Hello and welcome to yuku.
**Note: if your group is a migrating from MSN, please skip the first part of this guide and start with the section "Front entrance settings of your group"
As you are looking for a new home, yuku would like to welcome you warmly.
Msn is different, and it will take some getting used to, but once you get the hang of things, you'll find a wealth of possibilities. What might seem intricate settings at first are merely features and options that work together to give your new group great flexibility.
Whatever questions you might have, whatever problem you might run into, always remember that we all had to start somewhere. Taking the step from msn groups to yuku communities is a giant step into the unknown. We'll be more than happy to help you get started.
Creating a group
A group is called a message board or community at yuku, but we will refer to it as 'group' which might sound more familiar to you.
To create a group, click on the navigation button at the top right of your screen.
Then click on "community" over to the right in the create section.
Fill out the forum (don't forget to select a category)
On the next page, choose a skin. A skin represents the look of your group.
Once you have chosen a skin, click save and your group will be created.
Don't forget to bookmark the link.
Becoming familiar with your group.
Congrats, you have now created a group.
What's next?
Next, we are going to arrange the settings, but first, let's take a look and see what a group looks like when it is first created.
Click on this link to see a newly created group.
http://demoformsnusers.yuku.com/directory
What you see when you click on that link is called the directory or front page. You could call it the front entrance of your group.
You will see two categories. The first category has 2 forums (Public forum and approved members only), the second category has 1 forum (admin forum)
*Note: you will only see the second category if you own the group, it will be invisible to others, so you won't see it on the demo group I linked to.
What are categories and forums?
They are there to facilitate navigation for the members of your group.
The front page could be seen as the main entrance for your new yuku home, the forums are the different rooms in which your members can post and communitcate..
Your forums.
What exactly are forums?
Forums are sections that hold your posts. People can go in and read or reply.
In the example given, let's click on "public forum", this will take you here:
http://demoformsnusers.yuku.com/forums/66
You will see some topics. (Those topics were started after creating the group). If you click on the various topics, you will find some information on how to start a new topic and how to reply to it.
Front entrance settings of your group.
Do you want your group public or private?
Fully public means that anyone who has an internet connection can view your group, and anyone who has a yuku account can post topics and replies to your group.
Fully private means that nobody will see your group and anyone who wishes to become a member must apply for membership.
There are two more settings between fully public and fully private, but we will keep this tutorial down to the very basic settings so that you won't get confused. As you go along, you will have time to explore and experiment with the various options.
Newly created groups are public, so if you wish the front entrance of your group to be public, you don't need to do anything.
Should you wish to make your group private, click on the navigation button at the top right of your screen.
Click on admin menu in the blue bar towrds the top centre of your next page.
Click on 'security' in your admin menu to the left.
Click the 'approved members only' radio button in the community access settings section.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Click the blue "submit" button.
There you go, your group is now private. Nobody will be able to access unless you give them permission.
How to allow people acces to your private group.
When people click on the link to your group, they will see an application page.
They must fill out the application and send it.
You will get notification of the application via your yuku inbox.
Now, click on the navigation button at the top right of your screen
Click on admin menu in the blue bar towards the top centre.
You will see your member list and you will see the name if the person who applied, next to the name you will see "pending"
Click on the name of the member.
The individual management page will appear.
Click approve pending in the custom settings section on that page.
Your forum access settings.
Above, we have talked about how to make the main entrance of your group public or private.
Now let's see what we have inside.
As explained in "your forums" section above, your newly created group comes with 3 forums.
You can make the forums within your group public or private, or invisible, or just mix and match.
These are the forums you have to get you started:
First forum: Public forum.
This forum is fully public.
Second forum: Approved members only: This forum is private. People need to apply first in order to gain access, even if the front entrance of your group is public.
Third forum: Admin forum: this forum is invisible. As the owner of the group, you will see the forum, but members won't see it unless they have access.
You can change the forum settings to your liking. (see below)
Changing your forum settings.
To change your forum settings, click on the navigation button at the top right of your screen.
Click on admin menu in the blue bar towards the top centre of your screen.
Click on forum & chat Mgmt. in your menu to the left.
Click on "settings" next to the forum of which you want to change the settings.
Scroll down to reading restrictions
You can adjust the settings there to your liking. No need to save the changes, they auto-save.
Changing your forum descriptions
To change your forum descriptions, click on forum & chat Mgmt again in your admin menu.
Click on edit info next to the forum of which you wish to change the description.
