This blog is written especially for everyone who is new to MyChurch. We'll begin with the very basics of getting started, and then continue to some more advanced operations.  Do not try to take all this in at once.  Start with the basics, and add more to your profile and your experience at your leisure, as you have time to enjoy it.  There is no need to try to do everything in the beginning!  You can return to this blog as a reference anytime.  (The specific references here are mostly for Enon Baptist Church, but will work just as easily for any other home church.)

MyChurch can be used solely as an information site for keeping up with what's happening at Enon, or it can be an interactive site that can be a great enhancer to the fellowship we share in church.  We can interact with each other here in ways that we may not have the opportunity to interact at church, and we can learn about each other on perhaps a deeper level.  This site definitely should never take the place of church or church activities, but it has the potential to greatly add to the quality of our church relationships.  Once you register, you can be involved to whatever degree you choose.

NOTE ADDED JULY 2007:  MyChurch has now added a help page with much of this information, as well as much that is not included here.  You can access this from the bottom of any MyChurch page (including this one) by clicking on help.  I will continue to update this blog, however, as it also has information that is unique to here.  Between this blog and the new help section, you should have all you need to fully enjoy your MyChurch experience!


The Basics

Joining Your Church's Page

You saw Enon's web address in the newsletter, and you found us!  Now what?  Getting started is simple!  Click on Join this Network, beside the big green arrow near the top right of the Enon page.  Complete the information (name, birthdate, etc.), and Submit.  (Advice:  When choosing your public display name, it's best not to give your full name or any other personal information, as this site is on-line and open to anyone who chooses to come in.  I use my first name only.)  If you are then taken to a page for uploading your photo and are not yet ready to do this, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the option to skip this step until later.  Upon completing your registration, your picture will appear in the members section of the Enon page (bottom left), and you are a member! (Note: Because only 10 members show on page 1, you may have to click view all to see your picture.)  Now that you have registered on MyChurch, you will not need to register again, but rather, on future visits, just log in (with your email address and password).  The log in  link is just below the Join Now icon on MyChurch's log-in page.

Your 3 Main Pages

Although there are many pages in MyChurch that you will want to explore later, there are basically 3 pages that are important to you in the beginning:  your Home page, which nobody will ever see except you, your church's page www.mychurch.org/enon, and your Public Profile page  which is what everyone else will see when they click on your picture.  (See Pastor Kip's.)  Let's look now at each of these pages in more detail.

Your Home  Page:  Once you are registered on MyChurch, logging in will automatically take you to your Home page (or you can go there anytime by clicking the top blue bar on the word Home).   This is your own private page to which no one else has access.  It gives you a lot of information, like what has happened most recently with your account (new messages, comments added to your blogs, etc.)  and your church's account (new members added, new blogs posted, etc.).  Let's explore this page.

Notice there is a light blue bar across the top of the page, with several word links.  These will take you at any time to Home,  My Church (Enon), the blogs pages (Explore), etc.  Since you are currently on your Home page, the dark blue bar under the light blue one all pertains to your personal home page.  YOUR blog subscriptions, YOUR photos, YOUR friends, etc.  (You won't have any of these things at first, but the links will be there.)  When you leave your home page and go to your church page, all the dark blue line of tabs will pertain to your church.  ENON's blogs, ENON's photos, etc.  Likewise, when you visit someone else's profile page, the dark blue line with be all about that person.  HIS/HER blogs, HIS/HER photos, etc.

The next line (also light blue) that says hi on the left side, has a link to your Public Profile on the right.  You can click here at any time to see the page that everyone else sees about you.  It is almost empty until you add information to it.  We'll talk about that later.

Under the blue line, on the left side of the page, is your picture, and beside that is your control panel.  You will want to get most familiar with the 2nd and 3rd categories:  Edit Profile and Mail Center.  You can edit your public page with the Edit Profile link, and you can check for personal messages in the Mail Center.  The other 3 controls, you can explore later.

To the right of these controls, you will see, highlighted any new messages or activity since your last log-in.  You can click on these to open them.  Below this, there will be a running list of the latest activity at the Enon site (who has joined, new postings, etc.) and pertaining to any friends you have added to your page.

