The HelpCenter™ for 11/06 - Have a Gather Question? or Need Help?
November 06, 2009 09:12 AM EST
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Welcome to the Member-to-Member HelpCenter™ -- Where other Gather members help you with your Gather-related questions or problems! Enter your question below and receive a response from other members! gather.com | Today's Glitch Report: Gather has now corrected the problem affecting how your browser's back button interacts with viewing recent posts. You are now able to view or comment on any content within your feed, and be returned to the point in your feed where you left off. Previously the feed would return to the beginning, forcing you to page forward to regain your former location. | |
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Comments: 41
Welcome to Today's HelpCenter™ Discussion Post!
The original Gather help series -- assisting members since 2006.
Need a little help, or have a question?
Can't find something? ...or figure out how something works?
Ask other members!
"Some people are using their first name and last initial on Gather, and others have unique characters and unique names that they use. How would I get a unique name to show up and does this affect the name on the envelope when my gift cards are sent?"There are two parts of your identity on Gather that are important.
- Your 'display name' or 'member name' which is the name you are readily identified with in the community. As examples, Marianne R. and Walker Bennett, SF Author are two display names you may recognize in the community.
- Your 'username' is the name used to locate your profile page on Gather, and comprises the subdomain portion of your URL (web address). In the examples above, Marianne's username is atlantagal (atlantagal.gather.com), and Walker's is vladilyich (vladilyich.gather.com).
All usernames are unique. Only one can exist in the community, and Gather does not allow you to choose a username if the identical username is already in existence.There are no restrictions on your display name. There can be 2 or 200 members using the name Marianne R. or Walker Bennett on Gather. Fortunately this name is defined by you and you can change it at any time.
To change your display name, vist your account settings page and replace your current name with whatever name you wish. This name will then automatically appear on all listings and bylines in the community, even on previously published content. It will appear as though this was your display name since the opening of your account.
However, there may be a delay before your new name will appear on email notifications going out to your friends (your name will still appear with the current/former name for a time when the email is read).
» You can change your display name to anything you wish. You can also include special characters, such as ™ ♥ ~ ©, etc.Please note that using special characters will make it more difficult for members to locate you or your content via Gather's search tools.
» Your display name may also be picked up by search engines on the web (Google, Yahoo, etc.) and indexed. Thus, if someone were to perform a search for your name, you may appear in these results, making it easier for you and your content and comments to be 'Googled'. Unique names can increase or decrease this ability, depending upon the name chosen.
» If you redeem for a gift card, you can easily change the recipient name on the redemption page while you are 'checking out'. Therefore, whether you are giving the card as a gift or receiving it yourself you always have the ability to determine what name appears on the envelope.
Good morning! ...I have received many questions recently regarding display names on Gather. Hence, the encore appearance of the Featured Question above.
Look for all new questions and tips resuming with tomorrow's edition!
snickerzzz................
(a) on a certain page of your gather mail inbox and
(b) you select some gather mail messages and
(c) you click "Delete Selected" then
(d) you go back to page one of your emails...? Page 1!
Does this make sense to you? It doesn't to me. I'd like to stay exactly where I should be in the mail queue, based on whether I've arranged mail by date or name etc., after I've deleted the mail messages I don't want to keep.
The current procedure for handling email makes it impossible to go through a mailbox and clean it out without wasting a huge amount of time. Is this wise for Gather or for the users? I don't think so, but that's just my opinion.
I may not want to "keep it clean," but that doesn't preclude wanting to clean out my Gather mailbox from time to time.
What do you think? Thanks!
ps It just seems to me that email programming has been around for so long that one should expect more sophistication as a basic level of service. I'm not trying to be a jerk (unlike other times...). I don't really see why Gather wants space used up by 10's of thousands of emails that there is no easy mechanism for getting rid of, selectively.
The space could be used for comments praising my posts, my sense of humor, my insouciant smile, and my untamed cowlick. Or, the space could be used for articles on the virtue of someone else's comments, their concise nature that gets right to the heart of the matter, not a word wasted, not a syllable that doesn't make a point (so unlike me in this particular case). Or, the space could be used for giant marketing campaigns to make many of us very wealthy through no particular efforts of our own (except posting original material, for example). Or maybe the space could be just free-range server space, kind of a Wild West of the Web, full of mustangs and cougars and lacking in fences, where the stars shine by the millions and the days are not cloudy, and the Milky Way is not just a candy bar. A man can but dream...
James,
I wasn't available yesterday, but I did notice your post and was planning on commenting as soon as I could.
The problem you have noted has been an ongoing concern for members that attempt to clean up their mail while still retaining some messages.
There was a technique that worked for resolving this at one time, but I'm uncertain if it will still work.
I'll be back shortly with some suggestions, as well as comment on your post.
