Registration
Creating a community
Writing a blog
Tags
Registration
If you haven't yet registered for an account you can click the Create an account link.
Complete the form and an email will be sent to the address you registered with.
Make sure you check your junk folder.
You will need to click the link in the email to activate your account.
Once your account is registered you can edit your profile.
Complete as many of the fields as you're comfortable with. Any fields you leave blank will be populated with the word 'empty'
When you add Your site: you must include the http:// (ie. http://mysite.com)
Creating a community
Once you are a registered member you can create a community.
The form is fairly self-explanatory.
Unique community name:
Title:
Description:
Category:
Choose from one of the following categories:
- Bands
- Fans
- Site (originally designed for BandUnite admins but there's no reason why you can't create a community within this category)
Membership:
Choose from one of the following options:
- Free - Anyone can become a member of your community
- Moderation - Users can request to join your community
- Closed - You can invite users to join your community
Who can write:
Choose from one of the following options:
- All - Anyone can write in this community, even non-members
- Only members - Only members can write in this community
Moderate:
Choose from one of the following options:
- Non moderation - All posts appear immediately
- Moderation - New posts must be approved by the moderator*.
When your community is up and running you can begin writing blogs for it.
As owner of a community you can assign moderators* (if needed)
Writing a blog
The first thing you need to do is choose where you want your blog listed.
All users can write personal blogs but Community owners and moderators can also writeto their communities. Some communities may also allow public blogs.
Give your blog a title.
An interesting title, something meaningful, will always generate more views than a plain old "my blog"
Now you're onto the meat and bones of your blog.
Write as much or as little as you like but please try and format your text nicely. Nobody wants to read a wall-of-text!
You can also include images in your blog, but bear in mind that the maximum allowed width for any image is 600px.
Now it's time to talk about Tags...
Tags
The tags section of your blog will contribute to the Tag cloud which can be found all over the site.
On the home page you will see the Tag cloud for the whole site.
When you're looking at a blog or a community you will only see relevant tags listed in the cloud.
Click on a Tag and you'll see a list of blogs that have used the same Tag.
The size of the font will indicate how popular each Tag is within the cloud.l
When adding Tags to your blog you need to separate them with commas like this : RHCP,Red Hot Chili Peppers,rock etc.
Ideas for Tags to add to your blogs
Bands might want to include the names of bands they're influenced by, the areas they gig in, the venues they play in, the genre of music they most closely associate themselves with etc. etc.
Wikipedia has a more detailed description of Tags here and Tag clouds here.