Your My Church Page: You can visit your church's page anytime by clicking on My Church  at the top of whatever page you are on (on the light blue bar).  On this page, you still see the same light blue bar across the top of the page.  This will always be there, from any page you visit, so you can easily return to your Home or My Church page.  But now the dark blue line is all abour your church, not about you.  You can click on the dark blue line to view your church's photos, blogs, classified ads, etc.  On this page you can click on member photos to visit their Public Profile pages, and you can leave public messages as bulletins, upcoming events, or comments.  (Again, a reminder, that unless you specify that these are private, they will be available to everyone who happens to see them, so it is best to avoid using people's full names or giving their private contact information.)  This is a great way to let people get to know our church.  When you know of an event that's coming up, or if something at church has especially touched you, post it so everyone can hear about it!  

Your Public Profile Page:  This is the page that will bring you the most interaction, as it is the face that others will see of you.  You can view this page by clicking on your picture from any page, or by clicking on public profile  in the top right corner of your My Home page.  You cannot, however, make any changes or additions directly from your profile page.  To do this, go back to your Home page (the first word on the light blue line of every page), and click on  edit profile beside your picture.  This will take you to your edit page where you can build your profile page any way you want.  (Remember you don't need to build it all at once.  Just do a little at a time, and you can add to or change it anytime you want.)

On the edit page, you will find categories to fill in about yourself.  About Me, where you can write anything you want to share about yourself.  Then there are categories for your favorite Movies, Music, and Books.  Then TV Shows and General Interests.  Be sure to click submit to save your changes and addtions!  Don't be afraid to talk about yourself too much.  The more you share, the more people will be able to get to know you, and find what you have in common.  Remember your page is the only face and personality that shows on-line, so you have to help others get to know you.

Soon you will want to upload a photo of yourself.  You can do this by going  back to your Home page and clicking on Upload Photos beside your picture.  If you have digital photo software, follow the instructions with your software to upload onto the upload page.  If you do not have digital software, or a digital picture of yourself, anyone with a digital camera can take one and e-mail the photo to you.  (I will be glad to do this for the Enon folks, and for you others too if you'll pay the airfare and a couple of hotel nights!)  You can also upload additional pictures that will show up in your profile page photo section.

Does your profile page look lonely?  Let's add some friends!  A good starting place for finding friends is on your church page.  You can click on any individual picture to go to that person's public profile page.  Then you can click Add to Friends in the top right corner.  This sends a friend invitation to the person, who will receive the invitation and click to accept your friendship.  Then that person's picture will appear on your profile page, and you will appear on his/hers.  (You will eventually accumulate more than 10 friends, and will need to click view all to see all of them.)  You can find other friends anywhere in MyChurch.  Blogs are a good place to get to know people.

It's fun to visit other people's profile pages to learn about them and interact with them, and to get ideas for your own page.  You can interact with someone from his/her page by leaving a comment or by sending a message.  The difference between a comment and a message is that the comment is public.  It posts to the person's profile page for everyone to see.  A message is a private e-mail that the individual will receive in his/her mail center.

Blogs

Writing Your Own Blog 

OK, so maybe you've heard of a blog but really have no idea what it is.  No problem!  Anybody can blog, and it can be a lot of fun!  A blog is a sort of on-line journal, that is open for everyone to read and respond to.  You can blog about anything or about nothing.  You can blog about something that's on your mind, about what you did today, about last week's sermon, or just to say "Hello, I'm new here."  Blogs can be two words or two pages (and it looks like this one is turning into a novel). Give it a try!  Go to your Home page, and click Write  (on the dark blue line across the top of the page, or beside the blogs section of the page).  When you finish writing, click submit, and it immediately hits the public blogs arena of MyChurch.  Others may comment, or may even give you a star.  (Your Home page will tell you when you get a new comment or star.)

