Help Workspace

start_here

Welcome to Ned!

It can take some time to feel at home here, and get to know some people. Please use your real name, (click settings in the green bar, then edit my profile) to change to your real name and fill out your profile. When at ned.com please be gentle to others and you'll find others will do the same for you.

Use the tag clouds on the home page and the group's home pages to find content that interests you. The site's text search is a full text index of all content, and it gives you the most relevant results first, so use it often!

Participate in discussions, and add discussions to your watch list (using the add link at the left) to stay involved in all the discussions that interest you. The items at the top of the watch list are the most recently updated, and anything that's bold contains items that you haven't yet read.

You accrue points for participating, and receiving positive feedback from others. You can use these points to give feedback to others, vote in polls, give feedback to threads and posts, and much more. All points you give are 100% transparent.

Good ideas can be given points to highlight their value.

Please consider it your duty to give people negative feedback if they spam the site by posting advertising or other inappropriate or abusive content. Please read the <Ned> code of conduct which details community wishes for member behaviour.

Ideas shared within the ned.com community are considered in the public domain, once you share them in the spirit of making the world a better place, anyone is free to use them. Enjoy your stay, share any suggestions you might have, and please come back often!

ideas >> action >> good things >> lather, rinse, repeat

Cerca Trova

Be nice. Think way the hell out of the box. Help others. You can work to make the world a better place and still have fun, so lighten up and laugh your ass off. Be honest. Bottom up trumps top down. Think sustainability. Have big hairy audacious goals. Play fair. Don't over-think things. Share information. Organic growth is okey-dokey. Offer solutions. Less talk, more action. Be thankful. Make money and make good things happen. Listen well. Always be improving things. Be mindful. A handshake agreement is as important as a contract. Be open-minded. When in doubt; bootstrap. Think big. Forget the left and the right, embrace the radical middle. Explore edges. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Ask questions. Think globally, act locally and visa versa. Be well.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Now fling with wild abandon.

mediakit

January 2009 Sponsors

Ned sponsorships go beyond simple support of the Ned online community and projects. The organizations below, and more importantly the people behind them, are engaged in support that allows real better world things to happen each and every month. From microfinance projects to very real support of early stage grassroots meaningful projects in the US and many countries around the world. The combination of local and global, online and offline, providing maximum transparency, results measurement and reporting, and interactivity allows for very hands on, real, and meaningful connections and impact. In many ways this is like a corporate social responsibility plug and play program.

Please support Ned monthly sponsors by buying their products and services and helping them, help us to make the world a better place.

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Oregon and Southwest Washington provides a “home away from home” for families and their seriously ill or injured children who have traveled far to receive treatment at Portland hospitals, and supports children’s immunization and dental programs. Portland’s two Ronald McDonald Houses provide a setting in which families connect with other families, and children can meet other children going through similar experiences.

Search marketing agency Anvil Media’s social responsibility commitment includes providing pro bono services to local non-profits, encouraging employee volunteerism and is the founder of pdxMindShare, a Portland networking group and online community for local professionals. Anvil was recently recognized by The Portland Business Journal as a finalist for the First Annual Corporate Philanthropy Awards for its work with SMART, American Red Cross and Ronald McDonald House Charities.

lucy is centered around positive energy and our mission is quite simple: offer beautifully designed lifestyle apparel that inspires women to live healthy, active, balanced lives. In addition to taking care of women, we want to take care of the environment and have designed clothes constructed with sustainable & recycled materials like soy, bamboo and organic cotton.

AboutUs is a wiki website working to describe and connect the worlds' organizations. We embrace the values of transparency; assume good faith, constructive barn raising and collaboration–all important aspects of corporate social responsibility. We believe that by working together we can build a collaborative resource that taps into the knowledge of every visitor. Join us!

GlobalGiving is unleashing the potential of people around the world to make positive change happen. We connect donors to grassroots projects via our website as well as custom giving services--helping corporations, foundations, and other organizations with their specific giving needs. We are the future of international philanthropy, building an efficient, open, and thriving marketplace that connects people who have community and world-changing ideas with people who can support them.

Taste Good - Do Good!! That's our philosophy at Adina. We work with Co-ops, collectives and small producers around the world to gather our all-natural and healthy ingredients. We champion a sustainable supply chain and always choose Organic and Fair Trade certified ingredients whenever possible. Adina insists that farmers are paid a fair wage - typically well above market price. You can taste their commitment and ours in every sip of Adina beverages.

Equal Exchange, founded in 1986, offers organic, gourmet coffee, tea, sugar, cocoa, and chocolate bars produced by democratically run farmer co-ops. Equal Exchange's mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers and to demonstrate, through our success, the contribution of worker co-operatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world.

Greenhome is your source for environmentally superior goods, services, and information-- an on-line department store and information clearinghouse for all your green living needs. Greenhome is the place to find up-to-date, credible information to help you make decisions about how to improve the quality of your life.

GreenRenter™ is the only online directory of "green" commercial and residential rental property. GreenRenter helps potential tenants find properties that meet their environmental requirements. Anyone can add a property - it's fast and free. At GreenRenter we're serious about sustainability - in how we operate our business and in our own lives.

Tahoe Mountain Resorts Restoring, reducing and reusing materials for eco-conscious real estate development.

Give a child a healthy start in life, donate to Five & Alive.

eROI helps develop new non-profit programs, encouraging employees to volunteer.

September 08 >>

To make your sponsor placement reservation for this month please see the media kit details here

<< July 08

Ned Media Kit

Ned sponsors go beyond simple support of the Ned online community. These organizations, and more importantly the people behind them, are engaged in support that allows real better world things to happen each and every month. From microfinance loans to very real support of early stage grassroots meaningful projects in countries all around the world, both locally and globally.

Please support Ned monthly sponsors by buying their products and services and help them make the world a better place.

Sponsor Company Name #1 (linked to web site & followed by up to 75 words of text (500 characters, including spaces), perhaps about their corporate social responsibility programs) Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum lorem. Etiam dui tellus, facilisis eu, mattis eleifend, porttitor sed, sem. Proin et dolor. Proin nec erat sit amet libero congue interdum. Phasellus vitae ipsum. Duis molestie rhoncus urna. Pellentesque felis. Nullam orci odio, ullamcorper vel, ullamcorper ut, tincidunt eget, orci.

Sponsor Company Name #2 Suspendisse nec augue eget augue ornare condimentum. Morbi ultricies. Quisque mauris tellus, adipiscing et, convallis eu, aliquet at, magna. Nulla nonummy mauris in tortor. Vivamus nunc elit, rutrum quis, nonummy ac, faucibus congue, nibh. Morbi arcu. Nunc cursus tellus vitae arcu. Etiam nonummy nunc sit amet quam. In convallis varius.

Sponsor Company Name #3 Orci morbi semper, mauris eget eleifend sollicitudin, ante ipsum iaculis nulla, et facilisis dolor neque at ante. Fusce elit orci, congue et, auctor quis, pulvinar vitae, leo. Praesent id ante. Aliquam tempus velit quis mauris. Nunc rutrum purus ut diam. Aenean lectus augue, eleifend a, porttitor vel, porttitor in, augue.

Sponsor Company Name #4 Maecenas eget velit. Nullam a justo. Nullam viverra, magna eu facilisis luctus, mi diam pretium metus, vitae semper tortor mauris sed elit. Duis iaculis nulla eget augue. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Sed mattis sem sed odio. Nullam congue consequat arcu dolor.