James,
Hopefully when Gather changes the mail system (they want to automatically eliminate older messages after x number of days) they will also provide better tools for managing mail.
As you've noticed, keeping your inbox clean can be a significant challenge. At one time there was a technique available that would allow you to remove messages a little faster, and retain your position in your inbox or sent mail listing. Unfortunately that technique no longer works.
What you can do however is to open subsequent pages (2, 3, etc.) into separate browser tabs. Then take action against messages on those pages and close the tab when done.
To do this easily, hold down the Ctrl key (Windows) or CMD key (Mac) while clicking the page number you want to open. This technique also works for other types of content you want to remove on Gather.
There are other ways to easily remove multiple mail messages, but each requires an add-on/extension to be installed in your browser.
Good morning everyone! ...Thanks for stopping by!
Please consider!
Also, we could use another ten characters in the status box! :)
Hello Johnice!
I know that a comment editor has been requested many times. However, I don't think that one will ever be implemented.
In the future Gather may provide members with the ability to preview and spell check their comments before they are posted, but they likely won't (and shouldn't) allow a member to modify a comment once it has been added to a conversation. This would provide an opportunity for members to change the nature of a conversation after the fact, which could skew comment threads unfairly.
As for the length of the status line, I agree as I could also use a few extra characters at times. Although this may increase the use of the status line for purposes other than what it is intended.
Re : editor, I can see your point and the preview feature would be the best of both worlds.
Re: additional characters in the status ling being misused__there are many conditions here which are out of control and or misused. The status line is (in my case) shared with several other social sites and with that comes a broader surveillance of that box. Example: I am on Friendfeed.com and I have use of 300+ characters, I do not use them for status updates and Friendfeed syncs with Facebook and Twitter and others who are linked to Friendfeed.
Some of the fears in providing "Reasonable" features/functions to a site are misplaced as humans will abuse what they choose and in a way they choose and continue to expand that abuse beyond any controls.
So I guess what I am defending, is the many will not be afforded great features for the few who have yet to surface.
Johnice,
I do believe that expanding the status line length has merit, and may by considered at some point.
Here is what I suggest....create a short post outlining your recommendations. Then share the post with the group improve.gather.com. This is the official group for submitting suggestions for improvement. Often recommendations submitted in this manner are given greater consideration as other members will (hopefully) comment in support of the idea.
Good luck!
Hello Darlene & Sassy!!
Happy Friday, and I hope you have a great weekend!
Granny,
I would suggest that you first update Firefox to the latest version. Also, update Java for the Mac to the most current release.
Then see if the problem is resolved. NOTE: Sometimes it can take up to 10 minutes for the grey upload button to activate (turn orange) in Firefox. If this does not work for you, then please stop back and I can offer some additional suggestions when I return.
Please leave your question below, and other members will hopefully be able to help out in my absence. If not, I will respond to open inquiries and problems when I return.
Thank You!
Please see my response below. Once I know what image you want to capture/use, I can provide you with the necessary step(s).
Isaiah,
It depends upon what graphic you are referring to. For example, do you want to capture the comment itself, like this:
...or do you want to copy a graphic image that someone uses in their comment, like this one (as an example):
toes.gather.com
Hello Mariana!
I'm sorry about the delay in responding. I wasn't available for the majority of the day yesterday.
Since you have already contacted the members of the group, you can either:
If you need any help with either of the above solutions, please let me know....and good luck!
hugs
Salud
Isaiah,
No problem!
First though I will need to know what browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) you typically use for Gather?
Isaiah,
I wasn't aware of your response to me until a few minutes ago! ...so, I apologize for the delay. I'll provide you with instructions as soon as I can this morning. Thanks!
Isaiah,
My apologies. After Gather 'ate' my rather lengthy response to you, I did not get an opportunity to return here to follow-up. I will redo the comment below, but split it across multiple comments...just in case.
Isaiah,
It is easier to work with images when using the Firefox browser. You can accomplish the same things in Internet Explorer, but it may take a few additional steps in some cases.
First I'll cover copying comments...
There are two ways to copy a comment. One is to copy only the text (easiest), and the second is to copy the image of the comment (as in my example above).
To copy the text, just click and drag through the comment text , as well as the signature line (username, time stamp, etc.). Sometimes it's easier to click and drag from the bottom up, instead of starting at the top of the comment.
In the Firefox browser there is a free add-on that allows you to easily capture and crop the image of a comment. In Internet Explorer, you will need to either copy (make a screen capture) of the entire page and paste it into an editing program (Photoshop, Paint, etc.), or paste it into an online image editor. Then crop the image to include only the comment you want.
If you want any additional information about how to do this, please let me know (it really isn't difficult at all).
If you would still like instructions for copying images contained in comments (like the glitter graphic above), please let me know.