Jumpstarting Soul Cafe

Submitted by Admin 1 on Mon, 05/16/2011 - 9:43am

Within Soul Cafe, all content is all created within the context of a "Group". Start exploring how to use our online community by:

Viewing a list of all the groups on this site.
Creating a new group of your own. Before you do, you might find an image / graphic for identification use on the group home page. Perhaps a logo, or ..?

Once you've created your group, start building your community by creating various kinds of content. Drupal Commons lets members of a group create:

Blog posts. These are just what you think: personal notes from individuals. Note that other users can comment on these posts.
Documents. If you want to store attached documents that are useful for a group, create a Document page, describe the attachment in the body of the page, and then attach the files you want.
Discussions. A discussion is just that: Somebody starts by creating a page with a thought, idea, or question. Others can then comment on the initial post. Comments are "threaded" so you can comment on a comment.
Events. If you have a special thing happening on a given day/time, create an "Event" describing it. These events will show up on the Calendar tab of a group home page.
Group RSS feed. If there is interesting content coming from outside this site that you want your group to track, pull that content in as an RSS feed to the site.

There's more to building an online community than the technology; it's the people & participation that make a community work. This set of content types should give you all the choices you need to start sharing at Soul Cafe.

Promote content

Great job, Edwin!!

Submitted by pastortimhk on Wed, 06/15/2011 - 9:45am.

I wanted to say how important is this beginning step being launched in the Oregon Synod for Region 1. I look forward to the ways this community can and will evolve. Thanks Edwin, for your hard work!!!

Wheeler Studios

Submitted by Dave Brauer-Rieke on Thu, 06/16/2011 - 10:07pm.

Here here. Great work, Ediwn! And thanks to Tom Wheeler, too. Tom is the mastermind and software guru working to make Soul Cafe a reality. He and Edwin are working together, but Tom is the web designer and technition. Soul Cafe is LIGHT YEARS more complex than your average church webpage. Yes were paying for this work, but it takes an artist with heart to make this all work for us.

http://www.wheelercreek.com

finding out who the newest members are

Submitted by Tom Hiller on Mon, 06/20/2011 - 4:43pm.

I like seeing who are becoming members. Is it possible to see who has joined recently without having to go through the current list of members? The list is growing quickly. Maybe there is a way to do this and I haven't seen it yet.

Finding new members

Submitted by Admin 1 on Mon, 06/20/2011 - 6:06pm.

Welcome to Soul Cafe Tom!

Right now, the detailed search fields at the top of the Members page and the "Who's online" box located in your "My View" (in the My Stuff drop-down) are the ways we have of seeing who members are. As we grow, new functionality might prove necessary though. Albeit, a pretty cool thing, seeing who's becoming a member would be especially novel in that everyone who is joining right now is from a small radius. Right now there is a high percentage chance that we might know someone who has just joined. As SC grows and scales (this is what makes online communities work), it would prove a bit tricky to proportion such functionality. But anything is possible, and if enough folks in the community want something, it'll show up!

Tom, this is greatly appreciated - functionality questions, ideas, and input are always welcome! Have fun and please let us know what you think -

Since you invited questions...

Submitted by Gary Schulstad on Mon, 06/20/2011 - 6:28pm.

Is there a way to work with the HTML that is generated in a discussion? What was posted in my discussion in the Pop Culture Corner and what appeared in my edit did not match (no returns after a cut and paste). When I attempted to remedy it the spam filter kicked in.

Hey Tom, There should have

Submitted by Admin 1 on Tue, 06/21/2011 - 4:14pm.

Hey Tom,

There should have been mention of sending functionality questions / issues / requests to Report a Problem. This will be the best place for future queries. Otherwise, there's no efficient way to track help tickets or turnover - turns into a can of worms! I'll respond to this issue via email if that's ok. Cheers!

I do see Report a Problem now

Submitted by Gary Schulstad on Tue, 06/21/2011 - 4:58pm.

I am repeating to myself "Read Community Policy, Read Community Policy."

How does one create a document page

Submitted by Margit Peiffle on Tue, 06/28/2011 - 11:26am.

I am interested in posting some documents for Northwest Washington Synod. Can you share with me how you create a document page? Thanks in advance.

Posting Documents

Submitted by Admin 1 on Tue, 06/28/2011 - 4:46pm.

Hi Margit, and welcome to Soul Cafe. To post a doc, first go to the group inwhich the document will be associated - in your case, the NWWA Synod group page. In the upper right hand "Actions" box, you'll see the option to "Create Document". Once there, you can cut and paste something you already have, or author a new document. If you need any additional help, please let us know via the "Report a Problem" link at the bottom right of every page.

Thanks!