Sponsor Company Name #5 Lorem ipsum sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nullam tellus. Aliquam libero. Donec sit amet neque. In eget lorem eu ligula tempor pharetra. Etiam vitae massa. Curabitur ut dolor sit amet tortor iaculis rutrum. Suspendisse euismod nibh vel lectus tristique vulputate. Ut et odio sed convallis vitae, elit leo adipiscing tincidunt.

Sponsor Company Name #6 Nullam felis neque, congue condimentum, sodales non, sagittis non, lorem. Fusce dui sem, consectetuer vulputate, euismod vel. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Proin vestibulum, nulla in fringilla fermentum, sem nisi pellentesque tellus, molestie sodales lacus massa ut sapien. Morbi adipiscing. Aliquam enim vel est hendrerit pharetra posuere velit ac lacus.

Sponsor Company Name #7 Ut id. Fusce risus. Sed vitae est sed turpis consequat aliquam. Duis pretium, ante sit amet congue rutrum, magna augue iaculis sem, quis feugiat risus neque at leo. Donec semper malesuada orci. Pellentesque et turpis. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Vivamus enim.

Sponsor Company Name #8 Ut sapien felis, ac fringilla eget, consequat sit amet, mattis a, lorem. Aliquam id magna. Ut lobortis tortor at libero. Quisque at lorem ut urna feugiat vehicula. Curabitur vel arcu. Integer massa ipsum, suscipit non, fermentum non, tempor, neque. Aliquam justo. Cras nec odio ac lectus laoreet ornare. Morbi laoreet.

Sponsor Company Name #9 Pellentesque massa et ante, malesuada tincidunt, consequat sed, pretium in, purus. Nullam nec neque. vitae massa. Curabitur ut dolor sit amet tortor iaculis. Vitae semper tortor mauris sed elit. Duis iaculis nulla eget augue. Vestibulum pellentesque quis turpis vitae tortor imperdiet congue. Integer vestibulum lacinia libero. Proin viverra lobortis massa.

Sponsor Company Name #10 (followed by up to 10 words of text)

Sponsor Company Name #11 building a better world in 2008

Sponsor Company Name #12 better environment for the world

Sponsor Company Name #13 a topical ointment that works

Sponsor Company Name #14 nick, nack, paddywack, give a dog a bone

Sponsor Company Name #15 it's a dog eat dog world, and you're wearing meatpants

// Sponsor Unit Specs //

125Wx125H non-animated logo, (jpeg or gif), under 5K, for top nine sponsors
Up to 75 words of text (500 characters, including spaces), perhaps about your corporate social responsibility focuses, plans and programs)
88Wx31H non-animated logo button (jpeg or gif), under 3K
Up to 10 words of text, about your corporate social responsibility focuses and plans
Company Web Site Address, and like Yahoo Search, organizations are listed in order of monthly sponsorship amount

// Making a Difference //
Like a turnkey plug and play corporate social responsibility program
Monthly financials and accounting are 100% transparent
Open reporting and results let the world follow along online

For now, it is planned monthly site wide sponsorship funds will be allocated like this:

// Monthly Sponsorship Allocation //
35% microfinance
35% specific grassroots better world projects
15% administration
10% better world media/marketing
5% web hosting & technology development

sandbox

punctuation_help__more_formatting

UP | Help index see also RSTCheatSheet

Here are some punctuation tips to help you format your pages to look more readable.

To implement these formatting features, we use what is called a "directive" to indicate the system needs to handle the following text a little differently.

You may have seen a directive in action on Help pages already, specifically the "table of contents" directive.

To indicate you're using a directive, start the line with two periods and a space, and then the directive a la:

.. directive_name

here's a list of directives covered on this page:

contents
sidebar
line-block
image
on-include
admonition
RAW

The contents directive is one of the easiest directives to use. By clicking on the plain text link for this page, you can see it's been used in the line just above this one. Here's how to make it work:

.. contents:: (optional label for TOC list)
       NOTE: if you do not provide a label, the label will simply read "contents"

As you build the page, each item that you underline (using the - key not the _) is automatically included in the table of contents.

sidebar

A side bar is very useful to pull out information from the body of the text and into its own right-hand justified box. An example of a sidebar is shown above with the "Each directive has three parts" box. Here's how to make it work:

.. sidebar:: Title for sidebar box (required)

   Text that will appear in the side bar box. **Note this text
   is indented.** To signify the end of the sidebar box content,
   simply don't indent the next paragraph of content.

This content will not appear in the sidebar box above.

line-block

The line block directive is very handy when the spacing of a list counts (like with addresses or with poetry). Here's how to make it work:

.. line-block::

   Here's my address
   123 Main St
   Los Alamos, NM 87544

Note that the text that you are line blocking must be indented. The above directive looks like this when it's published:

Here's my address

123 Main St

Los Alamos, NM 87544

Contrast the above with how one would normally have to do a series of lines on top of each other:

Here's my address

123 Main St

Los Alamos, NM 87544

Quite the handy directive, no?

image

When it comes right down to it, inserting an image in a page is just using the image directive.:

.. image :: (URL for your picture)

See Picture Display How-to for info on more advanced use.

on-include

This directive copies the contents of a worksheet to the document you are working in. This is particularly useful if you the same text to be referred to in several places. This is how it is done.:

.. on-include :: worksheet name

Please notice that you use the worksheet name (with any spaces it might have) NOT the URL. This form only works if the worksheet is in the group that you are posting in. If it is in another groups's workspace, you must include the other group in the address.

Please look at sidebar.:

.. on-include ::  /community-general/sidebar

This code will look like this:

admonition

This directive allows you to put a box with information in the middle of a post. It is particularly useful to emphasize a point. If you are wandering around the help pages you will see this one a lot.:

.. admonition :: Did you know?

   To return to the page you were just viewing, just click the "back" button on your Web browser.

And this is what it yields:

Did you know?

To return to the page you were just viewing, just click the "back" button on your Web browser.

Again, the text that will appear in the box is indented.

RAW

This directive will allow you to enter straight HTML code so that the Colophone doesn't parse it into it's own language. I find this particularly good for doing tables as I am very comfortable doing tables in HTML.:

.. RAW :: HTML

  <TABLE>
  <TR><TD>Col 1</TD><TD>Col 2</TD></TR>
  <TR><TD>Name 1</TD><TD>Phone 1</TD></TR>
  </TABLE>

Note, yet again, that the HTML code must be indented after EVERY enter, even for a blank line. This little snippet yields:

Col 1	Col 2
Name 1	Phone 1

Techies Take Note:

We have used reStructuredText (RST) as our markup language. If you're inclined to understand technical documentation, the full listing of RST directives can be found here at reStructuredText

code_of_conduct

The guiding principle of ned.com is maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio: focusing discussion on collaborative actions making this world a better place.

By joining ned.com's online collaborative community, you agree to abide by our code of conduct. Your commitment to these guidelines ensures a positive experience for all ned.com members.

ned.com Code of Conduct

Identity
Respect
Safety
Accountability

Identity

We request all members use real names here to enhance the ned.com atmosphere of collaboration, courtesy, honesty, accountability, community, and fun.