Interacting with Others' Blogs

It is also fun to read other people's blogs.  A good place to start is your church's blogs, which you can find by going to your church's page and clicking on the Blog link on the dark blue line across the top.  (There's also an Explore link on the light blue line, but that one goes to the MyChurch blog page, not to your specific church's blogs.)  Another good place to start is at your friends' pages.  If they have a blog, you can click on the dark blue Blog link on their pages to see what they have posted. 

Finally you can click on the top light blue Explore tab to go to the MyChurch Blogs page and read blogs written by everyone on MyChurch.  There are several blogs links.  The first one (Posts) is of the most recently updated blogs, often changing every few seconds or minutes, as someone posts a new blog or as someone comments or stars a blog.  Then there are links to explore the most popular Video blogs, Scripture blogs, and Book/Movie Review blogs posted within the past 2 weeks.  Also from the main blogs page (posts), you can find a link to the 10 most popular blogs of the past 2 weeks (based primarily on the number of stars and secondarily on the number of comments), and from the Popular page, you can find the Archived 10 most popular blogs of each month.  Commenting on blogs is fun and a good way to start to get to know people, but remember to always be respectful.  There are people here from varied beliefs and backgrounds, blogging all kinds of theologies and ideas.  Beware of accepting/believing everything you read here, but you will find some that you enjoy!  

At the end of a blog, you can interact in two ways:  with comments and with stars.  A star means you like the blog, or maybe it means you want others to read it.  Bloggers love stars, because the more stars a blog gets, the more exposure it gets.  Every time a blog gets a new comment or a new star, it returns to the top of the main blog list, and the number of stars may get it added to the most popular lists, where it will attract more readers.

One last thought about blogging:  When you find someone whose writing you especially enjoy, you can subscribe to his/her blog (of course there is no cost), which means you will get a notice every time he/she posts a new blog.  You can click at the top righthand side of the blog to subscribe.  Bloggers love to know you are reading what they write!

For more thoughts on blogging, check out the following blogs: 
3 Ways To Be A Star Blogger at MyChurch
Intermediate Blogging Tips
What (Not) To Do When a Blog Upsets You
Blog Rules? . . .
Really, I didn't mean it that way . . . 
Blogging Toolbox  

Groups

From your church page, you can start (or join) a group.  Maybe a Sunday School class, the choir, the youth, a mission circle, or a committee would like to have a special place to post their own concerns.  Or maybe you'd like to start a reading group or a group for single parents.  The possibilities are endless, and groups can be set to any level of privacy.  The Groups link is on the dark blue line across the top of your church's page. 

Adding Special Features to Your Profile Page or Blog

Many special features are available without leaving MyChurch.  When you are editing your profile or writing a blog, there will be a bar across the top of your text box, offering several options.  The B is for bold  type, the I is for writing in italics, the U is for underlining, and the ABC is for marking through what you're typing.   The A is for changing the font color, and the box beside it is for changing the size of the font.  Other icons on the bar can be used for centering, aligning left or right, or adding bullets for a list.  For example:

• Matthew
• Mark
• Luke

When blogging, there are also Bible, Books, Movies, and Music options on the bar.  You can use the Bible feature for adding Bible verses to your blogs, and if you choose to review a book, a movie, or a CD, you can use the corresponding icon to include a picture of the book, movie, or CD as a part of your blog.  There's also a Videos feature, which simplifies adding videos to your blogs.  (I don't use this feature.  I find it simple enough just to post directly from wherever I found the video.)  For more on this feature see this blog: Posting a Video on MyChurch: It's So Easy a Caveman Can Do It. (My apologies to any caveman that might be reading this.)

The chain link icon is for linking to other sites or pages.  For instructions on how to set a link that says what you want it to say, see the FAQ below.

To the far right of the bar is an HTML icon.  If you are interested in learning some HTML coding, to incorporate other tricks into your writing, just google "basic html," and you will find plenty of code sites.  To use these codes, click the HTML icon, and type inside the html box.  This will look foreign to you. because it is its own language, and you may quickly decide to leave it alone.  However, if you post codes from videos, quizzes, etc. from other sites, you will need to post these in the html field.  MyChurch offers many of the html options without the user having to know the codes, so HTML is just an option here, not a necessity. 

