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1.
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New features
(Click for More Information):
This page list the latest features that have been added to Community Builder and the date they were implemented
on the live site.
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2.
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Client administration panel
(Click for Images):
To give you an idea of the vast scope of features built into the Community Builder system
let's start with the client administration panel. Every administrator of a community has
access to the client administration panel that they use to do all the tasks of setting up
and maintaining their community. The image below show only the top level of the client
administration page. From each button you access another full admin panel with all of the
specific functions of the feature described by the top level button. Yes, it does take
time to learn all of the features and how to use them but it's nice to know they are all
there when you are ready to explore and take advantage of them. Until then we have several
wizards to help you through the setup process which makes it quick and easy to get your
community started.
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3.
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Setting up your community
(Click for Images):
While it is true that there is a bit of a learning curve to understand all of the features
available in Community Builder we make setting up your community fast and easy with a
setup wizard. The setup wizard will walk you set by step through the setup procedure. You
can run the wizard as many times as you like until you are happy with all of the
configurations set for your community.
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4.
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Public and members-only menus
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Community Builder lets you customize the menu bar with numerous items that can be turned on or
off depending on what your community needs. Even the text of each menu can be customized.
As a platform Community Builder lets add content to menu items such as links to articles, videos,
events etc. on both publicly available pages as well as internal or members-only pages. This gives non
members a chance to sample the information that members are privy to and may sway non-members
into becoming members. The menu items that you post information to can be customized to reflect
the topic of information they will see on each page. For example you can create separate menus for
news articles, events, clubs, YouTube videos, etc. You can create up to 10 custom menus in the public
space. For each listing you can post a clickable image that redirects the user to a web page or video.
Each listing also contains a description of the article, event, video etc. You can set the border of
each new post to flash to indicate if this is a new listing. This give viewers an instant way to see if
there are any new posts that have been added. Each menu also has a drop down list at the top that
allows the user to quickly filter the results on that page by category. When creating new post on each
menu you assign it a category and the drop down list can then be used to filter the items on the page
by category. The list of category's is also customizable by you to as many or as few as you like. The
members-only menu times work exactly the same way but you must be a member to view these pages. In
addition the members-only pages allow you to set up a donate button for each item. This can be useful
if you are holding an event and are looking for a way to crowd fund the event.
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Make it a free or a paid community:
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It is possible to make your community either a free site or a paid membership site. However,
both modes can have free public facing pages as well as members only pages. If you decide to
make your community a paid membership subscription you decide the subscription price and what
the billing period will be e.g. (weekly, monthly, etc.) We use PayPal billing services to set
up and collect the membership payments so you do need a PayPal account in order to set up a
paid membership site.
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6.
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Member profiles:
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Members of your community are able to create a profile where they can post information about
themselves. The profile page has a free text field where the user can type whatever
information they wish to share about themselves such as their background, education,
degrees, and certifications earned, similar to a resume. They can also post a relevant
image on their profile which can be changed at any time. Each member decides if they
want their profile to be "searchable". If they choose to have their profile searchable
then their profile will appear in a list of search results on the profile search page if
someone enters search criteria that matches their profile.
Personal skills can be also be added to a profile and those skills are a "searchable"
feature. For example if you have wood working as a skill on your profile and someone
searches for people with wood working skills they will show up in the search results.
Skills can be added or removed from a profile at any time.
For privacy reasons you can enter a "public" first and last name and a "public" email
address. which is different from your actual account information. You can think of these
as a nick name and this is what appears in the search results. This keeps your account
email private and you can set up a separate email address for correspondence with
community members.
For additional security you can also publish a public encryption key if you wish to keep
your communications with other members completely private.
Details of how to do this are listed on the member profile page and it's very
simple!
Profiles can also be added to a favorites list so you can quickly return to your
favorite member profiles to check for updates and new projects or gallerys.
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7.
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My favorites:
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This page gives each member a way to quickly store links to their favorite member's profiles and projects.
It makes it easy to check out the progress of their favorite projects.
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8.
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My files:
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Members can view the files they have uploaded to the system. From this page they can delete
one or more files or link to the page where they can upload additional files.