You may not use ned.com to:

I1: register for more than one member account, register for a member account on behalf of an individual other than yourself, or register for a member account on behalf of any group or entity;

I2: impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent yourself, your age or your affiliation with any person or entity;

I3: use or attempt to use another's account, service or system without authorization;

I4: harvest or collect email addresses or other contact information of other users from ned.com by electronic or other means for the purposes of sending unsolicited emails or other unsolicited communications;

I5: post credit card numbers, product keys, and other confidential information, including anything covered under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or any personally identifiable or private information of a third party.

Please remember that ned.com is a public space, so don't post anything that you don't want the world to see. ned.com uses internal links that keep your e-mail address out of view while still allowing other members to contact you. We caution you against giving out any personally identifiable information for yourself or others (such as social security number, credit card number, driver's license number, password, etc.) online. This information can easily be used for illegal or harmful purposes.

ned.com may include links to third party web sites. These links do not mean that we endorse these third party sites or services. You acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible or liable for any content or other materials on these third party sites.

You may not use ned.com to:

I6: upload or share any photographs, videos or other content that infringes upon or violates the copyright, trademarks, patents or other rights of any third party;

I7: post editorial content that has been commissioned and paid for by a third party;

I8: upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make publicly available any private information of any third party, including, without limitation, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, social security numbers and credit card numbers;

Respect

Please treat all other ned members with respect and do not use ned.com to threaten, intimidate, harass, stalk or abuse other members.

The following content is unacceptable and may be edited, moved or removed without delay or explanation:

R1: ongoing arguments, insults, and other behavior toward individuals or companies inciting or encouraging personal attacks typically known as "flame wars";

R2: personal attacks, "flames," platform wars, bickering and pointless arguments;

R3: discriminatory language regarding, but not limited to, race, national origin, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, mental or physical disability, military status or political viewpoint;

R4: abusive, profane, vulgar language, or any language designed to intimidate or harass;

R5: obscene, pornographic, or sexually explicit material or material depicting graphic or gratuitous violence;

R6: threats of any kind or content that intimidates, harasses, or bullies anyone;

R7: derogatory, demeaning, malicious, defamatory, abusive, offensive or hateful content;

R8: trollish behavior.

Please do not use ned.com to spam others. Spam includes sending identical, irrelevant or unsolicited submissions to multiple members, and includes misrepresenting the source of anything you post. Please choose the ONE most appropriate discussion for your comment and post it there. All cross-posts may be removed. Repeat threads promoting a business or product will be treated as a cross-post and may be removed.

Please make sure that your thread discussion posts are relevant to the subject at hand. It is normal for some discussions to drift from the root topic. However, to ensure maximum benefit for members, we encourage you to keep your posts as close to the subject as possible. Please stay on topic.

The group R & R, has been specifically provided for otherwise off-topic posting within these parameters.

You may not use ned.com to:

R9: upload, post, transmit, share or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, solicitations, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation;

R10: post URLs/links pointing to sites for software piracy, pornography, or sites that encourage discrimination, spamming, commercial promotion, or advertising of goods and services;

R11: upload, post, transmit, share, store or otherwise make available any content that we deem to be harmful, threatening, unlawful, defamatory, infringing, abusive, inflammatory, harassing, vulgar, obscene, fraudulent, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable.

Safety

ned.com does not allow behavior or content related to illegal or harmful activities.

You may not use ned.com to:

S1: upload, post, transmit, distribute, share, store or otherwise make available content that would encourage, constitute or provide instructions for a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party, or that would otherwise create civil liability or violate any local, state, national or international law;

S2: act in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the site;

S3: use automated scripts to collect information from or otherwise interact with ned.com;

S4: upload, post, transmit, share or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment.

Accountability

All ned.com members are encouraged to identify any behavior that they feel is inappropriate. Content failing to meet these code of conduct standards is subject to editing, moving, or removal. The board of advisors of ned.com reserves the right to moderate any member activity associated with those violations, and to suspend or close member accounts, if necessary. Resolution will always be attempted via private communication and may include a warning, probation, suspension and/or a permanent ban.

The ned.com Board of Advisors will review code of conduct violations on a case-by-case basis and our definitions are not limited to this list. We reserve the right to amend or change this Code of Conduct at any time without notice. You agree to periodically review this space to ensure your understanding of acceptable behavior here at ned.com. Questions about the Code of Conduct?

In short. Do good. Be good. Do, be, do, be, do.

codeofconduct

See: http://www.ned.com/group/help/ws /code_of_conduct/

Help

Ned.com is in active development, if you have any trouble, please send a PM to the site's maintainer: Jim Carroll

The Start Here page provides links to great introductory info so you may want to check there first and return there for additional help.

Click on any of the following underlined items to learn more about how to get around ned.com. They're organized by where they appear at the top of the window:

Green tabs (at the top of the window) help you find info throughout the site :

home - - my ned.com - - groups - - what's new - - popular

Green bar choices on the right are related to your personal account :

my name/profile - - inbox - - settings

Brown tabs refer to the green tab you choose or a specific group you are visiting :

group home - - discussions - - workspace - - group popular - - polls - - files

Learn more about using the features of omidyar.net by selecting one of these items:

- Formatting : Simple Formatting - - Advanced Formatting - - Hyperlinking - - Images/Pictures - - Tables

- Groups : Group Ownership - - Manage Group Owners and Members

- Tracking information : my watch list - Locating nearby members - RSS Feeds

General Info: The Feedback/Reputation system - - Tagging FAQs - - Site FAQs

Enjoy!

newcomer_s_faq

Newcomer's FAQ

What does a newcomer to ned.com need to know? Here are some questions to get us started. Please feel free to add more questions or answers or both, or to start breaking this list into categories if you see some questions that should be grouped together!

Contents

General Questions
Navigation
Feedback (reputation, karma, etc)
People
Groups
Privacy
Discussions
Workspace Pages
Other Questions With Answers
Questions Without Answers

General Questions

What is it all about, what is the point?

A: <ned> is an evolving global better world building community that a number of really dynamic social entrepreneurs have been working together to develop for several years now. This year, ned is emerging with physical community locations in Thailand, Lesotho, Portland, and in Uganda with 2 local community run branches (in Kampala and war-affected Gulu). All of these are connected through a larger global grassroots community of people at ned.com, who are working together to develop new kinds of grassroots-to-grassroots relationships that can enhance and support local community development.

What does <Ned> stand for?

A:	networked enterprise development or maybe nice educated doers or ????

Why does this user interface look familiar?

A:	This is the same software that was used on omidyar.net and was developed by Pierre Omidyar, founder of EBay

Where do I start finding my way around?

A:	The best place to start is on the Start Here Page.

What do I do if I have a suggestion to make?

A:	The place to go is the Suggestions for Ned.com group.

Navigation

How do I find a particular topic?

A:	There's a search box at the top of every page. I just put "sandwich" in there (for example) and found: http://www.ned.com/user/u5130945 38/news/0/?searchterm=sandwich . This can be done for any topic or issue.

How do I decide which groups or discussions fit me?

A1:	Look at the tag cloud on the main page and click on terms that interest you.
A2:	Start by finding one person you know on the system (in the "People" tab) and seeing what they are reading. If it interests you, join it. If it really interests you, make a comment to a recent posting, or start a new item.

I'm lost! What do I do?

A:	When I need some technical help navigating this site, I try to poke around in the group called Help. You can get to that group by clicking on the green tab at the top of the page that says "groups" and then click on the link for the group titled "Help." There's also a reference page for punctuation help.

