Questions about Profiles and Accounts
Answers to many questions which might be encountered when first joining unige-leadinghouse.ch, including how to manage your profile, how to create an avatar, and how to configure email notifications.
How can I edit my profile information?
After logging into the unige-leadinghouse.ch website, go to the top gray navigation bar and select: “Howdy, [your account name]” > Edit My Profile.
From here, you can update your display name, position, organization, field of interests/expertise and additional profile fields.
How do I load a picture of myself (an “avatar”) to appear on my profile and other areas?
After logging into the unige-leadinghouse.ch website, go to the top gray navigation bar and select: “Howdy, [your account name]” > Edit My Profile, then click on the “Change Avatar” link to upload a new image.
You can also create a gravatar, which will enable you to use that same image across many different types of websites.
How can I change my password?
After logging into the unige-leadinghouse.ch website, go to the top gray navigation bar and select: “Howdy, [your account name]” > Edit My Profile, then click on Settings.
Enter your current password in the first field and your new password in both subsequent fields, then click “Save Changes”.
How do I change my display profile name?
After logging into the unige-leadinghouse.ch website, go to the top gray navigation bar and select: “Howdy, [your account name]” > Edit My Profile.
To change your display name, re-write the name you prefer in the ‘Full Name (required)’ field, then scroll down and select “Save Changes.”
What are “notifications”?
The notification link (on the top right bar of the unige-leadinghouse.ch website) indicates if you have a new message, friend request, or invitation to join a group.
How can I change my email notification settings?
You may receive e-mails from the unige-leadinghouse.ch website in response to various activities taking place on the platform such as a message being posted on the activity stream of a group to which you belong or a private message being sent to you. You can change the settings on your profile page (available by going to the top gray navigation bar and clicking “Howdy, [your account name]” > Settings > Email) to indicate in which circumstances you wish to receive e-mail using the radio buttons in the “Yes” and “No” columns.
Can member profiles be made private? How can I prevent my profile from showing up in a Google search?
Right now, there is not a way to make Profiles private. For now, users worried about privacy should avoid using their full names on their profiles (some combination of initials and first or last names might be good).
How Do I Delete My Account?
To delete your account, go to the top gray navigation bar and select: “Welcome, [your account name]” > Settings > Delete Account, then follow the directions which appear on-screen.
Questions about Groups
Learn how groups can be used on the unige-leadinghouse.ch website. How to start and administrate a group, and how to manage privacy. How to use features to collaborate on projects.
How can groups use the unige-leadinghouse.ch website?
This is taken from a blog post written by Maura A. Smale for CUNY Academic Commons and distributed with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The unige-leadinghouse.ch website is a great place for groups interested in global studies. Here’s a list of some of the ways groups can use this space to collaborate. Let us know if we’ve missed any. And please feel free to ask any questions you have, too.
Any member of the unige-leadinghouse.ch website can create a group. If you’d like to create a group, there are three types to choose from:
- Public: With a public group everything the group creates is visible to the general public and to unige-leadinghouse.ch website members: the group page, member list, activity stream, and forum posts. No permission is required to join a public group. Public groups can also enable group blogs and set different roles for members.
- Private: In a private group certain elements of the group are not visible to those who are not members. Only members can see the member list, activity stream, and forum posts. The group does appear in the list on the unige-leadinghouse.ch website Groups page, but non-members can only view a simplified version of the group page. You must request membership to join a private group.
- Hidden: A hidden group is invisible on the unige-leadinghouse.ch website to everyone except for group members. The group page, member list, activity stream, and forum posts are all hidden from the public.
Once you’ve created your group, here are some ways your group can use the unige-leadinghouse.ch website:
Communication between group members
To communicate to all members of a group, members can post on the group’s activity stream. In a public group, activity stream posts on the group’s page will also be visible to anyone; in a private or hidden group, activity stream posts will only be visible to group members.
Posting meeting minutes and other documents
Groups may wish to use their unige-leadinghouse.ch website space to archive meeting minutes or other pertinent documents. Minutes can be stored as documents in the “Docs” tab directly or attached to documents as files. The “Docs” tab accept most common file types as attachments, for example, Microsoft Word documents or PDFs.
The unige-leadinghouse.ch website is designed to be flexible, so you can tailor your use of Groups to meet your members’ unique needs. If you come up with creative uses that we didn’t mention here, please let us know.
How do I create a group?
After you’ve logged in, go to “Create a Group on the unige-leadinghouse.ch website”. You will be presented with a form.
- First, write a group name and group description in the first two fields.
- In the next section of the form, you will choose whether your group will be public, private, or hidden. A brief description of each of these features is included to help you decide which is appropriate to your needs.
- Then, you will choose who can invite new members. This is particularly important if you chose to have a private or hidden group. The first option allows all members of your group to invite their connections to join you. The second limits this ability to the members you choose as moderators. The third limits this ability to you, the Group Administrator.
- The next section determines how frequently the group sends e-mails to members.
- The last option determines whether or not to have shared documents in the group.
Once you are sure of your choices, press the “Submit” button. Your group is now awaiting approval. The approval process is necessary to protect Forum members from spammers and ensure that groups meet certain thematic requirements. Once the unige-leadinghouse.ch website team approves your group creation request, you will receive a message. At this point, you will be able to upload an image to represent your group, invite people, appoint moderators and start using your group.
