My "tips and tricks" on how to maneuver in the new eHarl Community

There are so many ways now to keep track of discussions or follow member content ... here are a few that I've discovered .....

If you want to "see" what I'm describing here, I suggest you open a second window/tab of this site in your web browser, so you can try out the various tips I've posted below  ... to open a second tab or window, simply press CONTROL N  simultaneously on your keyboard

With the exception of the Challenge blogs, we can still find Forum Discussions the "old way"   ..... here's how--  when you first come to the eHarl Community, click on "Forums" in the new header bar that's located below the shopping links  ...... you'll find all of the "old" forums listed there (of course, they won't have the old content, but the new)  ...... click on the "Go To" button beside the forum you want .... and the discussions within that forum come up ..... to access a discussion simply click on is title

on the old site, we used to "bookmark" the forums or discussions we liked best into our web browsers .... well, now the eHarl site has made that process a little easier  with My Favourites  --- when you find a forum discussion, blog entry, or book review that interests you and you'd like to follow simply click on the "add to favourites" button that is usually located at the top of the thread/entry  ...... you can access your "My Favourites" by clicking on that on the right side bar under your name, or from your Profile Page, simply click on the tab for either My Favourite Blog posts or My Favourite Forum Discussions (these tabs are located directly below your name and your personal stats)

on the old site, we used to have to go to a "forum" in order to see if there was new activity .... now the eHarl site has made that process easier too with Recent Posts .... once again, on the right side bar beneath your name, you will see a link for "Recent Posts" .... if you click on that, a list will come up showing all the most recent community activity .... and did you notice the red "new" near a title? ... that means its a brand "new" blog entry from the time you last accessed the "recent posts" page  ..... and did you notice the red "updated" that sometimes appears beside the title? ... that means that the header of a forum discussion or the body of a blog entry has changed since you last accessed it  ...... I love this feature, because sometimes our Hosties change the header information of their discussions and this way I know that I have to read it again  ........ now also from the "recent post" page, you'll see how many comments have been left on the forum discussion./blog post/review and the time the last comment was left .... for example, the discussion "Ask Lorie" may have 30 comments, but 3 are new ... if you click on "3 new", you will be taken to those three new comments (please note there is presently a system bug that the techs are working on, so you will not at present be taken to the newest comment if the discussion has more than one page of comments, this will be fixed)

so now, we know how to find Forum discussions, how to "favourite" them, and how to find the most recent activity in the new eHarl Community

new for this year, are three wonderful social networking tools ..... My Profile, Blogs, Book Challenge

each member now has their very own personal Blog .... to understand what a blog is, click on FAQ on the header bar at the top of this page  .... also on the header bar is a link to member Blogs .... if you click on this, you'll get a home page of sorts for the Blogs .... there are so many ways to explore peoples blogs .... under the heading "Most Favourited Blogs" you'll find a list of the blog entry that have been marked to favourites the most amount of times by eHarl members ...... under  "Most Discussed Blogs" you'll find a list of the blogs that have received the most comments by eHarl members ..... and I think you understand what the "Most Viewed Blogs" are and the "Most Recent Blogs" are ..... there is also a heading for "Book Challenge" with the challenge counter; if you click on the number it will take you to the Challenge blog where all the book reviews are

My Profile --- this is YOUR personal homepage --- you can upload a picture of yourself or something that you feel represents who you are --- you can personalize some of your eHarl community experience by clicking on "Edit" located at the top of your Profile Page near your name ..... if you don't understand the process of personalizing your profile, click on FAQ on the bar at the top of this page .... the beauty of your profile page is that it keeps track of where you've left comments in the eHarl community .... we've already discussed the My Favourite tabs for Blog Entries and Forum Discussions ... under "My Recent Blog Posts" we see a list of your blog entries, and if we click on "more" it brings up the "trimmed view" version of your blogs which shows you the number of comments left and also allows you to open the entry into "full view" version  ... under "My Recent Comments" we see a list of the comments you've made on eHarl members blogs or on their book reviews ..... under "My Recent Forum Posts" we see a list of the posts you've made on forum discussions  ..... and as before, if you click on "more" you'll see the expanded list, right to the beginning of this new eHarl community

the Book Challenge  .... if you click on "Book Challenge" on the header bar at the top of this page, it will bring up all the book reviews posted to date .... you can scroll down the reviews, and if there is something that strikes your interest you can click on "more" are read more of the review and leave comments  ..... if you'd like to see more of the book reviews by a particular eHarl member, simply click on their username, usually found just below the title on the line that records the date and time, the username is in blue .... click on that, and that member's Profile page will come up, and just like on your Profile page, you can view this member's most recent blog entries, and by clicking on "more" you can see them all 

I've saved the "My Friends" part for last ..... this is a wonderful social networking tool ...... when you click on a eHarl member's name, their profile page comes up, and you will see a tab to "Add as a Friend", what this does it sends a request to that member asking them if it's okay to be friends .... they can accept or decline ... sharing the friend privilege is a great way of keeping track of the members in the eHarl community that you share the most with .... from the "my friends" link on the right side bar, a list of your friends will come up showing which ones are online also on that list, you'll see a tab "Pending Requests, ..if you click on this, it will bring up a list showing the eHarl members that are waiting for you to "accept" them as friends, and a list of the members that you've requested to be friends with that have not yet accepted you .... remember to check this from time to time ... now there are some bugs yet to be ironed out on the "my friends" part, so I really can't comment more until they've been fixed and I know exactly how eHarl intends for this to work  ..... basically, right now the eHarl members that become your friend are now accessible in one place, similar to the "my favourites" with the blog entries or forum discussions .... the "my friends" is just another way of keeping track of content that you are interested in

the very last thing that I wanted to draw your attention to is the "Search" function ....  the search capabilities of this new site are soooo much more robust ....you access the sites "search" from any page here on eHarl, it's located at the very top of the right sidebar ..... if you are looking for an eHarl member, simply type in their username in search field, click on search and the next page will give you two options "content" or "users" .... click on "user" and voila you can find their most recent activity in the eHarl community ... and we've already discussed how to access their personal Profile and how to ask them to be friends, so now you can!

these are just some of the ways that I have found to maneuver in the new eHarl community .... if you have any tips or tricks, or if something I've posted here needs to be clarified, please comment .....

one of the lovely things about this new Community is that we can "personalize" our experience here .... and it's been alot of fun exploring and discovering new places in the Community

oh, one more thing ..... if you are looking for a Challenge Team's posts, simply click on their "tag" which you can find in the list of tags on the right sidebar ..... once that page comes up, if you "bookmark" that page in your web browser, you should be able to access that teams entries again from your bookmark ... you may however need to "refresh" the page

(and I did this all without a spellchecker!  ) 

~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog