allows you to send that Member a real-time Short Messaging Service (SMS) message.

You can also click on the username to view that Member's profile.

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What can I find in a Member's Profile?

Each Member's Profile contains a Personal Profile, a Professional Profile, an optional "Random Thoughts" or Journal mini-site, and that Member's Community Contributions.

The Personal Profile contains personal information that the Member would like for other to know, including her age, marital status, real name, location, birthplace, interests, favorite music/books/tv shows/movies, and a synopsis of what she wants you to know about her. All information is optional.

The Professional Profile contains the Member's professional and educational information, including her current job title, company and company's web site, the industries in which she works, a description of her job responsibilities, her professional skills, her undergraduate and graduate education, previous companies and job titles, and professional associations. All information is optional.

The "Random Thoughts" (AKA Journal) section is optional and is intended to serve as a place for Members to post their daily observations and assertions. Others may comment on those posts, as well, much like the ubiquitous Blog.

The Community Contributions section details all of the Discussion Forum topics, Directory links, and Community events that the Member has created.

There is also a Profile Guestbook in the right-most frame that allows other Members to leave short notes related to the Profile.

The Profile URL for any The Bay Net Member is:

http://www.thebaynet.com/css/popups/popup_profile_frameset.cfm?member= USERNAME

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What are "Random Thoughts" (Journals)?

"Random Thought" Journals are synonymous with Blogs and allow Members to post their thoughts on life, politics, technology, entertainment, or anything. Others can visit your Journal and read your entries and Members can discuss what you have to say.

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What are RSS (Syndication) Feeds?

RSS is a popular way to pull in news and information from across the Web. "Really Simply Syndication" allows web sites and journals, like this one, to push content to you easily.

RSS is a standard for publishing regular updates to web-based content. Using this standard, Web publishers provide updates, such as new journal postings (or the latest news headlines). Meanwhile, readers use RSS reader applications (or one of a growing number of online services) to collect and monitor their favorite feeds in one place. RSS content is often called a "feed" and is provided in an XML format (its format is transparent to the reader so this bit is just informational).

Bottom Line: RSS makes reviewing a large number of sites in a very short time possible.

Who Publishes RSS Feeds?
Some of the biggest names on the web now offer content using RSS feeds:

In addition, thousands of journal ("blog") authors publish feeds to keep themselves better connected to their readers/admirers/critics. Journals/Blogs are a driving force behind a recent surge in interest for RSS and syndicated content.

How Do I Read RSS Feeds?
If you want to collect and browse feeds you have a lot of choices, but there are two primary categories of feed reading applications: installable desktop programs and online services. There are many desktop applications for Windows and Mac OS system users, but two of my favorites are FeedDemon (Windows) and NetNewsWire (Mac OS X). Both require a nominal purchase price but are easy to use and come with dozens of feeds pre-loaded so you can explore RSS syndication immediately. Free readers are available, too. A search for "RSS Reader" on any search site will yield many results.

On more and more websites (like this one), you'll notice links to their RSS feeds that will usually look like

. To add these feeds to your journal/news reader, just right-click the button, select "Copy Shortcut" (or "Copy Link To Clipboard" for Mac) to copy the URL, then add the feed as a new "Channel" in your journal/news reader. Pretty easy.

How Can I Publish My Own RSS Feed?
If you're a Member of The Bay Net, you already do! All Members that submit entries to their Journals automatically have an RSS feed available that contains their last ten (10) entries so anyone can stay up-to-date on what you've got to say. The feed URL for any The Bay Net Member is:

http://www.thebaynet.com/css/rss/feed.cfm?member= USERNAME

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What can I do with the "Member Pivot" tool?

The Member Pivot tool allows you to quickly find all Members that share a particular attribute, like Favorite Movie or Professional Organization association.

You can use the Pivot tool by clicking on any of the Member Profile attributes designated with a

.

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How can I add new entries to my Journal?

You can add entries to your "Random Thoughts" (Journal) section two ways.

