There are three new items that become visible once you are logged onto the website:
- Connect has been added to the main site menu
- You now have a personal user panel
- You are able to conduct live chats with others who are online, both private and public
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[accordion_section title=”Connect menu”]
Until you connect with others, this menu will be easier to find people, groups and discussions to get you started. After that, the personal user panel will come into it’s own as it will make it easier for you to manage your activities.
The first item in the menu brought you here, to the how-to guides.
The aim of Connect is to help you make connections with other people so that you can have discussions and help each other out on a wide range of topics that concern us as Christians in New Zealand or as kiwis abroad. To do that, you will want to go to the second menu item, Find People.
Find People >> Individuals – takes you to a list of everyone who is a member on the site. Here you can search members by name and filter the list by:
- Last Active
- Newest Registered
- Alphabetical
Click on either their name or picture (avatar) and you will be taken to a page where you can view more information about the person including:
Activity – their personal activity stream of activities that are visible to the public
Profile – information they have filled in about themselves for others to view and to help make connections
Friends – who that person has made connections with
Groups – what groups they belong to
Forums – what forums they are or have participated in
Many of these sub-pages have filters or further selections that can help you find the info you are after.
The other important feature on the member pages is the ability to manage your online relationship with that person by either adding or cancelling a friendship status, sending them a public message or a private message.
Find People >> Groups – takes you to a list of every group on the site that is either visible to the public or is a private group that you can request to join. Here you can search groups by name and filter the list by:
- Last Active
- Most Members
- Newly Created
- Alphabetical
You also have the choice to display either All Groups or by Group Tree. The Group Tree display feature comes in handy when there are sub-groups.
Click on the group name or avatar to go to the group profile page.
Note the filters and other information you can look into as well as the ability to either join the group if it is public or request to join if the group is private.
Click on Public Discussion Forums and you go directly to the Connect forum. Anything highlighted will take you deeper into the forum where you can enter the discussion threads. The forum titled Discussions is where most of the discussions will take place.
In addition are key public discussion groups for the key areas of ministry that we have identified as important to NZCN. These require membership to participate in, but they are public, meaning you don’t need to await approval to get involved. We have given them separate forums to make them easier to identify and manage.
If you go to the sub-menus you will find:
What people have been up to – activity stream for everything and everyone on NZCN | Connect
All of Life Faith – direct access to the All of Life Faith forum
Marriage, Family, Relationships – direct access to the Marriage, Family, Relationships forum and sub-forums
Secularism – direct access to the secularism forum
Value of Life – direct access to the Value of Life forum with its sub-forums (Abortion/Euthanasia/Human Rights/Human Trafficking/Social Justice)
Other Discussions – directly to the main discussion forum, its sub-forums and topics
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[accordion_section title=”Personal User Panel”]
When you are logged in, you can access your personal user panel by hovering your mouse over your name in the top right-hand corner of the site. Think of it as a personal control panel or dashboard. Everything related to you, your activity or your account can be accessed and managed from here. The following diagram gives you an overview of what you can access through the user panel and is detailed below. We highly recommend familiarizing yourself with using it.
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Live chat is a feature that takes Connect to the next level. Now you can participate in a live chat with anyone who is logged onto the site. You can have public chats as well as private ones. You can even have multiple chat windows open at the same time.
An example of one way this feature can be used would be to co-ordinate a time with your Connect Group or Friends to be online and then set up a private group chat, inviting the people in who need to participate in the live chat session. You could have live discussions to co-ordinate an event, just hang out or plan your next discussion topic. Note that your chat will not be saved, so copy and paste it back into the forum if you want to keep a record of it or have your discussion on the forum and refresh the page regularly to see responses.
See who is online to chat with…
Invite someone to a private chat
This is a public Chat
Invite someone into the chat room by clicking the + symbol at the top of the box and selecting from the people online.
Create a new public chat
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