Post by High Priestess on Sept 20, 2015 21:04:03 GMT
Setting up your account
A note about this forum and membership:
This forum was started just as the original host community groups were closing on the Airbnb site, in 2015. Eventually, it became clear that hosts far and away preferred to use FaceBook to create host community, rather than forums like this. As a result, this forum has become much less of an active forum, and more of a library of resources and news for the host community.
Particularly given that hosts can read most all of the posts on this forum without becoming members of this forum, there's not much need to be a member here unless you like this forum style and/or want to post and comment here.
I dont' get very many requests to become members of this forum at this point, but of those who request to join this forum, the vast majority either post nothing at all, or post spam. Hence, it seems pointless to approve as new members on this forum, those who contribute nothing.
Therefore, going forward from here, individuals will need to demonstrate the ability to positively contribute to the host community, before being permitted to join as members here. This can be done by first joining the FaceBook group associated with this forum. Find that Face Book group here:
www.facebook.com/groups/140542703035271/
Please request to join that FB group, to begin demonstrating that you have something worthwhile to contribute. If you do not use FaceBook, and wish to join this forum, you can contact me with a message explaining why you want to join this forum, via the COntact page on the GlobalHostingBlogs website, here:
globalhostingblogs.com/contact-form/
If your message does not contain enough information, or make the case convincingly, you'll still need to first join the Facebook group and participate there before being allowed to join here.
If you are eventually approved to join this forum:
When you first access this forum as a guest, you'll see an option to register. Follow the prompts to register -- you'll need to enter a username. This username need not be the same as the display name that you use on the forum, though it will be set initially as your default display name. Note: whatever you set as your USER NAME cannot be changed -- it will always be the name you use to log into the site, even if you later on change your display name, which is the name that appears on the site and the one others know you by. SO if you wish to avoid confusion, I suggest setting up a user name which is the same as the display name you want to use on the site.
Because this forum wont' allow two users with exactly the same user name or display name, you can add numerics to your name if someone by the same name already has set up an account here, eg, "mark" and then "mark2". You might also add to your name what city/region you are from eg, "mark" and "markfrommissouri". Additionally, the display names are case-sensitive, so that both a Mark and a mark can set up their accounts.
Once you set up your name and password, and pass the "I'm not a robot" test by solving the puzzle you're given, a link will be sent to the email address connected to your account. YOu will get a long verification code that you need to copy and paste when you return to the forum, to complete your verification.
(NOTE: If you ever forget your password, or the password doesn't work for some reason, you can enter your username or email and use password recovery to get a new password set up. A link will be sent to your email address to help you set up a new password).
Once you are registered, finish setting up your account by clicking on "profile" on the top menu bar.
Then to set up your photos and personal settings on your account, click on the "edit profile" button:
After setting up your account, I suggest adding either a cartoon avatar or a profile photo onto your account. I recently was informed that any photo you use can be Google-searched to find where else that photo has been used online, and that bothered me, so unfortunately I no longer use an actual photo of myself on my account here, for privacy reasons. (I wish the internet had better privacy controls)> You can upload a photo by clicking on "upload/link" and then find an image either from your computer or from the web to use for your profile photo. After you upload the photo you will need to check the box that says "use only uploaded/linked" next to your photo, and then click "save avatar changes."
See the post below on how to add photos to your profile or your posts. If you choose not to upload a photo of yourself, perhaps because you want to retain more privacy, you can feel free to use the avatar designer to create a cartoon avatar of yourself.
Or you can use any photo that you like.
After you've done that, you may want to set up your notifications. Just like on the Airbnb forums, you can set notifications so that you either will or wont' recieve an email to (1) posts you have posted or (2) are following, have bookmarked or particpated in, (3) when someone likes or quotes your post, (4) when someone sends you a private message, and more. Unlike on Airbnb forums, here the default setting is that you do NOT recieve notifications. To set your notifications, after you've clicked on "edit profile", then click on "notifications" in the menu bar, and select the options you want. You'll see there are a lot of choices. It is good to select notifications to be notified if a thread you participated in is updated, or if someone sends you a private message. Note that you can set your notifications to apply to either the whole forum, or only specific boards -- to do that, once you go to the notification settings page, click "add board" button at the bottom of the page and set your notification choices per board.
One thing that you cannot get email notifications about, is when there are new threads in any given board or on the whole forum. But read below on the part of this thread entitled "using the forum" and you can find out how to easily check for any new threads on the forum, in a couple different ways.