There is no limit to what you can do with your profile page or blogs.  You can add backgrounds, music, graphics, videos, more photos, links, etc., much of which comes from outside MyChurch.  Take a look at my page www.mychurch.org/kathy  and this one http://www.mychurch.org/gervis for a few ideas.  There are lots of websites that offer all different features, but here are a few to get you started:

For Christian Backgrounds and Graphics:  Christian Myspace Layouts   

For Music:  Project Playlist  

For Posting Photos in your text areas:  Photobucket.com
Add a fun quiz to your page (or create your own): 10 Fun Quizzes

To add a video: Godtube.com

Tutorial for adding photos to your blogs:  How To Put Pictures into Your Blogs

Note:  It is possible to over clutter a page, or to make it difficult for your guests to read.  Here's a blog that addresses this:  Think Readability!

Frequently Asked Questions

Following are questions I have been asked often.  If you have a question you'd like to see answered here, I'll be glad to try to answer it or to give it to someone who can.

I want to post a blog that pertains only to my friends, not the entire MyChurch community.  Does it have to be posted to MyChurch's blog page?

No, it doesn't.  At the bottom of the page where you are writing your blog, you'll see "Blog Privacy" followed by 5 choices.  The default is "public", meaning unless you change the setting, your blog will be posted for all of MyChurch to see (over 100,000 people).  If you write a blog that only pertains to your MyChurch Friends, change the setting to "friends only."  The third option is for your church only.  The fourth option, "private", is meant to block anyone from seeing it except you, and the last option, "draft", is for your use while you are still working on the blog.  

Beside the Privacy options is an optional check for placing the blog, not just on your own profile and in the MyChurch blogs, but also on your church's page.   

How can I transfer my blogs to MyChurch from another site?

I do not claim to be the expert on this.  However, maybe some understanding of the blog system would be helpful.  First of all, it is more the norm that blogs do not get comments than that they do, and only a small percentage of readers of almost any blog will leave a comment.  Nonetheless there are some things you can do to improve your blog traffic. 

When you post a blog, it immediately appears on the active blogs page, where it will gradually slide down the page as other blogs are posted, commented, or starred.  Your blog may stay on the main page for approximately 15-30 minutes before dropping to subsequent pages where there is less traffic.  This means that only those people who happen to be looking at blogs during that 15-30 minute period will be likely to see your blog.  Then it basically falls into near oblivion, unless you "market" it.  A couple of thoughts:  First, If you comment on others' blogs, their readers will see your comments and click to see who you are, thus seeing your blogs.  Interacting with others' blogs will make yours more visible.  And second, realize that not every person is going to relate to every blog, just as you do not relate to every blog you see; and some blog content is more likely to attract comments or attention.  For example, I would personally rather read something short and from the heart than something that has been copied from the internet.  For some other opinions related to this subject, see Am I Doing Something Wrong?,  3 Ways to Be a Star Blogger at MyChurch, and The Ideal MyChurch Blog. 

Is there a particular etiquette for blogging?

Yes, although I'm sure if you ask 20 people this question, you will get 20 different answers.  the most encompassing rule is the Golden Rule:  Blog unto others as you would have them blog unto you.  You can google "blog etiquette," to browse through many ideas.  Here is my personal list of rules for responsible blogging:

On your own blog: 

1.  Be respectful to your commenters.  When you post a public blog, expect to get comments with different views, and prepare yourself not to attack.  When you posted the blog, you invited all opinions.  (You do have the option of deleting comments, although that's an option I rarely use.)

2.  Never take someone else's work and post it without crediting them, and never ever ever post someone's private message as a part of your blog, unless you have their permission to do so.  (Bloggers are usually happy for you to post their work, as long as you give the proper credit with a link to the author's page or to the original blog.)  If you post something that is not origninal, even if you don't know the author, list your source (Say for example:  "Forwarded to me by a friend.  I don't know who wrote it.")

On others' blogs:

1.  Be respectful.  You can present a different viewpoint without attacking the blogger.  If not, you might consider moving on without leaving a comment.   And remember your reader can't see your smile or your eyes, so be careful about your tone.  If you aren't sure, wait a few hours before submitting it.  Remember, behind every photo is a real person with real feelings!
 