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9.
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My messages:
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Members can communicate with each other through PMs or (Personal Messages). If you can
find someone through the search feature then you can send them a PM. These are not emails
but messages stored in the system and can be retrieved by a member when logged in. Since
the messages are stored we provide the ability to encrypt your messages for privacy.
The method to create a public-private key pair and the way to publish your public key
is detailed on the members profile page where the public key is displayed.
Since each member generates their own public-private keys to encrypt their messages they
can not be read by anyone except the member they are intended for. Deleting a PM deletes
it completely from the database such that it can not be retrieved.
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10.
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My gallerys:
(Click for Images):
Images and gallerys are a fundamental part of Community Builder. Members can upload images
to the system so that they can be compiled into various gallerys and then those gallerys
can be "attached" to member projects or to bulletin-board postings for others to view. There
are two ways members can approach the use of gallerys.
a) Members can upload multiple images simultaneously by simply selecting
all the images at once on the upload page. Later they can create one or more gallerys and
then move those images into the gallerys. Also the same image can be part of as many gallerys
as you like without duplicating it.
b) A smarter approach would be to create your gallerys first and then perform the upload of
the images. This is smarter because before you upload the images it gives you the opportunity
to select which gallerys the uploaded images should automatically be added to. This saves
several steps in creating a gallery and adding images to it.
Of course gallerys can be edited by adding additional images or deleting images from them.
Removing an image from a gallery does NOT delete the image but simply removes it from the
gallery. However, there is a full search feature that allows you to search for the images you
have uploaded and delete them if you like. Deleting an image automatically removes that image
from all gallerys it was a part of. Gallerys also give you the ability to display a "public"
image name since some images have strange names made of numbers and letters but you can give
it a shortened friendly name that will appear in the gallery that should give a hint as to
what the image actually is.
Members can make their gallery's available to view by attaching a gallery to a project or a
bulletin-board posting. When a member views another member's projects or bulletin-board posts
they will see a list of attached gallerys. Each gallery of images can then be explored.
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11.
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My projects:
(Click for Images):
Projects are another integral part of Community Builder. Projects let you show other
community members what you are working on through the project's blog and gallerys.
When you create a project you can select a project category which helps others find
the projects they are interested in by selecting a category in the project search page.
You can also select a difficulty level to indicate the skill level necessary to complete
the project. You can create as many projects as you like and use the project's blog to
explain your project and how your project is proceeding.
Gallerys can be attached to your projects so you can visually show the progress of your
project or to show others the details of how you accomplished something specific. There
may be times when you want to hide your project so you can simply set it as non searchable
until you are ready to reveal your project(s) to the community. Projects can also be added
to a favorites list so you can quickly re-visit your favorite projects to check their
progress.
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12.
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Member bulletin-board:
(Click for Images):
Community Builder has a bulletin board where members can post information to the entire
community. The bulletin-board post can be sorted to quickly find the types of post you may
be looking for. Clicking on an individual post item opens a details page where you can see
both the header listed on the BB but also the detail message that accompanies the post.
The system allows the administrator of the community to create a list of category's of BB
posts. When members create a BB post they choose a category. This allows other members to
filter BB post by category which allows them to quickly find the category of posts they
are interest in.
For privacy reasons members can also add a different contact email address where other
members can respond to your post. Usually this email address is a throw away address created
on a service like g-mail or yahoo mail and only used only for a short term communications
associated with the BB post. This way you don't have to give out your everyday email address
and once you are finished with your business you can delete that particular email address.
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13.
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E-Commerce system
(Click for Images):
There is a built in E-commerce module that lets you sell your products or plans (i.e. files)
to members of the community or even public viewers of the site.
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14.
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Patron loyalty system:
(Click for Images):
There is a built in patron loyalty system where members can earn rewards (in points or in
crypto currency) for things like attending events or purchasing swag.
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15.
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Customized color themes:
(Click for Images):
Community Builder has a feature called themes. A theme is a set of color choices for
almost every element you see on screen such as font color, background color, table row
colors, table header color, table footer color, edit field back color, and much more.
