Welcome to the YourStory Online Community!

YourStory Online is an exciting new online social network. We are focused on providing great tools to create with online and helping people stay in touch with friends and discover new people with common interests in their creativity. Scrapbookers, Photographers, Designers, and many, many more choose YourStory Online to connect with friends, family, school, social groups, activities and interests. YourStory's goal is to deliver great tools and an easy-to-use, friendly and interactive environment where users can connect with anyone around the world the yourstoryonline.net

We have set up a great community for you to create a profile, share photos, published works you create and interact with people from all over the world. Let's take a few moments and introduce the community features you will have available to you.

Sign Up

The first thing to do will be to sign up with YourStory Online. When you register, you provide your name, the username you wish to have, and a password. Never share the password with anyone, this is what grants you access to your profile and settings. You are then asked to provide some basic information about yourself. Only a few items are required, indicated by an (*) asterisk. If you do not want the optional information to appear on your public profile, such as phone number, address, etc. leave those fields blank. You may also include the information and set them to private - or "friends only" in your profile settings. You may go back at any time and remove the optional fields from your profile if you choose.

Once you have signed up, you will be returned to the home page of the website. You will receive an activation e-mail to activate your account - check the e-mail you used to sign up with - it should appear within moments. Check your junk mail or Spam box if you don't see it in your regular inbox. Click the link in the activation mail and your account will be ready to use.

There is an optional way to sign up on YourStory which is Facebook Connect. First, it is helpful to understand what Facebook Connect actually is. Facebook created this utility to allow Facebook users to easily and quickly register with other websites by using their Facebook identity and the ability to pull their profile photos, username, e-mail, etc. directly from Facebook. If you choose this option, your YourStory profile and registration will be tied directly your existing Facebook profile. Keep in mind, if you register through our Sign-up form, and click the Facebook Connect registration button, you will have two separate profiles on YourStory. So choose the method of registration that suits you the best.

Once activated, you may login normally. Under the Community tab, you will see your profile with a series of buttons that acts as your personal control panel for your profile:

Home

Home shows Latest Members, Recent Activities of YourStory Online and Recent Group Activities.

Profile

The Profile page is where your personal profile and your applications are displayed. A User Profile picture can be displayed from your images and it will be automatically resized.

The top on the right side of the page displays your profile details. You may edit your status and view messages, friends, groups and photos under your profile photo. There is also a handy Facebook Connect logout button, if using this feature.

Your profile name will display some details. Karma, Member since, Last online and Profile views. Below them, you may update your status, such as what are you currently up to, etc. This board will also update you with any incoming message or friend request.

Here you will find additional features:. Edit Profile, Add Applications, Write Message, Change Profile Picture, Start New Group, View Your Inbox, Privacy, Invite Friends, Upload Photos. These links are shortcuts, redundant with the main profile tabs and sub-menus, placed as a matter of convenience.

In addition, the Profile page also displays other details. First is the update of the users latest activities. Continued with the list of applications that you have added to your profile. We have added many applications for you automatically. They may be disabled, if you desire by simply browsing the application and clicking the "X" icon.

Karma

Karma is a user point-system used in the YourStory Community. It shows how active you are in the community. Karma will only be activated only when you have uploaded a picture in your user profile. Otherwise, you will have no Karma points.

Groups

Under groups, we display which groups you currently belong to. You will only be able to see the Groups if you have added the Groups application.
Go to Application ---> Groups

Photos

Shows images you have uploaded to your Profile. You will only see images if you have added the Photos application.
Go to Application ---> Photos.

Wall

In Wall, you and your friends (at current time of writing, others too) are able to leave a comment on your Profile Page. You will only see the comments if you have added the Walls application. Go to Application ---> Edit, and add the Walls application.

You can post Youtube videos by typing  

Let's say the Youtube link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voYkKxSPkfw&feature=related

To paste the Youtube video on the Wall, you type:  

Applications

There are many applications in YourStory Online. You can choose which application you would like to have on your account.

List of Applications

Groups - allows you to display your groups that you are subscribed to and manage your groups

Comments -adds commenting to your profile

My Blog - enable you to write blog entries in your profile

Latest Photo -   allows you to upload and display Photos at your Profile - at present, only allow for single upload of photos

Friends Location - YourStory uses Google Maps to automatically locate and map your friend's locations

Walls - allows you and other people to comment on your Wall at Profile Page

Eventlist - allows you to manage events, create venue database, etc

My Twitter Updates - get updated on twitter

To see the list of applications, go to Application --> My Applications

To edit it, go to Application --> Browse. Here, you will be able to:

    1. find out what are these applications for

    2. setting each of the application based on your preferences

    3. set the arrangement of applications by dragging it (ctrl + drag up or down).

    4. adjust the privacy setting of each application

    5. remove the application that you do not want to use

Personal Messaging

Our community personal messaging system allows you to send a message to any site members easily. There are 2 ways to send a message, via your own inbox or by click on user's profile and write a message.

Groups

You can join and participate in groups easily. Before you can post on the group wall or create a discussion, you will first need to become a member of the group. Click the "Join Now" to join your group.

To manage Group that you joined, go to Application --> Group.

Here, you can view the current groups, search a group as well as view groups that you have joined. You can also create a new group.

Group Features

Announcement - Announcements list all bulletins you with to make to the group. Announcements does not support replies. Only Group founder can Create Bulletin for Announcements.

Discussion - Discussion lists all discussions anyone posts in the groups. Discussions support replies from group members.

Wall - Wall supports wall posts from members of a group. Wall also supports YouTube videos). Only the Group founder can remove wall posts.

Photos & Media - To manage your photos, go to Application --> Photos. Here, you can upload new photos, browse them and create photo albums.