Feedback (reputation, karma, etc)

What are those numbers after names and topics?

A: The numbers you see after names and topics, for example, Jane Doe (234) represent feedback score. Feedback score is the rating other members of ned.com have given a member or item of content on ned.com. Another number you might see is the bank number, seen only next to your own name on the top right corner of every page or on other users profiles. This number represents the amount of feedback points a user has available to give. To learn more about these numbers, visit the feedback details page in the help section.

Tell me more about the Feedback system and how it works. Why do I just have 10 points to give? How do people use their points? What happens when yours are depleted? etc.

A1:	Here's a workspace page that explains more about the feedback system.
A2:	Here's a comment that's also relevant.
A3:	Here's another comment that's relevant.
A4:	Another comment about how a person earns feedback bank points.

How do I give points?

A: Giving points is a simple one-click process. Throughout ned.com you will see +|- symbols. To give the person or item of content preceding the symbols points, simply click the + symbol to give positive feedback or the - symbol to give negative feedback. Please note that to order to leave feedback, you must have points in your feedback bank. To learn more about giving points, visit the feedback details page in the help section.

I admit to being intimidated by the +|- feedback meter. What motivated its development?

A1:	Just speculating here, I'm sure it had something to do with feedback and seller rating systems on eBay.
A2:	Pierre Omidyar made a comment on the feedback issue here.

I am confused by the points system. If I get some points, I see others doing good and cannot resist depositing the points I get. So, I get two points and give them away. How is it that some people have a back log? How is it I've given away more points than I have been given?

A: Remember that there are different types of points and collections of points. Click on a person's name (or your own) For example: Jane Doe (46) +|- Feedback positive/negative/bank: +48/-2/1 See the 3 numbers there? The (46) is the sum of Jane's +48 and her -2. These are points that other users have given her in recognition of her contributions (positive and/or negative) to the network. Jane's third number (1 in the example) is her bank. These are the points that she can give to people, threads, individual postings or workspace pages. It's not public information why the bank grows (except we know that when anyone that gives you a person point, you also get half a bank point) but the consensus seems to be that they are given for participation (posting, editing workspace pages, starting groups, starting threads, giving feedback, etc). The levels of bank points earned from these various activities might (though we don't know) depend on the feedback given to those various participation areas or maybe has something to do with the people contributing to discussions that you started or in groups that you started. We (the users) simply don't know.

People

Is there a list of people somewhere?

A:	Not yet thought it might be a god idea...since you asked, why don't you start the list!

How do I find out if a friend is a member of ned.com?

A:	Use the search box at the top of each page--this will find your friend if (s)he has posted and if the name used is exactly the same.

Why do people's names have numbers in parens behind them?

A:	The numbers in parens are the person's feedback score. See /help/feedback for more information.

I see others online at the ned.com site that I'd like to chat with. Can I send them an instant message?

A:	Not directly within the site. You can click on their name, however, and then click on Send a Message to this User and give them your chat program contact info (AIM, Yahoo Messenger, PalTalk, etc) and then have your chat or IM session that way.

how do I send a message?

A:	To send a message via the ned.com private messaging system, simply click the "send a message to this user" tab in the profile of any member. On the message page you can enter a subject and your message. You can then preview the message to see what it will look like or just send it. You can use any of the same punctuation you use elsewhere on ned.com in a message.

Q: How do I send a copy of a page to someone?

A: At the top right of content pages you will see a little email this page. If you click on that link it opens a page where you can enter the address of the person you want to send it to, add a personal note and they receive this email from ned.com.

What does it mean to have friends and how do you get them ?

A: We'll assume you're talking about the "friends" terminology used here on ned.com, and in that case, "friends" indicate people who have given you positive feedback. There's no set formula for how to get new friends here on ned.com, but chances are, if you treat others the way they want to be treated, your friends list will grow. If you're talking more existentially, may I suggest you submit your query to Google :-)

How come sometimes I see my own name in bold, especially when looking at something I've posted in my recent news?

A:	Your name appears in bold when you are a group owner, or in your Personal News, where you're the de facto "group" owner.

Groups

How do I join a group?

A:	This help page is about the mechanics of finding a group to join using the Group Browser and this one is about the Group Home Page (that's where you join)

I have a general lack of knowledge about "good etiquette" practices in this forum. What are the tacit rules here? I assume they exist and that I'll develop a sense for them in time but if they could be articulated somewhere that might help newbies.

A:	The help pages show Ground Rules here.

How do I invite someone to join in on a group here?

A1:	The quick and dirty way is to copy the URL (web address) of a group or workspace or conversation and paste it into a regular-old email written to the person you'd like to invite.
A2:	Another way is to click on the link at the top right of the home tab of a group. You then put in their email address and they receive this email from ned.com

What is a "Member Group"?

A:	A Member group is a group that an owner has chosen to associate with. Here's how it works: For group M to become a member group of group P, an owner of M must join P. Then, she goes into group M's settings, and chooses P as one of the groups to associate with.

What does it mean to be the owner of a group?

A:	There are certain responsibilities that the owners have such

as defining the settings for the group, etc, etc. Some groups let anyone be an owner while others are owned just by one person.

Privacy

Are my posts searchable by Google or other web tools?

The setting that determines if your posts are viewable by anonymous users (including search engines) is determined by the group owner.

Search engine spiders can only index content on ned.com that is available for anonymous users to read. To find out if you are posting in a space open to anonymous users, follow these steps:

Go to the group home page
Click the "about" link
Find the section of the about page labeled "Access policy:"
If the access policy indicates that 'anonymous users can read' then you know you are posting to a space that will be indexed by a search engine.

A note here, all groups owned by the user "Admin User" are by definition viewable by anonymous users (including search spiders.)

Is all communication here public?

A: Not all messages are public. There are three ways to send a private message. * One is when you send feedback. * Another is to click "reply" in the brown bar when someone else has sent a private message to you and you're reading it. * And the third is to go to that person's page (by click on their name when it's a link) and again look at that brown bar. On the right is says "send a message to this user". Click that and away you go!

Discussions

How do I start a new discussion?

Starting a discussion is as simple as:

Find the group where you want to start the discussion
Click "Discussions"
On the new screen, click on "New Topic"
Start editing your discussion title and text

The great thing is that you can go try this and see how it works without ever posting to the network what you created. For example, I first learned how to create a new discussion and use italics, bold, bulleted items, etc, just by experimenting and using the punctuation help link.

What should I do if I feel intimidated by a discussion I would like to join?

A:	Find the person you want to make a contribution to and send them a private note of any kind (even just a "hey how are you"). That should break the ice.

What if a discussion feels out of my league?

A:	Use the search tool above to search for discussions which are similar - chances are there are a few similarly themed discussions on each topic. Browse around some more for things that are more your pace, and if you don't find any, start a new one that's in your league. Or just ask.

How can someone move a discussion or personal item into a group ? This might be like grafting.

A:	Repost it and delete the original

Workspace Pages

What's a workspace page?

A:	A workspace page is a collaborative page that anyone can edit. See /help/Help on: Workspace for more information.

Questions Without Answers

Q:	I also think it would be helpful to newcomers such as myself to understand what specifics, beyond the "values," guided and motivated the network's development.

Newbie Questions

Newcomer's FAQ > Newbie Questions

I'm a new o-net member (just joined today) and I have a few initial questions:

Welcome!

