New to Gather? - Have a Question, or Need Some Help?

I don't have a question, but I want to add a tip from my recent experience with Gather.
I set my Guarded Viewing originally as ON. At some point I wanted to change to OFF in order that I be able to join a particular group. (I could not join a Gather group that might have adult content so long as my Guarded Viewing setting was ON.)
I tried many times, in several different ways, to change the Guarded Viewing setting to OFF, following each attempted change in the radio button with pressing SAVE. It failed every time.
A few days later I decided to update some other information in my settings (personal information, email reception, my groups--look for Settings in the upper right corner of every page, so long as your are signed in to Gather). Before pressing SAVE, I decided to try to change the Guarded Viewing setting again. It worked and stayed changed! Other times it had changed back (meaning that the change had not been made on the Gather server).
I made the change back and forth a few times using this new method, just to be certain. It seems that Guarded Viewing can only be changed when you also change some other setting (likely involving something other than a radio button--such as text or a tick box).
So if you want to change your Guarded Viewing setting, change something else as well, press SAVE, wait until the server updates, then change back whatever else you changed firs that you didn't want changed. Example: change your city to London, along with your Guarded Viewing setting, press SAVE, wait until the server updates (like a refresh on your monitor), then change your city setting back to where you want it.

Bill,

Thanks for the 'heads up' on this, and for taking the time
to document the problem and solution so thoroughly. I haven't personally experienced this issue on the 'settings' page, although your tip would certainly be useful for others that do. My long-standing problem on the settings page involves subscriptions. Many of my subscriptions do not work, in that I am never notified when groups, and members, publish content. This includes groups that I own, which means that I am always 'out of the loop' for some of my own groups. Very frustrating! I have tried the de-select/select trick multiple times to no avail.

Sigh! Hopefully these issues will be resolved at some point.

Thanks again for pointing this out!

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Devil Woman,

I don't work for Gather, so I can only speculate that the problem has not yet been resolved. I'm sure that correcting the matter is one of their top priorities though.

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Here is the latest on the Gather Point problem:

"Hello,

Due to a technical difficulty, points have not been consistently awarded since Friday.

Although the underlying problem has been resolved and points distribution will now be consistent, not all points earned since Friday have been awarded. This will be corrected tomorrow and all earned points will be awarded.

We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause.

Tony Close
Vice President, Operations
Gather Inc."

Tony Close is the VP of Operations? I didn't know that.

Are you really receiving email as the Divine Temptress? I wouldn't have ever suspected that!

Here's a tip:

Would you like to practice using HTML in comments, but don't want your 'tests' being seen by everyone on Gather?

Here's how:

Create a test article, and publish the article to 'Just Me'. This will keep the article private. Then, you can practice HTML in the comments section of the article, and the comments will also remain private.

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Kevin, that's a wonderful tip about testing HTML codings on a 'Just Me' viewable article! We tied up one string of comments on a public article one night to teach Liz Rice-Sosne how to insert photos in her comments :-)

{ SW to LIZ: If you still want to learn how to insert links, pay attention to Kevin's tip above!}

Pearl, Ha ha...I think I actually remember that conversation!

I wish there was a way to publish an article to only select individuals. Then, you could have a private 'conversation' without the entire Gathersphere 'listening in'.

Hmm...I will need to see if I can figure out a way to accomplish this.

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Hi Kevin - you suggested that I post my article on blog content to some of the other relevant Gather spaces by "re-publishing" it to them. How do I do that exactly?

I've asked this before and will probably continue to nag about it until it's fixed, so once again: Is there some way to make that useless "remember me" button actually work? Every other site I regularly visit keeps me signed in via cookies (I presume) except this one. Why bother putting the option there if Gather has a permanent case of amnesia?

Aliza,

When viewing your article, you should see the 'edit' link to the right of your display name (under the article title). Click this link, and you are then able to modify your article, or change its publishing characteristics.

On the second publishing screen, you will see the list of Gather Groups you are a member of. Select, or de-select, any of the groups listed, and then click 'Publish'.

Your article will then be republished to the additional groups, or 'disappear' from a group if you de-selected one.

