Italy Community

[Hopla]

D'Uno - There is a fundraising Group in the new house (Moxie told me!) You baldheaded beauty. See you later moi luvverly.

Originally Posted by DavidUno

"We also aim to give back to Italy as much as possible by supporting a variety of causes that help make Italy a better place."

The above statement is taken from the STATEMENT OF PURPOSE of the new IM Community. Can anybody with a foot in both camps confirm whether or not there is a specific section to deal with fund raising for the earthquake aftermath or indeed any other?

This issue seems to have been the most contentious non personal fracas (rissa?) in this forum and we all know the results.

[DavidUno]

OI! Hopla you strawberry bottomed bowl of delight.
Thanks for your info. Are you pulling my leg?
So you are saying that somebody else says that their is a fund raising section? Have you seen it?

[sarahandmark]

David - It IS there - we have seen it - AT LONG LAST! Oh and just found this :

Jarno Trulli makes another visit to the earthquake victims in Italy - F1technical.net

[gardahomes]

Just wanted to let anyone thinking of joining the new community a little bit about it from someone who has been playing around with it over the last few days. It is still in beta testing and things are still changing around, and I still haven't quite worked everything out yet but it looks very promising. It does seem very confusing to begin with but I think it's a matter of getting used to.

The groups feature, which never really took off on these forums, is a major part of the new setup and it really works.
Members can set up new groups (which have to be approved by the admin - i.e. they have to be relevant, duplicate groups won't be accepted etc) and beauty of them is their flexibility. They can be open membership (just click to join), approved membership (the group creator has to approve new applications), invite only, or closed (only the creator can add and remove members).
The group can also be "private" and invisible in the list of groups (so no-one outside the group even knows it is there).

Messages within the group can also be either public (can be seen by everyone, even visitors) or private (only visible to its members).

Wikis can also be set up.

In short, the community and the way it is run is much more in the hands of the members themselves.

In the user profile section you can have as much or as little information about yourself visible as you like.

There is also a facebook/twitter style "what are you doing" box, which you can use to broadcast how you are feeling, or not - you never have to use this if you don't want to.

There aren't just groups, there are also posts/comments that are public and not tied to any one group (a bit like a thread except the original poster is the content "creator" and everyone else posts comments on what the first person said - the comments can of course then go off at a tangent as is their wont.

This makes searching for information much more flexible and actually easier once you get the hang of it.

That's not all but that's what I've gathered so far. Hopefully it will be useful for anyone who isn't sure yet whether or not they want to join.

[Noma]

Thanks gardahomes. I think that's precisely what's needed- a go-between who can translate the geek-speak into english for the rest of us.

[IRITALIA]

Well I tried to register last night and after filling in the general information, writing an epistle on why I want to join, I then scrolled down and before ticking the Terms of Use box I clicked on the link provided to have a read of the rules and regulations. Returning to the registration page I found that everything I had written had been deleted!
So if you are registring, read all the links before filling in the formular.

[Sally Donaldson]

And also a good idea to copy and paste text into a text editor programme whenever filling in online forms.

[Lisa C.]

Originally Posted by gardahomes

In the user profile section you can have as much or as little information about yourself visible as you like.

Garda, I read somewhere, I think it was from Ronald, that nothing will be visible in our user profile for simplicity and safety other than our name.

Lisa

[gardahomes]

Originally Posted by Lisa C.

Garda, I read somewhere, I think it was from Ronald, that nothing will be visible in our user profile for simplicity and safety other than our name.

Lisa

No there is also a bio (life and work) section which you can fill in or leave blank - you can either pinpoint your location precisely or just enter something general or leave it blank altogether.

Regarding the artists and artisans guide, I am pretty sure that you can create a wikipedia type thing that isn't limited to a group but which is public. But Ronald can advise better. If you go in and play around with it you can get a feel of what is possible. It's very much in the user's hands.

[Gala Placidia]

Originally Posted by IRITALIA

Well I tried to register last night and after filling in the general information, writing an epistle on why I want to join, I then scrolled down and before ticking the Terms of Use box I clicked on the link provided to have a read of the rules and regulations. Returning to the registration page I found that everything I had written had been deleted!
So if you are registring, read all the links before filling in the formular.

Just persevere, there are some little gremlins in the system, but these should disappear.