` Is there a place for newbies to post questions? (If so, I couldn't find it.)

Users have created the Newcomer's FAQ although editing workspaces may be beyond many new people's capacity. Obviously you managed it quite well. Could you help us organize a Welcome Wagon group?

` Do we have an option for creating (private) notes to ourselves, for planning, research, etc.?

No.

` Is there any way to bookmark or tag people about whom we want to read more?

If you give a person positive feedback, that person will then be on your list of people you've given positive feedback to. That's the best we can answer, at the moment.

Also, I'm not sure where or how to link this page to make it more visible to others. If you happen to find this page, please let me know!

I've linked to it from the Newcomer's FAQ page.

this email from ned.com

From the Newcomer's FAQ

Q: How do I invite someone to join in on a group here?

A: Another way is to click on the link at the top right of the home tab of a group. You then put in their email address and they receive this email from ned.com

Here is a transcript of the mail your friends will receive:

Dear foo@isp.com,

YourName has invited you to join the ned.com group Mathematics for everything and more!

In order to accept this invitation to join the group, you'll need to create an account at www.ned.com/home by clicking the "join us now" link in the yellow box on the left side of this page:

http://www.ned.com/home/

The sign-up process is quick and easy. All you need to do is give us your email address, and we'll email you your password.

Once you sign in, click on the green "my ned.com" tab at the top of the page, and you'll see a list of groups you're invited to join. Simply click on the group name and decide whether or not to accept the invitation by clicking the "join this group" button.

Thank you for using ned.com!

The ned.com Team

Q: How do I send a copy of a page to someone?

A: At the top right of content pages you will see a little email this page. If you click on that link it opens a page where you can enter the address of the person you want to send it to, add a personal note and they receive this email from ned.com.

Here is the sample transcript of the mail they could get (but only if you click the link for the same page I did.

Dear foo@isp.com,

You have been sent this message from YourName as a courtesy of ned.com.

Personal message: here is the text

NedWeek: tales of weekly action and c... http://www.ned.com/group/communi ty-general/news/35/

ned.com is an online community where you can pursue your passion to make the world a better place and connect with others who share your interests. To learn more, click here:

http://www.ned.com/home/

Help on: RSS Feeds

UP | Help Index

Why use RSS?

RSS is an easy way to keep track of what's happening on ned.com. By using RSS you can automatically be notified of changes to your favorite discussions or workspace pages - or items tagged with a particular tag.

What is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a file format for distributing Website content as "feeds." Using a feed reader (also called a newsreader or RSS reader or aggregator), you can automatically receive notifications when content, like an omidyar.net discussion, is updated.

How do I use RSS for ned.com content?

To read RSS files, you need to use a Web browser (like Firefox or Safari) that handles RSS feeds, a Web service that processes RSS feeds or a standalone feed reader.

RSS readers are programs or Web services that allow you to "subscribe" to a feed and then automatically receive notification when new content has been added.

To find a newsreader (many are free!), use your favorite search engine and search for "RSS readers."

Once you have a program you want to use, follow the steps below to subscribe to one of the ned.com feeds:

Right click the feed link (located under the "who's online" list on any discussion or workspace) and copy the link location.
Paste the link location into your news reader.
That's it! Now your program will notify you when new content is available on ned.com.

NOTE: In some cases (if a group is not open to anonymous users) you may be required to enter your ned.com username and password to access the feed (see also the bloglines instructions below).

What feeds are available on ned.com?

You can subscribe to any discussion, personal news item or workspace page on ned.com. There are also several personalized feeds based on your activity on omidyar.net. See below for details. To access these feeds, visit the Personalized RSS Feeds page.

Recent Discussions: Provides a feed of the 50 most recently-updated discussions found in any of the groups in which you are a member.
Unread Recent Discussions: Provides a feed of the 50 most recently-updated, but unread by you, discussions found in any of the groups in which you are a member. A discussion is considered unread if you haven't read the topic yet, or if a comment has been added since the last time you read it (anywhere you'd see a 'new to me' link).
Recent Workspace Pages: Provides a feed of the 50 most recently-updated workspace pages found in any of the groups in which you are a member. Includes full text of each page.
Recent Workspace Page Summary: Provides a feed of the 200 most recently-updated workspace pages found in any of the groups in which you are a member. Does not include text of page.
Recent Comments: Provides a feed of the 50 most recent comments on discussions from all of your groups, whether or not they are unread.
Unread Recent Comments: Provides a feed of the 50 most recent unread comments on discussions found in any of the groups in which you are a member. This feed also provides links to easily mark as 'read' the comments, discussions, or groups contained in the feed.
My Watch List: Provides a feed of every discussion and workspace page in your watch list.
My Threads: Provides a feed of 50 most recent discussions you have participated in.
My Thread Comments: Provides a feed of 50 most recent comments on discussions you have participated in.

Comments/Questions

There's no feed for all personal news?

If using bloglines to see one's ned.com content... and having to use the password... should such bloglines be kept private to protect security of the password...i.e. is the password vulnerable if left in public feed, i.e something that might go on a blogroll...

Tool for making personalized RSS URL

Help on: RSS Feeds > Tool for making personalized RSS URL

This page is designed to help you get a web address in this form: https://email%40domain.com:passw ord@ned.com/my/feed/

This tool won't work (yet) if you have special characters in your password.

Type your email address and password below and then click the resulting link. You may be asked if you want to continue. Click yes. Then click on the feed you want.

This is where you'll enter what we need.

roster

Roster

A list of all the members of a group.

If a group's owner decides to make the roster public, it can be seen by clicking the "about" link in the brown navigation bar above the group home page.

Did you know?

To return to the page you were just viewing, just click the "back" button on your Web browser.

Manage Group Owners and Members

UP | Help Index

Group owners can control who is a member of their group as well as who co-owns the group. We do suggest that groups have more than one owner.

"Manage owners and members" is a handy tool on the group settings page that greatly simplifies the task of managing a group's membership.

How to access the feature:

note:

only available to group owners.

Go to the home page of the group you want to manage
Click the "settings" tab
Click the "Manage owners and members" link at the top of the settings page

What to do:

In the list of names appearing on the manage owners and members page, you can perform the following actions:

Resign as owner:

This removes you as an owner of the group. You can only do this when there is more than one group owner. We can't have a bunch of owner-less groups running around here, can we?

Remove as owner:

Removes the member from the list of group owners.

Make owner: Promotes a group member to being a group owner (and gives them the same abilities and responsibilities you have as owner)

Remove: Removes the member from your group roster (but does not revoke their overall ned.com membership status).

Note: this feature is only available to group owners. If you are a member of, but not an owner of, a group, you won't even be able to get to the "settings" page (the link will be greyed out on the group home page nav bar).

Help on: Group Ownership

UP | Help Index

Help on: Group Ownership

Welcome and congratulations on starting a group. We are very happy to have you using this critical part of ned.com. This page is designed to help you understand some of the tools at hand for managing your group.

Who is an owner?

When the group is first formed, the creator of the group is the only owner (those who sponsored the group do not automatically become owners). Anyone can check the list of owners using the "about" button -- located on the brown bar of the group's home page.

What role will you play as group owner?