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Aliza,

NOTE(S): When republishing an article to a Gather Group, your article will appear in that group in date order, using the original publication date. This is the default for groups on Gather. So, when looking for your article in the group, be aware that it may be further down in the list, if other articles in the group have a later publication date.

Also, some groups may be moderated, which means that your article will not appear until it has been approved by the group owner, or manager.

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Dame, I don't work for Gather, so I really can't answer your question. I do know that this is an issue many Gather members have expressed concern and frustration over.

If it is any consolation, I promise to always remember you! ;-)

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Kevin - I like that idea about being able to publish an article to only select individuals. Should mention that in a separate article as a suggestion so it does not get lost in the comments here.

I also agree about the remember me button, it is useless and sometimes after I enter the password and click that stinking button than I get a message that is was blank and both lines are that way.

Glitches..........

Ruth, Hotmail is almost as bad. The explanation I have received from other sources relates to security. Apparently the more often you have to login, the more secure the site. I don't know why.

Kevin, with regard to having a "closed meeting" with select individuals on Gather, the first person could send out a Gather email to whoever he or she wants to read it. While there is no Reply All on Gather, you can press Reply then add any names of people who are already in your network from the address list provided.
A Reply All button would be a bonus for future Gather builds.

Bonnie, thanks. The suggestion has already been written up, and acknowledged by Gather. Hopefully we will see it make an appearance sometime down the road (before my hair is the color of Bill's) ;-) - sorry Bill.

Bill, thanks for the suggestion. What I was trying to address through the 'closed meeting' suggestion is to hold a 'discussion' within the comments of an article that only select individuals would have access to. There is a way you can do this using groups, but it is cumbersome.

FYI, the 'Reply All' button was removed many months ago, as it was causing an even greater problem with mass mailing.

Thanks Kevin - I think it worked! Now another question: I just created a Group called Road Trips (roadtrips.gather.com) and got a strange, long error message. The group does exist now. However when I try to access it, I get this message:

group unavailable
You either do not have permission to see this group or it has been deleted. If the group is private you must be signed in for permission to view this.

I didn't delete it. It doesn't show up as one of My Groups. How can I access this new group that I've created??

Aliza,

Hmmm... this typically occurs when you have established the group as 'private', or when your Guarded Viewing is turned on. I would suggest heading to your 'My Groups' tab, and see if the group appears there. Then, try to open it, and change the security option to 'public'.

Also, check your Guarded Viewing options under 'settings' in the upper-right corner of any page. Turn Guarded Viewing to 'off'.

Come back and let me know if anything worked.

Hi Kevin - well, I established the group as public and open when I first set it up. I turned off Guarded setting. It still does not show up as one of My Groups.

But if you go to Groups and Find Groups, you will see it there several times with an icon. When I try clicking on it to access it, I still get that message that my access is denied. But if I click on edit, I can edit the description, icon, settings, etc.

And I verified again that it is totally open to the public.

Hmmm...now what?

Aliza,

I need to run a few errands, but in the interim, I would suggest changing all of the privacy settings, saving the changes, and then changing them back and saving again.

Do this for each of the two groups that are appearing within the group listing.

I will think on it a bit more, but you may need to take two aspirin and contact Gather in the morning. :-(

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Kevin, just dropped in to say thanks for this great service you do!

Thanks Ed. I'm just trying to make using and navigating Gather a little easier.

Thank you to all that have posted questions here today, and those assisting in providing answers.

This will conclude this week's 'Sunday Help Series' session.

Until next Sunday, you may publish any questions to the Gather Help Forum, at the link at the end of this comment.

See you next Sunday!

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Thanks for posting this -- I have lots of questions, and very little computer ability. Can someone post a link to the discussion on how to add links to comments?

And how do you add a photo to an article?

And why can't gather make a "how to" category at the top of the page or link it to the "help" section so all this info would be easy to find?

Thanks for your help!

Jiya,

For future reference, you can always ask questions like yours within the Gather Help Forum.

1) I will send you instructions for adding a photo to your articles.

2) THIS ARTICLE will instruct you on how to add links to your comments.

3) Hopefully in the near future Gather will have more 'how-to' information as a part of the existing FAQs.