You will next see the page on which you can change the forum description as well as the forum title.
Click the blue update button when done.
Note: when you click on forum & chat Mgmt, take a good look around on that page. You will see where to add forums and categories, where to change the category name, etc..
Congrats, you have set up the main entrance of your group and you have taken care of your forum access. Hang in there, you're more than halfway done.
Making your group look good.
Let's take a look at how you can decorate your pages.
Click on customized skins in your menu to the left. (under design)
Newly created groups do not come with an applied skin, so any change you wish to make to the looks of your group, you will need to apply a skin first.
No worries, that is easy to do.
You are currently looking at your skins page.
Click on "add designer skin" which is one of the blue buttons towards the bottom.
You will be taken to the skins library where you can pick a skin.
Once you have chosen your skin, click on "copy to my skins"
You will be taken back to the skins page of your group.
Now you can apply your skin. Simply click "apply" in the skin you have just copied, and you will see a page where you can pick the forums to which you wish to apply the skin.
You can choose different skins for differnet forums or apply the same skin everywhere, which might be the easiest thing to do to start with.
Cool, you have a skin applied, you have your main entrance and your forum access sorted out, you're getting there.
General settings.
Click on "display preferences in your menu to see an array of options.
Go over that page very carefully to see all the options and make adjustments to your liking.
If you need information on any of the options, please check out this topic:
http://gethelp.yuku.com/topic/786
This is an alphabetic list of tutorials that might be of use to you.
Another place to check is the FAQ section at the support portal.
http://support.yuku.com/
and we also have the help wiki:
http://help.yuku.com/help20/index.php/Main_Page
It will all take some getting used to, but that is only a matter of time.
Your members.
Once you start to get members in your group, you will be able to manage each member individually should you wish.
What does that mean? It means that you can give any member any kind of access, thus overriding your forum access.
You can decide for each member whether they may display a signature, and avatar, how many posts they can make, where they can or cannot post, you can give them a custom title, etc..
Here too, please check the alphabetic help articles index for member management.
http://gethelp.yuku.com/topic/786
More can be found at the help wiki and at support, see links above.
.... and once more.. welcome home, we're happy to have you here and we'll be just as happy to help you set up and manage your new group.
Help links:
http://gethelp.yuku.com/topic/365
**Note: if your group is a migrating from MSN, please skip the first part of this guide and start with the section "Front entrance settings of your group"
As you are looking for a new home, yuku would like to welcome you warmly.
Msn is different, and it will take some getting used to, but once you get the hang of things, you'll find a wealth of possibilities. What might seem intricate settings at first are merely features and options that work together to give your new group great flexibility.
Whatever questions you might have, whatever problem you might run into, always remember that we all had to start somewhere. Taking the step from msn groups to yuku communities is a giant step into the unknown. We'll be more than happy to help you get started.
Creating a group
A group is called a message board or community at yuku, but we will refer to it as 'group' which might sound more familiar to you.
To create a group, click on the navigation button at the top right of your screen.
Then click on "community" over to the right in the create section.
Fill out the forum (don't forget to select a category)
On the next page, choose a skin. A skin represents the look of your group.
Once you have chosen a skin, click save and your group will be created.
Don't forget to bookmark the link.
Becoming familiar with your group.
Congrats, you have now created a group.
What's next?
Next, we are going to arrange the settings, but first, let's take a look and see what a group looks like when it is first created.
Click on this link to see a newly created group.
http://demoformsnusers.yuku.com/directory
What you see when you click on that link is called the directory or front page. You could call it the front entrance of your group.
You will see two categories. The first category has 2 forums (Public forum and approved members only), the second category has 1 forum (admin forum)
*Note: you will only see the second category if you own the group, it will be invisible to others, so you won't see it on the demo group I linked to.
What are categories and forums?
They are there to facilitate navigation for the members of your group.
The front page could be seen as the main entrance for your new yuku home, the forums are the different rooms in which your members can post and communitcate..
Your forums.
What exactly are forums?
Forums are sections that hold your posts. People can go in and read or reply.
In the example given, let's click on "public forum", this will take you here:
http://demoformsnusers.yuku.com/forums/66
You will see some topics. (Those topics were started after creating the group). If you click on the various topics, you will find some information on how to start a new topic and how to reply to it.
Front entrance settings of your group.
Do you want your group public or private?
Fully public means that anyone who has an internet connection can view your group, and anyone who has a yuku account can post topics and replies to your group.
