How Do You....???

Here's a bit of basics I know - there are actually groups here designed to help with this stuff. Points are gained by publishing, getting comments on you post (like now you'll have a %age of a point more), and by creating groups. Maybe more I'm not aware of. The key is to join groups and post your work to lots of groups per the stated paramenters for the given group. There's even a group that lists the new groups to join each week. You can join or subscribe. When you subscribe you get an email for every published piece by that group.

For getting back to your comments - there's that opportunity from your gather homepage, so you can keep up with discussions. I'm sure many more people will chime in soon with lots of helpful suggestions. One must put in the time to keep up with the rhyme...How does DSL sound....

One thing to keep in mind about groups - don't publish to inappropriate groups. For example, this article does not belong in Ivy League Medicine, The Renewed Activist, Famous and Not So Famous Firsts, Gay on Gather, LGBT New York, bisexual, Equality NOW, The Herndon Davis Diversity Reports, Episcopal Life, The National Black Justice Coalition, www.nbjc.org, Philosophy on Gather, Born Philosopher's, Literotica writers{TH}, erotica, For the Sake of Peace, Poet's Passion, Our Soul Journey, Tarot Together

Members of those groups are likely to get annoyed at you for sending an article for their attention under false colors. It wastes their time.

DSL/Cable sounds heavenly, but i keep getting the answer "that it's not yet available in my area" :-( but i'm working on it. thanks jared, i'm doing my best to learn the ins and outs of gather, it's a fun site, glad i found it...and purely by accident lol

If you join more groups and publish more articles to those groups you should get more comments which will help you increase your points. I am sure that the basics will be in the FAQ's.

Good luck and glad you came to gather.

oops...good to know, charles. thanks for the heads up, don't wish to annoy anyone

thanks, Sarah. is there a limit to how many groups one may join? or to join only those one is truly interested in, rather than for the sake of joining to garner more connections/points/comments?

I believe that adding new contacts is also a way to add to your point totals. I have been accepting connection invitations a lot this week and my point total has increased a lot too.
I'm not sure if you receive a higher point for responding to your contacts or not. I always start with them and then move on to the rest of the site. Just click on the "My Gather" tab to see their most recent posts & images and to get your current point total.
I hope this helps some, I am still pretty new at it myself.

every little bit helps, Amy, thank you :o)

Despite being good advice gather god - you may want to go just a little easy on the newbies. I wasn't annoyed to have Elle's post at the "For the Sake of Peace" group I own - never would have come across it otherwise. I do find that some groups do get REALLY touchy about this - so do take note Elle!
Peace.

i most certainly shall, thank you; is there a way to remove the article to avoid the critics and annoyance; that was clearly not my intention, just thought to get it to a larger audience for some advice :-(

I just implanted a mnicro chip into my brain so it automatically uploads whatever I'm thinking. "moron", "why did the idiot say that"

I use dial-up. I have been thinking of switching to DSL though. Seems I can't add anything to what the previous posters have said.

i get that at times, i just hit refresh and try again, but last nite i couldn't even add this article, it kept telling me it's saved as a draft, then came into office with our high speed and poof hit publish and done :o)

The hardest part to me once you get going is keeping up with it all. Some days I'm busy and when I return it feels like a bezillliion emails have arrived. I guess its hard because I want my comments to mean something. I realize there are live people on the other side. Just be persistant and things will start happening.

thats the thing, there are real people behind the article and comments who have real lives, so u don't want to inundate them, but then u don't want to inundate urself and be up till 4am answering emails or checking comments and responding, even knowing that they're important and people took the time to read and comment. perisistence can only take u so far before u fall from exhaustion in keeping up with everyone, but such is the price, i suppose. thanks for the advice everyone :o)

Elle, you might want to consider joining Kevin V.'s every-Sunday post, New to Gather? - Have a Question? or Need Help?. A lot of your questions can be answered there.

As to your article that's saved as a draft, you'll want to simply go to the "publish" button again. Then, when the screen pops up where you would normally input an article, you'll see the name of your draft article at the top. Click "edit" next to that. Now, this time, once the article comes up, at the bottom you'll click on "publish" rather than "save as draft" (which is likely what you did the first time). That will bring you to another screen where you can verify your keywords and decide who to make the article accessible to. This is also the page where you'll select the groups you want to publish to. You can only publish to a group if you have joined the group, so join any groups in advance that you'll want to publish to later.

I hope this little piece of advice helps!!

