Welcome! Let's Get Started!

Thanks for being interested in writing in the Forums at Lumigrate!  If everyone grabs an oar and has some coordination in the rowing effort, the boat can glide along without much work by any one person AND it can be FUN.  Fun, valid, progressive and streamlined is what I have in mind for Lumigrate, so I look forward to how YOU influence things!  Naturally, one of the concerns I have is keeping things somewhat 'grouped up' so that people can find things.  I'm going to put my best efforts here to how to get started and then ask the I.T. experts to come in and evaluate things, give their feedback.  AND since so many of us that are wanting to contribute to health care change by using the Internet and the related technologies but are always in the process of learning about it, I'm inviting I.T. experts to come into the appropriate forum areas to share what they know, answer our questions, and help ALL progress with their knowledge.  Everyone has something to give, and most like to have a place to do so!

The feedback we had last year was that if someone just came in and put a line about who they were and a link it came across as intrusive and 'spamming'.  But just putting something unique about how you know about Lumigrate, what it means to you, or why you're contributing eased that completely. 

Most important, figure out if you want to use a photo or some unique image that you'll become recognized by.  There is a default if you don't of a doctor's bag and apple, which then gets posted on facebook if you or I go to a facebook area (or other places) and put a link.  You'll see on facebook that when I post 'NEW' about something in the forum, various things come up.  PLEASE put in an image if possible, because I can't imagine people want to keep seeing my photograph as often as they do!  

Variety is the spice of life!  I actually don't know how you do that -- I had the webguy do that for me BUT I bet one of the MANY people who have figured it out on their own will drop in below here and Comment for me.  Everyone's been able to figure that out on their own but I get a message first asking for help and then they have it figured before I get to them!  (I tell you, it's a smart bunch of crayons!).  Harder, it appears, is the 'image in the body', but the celiac author, who was freaking out on facebook with me initially about how she's new to all this did it all by herself!  And FAST! (and she has kids with special needs, she herself has health stuff she's working on herself, extra time required for the foods they need to eat.... ADMIRABLE!  

We'll need our own little support group for this!  

1. Organization: What you see when you come to the Forums area are Forums within what are called 'Containers' when we set them up.  For instance, what I'm writing in now that you are reading is a new 'topic' I've titled 'Welcome! Let's Get Started!' within the "Forum" that I created just now ("How YOU Write in Lumigrate's Forums") under a "Container," About Forum Writing/Reading - What We Want and Know. 

• This is 'organic' and will take it's own form as time goes on.  Think a bit about the overall organization of things and how today or long in the future it will make sense with what you start, how you title it, etc.  For instance, getting a unique title so people know who you are, such as Yenta went with 'It Can't Hurt' and then went to numbering her installment 'topics' as she went along in the Spirituality Forum (before I created her own Forum based on it's success and popularity).  So that is a good forum to go and look at as an example for how she did that and how then I've set up the new Forum as a sub to Spirituality, leaving her original handfull of Topics in the general Spirituality forum.
• I've arranged this Forum with instructions to be at the TOP of the page/list of forums when someone comes to the Forums tab, so they can see it right away.

1. HOW TO:  If you're going to paste in something you've created elsewhere, Word brings some funny characters with it sometimes, so I wanted to suggest you either type things up in email or another program  (but not Word) if possible.  That's the only 'trick' that you might not know generally. You can always write it right here in the forum area but then it DID happen to me once when I clicked on the 'x' instead of the tab when I came back from getting a link and lost over an hour's worth of work on a new blog post.  (Grrrr).  That's when I had the idea to create in email and import but then I just got back on the horse and was more careful about where I clicked and I now compose in the Forum or Blog directly.  And if you take a long time writing, the website kind of thinks you've dropped and you'll keep writing along and go to submit what you wrote and it just disappears, which happened to a WONDERFUL writer I've been wishing for a year to write here, when she finally had the confluence and convergence of time, energy, interest.  

