The journal is your place to share your thoughts and ideas with other group members. Try posting a weekly entry about being a new parent or write about one of your hobbies.
All interested group members can view your journal if they click on your profile page. Journal entries add some excitment to your profile page and can provide additional information about yourself so that fellow group members can get to know you better.
How do I add an image to a journal entry?
* Find the image online that you want to use, right-click on the image (hold down Ctrl while clicking on a Mac) and select "Copy Image Location." This copies the exact Web address of your photo.
* Go to my big tent > profile > journal and choose "Create an entry."
* Set the "Upload from" drop-down box to "Web link" and paste the image address in the URL field.
* Click "Post."
You can also click "Switch to Rich Text Editor" to add HTML, embed videos, and use special formatting and fonts. Please note: The Rich Text Editor is not available for Safari users.
How do I add video to an entry?
* Go to my bigtent > profile > journal and choose click "Create an entry."
* Choose "switch to Rich - Text Editor" (while in Firefox and IE only) and click the film strip icon to provide a link to the video.
* Alternatively, you can copy and paste code into the body of the journal entry to embed a video (e.g., from YouTube).
* Just like with photos, videos come in a variety of formats. The rich text editor supports Flash, Quicktime, Shockwave, Windows Media, and Real media formats. In order for your video to be embedded properly, you must choose the right file type.
* Note: All YouTube videos are Flash videos. When you're on the General tab for adding media, make sure you choose "Flash" as your file type.
To remove a pet or family member from your profile, go to my bigtent > settings > family info and scroll to the bottom of the screen. Click "remove a member" and choose from the drop-down menu. Make sure to save your changes.
* Go to my bigtent > settings > contact info.
* Under "Addresses" click "add a new address."
* Once you've added a new address, click "set primary" in the box of the address you'd like to make your home address.
* You will also have the option to remove the old address.
* Go to my bigtent > settings > personal info and click "change" next to the profile picture.
* Upload your photo and wait until you see a preview of the photo before clicking "OK."
Visual Aid
The Nitty Gritty
Upload a new profile picture from your computer
* Click "Change" next to the current profile picture.
* Click "Upload"
* Browse for the file and select it.
* You'll need to wait until you see a preview of your image before you click "Ok."
You can upload an image up to 20MB, but please note that the larger the image, the longer it may take to upload. If you click "Ok" before a preview of your image appears at the left, your upload will fail.
Upload a photo from Flickr:
* Click "Flickr" and enter a search term (e.g., "flower"). Click on your desired image.
* To choose a photo from a website, click "Web," and enter the URL of the photo.
* Click "Get" then click on your desired image.
* Click "OK" to close the pop-up box.
* Click "Save" or "Save and View Profile" for your changes to take effect.
If you're not seeing your new photo:
If you've followed the instructions above and are still not seeing your new profile picture, either on your profile or on the roster, you may need to refresh your browser. To get your new profile picture to appear, simply follow these steps:
* If your new profile picture doesn't appear on the profile page, hold down Ctrl (Command/Apple on a Mac) and click the reload button in your browser. When the BigTent page reloads, you should see your new picture.
* On your group's member list, to bring up the correct picture, hold down Ctrl (Command/Apple on a Mac) and click the reload button in your browser. When the BigTent page reloads, you should see your correct picture in the list.
Your profile is comprised of information you filled out during registration, and information you added or changed on the "settings" page. Check out your profile by clicking "profile" at the top of the page. Then follow the instructions below to change any of the information.
Jump Start Instructions
To update any information shown on your Profile page:
* Go to my bigtent > settings.
* Choose from the tabs at the left to update different information.
* Make sure to save your changes.
Visual Aid
The Nitty Gritty
Edit Personal Info
On the "personal info" tab, you can edit:
* Profile picture - This is your default profile picture and will be shared with all groups unless you specify otherwise. Note: You can learn more about updating your profile picture in this FAQ: How do I upload a new profile picture?
* About me - This information will be found on your profile for all members to read about you.
* Interests and affiliations tags - These allow you to add more personal information in those categories. Tags are like keywords. Once you have listed some of your interests and affiliations, they will show up on your profile page. You can click on any listed tag to find other members with your same interests.
* Your Flickr username - Enter this information to share your Flickr photos on you BigTent profile. Note: If you encounter problem with linking your Flickr photos to your profile page, please make sure that you used your Flickr username not the email address you use to log into Flickr. Also, check to make sure photos in your Flickr account are publicly viewable vs. private. If you don't recognize the photos on your profile page it may be that you entered an incorrect Flickr username.
Edit Contact Info
On the "contact info" tab, you can edit the following information:
* Your email address - To change your email address, you'll need to first verify the new one. For specific instructions, see: Changing your primary email address
* Phone numbers (work, cell, and home).
* Address - In order to change your address, you'll need to add another first, then delete the old address. To learn more, view this FAQ: How do I change my home address on BigTent?
Edit Family Info
On the "family info" page, you can edit:
* Adult family members - Add spouses, partners, relatives, etc. You can also add small photos (avatars) for each, as well as gender and birthday.
* Children - Add children or due dates for expected children. You can add small photos (avatars) for each child, and can indicate gender, birthday and graduation year, as well as whether children are singletons or multiples.
* Pets - Add small photos (avatars), names, type of pet, gender and birthday for each pet, if desired.
* Note: To remove a family member, click "Remove member" and choose the family member or pet to remove.
Please note: If you make a change to any of the above information, please make sure to save your changes before navigating away from the page.
Choose who sees what information
You can control which members of which groups see any particular piece of information. For example, you can choose to share your email address with your parenting club, but hide it from members of your neighborhood association.
Profiles offer members the opportunity to share information about themselves, as well as photos, with other group members. The information you see on a member's profile page will depend on the information that member has chosen to share with the group.
How do I view someone's profile?
There are several ways to navigate to someone's profile:
OPTION 1: Use the member list to navigate to the member’s profile page:
- Go to my groups > [group name] and click "members." If your group has enabled this feature, you'll see a list of active group members.
- Find the person you're looking for in the list. You can sort by any of the fields by clicking the heading, or search by screenname.
- Click on the member's screenname or picture to see his or her profile page.
OPTION 2: When viewing content posted by the member (e.g., a forum topic), click on the member’s picture or screen name to be taken directly to the member’s profile.
Note: To view your own profile, you can follow any of the instructions above, or click “profile” in the upper right corner of any BigTent page to be taken directly to your own profile.
What is on my profile page?
The profile page will contain all the information you've chosen to share with your group, including your personal information, contact information, family members, and photos. You are in complete control of what members see on your profile page. Go to settings > profile privacy to indicate what is visible on your profile. Your profile also highlights gifts you've received, recent posts you've made, and businesses you own that you've advertised in the "Reviews" area.
How do I update the information on my profile?
The information on your profile comes from the information you've filled out on the "settings" page and the group's membership form. Click "settings" then choose from the tabs on the left to update your personal, contact, and family info. You can update custom fields by going to settings > group info and clicking "Edit group membership info."