All my best,

Here's the link for New to Gather? - Have a Question? or Need Help?.

jennifer, every little bit helps. thank you very much. oh here's a question, for any and all, what's this email we get re: Orange Juice, i never have enough time to peruse it thoroughly, can someone give me the Cliffs Notes version? :o)

Orange Juice is the Cliffs Notes version. ; )

It's three to six, or so, of the top-ranked articles among your connections for that day or that week (depending on which distribution option you sellect under "settings"). It's a nice way to dip into some of the articles on your list without consuming all of your time (which tends to happen if you're getting individualized notifications of each time someone on your connection list hits "publish"). You can select any of these options under "settings" at the top right of any page on Gather.

is there a cliffs notes OF the cliffs notes lol

I think the idea is to have a lot of groups and publish often, have some games, and start some of your own groups, Find articles people like to chat about and also publish your own.
Think of it like it is your newspaper and you want lots of people to buy it, you must have a lot of good information in the paper, the same here on gather. I don't try to get as many points as I can, I just like to write and publish.

There are some groups here that just go for points they comment on each others articles and just build up points. I just like to comment on the ones I find I like to have some input on, I try to go through most of MY PEOPLE, and read their articles and rate and comment at least, I miss a lot of them and for this I am unhappy. But None of them are unhappy with me if I miss a few.
Have fun, only time will help you get around the site, I haven't been too far out side my own groups yet.
This site will be as dull as watching grass grow with Dial Up, it is slow with Broadband.

At least you can tell it's a site where people try to help. Welcome to Gather Elle and you might find this article useful: Getting Started At Gather
Good luck and enjoy!

thanks Rushmore, and Gary, all tips are helpful :o) i just sometimes feel that joining random groups whether one is interested in them or not is wrong, merely for the sake of gathering points, no?

I couldn't agree with you more Elle. The more people are selective about which groups that they publish to, the more meaningful they become. And it would be nice to have meaningful groups in order to find the content you want and not have to waste time on random articles, images, etc.

Sounds like you've been given some good advice. The advice I have it to relax and enjoy it.

yes trish, everyone has been extremely helpful, and i'm trying to enjoy it all without stress :o)

rushmore, i have found some very interesting content on gather, though it takes some time with all the other content and the point hungry people, and advertisers here, as well. but such is the price we pay, it's still interesting, especially when u sift through the rubbish and get to the good stuff ;-)

Hi, Elle. Welcome. My best advice is to click on tags that interest you -- for me it was books, writing, poetry --, find the groups associated with the tags, join them, & start publishing your own stuff to the groups (mindful of the don't-publish- inappropriate-content-to-this-or-that-group maxim). If you get comments on what you published, hook up with the commenters, and if you get no comments at all, start searching for people in the people tab of your page. E-mail them your stuff (sometimes links don't work, so copy & paste the title into your message). Invite opinions and sit back & see what happens! (This is just how I sometimes do it...)

Don't forget to take breaks from your computer. Stand up & stretch...

Best,

is it cool to just email people you don't know your stuff? i thought if they were "your people" they'd just go to articles, images, instead of resorting to something more intrusive and more persistent as emailing them directly?

don't feel bad, elle... i'm still a newbie. i only join groups that i am interested in. it seems that you have gotten lots of good information. i use cable broadband and have no problems (well, almost no problems) with pages coming up quick. i don't really know about the emailing people, since i think it is intrusive as well. your friends will always do their best to look at what you have published. as for me, i'm not point hungry (there is a couple of groups like that here) and as far as comments of what i have published, which isn't much (not enough time), it doesn't matter to me either. if mine doesn't get read at all, it doesn't matter. i'm just here to have a bit of fun and to learn.

i hear ya Lee, thank you. i soooo need broadband, i can only uplod images from the office as it takes forever at the house. :-( but it'll all happen, in due course.

i couldn't stand dsl... took forever and a day, also had a problem with it since i had call-waiting and kept getting knocked off when someone called... lol (the good ole days... NOT). there are just a few problems with modems, no power no internet... if my cable company is messing around with the channels, then i have no internet until the work is finished (of course that doesn't stop me from calling every 20 minutes to see when they are going to be finished. my apologies for being off-topic here.

no worries, so u don't like dsl? is cable better? what's the other option? :-\

Great discussion with lots of good information. DSL is the only way to internet if you are trying to make money.

i agree cooleo, broadband is the only way to go for ANYTHING on the net these days; uploading/downloading anything can try the patience of a SAINT! sheesh!

Elle, I greatly appreciate your question, since I'm new also. In the beginning I didn't know we earned points, I just liked the interesting articles being posted. What I have found is most people, have been extremely nice and responsive. Reading every person's comments above has helped answer a lot of questions I was having too. Thanks again!