Moderating your group:
	As the owner, you are responsible for moderating the group. You can choose your degree of moderation: from completely hands-off to tightly controlled.
Controlling discussions:
	While the owner can control who can start new discussions or modify pages in the group, anyone (member of the group or not) can add a comment to an existing discussion. Owners, however, can edit or even delete comments made by members.
Communicating rules:
	If you have ground rules for how you'd like people to participate in your group, let them be known! It's your group.
Offering control to others:
	Any group owner can make anyone else an owner, or remove any others including the original owner. Keep that in mind as you extend ownership rights to others.

What features does an owner have access to that a member doesn't?

Most of the owner controls are on the settings page. You can link to it via the "settings" button that appears on the home page of a group you own.

Some examples of owner controls you'll find on the settings page:

Owners can promote/demote or even remove members using the "manage owners and members" link.

Owners can change the name and even the description of the group that shows up on the group's home page.

There are also settings for critical membership/participation policies including:

Can anyone join, or do new group members need to be invited?

Which powers are available to different types of people: owners, group members, non-members or anonymous users? For example: Who is allowed to create and edit material on the group?

Can visitors who are not signed in to ned.com can read the site? If so then Google searches will return results from within the group.

Leaving a group (owners must resign first)

By the way, if the time comes for you to step down and leave a group you own, you must first resign using the "manage owners and members" link under "settings" -- and then select the "leave" button.

Your suggestions

The Board plans to improve the group features so it's important to hear what additional tools would be useful to you. Please visit the Suggestions for ned.com group to contribute your ideas.

Creating Tables

UP | Help Index

Warning

Creating tables on ned.com is not for the faint of heart.

While the results can be satisfying, the method to achieve them has been known to cause hair loss.

Overview

The trick to creating tables on ned.com is to keep in mind how the table would look in plain text. Any given cell within the table can only be one unit wide by one unit tall (you can't have a cell span more than one column or row). All columns must be left-aligned, and each column must be separated by at least one space.

Parts of a Table

A table consists of three parts:

The header: Every column in a table MUST have a header explaining what's below.

The boundary symbols: These are equal signs (=) that delineate how wide the columns are and where the table begins and ends.

The cell contents: The text that's going to appear within a table.

Example 1: Simple two-column table

Here's a simple two column table with the parts labeled:

======== ======== <-- the top table boundary
Header 1 Header 2 <-- the header line
======== ======== <-- the bottom of the header boundary
cell 1A  cell 2A  <-- the cell contents
cell 1B  cell 2B  <--  these can be as long as you want
cell 1C  cell 2C  <--  they'll keep going until the table boundary line
======== ======== <-- the bottom table boundary

And here's what it looks like fully rendered:

Header 1	Header 2
cell 1A	cell 2A
cell 1B	cell 2B
cell 1C	cell 2C

Example 2: A multi-column table

This next example shows three things:

The boundary for the last column only needs to be five "=" long.
Every column EXCEPT the last column must be as wide as the widest cell contents. (see row FIRST below)
You can see that the last column in a table can be as wide as the page, and the contents of the right-most column can even wrap to the next line in the same cell. (see row THIRD below)

So, if you make your table look like this:

====== ============ ======
short  wide column  really wide column
====== ============ ======
FIRST  This is wide But this is the widest column of all
Second So is this   And now you see that this column can go a little longer.
THIRD  and this is  You can see that the last column can stretch, just so long as you don't hit the return key.
====== ============ ======

It will render like this:

short	wide column	really wide column
FIRST	This is wide	But this is the widest column of all
Second	So is this	And now you see that this column can go a little longer.
THIRD	and this is	You can see that the last column can stretch, just so long as you don't hit the return key.

CVS Table example: ------------:

.. csv-table:: Variable Title
 :widths: 8,8,20
 :header: "Name of Functionality Desired","Workaround","Test"
 :delim: ;

 stuff;morestuff;moststuff
 ;;
 ;;
 ;;

Renders to this:

Variable Title
Name of Functionality Desired	Workaround	Test
stuff	morestuff	moststuff

For more advanced table techniques

We have used reStructuredText (RST) as our markup language. If you're inclined to understand technical documentation, more detailed table formatting can be found here at reStructuredText

csv tables

back to index back to Creating Tables

Below is a template for creating csv tables. If someboby would like to improve this page, please go ahead and do it!

KEY TO THE CHART: items in bold are names of green tabs; items in normal text are brown tabs; items in italics are brown tabs we've created

Pre-Feb 18		Now
home tab		home tab (help on: home)

groups tab		groups tab (help on: group browser)

Picture Display How-to

UP | Help Index

Putting the image on the web

To have an image appear on ned.com it has to be located somewhere on the web. You can put it up on a site like http://www.flickr.com/ or you can upload to a file space within one of your groups on ned.com. If you want to put it on ned.com then save the picture to your hard drive and then go to an ned.com group and select the "files" tab and then select "upload". Then click the "Browse" button to locate the photo.

1. Inserting a single picture in a comment/page

The easiest way to have a picture appear in a comment or on a WorkSpace page is to use the image command on its own line right where you want the image to appear.

For example, the following command:
.. image:: http://www.ned.com/branding/234x60set2-1.gif
results in:

Easy enough, right?

2. Managing a picture's appearance

To specify a picture's height, width, alignment, alt text and even make it link somewhere you'll need to use a two-step process. First, you'll insert a placeholder to indicate where on the page you want the picture to show up. Second, you'll create a footnote that explains which picture to display, and how that picture should look and behave
FIRST:
At the location you want the image to appear, insert the following placeholder text exactly as it appears below:
|Picture|
(you can call your image whatever you want, I use "Picture" for demonstration purposes only. If you want to call it "cutie" then type |cutie| instead).
SECOND:
at the very bottom of the page, create a footnote to tell omidyar.net which picture you want to go in the placeholder you created in the first step. You'll notice that we've created an image command with the placeholder name added to the start:
.. |Picture| image:: http://location_of_your_image
You must get the spaces, periods, and colons just right or it won't work. Also, the URL you use to tell ned.com the location_of_your_image must end in .jpg or .gif.

Now you're ready to control how the image looks and behaves by adding image punctuation!

3. Image Punctuation

If you'd like to add "mouseover text" to your picture (the text that pops up when you hover your mouse over the image, simply use the :alt: command along with your image commands.

Additionally, you can link your picture to another page by using the :target: command.

Finally, you can control the size/placement of your picture using :height: (in pixels) and :width: (in pixels) and :scale: (in percentage).

NOTE: Using the "align" attribute with an image in a discussion comment may break the comment box.

Examples of these commands for the <Ned> logo (seen in step 1) with mouseover text of "this is the logo", a link to ned.com home page and displaying at 40x80 pixels in size:
.. |logo| image::  http://www.ned.com/branding/234x60set2-1.gif
   :alt: this is the logo
   :target: http://ned.com/home
   :height: 30
   :width: 117

Here's the result of the above code. Pretty neat, huh?

The most important thing to remember with the above commands is that you need to indent the command so that it is left-hand justified with first vertical line at the front of |logo| (or whatever you call your anchor). Have fun!

4. Troubleshooting Picture Display problems

Most common reasons for the picture not showing up in the simple method:

Does your picture's URL end in a .JPG or .GIF? if not, you don't have the correct URL for your picture (and that's why nothing's showing up).

Do you have the correct punctuation in the image command? (dot dot space image space colon colon space URL)

is the image command on its own line?

For two-part punctuation:

Does your anchor name |Picture| match exactly with the anchor name in the footnote at the bottom of the page? Spelling and capitalization counts!