Fully private means that nobody will see your group and anyone who wishes to become a member must apply for membership.
There are two more settings between fully public and fully private, but we will keep this tutorial down to the very basic settings so that you won't get confused. As you go along, you will have time to explore and experiment with the various options.
Newly created groups are public, so if you wish the front entrance of your group to be public, you don't need to do anything.
Should you wish to make your group private, click on the navigation button at the top right of your screen.
Click on admin menu in the blue bar towrds the top centre of your next page.
Click on 'security' in your admin menu to the left.
Click the 'approved members only' radio button in the community access settings section.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Click the blue "submit" button.
There you go, your group is now private. Nobody will be able to access unless you give them permission.
How to allow people acces to your private group.
When people click on the link to your group, they will see an application page.
They must fill out the application and send it.
You will get notification of the application via your yuku inbox.
Now, click on the navigation button at the top right of your screen
Click on admin menu in the blue bar towards the top centre.
You will see your member list and you will see the name if the person who applied, next to the name you will see "pending"
Click on the name of the member.
The individual management page will appear.
Click approve pending in the custom settings section on that page.
Your forum access settings.
Above, we have talked about how to make the main entrance of your group public or private.
Now let's see what we have inside.
As explained in "your forums" section above, your newly created group comes with 3 forums.
You can make the forums within your group public or private, or invisible, or just mix and match.
These are the forums you have to get you started:
First forum: Public forum.
This forum is fully public.
Second forum: Approved members only: This forum is private. People need to apply first in order to gain access, even if the front entrance of your group is public.
Third forum: Admin forum: this forum is invisible. As the owner of the group, you will see the forum, but members won't see it unless they have access.
You can change the forum settings to your liking. (see below)
Changing your forum settings.
To change your forum settings, click on the navigation button at the top right of your screen.
Click on admin menu in the blue bar towards the top centre of your screen.
Click on forum & chat Mgmt. in your menu to the left.
Click on "settings" next to the forum of which you want to change the settings.
Scroll down to reading restrictions
You can adjust the settings there to your liking. No need to save the changes, they auto-save.
Changing your forum descriptions
To change your forum descriptions, click on forum & chat Mgmt again in your admin menu.
Click on edit info next to the forum of which you wish to change the description.
You will next see the page on which you can change the forum description as well as the forum title.
Click the blue update button when done.
Note: when you click on forum & chat Mgmt, take a good look around on that page. You will see where to add forums and categories, where to change the category name, etc..
Congrats, you have set up the main entrance of your group and you have taken care of your forum access. Hang in there, you're more than halfway done.
Making your group look good.
Let's take a look at how you can decorate your pages.
Click on customized skins in your menu to the left. (under design)
Newly created groups do not come with an applied skin, so any change you wish to make to the looks of your group, you will need to apply a skin first.
No worries, that is easy to do.
You are currently looking at your skins page.
Click on "add designer skin" which is one of the blue buttons towards the bottom.
You will be taken to the skins library where you can pick a skin.
Once you have chosen your skin, click on "copy to my skins"
You will be taken back to the skins page of your group.
Now you can apply your skin. Simply click "apply" in the skin you have just copied, and you will see a page where you can pick the forums to which you wish to apply the skin.
You can choose different skins for differnet forums or apply the same skin everywhere, which might be the easiest thing to do to start with.
Cool, you have a skin applied, you have your main entrance and your forum access sorted out, you're getting there.
General settings.
Click on "display preferences in your menu to see an array of options.
Go over that page very carefully to see all the options and make adjustments to your liking.
If you need information on any of the options, please check out this topic:
http://gethelp.yuku.com/topic/786
This is an alphabetic list of tutorials that might be of use to you.
Another place to check is the FAQ section at the support portal.
http://support.yuku.com/
and we also have the help wiki:
http://help.yuku.com/help20/index.php/Main_Page
It will all take some getting used to, but that is only a matter of time.
Your members.
Once you start to get members in your group, you will be able to manage each member individually should you wish.
What does that mean? It means that you can give any member any kind of access, thus overriding your forum access.
You can decide for each member whether they may display a signature, and avatar, how many posts they can make, where they can or cannot post, you can give them a custom title, etc..
Here too, please check the alphabetic help articles index for member management.
http://gethelp.yuku.com/topic/786
More can be found at the help wiki and at support, see links above.
.... and once more.. welcome home, we're happy to have you here and we'll be just as happy to help you set up and manage your new group.
Help links:
http://gethelp.yuku.com/topic/365