You can click on "Manage Your Account" in the left navigation area, then click for the "Journal" section or, alternatively, you can launch your profile, go to your "Random Thoughts" section and click the "Add New Entry" link.

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What are "Private Messages" or "PMs"?

Private Messages (PMs) comprise the Community's internal email system. It works very similar to regular email in that it enables you to send asynchronous messages to other Community Members and maintain inbox, sent, and deleted message folders.

You can quickly see if you have any new messages by checking the New Private Message link at the top of each screen.

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What is a "Connection Network"?

Each Member has a "Connection Network" — a circle of friends or associates in which the Member has a mutually agreed upon social or professional connection.

Adding someone to your Connection Network is a multi-step process. After finding someone that you would like added to your network, you send her a "Connection Invitation" by clicking on the "C" button next to her username and explaining why you think you should be added to each others' networks. She's notified via email of your request. She then has up to 14 days to respond, otherwise your request automatically expires.

She then logs in and goes to the "Connection Network" section and clicks on the "Connection Invitations" link to view her waiting network invitations. She can then either accept or reject your invitation. If she rejects your invitation, she has the option of providing a reason behind the rejection and you're notified via email. If she accepts, you're also notified via email, with an optional response message from her, and you're both automatically added to each others' Connection Network.

This dialogue between the two newly connected Members is recorded and is always visible to them (only) in the Connection Network section and at the top of their Member Profiles.

The "C" button allows you to send the Member an invitation to join your Connection Network.

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What is the "Member Photo Gallery"?

The Member Photo Gallery allows Members to post digital photos documenting moments in their life.

You can view a Member's Photo Gallery in two ways; by launching the Member's Personal Profile, where the Gallery is displayed at the bottom, or clicking the "G" button next to the Member's username to launch the Gallery slideshow viewer, where you can click through and comment on each photo.

Alternatively, you can view all of the Community's Gallery photos in reverse chronological order by clicking on "Member Photo Gallery" in the left navigation area.

From within the Gallery slideshow viewer, you can bookmark and send photos to friends via email.

At the moment, I have a limit of 50 photos for each Member. I may adjust this in the future, depending on the response I get from Members.

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How can I upload photos into my Photo Gallery?

You can upload photos into your Gallery by clicking "Manage Your Account", going to the "Photos" page, and scrolling down to the "Your Personal Photo Gallery" section.

You can also get there quickly by clicking the "Add Photo" link within the Gallery slideshow viewer (while displaying your photos).

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What is a "Feedback Point"?

Member Feedback Points make up a Member's "Feedback Index". Each Member's Feedback Index is intended as an indication from others of that Members value to the Community.

When you read a Forum post, Journal entry, or other contribution that you feel is righteous, you can give that Member a Feedback Point as a sign of your approval of what she's doing and contributing to the Community.

Each time a Member receives a Feedback Point, her Feedback Index increases by one (1) and she's notified of your appreciation via email.

As this is a positive (only!) community, I've decided that we won't have any negative (less than 0) Feedback Indices. Only positive. Once you give a Feedback Point, you can't revoke it.

On the first of every month, each Member is allotted 5 Feedback Points for each quarter as a Member, with which they can give to others. So, for example, if on the first of the month you will be in your fifth month of Membership, that would mean you were in quarter number two of your Membership and you would be allotted ten (2 * 5 = 10) Feedback Points.

You can only give one (1) Feedback Point to any particular Member per month and once you run out of your allottment, you must wait until the first of the month for your next allottment before you can give any more. Feedback Points automatically accrue so you won't lose any if you don't give them all in a given month.

Each Member's Feedback Index is available from their Profile.

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What is the "Short Messaging Service" or "SMS"?

The "Short Messaging Service" is intended to replicate the SMS messaging available on most of today's cell phones.

The SMS allows you to send short messages to any other logged in Member in real-time, even though you are in different locations within the Community.