• It's pretty much like word processing or email -- at the top of the box you type in, you'll see the Format 'stuff'.. two lines of it.  Cut, paste, color, etc.  I'm trying to use some of them in this to show you ... COLOR is the lower line 'T' with the color cube at it's base.  Background color is next to it.  I've used the bullets and 1,2,3 list for you above. 
• LINKS... you'll want to link to other places in Lumigrate that you write OR to your own website or blog, reference places within the Internet.... and you just click on icon that is on the top line of the Formatting things towards the right -- a world with a link (blue/green world). 
• You can use emoticons.... break it up, make it FUN. 

ALSO

1. You can import an image ... so if you have a book cover you want to promote in the body here.  The icon for that is just 4 left of the emoticon icon and is a mountain and sun with a yellow background.  You can import Tables... Flash.. ™(Special characters are on the little white block to the right of the emoticon symbol).  And ABC(green checkmark) is the spell check, which sometimes by the time I am done writing I'm so stressed out I just scroll down to the bottom and hit 'Submit' .. and come back and spellcheck.  
2. TAGS:  VERY IMPORTANT -- those are the words that will bring people to your information on the Search that they do either in Lumigrate or on the Internet.  See the one instruction under that area about using " " marks with words that are to be together, such as "Mardy Ross".  
3. You don't need to add in any of the Log message: or Meta tags or Keywords that are below the body of where you write.  Just go down and click 'Submit'.  You can always come back and 'edit'. 
4. If anything goes wrong, message throught the website or any other means you know of to get ahold of us. 

TEMPORARILY -- Adam's going to add these instructions into another area where people can find them if they need) and I figured I'd tack it on here for now TOO! (Since many have written and not yet put in their photos / graphics, so they can simply look here for now as well).

Here's how to get your profile picture (or whatever YOU want to be 'recognized' by on Lumigrate.com .. an image/ logo/ photo.... :

1. Have a photo saved on your computer that is 1600x1400 max and 100x100 min. If you aren't sure if your picture meets that criteria, email the photo to any teenager in your family and have them check. You must know where this photo is saved on your computer (desktop, documents, etc.)

2. Log-in to Lumigrate via the Username and Password at the top of the page. Click on My Account at the top of the page (the very top. Don't see it? Look higher, it's at the very very top).

3. Click on Edit at the top of the page (lower than where you found My Account).

4. In the Edit area, scroll down to the Picture are and click the Browse button. This will open up a window asking you to navigate to your photo.

5. Find the photo and click on it then click Open.

3. Once the photo has uploaded, scroll down to the very bottom of the page and click Submit.

As for the book cover, you must already have a picture of your book somewhere else on the Internet.

To add that image:

1. Go to the site where the image of your book is located.

2. Right-click on the image of your book and choose View Image.

3. Once image appears, right-click on it again and choose "Copy Image Location" or Copy Image Address or Copy Image URL - something like that - wording depends on the browser.

4. Now, go back to your Lumigrate profile and click on the Edit button on the screen.

5. In the "Signature" area, type in all of the information that you want people to know about you, then click on the little square that looks like (if you use your imagination) a pointy mountain with a moon over it.

6. In the window that comes up, right-click in the "Image URL" box and choose Paste. The URL (web address) of the image you copied earlier should show up in the box. The picture should show up.

Click Submit at the very bottom of the page and you should be done.

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Remember, it's FUN to see people's Comments, so please leave them, and I'm going to get this posted up as a rough because I might just catch one of those IT people or gals who have mastered their photos that I don't know how to walk you through on facebook quick. 

Thanks!  Keep in mind, this can be as little or as much as you want it to be.  You can make it be regularly scheduled or when you get to it.  We hopefully get to know who each other are enough so that if we see a need we can ask someone to pick up the keyboard and address something.  I've seen MANY needs and many wonderful people who I think have so very much to offer.  So thank you for being here -- and please tell others YOU know who might want to learn or teach, no matter where they are 'at' professionally or as consumers.  They likely will appreciate it!