Did you copy, exactly, the entire footnote text, including periods and colons? The spaces and ordering of the anchor text count.

Is there a space between the :: in the footnote and the beginning of your picture's URL? Spacing counts.

Help on: Polls

UP | Help Index

Introduction to Polling on ned.com

Polls are useful tools you can use to help make decisions within a group on ned.com. You can find polls in the navigation bar under the title of every group on omidyar.net, between "workspace" and "files."

When you go to the polls page you will see a list of active polls. From this page you can also make a new poll and view completed polls.

What Kinds of Polls are there?

There are two kinds of polls on ned.com:

Simple polls that offer only two choices.
Custom polls that offer advanced options, including who can vote, multiple choices, how many feedback bank points it costs to vote, who can see the results, whether the votes are anonymous, etc.

Who Can Start a Poll?

Any member of a group can start a poll, provided that member has at least one feedback bank point to do so. However, if the owner of the Group has specified that non-members can create and edit content, anyone can create a poll (provided they have the feedback bank point).

Who Can Vote in a Poll?

Voter Eligibility

The only universal setting for who can vote in a poll is that a member must have been a part of ned.com before the poll starts. Outside this eligibility constraint, the creator of the poll can further restrict who can vote in a poll.

Voter Restriction Settings

If the poll creator choses to make a simple poll then any eligible member can vote in the poll (the default and non-changeable setting for all simple polls).

If the poll creator selects the custom poll option, the voting can be limited in the following ways:

To only Group owners

To only Group members

To anyone

By minimum feedback score

By number of feedback bank points available.

How do I See Who has Voted in a Poll?

If the creator of a poll chooses to protect voter identity, then there is no way to see who has voted in a poll.

Voting is "anonymous" by default for all simple polls.

If the creator of a custom poll choses not to protect voter identity, all voters' names will be displayed alongside their votes after the poll closes.

How do I Start a Poll?

To start a poll on ned.com, follow these steps:

Click the "polls" tab, located between "workspace" and "files" in the navigation bar.
To make a new poll, click the "new poll" tab in the brown nav bar.
Select "Simple Poll" or "Custom Poll."
Follow the directions on the screen for creating your poll.

Can I Cancel a Poll?

Yes, if you started the poll, you can cancel it at any time after it has been created. In addition, any owner of the group in which the poll resides can cancel the poll. Simply click "cancel poll" in the brown nav bar above the poll.

Simple Poll Settings

Simple polls are a quick and easy way to put something to a vote. They are limited to two voting options only. You can enter a title, description, duration (one to seven days)and the two options voters are two chose from.

It costs a user one feedback point to vote in a simple poll.

The default, non-changeable settings for simple polls are:

Voter can revise vote: no

Voter identity protected: yes

Who can vote: anyone

Who can see results: anyone

Who can view results before poll ends: no one

Custom Poll Settings

Custom polls offer many options but take more time to set-up. The options you have for creating custom polls are:

Duration of poll

options: One to seven days in 24 hour increments.

description: This allows you to control how long you want the poll to last. The poll will automatically expire based on the duration you set, but you can cancel a poll earlier, if you choose.

Number of voting options

options: One to 99.

description: This setting allows you to create up to 99 options for voters to chose from. The options should be unique (for example, you wouldn't have two identical choices of "coffee" in your poll about favorite beverages, would you? What have you got against tea drinkers?)

Number of choices a voter must select

options: Determined by number of voting options.

description: This setting allows you to set a minimum and maximum number of choices a voter may select in a given poll. For example, in a poll with 20 choices, you can either set the number of choices a voter may select at one or five.

Who can vote in the poll

options: Only owners, Members, Anyone.

description: This setting allows you to limit what types of users can vote in the poll you create. If you select Only owners, then only owners of the group in which the poll resides can vote. If you select Members then any member of the group in which the poll resides can vote. If you select Anyone then any member of ned.com can vote in the poll, regardless of if they are a member of the group in which it resides.

Who can see the final results

options: Only owners, Members, Anyone.

description: This setting allows you to limit what types of users can see the final results of the poll you create. If you select Only owners, then only owners of the group will see the results. If you select Members then any member of the group in which the poll resides will see the results. If you select Anyone then any member of ned.com can see the results, regardless of if they are a member of the group in which it resides.

Who can see results before the poll closes

options: Only owners, Members, Anyone.

description: This setting allows you to limit what types of users can see the results of the poll you create before the vote has ended. If you select Only owners, then only owners of the group will have this ability. If you select Members then any member of the group in which the poll resides will have this ability. If you select Anyone then any eligible member of ned.com will have this ability, regardless of if they are a member of the group in which it resides.

Whether a vote is required to see results before poll closes

options: Yes, No

description: This setting allows you to require users to vote before seeing the results of a poll before it ends. If you select yes then a user will not be able to see the poll results until after voting. If you select no then results of the poll are available to users before they vote.

Whether voters can revise their votes prior to poll closing

options: Yes, No

description: This setting allows you to permit users to change their votes prior to the end of the poll. If you select yes then a user can change their choice/s as many times as desired prior to the end of the poll. If you select no then a user is not permitted to change their choice/s after voting.

Anonymous or non-anonymous voting

options: Yes, No

description: This setting allows you to permit users to vote anonymously. If you select yes then the member's username will appear next to their vote when the poll results are available. If you select no then users voting in your poll do so anonymously and their username is not displayed.

Setting a minimum feedback score to allow voting in the poll

options: Determined by poll creator.

description: This setting allows you to limit participation in a poll you create to users with a minimum feedback score that you define. For example, you could limit participation in the poll to all users with feedback scores of 50 or above.

The bank point "cost" of voting in the poll

options: Determined by poll creator.

description: This setting allows you to set a "cost" in feedback bank points for voting in a poll you create. When a user votes in your poll, the number of points you set will be deducted from their feedback bank.

file

Files

Files are electronic documents stored in the files area of a group on ned.com

Only members of a group can upload files to the group's files area.

Files can be word processing documents or spreadsheets or pictures or presentation files. However, a group's files area is capped at 10Mb, so out of courtesy, please keep file sizes small.

Did you know?

To return to the page you were just viewing, just click the "back" button on your Web browser.

Help on: File Information

UP | Help Index

see also:	Help on: Files

Help Contents:

What is the File Information Page?
What do the links on the File Information Page bar lead to?
What do the buttons under the File Description do?

What is the File Information Page?

The file information page allows you to see data about a file before choosing to download (or delete) it.

The data includes the name of the member who uploaded the file, so if you have questions about it, you can contact the uploader.

You can also see the size of the file to get an idea of how long it might take to download it.

Finally, you can see a plain text description of what the file contains. In true collaborative spirit, anyone can change the description of a file to make it better.

Files are only accessible by members of the group into which the file was uploaded.

What do the links on the File Information Page bar lead to?

back:	navigates back to the folder view in the files area
download:	puts the file on your computer
delete:	deletes the file from the files area (only accessible to the member who uploaded the file originally OR any owner of the group in which the file resides

What do the buttons under the File Description do?

Change Description:
Cancel:	returns you back to the folder view
	updates the description of the file to whatever currently appears in the description text box above
Download:	puts the file on your computer

Help on: Files

UP | Help Index

see also:	Help on: File Information

What is the Files area?

The files area is a place for the group to upload and share files (documents, images, etc) with each other. Each group on ned.com has its own Files area and only members of a group can upload or change files in the group's Files area.