The SMS polls the service every 20 seconds to check for any messages waiting for you. New messages are automatically displayed to you in a new window (so you don't lose your place). When you send SMS messages, you have the option of requesting a delivery notification that lets you know if the message was displayed on the recipient's screen.

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How do I update my account and Profile settings?

You can update your Personal and Professional Profiles, your Random Thoughts Journal, your Personal Photo and your Photo Gallery by clicking on "Manage Your Account" in the left navigation area.

Profile changes take effect immediately.

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How do I upload my photo for my Profile?

You can (and should!) upload your photo by clicking "Manage Your Account" in the left navigation area, and going to the "Photo" page.

Your photo will be automatically optimized and resized and used throughout the site to put a face to the username!

GIF, JPG, and BMP images are accepted.

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What is the "24 Hour New Member Review"?

When new Membership applications are submitted, they go through peer review for 24 hours where current Community Members can review the Applicant's professional profile to determine if it is a good fit for the Community. Each Member can cast an accept/deny vote for each Applicant and, after the 24 hour review period, the Applicant's acceptance into the Community is contingent upon receiving atleast a 50% acceptance rating.

As new Member applications come in, they're automatically added to the "24 Hour New Member Review" section, so check there often to give your input.

When new applications come in from within 50 miles of you, the system will automatically let you know via email so you can be sure to have the opportunity to have a say in your neighbor's acceptance.

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What does the "Members Online Now" list show me?

The "Members Online Now" list is a real-time indicator of who is logged into the Community at the moment, showing the location, distance from you (in miles), and time since last activity (a better indicator as to whether the Member is available for SMS, for example) with each Member.

You have the option of filtering the list by sex and by proximity, listing only Members within a certain distance from you.

The Members Online list is always available at the top of each screen, just above the left navigation area.

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How can I browse all of the registered The Bay Net Members?

You can browse all Members by clicking on "Member Browse & Search" in the left navigation area and paging through the abridged Member Profiles.

These abridged Profiles include the Member's username and photo, date/time of registration, date/time last logged in, age, sex, marital status, location, distance from you, job title, company, and a Member-provided explanation of what she does professionally.

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How can I search for a subset of The Bay Net Members based on specific criteria?

You can search for Members by clicking on "Member Browse & Search" in the left navigation area, scrolling down to the Member Searching section, and entering your Profile attribute search criteria. You have the option of searching by username, real name, professional organization, relationship status, college, interests, and age, or any combination thereof. You can also filter the results based on sex and proximity.

Your selected search criteria will create an AND search condition between the different fields and OR search conditions within each field. For example, if you select "Florida A&M University" and "Howard University" from the Colleges field, and you select "Dating" and "Serious Relationship" from the Interests field, your resulting search criteria will be

([college] = "Florida A&M University" OR [college] = "Howard University")
AND
([interest] = "Dating" OR [interest] = "Serious Relationship")

A maximum of 200 Members matching your search criteria will be returned, in reverse chronological order based on date of registration.

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How can I start my own Discussion Forum topic?

From the topic list page, you can start your own topic by clicking the

"Start A New Topic" link.

You can subscribe to your topic by checking the "Subscribe To This Topic?" checkbox when you create the topic. Each time someone replies to your topic, you'll be alerted via email.

Exceptions are the iTunes Music Channel and Moblog Forums.

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How can I subscribe to an existing topic?

Subscribing to a topic automatically notifies you via email when someone posts a reply to that topic.

You can subscribe to a topic two ways; while creating or replying to a topic you can check the "Subscribe To This Topic?" checkbox, or you can simply click the "Subscribe" link while reading the topic and replies.

At any time, you can view and manage the list of the topics that you're currently subscribed to by clicking "Manage Your Account" in the left navigation area, going to the Bookmarks page, and clicking on the "Topic Subscriptions" section.

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What do I have to do to become a Forum Moderator?

It goes without saying that you must be trusted Member of the Community. You also must have previously demonstrated that you can communicate effectively with other Members.

