Q: What are communities?
A: Communities allow you to participate in discussions and share resources with other members.
Q: What communities do I already belong to?
A: Click on your profile photo in the upper right of the sit and select “My Communities” to view the communities to which you currently belong.
Q: How do I join/subscribe to a community and the affiliated discussion group?
A: Go to the community that you wish to join and simply click "Join," then choose a delivery option for posts (Real Time, Daily Digest or No Email). If you don't see the option to join, please email us. The community may be set up only for members or invited participants.
Q: How can I control the frequency and format of emails I receive?
A: Go to your profile and click on the "My Account" tab. Choose "Community Notifications" from the drop-down menu. On that page, there are subscription options: Real Time, Daily Digest, No Email.
For each discussion, you have the following delivery options:
Real time: sends an email every time a new message is posted.
Daily digest: sends one email to you each day, consolidating all of the posts from the previous day.
No Email: allows you to be part of the group without having emails sent to you. You can still post and read others’ messages by logging into the community site.
Q: How do I leave a community or unsubscribe from a discussion?
A: Go to your profile and click on the "My Account" tab. Choose "Community Notifications" from the drop-down menu. Select "No Email” under the Community Email column for the discussions you wish to leave.
Q: How do I respond to others’ posts?
A: Go to the discussion post and click “Reply to Discussion” to send your message to the entire community. To send a message to the only author of the post, please select “Reply to Sender” (located in the "Reply to Discussion" drop-down). We recommend replying to the sender for simple comments like “me, too” that add little value to the overall discussion; and replying to the entire community when you are sharing knowledge, experience or resources that others could benefit from.
Q: How do I start a new discussion thread?
A: Go to the community page and click the "Add" button next to Latest Discussion Posts. If you're on the discussion tab, click "Post New Message." From a digest email (html), click the “Post Message” link located at the top of the discussion email.
Q: I’m having trouble viewing the HTML email messages. How do I fix this?
A: If images are not appearing, it is likely that your email 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 email, go to your profile page and click on the "My Account" tab. Choose "Community Notifications" from the drop-down menu. Select the “Plain Text” format option for each of the discussions you are subscribed to.
Q: Can I search for posts across all the communities?
A: Yes, please enter a keyword in the search bar located in the main navigation. To refine your search results, please select "Show Advanced Search".
Q: How do I see a listing of all of the posts to a specific Community?
A: On the community's landing page, click on the “Discussions” tab. Click the subject line which will take you to the entire thread. “Show Original Message” at the bottom of all of the posts in a thread will display the original message that started that discussion.