What can you do with the Files area?

You can upload reports, maps, illustrations, photos, or any other file that supports the work you are doing in the workspace or supports a comment you made in your group's discussion area.

Can I sort the list of files and folders?

The default order of the Files area is to show the latest-uploaded item on top. By clicking on any of the column headings in the Files area, you can sort the list based on the information in that column: file name, size, date uploaded or the name of the person who uploaded the file. To reverse the sort, simply click the column heading again.

note:	When sorting by file name, all folders will appear at the top of the list, in alphabetical order, and then the individual files will be listed below the folders in alphabetical order.

What do the links on the Files bar lead to?

up:	Navigate up the file folder structure.
upload a file:	Send a file from your computer to the files area. Once you click to upload a file, browse your computer's hard drive to select the file. The name of the file on your computer will be the same name that appears in the groups files area. Provide a description of the file so that someone else looking at the file will know what it is without downloading it. (The description can be changed after the file is uploaded)
new folder:	Create a folder in the current directory. Once you click to create a new folder, the folder will appear in the directory. Click on the "new folder" name, then choose to "rename folder"
delete folder:	Deletes the current folder (must be empty). You can only delete a folder if all the files inside it have been deleted first.
rename folder:	Renames the folder currently being viewed.
move files:	Allows you to move files and/or folders found within the folder currently being viewed.

How do I move files?

After clicking the "move files" link, a new form will appear in the browser window with two columns, a source column and a destination column. The source column on the left shows the files and folders available to be moved. The destination column on the right shows all the folders available to receive moved files.

To move files and folders:

check the box next to the item(s) in the source list

select the radio button next to the destination folder

click the "Move Files" button

When you've finished moving files, simply click the "I'm done with moving files" button to return to the Files area where you can upload files, create new folders, rename folders or delete folders.

The source list of files and folders is displayed based on the sort-order selected in the Files area. If you want to change the order of display in the source list, return to the Files area, click the column header by which you wish to sort the list, then click the "move files" link.

Help on: Workspace

UP | Help Index

Contents

What is a Workspace?
What do all the links on the Workspace lead to?
What can you do with a Workspace?
What are Tags?
Workspace statistics
What's this feedback stuff I see?

What is a Workspace?

A workspace is a collaborative space that allows any member of the group to change the content on any page. The latest version of the workspace is always displayed, no matter how many times it has been edited.

A revision history is kept, so content is never lost, it's just moved to the revisions list.

What do all the links on the Workspace lead to?

Explanation of the items in the shaded part of the bar from left to right.

edit -- Reveals the source text of the current page for editing.
revisions -- List of the revisions to the current page, most recent on top, including:

revision number (most recent on top)

compare to any previous revision (what changed between revisions)

author of the particular revision

date stamp of the revision

backlinks -- List of workspaces referring to the page currently viewed.
page -- A drop down menu of the following items:

plain text -- The rip, mix and burn feature of ned.com. Reveals the raw punctuation what made the page look so pretty.

check formatting -- On-screen punctuation error assistant. Any problems interpreting the format of the page are displayed on the page at the point of the error for trouble-shooting by the author.

printer-friendly -- A version of the current page that does not include any of the navigational elements and is therefore more useful when wanting to print just the content.

workspace -- A drop down menu of the following items:

new page -- Creates a new workspace by asking for the title of the workspace to be created. If the title already exists, the existing page will be opened.

Tools -- The Tools page provides access to the following features:

Highest rated pages -- Workspaces with most feedback points given them.

Orphaned pages -- Workspaces that have been created but not linked to from any existing page.

Create a snapshot -- Creates an archive of the entire workspace and puts it in the Group's File section.

recent changes -- a list of the most recently changed workspaces in the group.

What can you do with a Workspace?

Use workspaces to post content that you want other people's comments/edits/enhancements on.

Workspaces can be used for:

Meeting Agendas

Meeting Notes

To Do lists

Communications drafting

Profiles

Schedules

anything else you can think of!

What are Tags?

Tagging is a way to apply words, or â€œtagsâ€, to items like workspaces to make it easier to return to them later. You tag an item by typing a word in the "My Tags" box at the bottom of the page. All the tags you apply to all items on ned.com will appear in a list under the "tags" tab on your profile and at â€œmy ned.comâ€/â€my tagsâ€. Clicking on a tag will show a list of all the items that you tagged with that word and let you link directly to them.

You can also find interesting content by clicking on the tags that others have used. Click on a tag, i.e. "Sudan", and you will see a list of items that have been tagged with that word. You can see other members' tags in the following places:

On the home page, there is a tag cloud that lets you see what people have tagged site-wide.

In a group's home page, you can see tags that have been applied to items in the group.

For each item that can be tagged (comment, workspace, discussion), you can see tags that have been used on the item.

Workspace statistics

At the bottom of each workspace, you can find the following statistics.

Page name:	This is the name of the workspace. To create a link to the page, simply surround the name in back-ticks and put an underscore after it (like this: `page name`_ )
Last editor:	This is the person who last made a change to the workspace. If you want to see what the change was, simply click on the revisions link in the brown bar at the top of the page.
Date:	When the last revision was saved.
Tags:	Tags that you and others have used on this item.
Feedback score:	The sum of the feedback (positive feedback and negative feedback) assigned to this page, as well as how many points have come from you.

What's this feedback stuff I see?

A workspaces's feedback score is generally seen in two places: in a list of page titles, it is shown in parentheses after the title of the page, and it is shown in the statistics section of each page, below the content.

How can you change the feedback score of a workspace?

At the bottom of the page, where the page statistics info is listed, click the "+/-" link next to the feedback score.

If you feel the workspace is one of importance to the rest of the group, you can assign it positive feedback, and the workspace will appear higher in the "highest rated pages" list for your group.

Conversely, if you feel the page is off-topic or inappropriate for your group, you can assign negative feedback and that will push the page down on the list.

For more information about feedback, please see the feedback help page.

Resign as owner:
	This removes you as an owner of the group. You can only do this when there is more than one group owner. We can't have a bunch of owner-less groups running around here, can we?
Remove as owner:
	Removes the member from the list of group owners.
Make owner:	Promotes a group member to being a group owner (and gives them the same abilities and responsibilities you have as owner)
Remove:	Removes the member from your group roster (but does not revoke their overall ned.com membership status).

options:	One to seven days in 24 hour increments.
description:	This allows you to control how long you want the poll to last. The poll will automatically expire based on the duration you set, but you can cancel a poll earlier, if you choose.

options:	One to 99.
description:	This setting allows you to create up to 99 options for voters to chose from. The options should be unique (for example, you wouldn't have two identical choices of "coffee" in your poll about favorite beverages, would you? What have you got against tea drinkers?)

options:	Determined by number of voting options.
description:	This setting allows you to set a minimum and maximum number of choices a voter may select in a given poll. For example, in a poll with 20 choices, you can either set the number of choices a voter may select at one or five.

options:	Yes, No
description:	This setting allows you to require users to vote before seeing the results of a poll before it ends. If you select yes then a user will not be able to see the poll results until after voting. If you select no then results of the poll are available to users before they vote.

options:	Determined by poll creator.
description:	This setting allows you to limit participation in a poll you create to users with a minimum feedback score that you define. For example, you could limit participation in the poll to all users with feedback scores of 50 or above.