If you feel you're a good candidate and you have the time, patience, and passion to help out, shoot me an email here and let me know which Forum you'd like to moderate and why.

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I'm looking for a Forum topic but I don't remember where it is. How can I find it?

You can search the Discussion Forums by clicking "Discussion Conferences (Forums)" in the left navigation area and clicking the

"Search Discussion Forum Posts" link.

You can apply your search to all or a subset of Forums, searching on the author, subject, content, and date of the post, or any combination thereof.

A maximum of 100 matches are returned in reverse chronological order based on the post date, with your search terms automatically highlighted. You can click the title of the post to view only that post or click the

icon to view the entire thread.

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What are "On The Go Photos (Moblog)"?

On The Go Moblog Photos are submitted by Members using their digital camera phones from wherever they may be.

Every ten minutes, the system checks for new photos and automatically posts them to the Moblog Discussion Forum and to the "On The Go Photos (Moblog)" section where other Members can view and comment on them.

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How can I submit my own photos from my digital camera or mobile phone?

To send your own photos, just send your snapshot from your mobile phone to moblog@thebaynet.com with the following subject line format

YourUsername : YourMoblogCode : AnOptionalTitle

You can also include an optional caption in the body of the message.

Your Moblog Code is like a password that you use when you send each photo to help ensure that only photos originating from you are associated with your account. If you haven't setup your Moblog Code, you can do so in Your Account.

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What is the "iTunes Music Channel"?

The "iTunes Music Channel" section is integrated with Apple iTunes's to automatically update with the latest popular music listings. If you have iTunes installed on your computer, you can click on an album, artist, or genre link to jump to the corresponding page in the iTunes Music Store. From there you can listen to 30 second snippets and buy the track, if you want.

If you don't already have iTunes installed, download it from Apple. It's free and works on PCs, too.

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What is the "Link Directory"?

The "Link Directory" is a place where Members can submit categorized links to other websites that they like to visit, with a brief synopsis about the site, for the benefit of others.

Please refrain from spamming the directory with your own site (unless it really is cool). And please be sure to search for any site you're considering adding first to make sure it doesn't already exist. Only submit a particular website once.

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What is the "Event Calendar"?

The Community Event Calendar allows Members to submit categorized events that may be of interest to others.

All new event submissions must be approved by me before being made "live".

Approved events are browsable by day, week, and month and can be automatically added to Members' Outlook (Windows) or iCal (Mac) calendars by clicking the

icon. Events can be filtered by event type, proximity, and keyword.

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How do I invite my friends to apply for Membership?

You can invite your friends to apply for Membership by clicking the "Invite Friends To Join" link in the left navigation area, entering up to ten email addresses of your friends, and supplying an optional message.

First, the system will automatically check to see if any of the email addresses you've entered is associated with an already registered Member. If so, those Members are displayed and you're given the option of sending them an invitation into your Connection Network.

For unrecognized email addresses, an email is sent to your friends inviting them to apply for Membership with your optional message.

Included in each email is an associated Invitation Code. If your friends enter this Invitation Code when applying for Membership, they will automatically be added to your Connection Network (and you to theirs) if, after to 24 Hour Review period, their application is accepted and they become Members.

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How can I report inappropriate content to you?

As with any online community, there may be instances where Members post inappropriate or illegal content, including porn, copyrighted material, slander, etc.

To notify me of content you feel is inappropriate, look for the

icon. Clicking it will allow you to quickly send me a link to the content at which you're looking so that I can evaluate it and take action, if necessary.

On the first infraction, maybe the first two, I'll remove the inappropriate material and give a warning. Thereafter, I'll deactivate the offender's account.

The 24 Hour Peer Review period should have a positive effect on trying to limit this.

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How can I send you site suggestions and bug reports?

Send suggestions and bug reports here.

Periodically, check the "Community News & Updates" section for updates.

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Calvert, St. Mary's and Charles County

Southern Maryland Forums