How to join a group?
Select ‘Groups’ from the main page. You can explore groups in the following ways:
- The ‘Groups Directory’ lists all groups on the unige-leadinghouse.ch website in alphabetical order,
- ‘Find Groups’ allows you to search for groups by keyword,
- ‘Groups Listing’ shows all of the groups by order of most recent activity,
After you’ve found a group that interests you, you can either select the ‘Join Group’ button next the group name if the group is public, or select ‘Request Membership’ if the group is private. Joining a public group gives you immediate access to the group and group abilities. A private group will require the group’s moderator or admin to approve your application.
How to maintain a group?
As the group creator and administrator you have control over individual member’s roles and abilities. From the top of the “Groups” page select ‘My Groups’ and then the group you wish to modify. This brings you to the group’s page. On the left, you will find several links including ‘Members.’ Select ‘Members’ and you will be brought to a list of each member of your group followed by various actions. ‘Kick and Ban’ will eject a member from your group and prevent them from rejoining. ‘Promote to Mod’ will grant that member Moderator’s rights while ‘Promote to Admin’ will grant that member administrator’s rights. You will be prompted to confirm your selection once before the action is complete.
This answer is based on a post written by Brian Michael Foote on February 28, 2010 for CUNY Academic Commons and distributed with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
What are the differences in permissions for various Group roles, i.e. Admins, Moderators, Members?
Administrators can do the following things that moderators cannot do: Change group settings, eg turn group blog on or off, turn group forums on or off, change group status from public to private, etc
- Change group avatar
- Manage group members: ie kick/ban members, promote/demote members
- Delete the group
Group moderators can do the following things that normal members cannot do:
- Edit, close, and delete forum topics/posts
- Edit/delete group documents
What’s the difference between public, private, and hidden groups?
All content in public groups (member listing, forum posts, activity stream posts) is available to be viewed by anyone, even viewers who aren’t logged into the site. Public groups are listed in the public directory of groups, and any member of the community can join the group without seeking approval from the group owners.
All content in private groups is hidden from the public and is viewable only by members of that group. Private groups are listed in the public directory of groups, but members of the community must request membership to the group and have that request approved before being able to view group content.
All content in hidden groups is hidden from the public and is viewable only by members of that group. Hidden groups are not listed in the public directory of groups. New members must be invited to join by existing group members.
I joined a hidden group and now can see it and all its members. Can everyone else?
No. When users create or become members of hidden groups, they will see them in the group listing on the homepage, but it will be visible only to members of the group, not to the general public or to members of the unige-leadinghouse.ch website who aren’t in the group.
Can I view a hidden group without being a member?
Hidden groups aren’t listed in the groups directory. Group content and member information can only be accessed by members of a hidden group.
What happens when a private group becomes public?
When a private group becomes public, previous announcements will no longer be accessible to group members.
There are three types of groups on the unige-leadinghouse.ch website, and each has differing levels of privacy. As the needs of a group change and evolve, they may want to adjust their group settings from private to public, or vice versa. There are a few things that group admins should keep in mind before they change their group settings from private to public.
Ask yourself “Is there anything that can’t be public?”
Once a group is public, all docs, files, and forum threads will be visible to members outside of the group. The unige-leadinghouse.ch website team recommends that Group Admins look over these areas for files or threads that the group may not deem appropriate for public consumption and either edit or delete accordingly.
Group Announcements
It’s also important to note that announcements posted by admins before the group became public will no longer be accessible to group members. Old announcements aren’t permanently deleted and will reappear if the group becomes private again.
This answer is based on a post written by Sarah Morgano on March 1, 2012 for CUNY Academic Commons and distributed with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
How can groups share files?
Group members have the ability to create documents in the “Docs” tab. It allows members to work on documents collaboratively and attach files to these documents.
How can groups work on documents collaboratively?
The “Docs” tab in groups allows you to create, write and edit texts collaboratively with members of your groups. This feature may not be available in your group. The Group Admin can activate it in the group’s settings. If the feature is active, click the “Docs” tab from your group’s page to see which documents you can edit or how you can create one.
How come I’m not receiving Group updates via email?
First, please check your notification settings to make sure that you have set your preferences correctly. Second, please check your account’s spam filter or spam folder, as we have received several reports of group activity stream posts being caught by spam filters. unige-leadinghouse.ch website emails are sent from the address “[email protected]” so you may need to add that address to your contacts or to your spam filter’s whitelist. If you are still having problems, please contact us.
How can I leave a group?
To unsubscribe from a group, go to the group homepage and click “Leave Group.” The link is right under the group icon image.
How can I change my group email notifications?
When you join a group, you receive email notifications according to the default settings of the group. If you’d like to change your notification settings for your groups, please go to the home page of any group and click the “Email Options” tab. Select the option you would prefer and select “Save Settings”. You have a choice between:
- No Email
- Weekly Summary Email
- Daily Digest Email
- All Email
How do I reply to email notifications?
You can click on the link supplied in the notification, log into the unige-leadinghouse.ch website, and reply.
This documentation page is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Switzerland.