2.  Remember you are a guest on someone else's blog, so don't try to take control of it by posting novel-length comments or by personally responding to every other person's comments.  If you have a lot to say on the topic, you might consider posting a blog of  your own.

3.  Take your private conversations unrelated to the blog elsewhere.  If you see a commenter listed, and you want to discuss something from another blog, unrelated to the one you're on, send a private message.

4.  Do not use someone else's blog for the purpose of promoting your own.  It is appropriate to link to your own blog if you have a related blog that adds something to the subject.
 
5.  It's appropriate to include a graphic in your comment, but if you want to post a series of large graphics, again you should consider posting your own blog instead.

Note:  All these rules are flexible.  There are occasions, for example when you know the blogger very well, that some of these might not apply, but as a general rule, this is a start.  Most important of all:  Respect!


How can I find new friends on MyChurch?

If you are searching for a particular person, you can search by name or e-mail address, by clicking Explore on the light blue bar, then People on the dark blue one.  If you are looking to meet new friends that you don't yet know, here are a few ideas:

1.  Search for people in your area (or any area) by following the direction given above for searching for someone you know.  Or click on Churches (light blue bar) to find churches in a particular area, and then click on the member photos to see actual members.

2.  One of the best ways to really get to know people is by browsing the blogs.  You can find the active blogs page by clicking on Explore (light blue bar) and then Posts (dark blue bar).  This will introduce you to the bloggers and also to all those who comment on the blogs.  When you find someone that interests you, click on their photo, and that will take you to their profile page, where you can read more about them, and invite them to be your friend.

3.  Another way to find people is by browsing the friends lists on others' pages.  For example, if you are interesting in finding other teens, browse the friends lists of any teens you encounter to see if there are others there that interest you.

4.  Write a blog, and see who responds to it.  These people might be good friend prospects!



Where do people get all those colorful pictures and graphics they're leaving in my comment space?

There are many websites that offer free comment tags.  Here's a good blog to give you a few:  How To Post Tags and Comments on Others' Pages 


How did you make the blogs list on your profile page?

That's a question too complex to attempt to answer here.  I used basic HTML code to set the links manually.  You can google "basic HTML" or "easy HTML" to look for the simplest explanation.  There are thousands of sites, some more understandable than others.  For example:  http://jmarshall.com/easy/html/ 

How can I change my church's photo?

The church's photo can only be changed by your church's site moderator.  If you are the moderator, go to your church's page, and click on moderator  (on the dark blue bar).  Then click edit profile picture,  and follow instructions from there.

May I rework this blog for my own church, inserting my own church info instead of Enon Baptist Church? 

Yes!  The purpose of this blog is to help everyone get around better on MyChurch.  However, if you repost it, please repost it as a church bulletin, not as a blog,  to avoid blog confusion.  Also please add an acknowledgement line at the bottom, linking either to this blog or to my profile page.  You can copy and paste the following:

borrowed from Kathy                 or                   borrowed from Kathy's blog

To copy and paste:  Mouse click on one end of what you plan to copy, hold down the click, and drag the cursor across the entire section you want to copy until it is highlighted.  Then press the Ctrl and c keys at the same time.  (This will temporarily hold a copy of the selected material so you can paste it somewhere else.)  Now, go to the spot you want to paste it, click on the spot, and press the Ctrl and v keys at the same time.  The copied material should appear.

Another option is just to link straight to this blog from your church page as follows:  While on this blog page, click on the url address line at the top of the page until it is all highlighted.  Then press the Ctrl key and the c key at the same time.  This copies the address.  Now go to the page where you want to paste the link, click the spot you want to place it, and press Ctrl and v .  This should paste the link to your site.  Whichever way you choose, I hope it's helpful!

*****

OK, you're ready!  Start slowly, and enjoy MyChurch!!! 

I TRY TO KEEP THIS PAGE UPDATED AS IMPROVEMENTS ARE MADE TO THE MYCHURCH SITE.  (If you see anything that needs to be updated, please let me know!  Thanks!)

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