Those are the basics, and now you're good to go!
A note about this forum and membership:
This forum was started just as the original host community groups were closing on the Airbnb site, in 2015. Eventually, it became clear that hosts far and away preferred to use FaceBook to create host community, rather than forums like this. As a result, this forum has become much less of an active forum, and more of a library of resources and news for the host community.
Particularly given that hosts can read most all of the posts on this forum without becoming members of this forum, there's not much need to be a member here unless you like this forum style and/or want to post and comment here.
I dont' get very many requests to become members of this forum at this point, but of those who request to join this forum, the vast majority either post nothing at all, or post spam. Hence, it seems pointless to approve as new members on this forum, those who contribute nothing.
Therefore, going forward from here, individuals will need to demonstrate the ability to positively contribute to the host community, before being permitted to join as members here. This can be done by first joining the FaceBook group associated with this forum. Find that Face Book group here:
www.facebook.com/groups/140542703035271/
Please request to join that FB group, to begin demonstrating that you have something worthwhile to contribute. If you do not use FaceBook, and wish to join this forum, you can contact me with a message explaining why you want to join this forum, via the COntact page on the GlobalHostingBlogs website, here:
globalhostingblogs.com/contact-form/
If your message does not contain enough information, or make the case convincingly, you'll still need to first join the Facebook group and participate there before being allowed to join here.
If you are eventually approved to join this forum:
When you first access this forum as a guest, you'll see an option to register. Follow the prompts to register -- you'll need to enter a username. This username need not be the same as the display name that you use on the forum, though it will be set initially as your default display name. Note: whatever you set as your USER NAME cannot be changed -- it will always be the name you use to log into the site, even if you later on change your display name, which is the name that appears on the site and the one others know you by. SO if you wish to avoid confusion, I suggest setting up a user name which is the same as the display name you want to use on the site.
Because this forum wont' allow two users with exactly the same user name or display name, you can add numerics to your name if someone by the same name already has set up an account here, eg, "mark" and then "mark2". You might also add to your name what city/region you are from eg, "mark" and "markfrommissouri". Additionally, the display names are case-sensitive, so that both a Mark and a mark can set up their accounts.
Once you set up your name and password, and pass the "I'm not a robot" test by solving the puzzle you're given, a link will be sent to the email address connected to your account. YOu will get a long verification code that you need to copy and paste when you return to the forum, to complete your verification.
(NOTE: If you ever forget your password, or the password doesn't work for some reason, you can enter your username or email and use password recovery to get a new password set up. A link will be sent to your email address to help you set up a new password).
Once you are registered, finish setting up your account by clicking on "profile" on the top menu bar.
Then to set up your photos and personal settings on your account, click on the "edit profile" button:
After setting up your account, I suggest adding either a cartoon avatar or a profile photo onto your account. I recently was informed that any photo you use can be Google-searched to find where else that photo has been used online, and that bothered me, so unfortunately I no longer use an actual photo of myself on my account here, for privacy reasons. (I wish the internet had better privacy controls)> You can upload a photo by clicking on "upload/link" and then find an image either from your computer or from the web to use for your profile photo. After you upload the photo you will need to check the box that says "use only uploaded/linked" next to your photo, and then click "save avatar changes."
See the post below on how to add photos to your profile or your posts. If you choose not to upload a photo of yourself, perhaps because you want to retain more privacy, you can feel free to use the avatar designer to create a cartoon avatar of yourself.
Or you can use any photo that you like.
After you've done that, you may want to set up your notifications. Just like on the Airbnb forums, you can set notifications so that you either will or wont' recieve an email to (1) posts you have posted or (2) are following, have bookmarked or particpated in, (3) when someone likes or quotes your post, (4) when someone sends you a private message, and more. Unlike on Airbnb forums, here the default setting is that you do NOT recieve notifications. To set your notifications, after you've clicked on "edit profile", then click on "notifications" in the menu bar, and select the options you want. You'll see there are a lot of choices. It is good to select notifications to be notified if a thread you participated in is updated, or if someone sends you a private message. Note that you can set your notifications to apply to either the whole forum, or only specific boards -- to do that, once you go to the notification settings page, click "add board" button at the bottom of the page and set your notification choices per board.
One thing that you cannot get email notifications about, is when there are new threads in any given board or on the whole forum. But read below on the part of this thread entitled "using the forum" and you can find out how to easily check for any new threads on the forum, in a couple different ways.
Those are the basics, and now you're good to go!