As part of the setup wizard you create your own colors theme(s). To aid in the creating
of themes for your community their are predefined system themes that you can use. However,
you can build a new theme from scratch or you can makes a copy of a system theme and use
it as the basis for a new custom theme.
Once a theme is created it can be applied to the entire site with the click of a mouse.
when a theme is applied all pages will reflect the theme's color choices however, the colors
can still be tweaked after the them is applied which only affect the site and not the theme.
You may want to create themes for specific holidays and apply them for the duration of the
holiday and then switch back to your default theme once the holiday is over. Themes for
Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween would be examples of holidays themes.
To enhance a theme you may choose a background image to be applied with it. The theme
builder page lets you view what the theme will look like with the background image applied
before you add it to the theme.
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16.
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Plugin modules:
(Click for Images):
Community Builder has many different modules that can be turned on or off with the click
of a mouse so you can utilize the modules that you find useful and turn the rest of them off.
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17.
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Signup module:
(Click for Images):
The signup module is where people can signup to become community members. This is a highly
customizable page that lets you tailor it to the needs of your community. You may "turn on"
or "turn off" almost any field as part of the signup process. There are also very specific
choices a member can make regarding what type of email contact they are willing to accept.
You have the ability to set the default values of these choices from the client administration
panel as the administrator of a community. There is also a number of security questions for
new members to answer to help keep their accounts safe. These are used as part of the
password reset process to assure no one can spoof a password reset but they not the only
security measure in place.
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18.
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Survey module:
(Click for Images):
The survey module allows the community administrator to set up detailed surveys and get
feedback from community members. Surveys can be assigned specifically to club members within the
community. If the administrator is running a patron loyalty system system they can assign
the points a member can earn by answering survey questions.
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19.
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Reports:
(Click for Images):
Community Builder has many useful reports you can run at any time. Each report will display
the results on the screen but you can also export the data in the report to a file in either
a delimited text file or as an XML file. But even better Community Builder lets you schedule
some reports to be run on a period of your choice and the results of the report will be sent
directly to your email address. This is a great way to keep up to date on the community metrics.
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20.
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Custom HTML e-mail system:
(Click for Images):
For administrators of the community there is a custom email system that allows you to
communicate with your community members based on many different membership parameters while
also respecting their e-mail preferences. The email system lets you build what's called a
segmentation list which is a stored set of parameters that selects a particular
set of members based on criteria like their postal code, age range, gender, and others.
You can create as many segmentation groups as you like and when you would like to
send an email to your members you simply choose the segmentation group to send to.
In addition to segmentation groups you can also import a lists of email addresses
and save those list to be used as the basis for sending out email blasts. There are also
tools to help clean up those addresses by removing duplicates and invalid email addresses.
Once you have your segmentation groups and email lists to send to the system lets you build
custom HTML formatted emails with images and colors based on a template to set your emails
apart from most others. You can build and save as many templates you like. Once you have a
template you can set the images you would like to use in the template. Finally, the system
allows you to test your emails before sending them out so you can make sure they are
exactly what you want before you blasts it out to members. Finally, the email system
integrates each member's email preferences they have selected as part of their profile.
This assures a members does not receive unwanted emails or emails too frequently.
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21.
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PromoNet:
(Click for Images):
Community Builder offers more than social media. The premium features of Community Builder offer incredibly useful business
applications. One such module is PromoNet and Adver-Gaming or Game-vertising module. You can test out a few examples of the
PromoNet module at the following link:
PromoNet Example Games
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22.
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Online Time Sheets:
(Click for Images):
Another premium feature of Community Builder that offers incredibly useful business applications is Online Time Sheets.
With online time sheets employees can enter time directly into a database and the office can run reports anytime they like
to see the hours and expenses their employes or consultants have entered for any date range.
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23.
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Online security:
(Click for More Information):
Security is a huge concern with online systems and that's why we have spent an enormous
amount of time building security protocols into Community Builder. We meet and in almost
every case exceed today's industry best security practices. Below is a list of a few of the
security protocols we have implemented into Community Builder.
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