This site structure is made up of Articles and Posts (we could call them snippits or such, but Post is shorter). Articles are more of a permanent nature, intended to be seen all the time. Posts are time sensitive things, often limited in the time they are ‘front page’ visible, though not always.

Articles will be things like

• About MIPCUG
• general meeting information
• application
• benefits
• lists of links
• this help page and such things that will stay relevant to the site and group for a long time.

Posts & Comments are time sensitive, becoming lesser issues and no longer need to be ‘front page’.

• A welcome to the new site
• the information on the next meeting (instead of updating, I make a new post)
• a post stating how someone liked the meeting
• what they like or don’t like about the website
• a question for the "member email list" can now be placed on the website
• comments in response to other Posts.

Generally, only the most recent posts are visible directly on the front page, but they can always be revisited by using the Archives and Categories links. As these items appear on the website, you can get to them in more than one way.

For example, the About page is available in the main header and footer links, and is also visible under Articles in the left side bar. A post can be seen under the Category to which it was posted, in the Recent Posts listing, and in the Archive for the month it was posted.

You can receive notifications of updates to the website two different ways. If you have a home page which allows you to subscribe to Syndicated RSS feeds, you can use the Syndicate feed buttons in the right sidebar. An example is the My Yahoo page with available syndications to which I subscribe. With the RSS it posts the recent notices for many different sites that I subscribe to. Google, MSN, AOL, and other such home pages have this feature, as well as you can have an independent feed reader to use on your own website or your home computer similar to a mail reader. The second way is to subscribe to the FeedBlitz on the front page which will send you an email when there is a new post or article.

You cannot login until you have paid your dues and been registered. Currently the MediaEditor must manually register you, we will see if that changes in the future. We have decided that real names will be used so that we are not confused as to whom we are talking to when posting and commenting. You cannot make anonymous posts or comments, we can see who you are when you do post or comment, so remember to be kind

This is not a huge website which will get lots of scamming attention, so I don’t believe privacy is a real issue. Your email address will be within the database for logging in, but will not be available to the public nor any web crawlers. When you’ve been registered, you will receive an email telling you that you may login. And you will initially have a very generic password, this must be updated immediately upon your first login.

After you log in, there will be a couple new features on the web site.You will have a New Post link in the upper right corner, with a Logout link. The Login section changes too. It now shows that you are logged in, and gives you a link to the admin section, there you can go to your profile and change your password. Once in the Admin section (called the Dashboard), notice that just below the header is a bar with links to

• Dashboard, with basic information and help about the site.
• Write (another way to Write a Post)
• Manage (here you can search Posts and Comments if you are looking for something), and your
• Profile (you can add info about yourself, if we do make them visible, it will only MIPCUG members, not the general visitor).

After changing your password, and exploring this area, you are ready to go back to the main part of the site. If you will look at the top of the page the header says Michiana PC Users Group, followed by (View Site>>) You will click this to go to the website.

Posts can be in made for several current categories.More will be added as we go along.

• Events 
• MediaEditor
• Meetings
• Board Meetings 
• General Meetings
• Member Discussions
• Special Interest Groups
• GenSIG Meetings
• Uncategorized.

Links (not the list of links on the sides) on the page of links to other sites has the following categories so far: 

• Computer Magazines 
• Online Game Sites
• Sites of Interest 
• Software Sources.

If you would like to add links, these can be done in your posts. I will add them to the main Link page the next time I login. Please add a synopsis of what the site is about and the Category you believe it should be in. Don’t see the category for your favorite link? Suggest it, I bet I’ll like it too and we will have a new one!

You will note the newsletter page is a bit different than the rest of the site. This is because the table is wider than the interface allows, so for now, I’ve done the best I can to make it work. After the first of the year they will cease to be visible on the old site, and will only be visible to members on the new site, as they are one of our ‘paid’ benefits.

Also, note that while you can, as a visitor, subscribe to be notified of when things are added to the site, you will not necessarily have access to all of them, and you will not be able to add any posts, links, or comments. These features will be reserved for members only. Members should please feel free to test the site by Posting your own comments or Commenting on other’s posts. Navigate around the site, get a feel for where things are, and let me know if you can’t find things, or get lost too many times!

Help! I lost my post! You wrote a post, but when you go to the front page, you don’t see anything new under Recent Posts! This is probably because you clicked SAVE instead of PUBLISH. Up above the main part of the page, you should see MANAGE. Click this, and on the new page you are looking at, below the lighter blue and darker blue bars under the website title, there should be a line that says: Your Drafts: title Click the title, and now, click PUBLISH below your post. And, don’t forget to give your post a category on the right side. It is automatically set to UNCATEGORIZED, and you can leave this, but please remember to add the specific category you would like the post to be under. If you forget, you can always click EDIT on your own posts to make changes.

I hope this article has been helpful, and please let me know if you find other items that should be pointed out to new visitors or explained better.

Sherry L. Nisly, MediaEditor, 
nisly(at)mipcug.org — replace the (at) with @