How to Join SVMHA online
Note: These instructions are for Board members and Online Committee volunteers only. This information will not be helpful for residents and owners just using the website.
Once you’re signed up you can easily add Comments to ask questions and help us continue to clarify these instructions and to improve this website. You can also create your own Posts, and even insert photos. Posts can be on any topic, and as more residents check this website it will be a great way to organize and announce things. For example, did you hear about the free tickets?
Note that to get started you first need to receive an “invitation” email from us, sent from our free WordPress service. That step helps to protect our site from unauthorized access and use. When you’re ready to sign up for your free account, just let us know and we’ll send the Invitation to the email address you give us. Once you get that email you could have printed copies of this and our general Help page handy while you sign up. That way you can go step by step, as if we’re answering questions over your shoulder as you go. Pat Hair-Reid says it’s so easy even she can do it!
Please post your Comments on this HowTo and your experience in signing up, so that we can continue to improve things for others! Note that the Online Committee is drafting a set of Use Policies to Post on this website, just to make sure this always remains as friendly a place as our neighborhood.
How to sign up:
1. In the email you receive from “WordPress” click on the link after the words:
“To accept this invitation, visit …”
*NOTE: If clicking doesn’t take you to a signup screen, copy the link and paste it into the Location window of your web browser application to reach the signup website.
2. Be sure you have some handy way to take notes, either on your computer or a pad of paper you’ll be able to find later.
On your web browser’s screen will be a section that says “Get your own WordPress.com account…” and in the “Username” box type in the name you’d like (in this example, “Test” was chosen). Write down this name on your pad or in the file on your computer.
3. Choose a password and be sure to write it down. Note the password strength indicator (“Strong” in this example), that will change as you improve the quality of it. Choosing a Strong password is HIGHLY recommended, to prevent hackers from gaining access to your personal info and potentially that of other users. Strong passwords will contain both letters and symbols. Do NOT use anything easy to figure out, such as common words. An easy method is to make up a “sounds like” phrase containing numbers that’s relevant to SVMHA and all in one word, for example: ta2sv4fun! In other words: Test Account (ta) to (2) San Vicente (sv) for (4) fun! Of course, don’t use that password since the hackers can now find it online and defeat our security.
4. Type in the email address you gave us for the SVMHA Invitation. That’s what we and the website will use for contacting you. Be sure to write it down, along with your username and password! This will also be handy if you lose your password, because the site can email a new one to you. Click the “…terms of service” link if you’d like to see it, or click the “I have read…” box if you’re a trusting person.
5. Choose whether you’d like to just have a username account for access to the SVMHA site, or the pre-selected option which is to additionally start your own ambitious website (blog). Either choice is fine, since you don’t have to ever use the blog that’s created if you forget to click the button we recommend for “Just a username…” That option’s less confusing, and you can always start your own free blog in the future.
6. You’ll be taken to a new screen where you can customize your account a little, but if you do be sure to write down what you put there. Instead though, it’s easier to simply ignore that screen and check your email. Another new email will have been automatically sent to you from WordPress and inside it will be the line “click on the following…” If clicking on it doesn’t work automatically, again you can copy it and paste it into the Location window of your web browsing software.
Log IN and Explore
Now you can log in by visiting the SVMHA website and clicking on “Log IN-Home Pg” at the lower right of every screen under “ADMIN” on the SVMHA website https://svmha.wordpress.com/ This will take you to the SVMHA Home Page, so it will be familiar and your web browser may have an option to automatically remember your name and password for convenience. You can also click the “Remember Me” button on the login screen so that the website may remember you too (note this may not always work depending on your browser settings, so be sure to keep the signup info you wrote down). The other option for “Log IN-Dashboard” might be handy later, especially if you’re given the Role of Editor or Administrator.
Post a Hello
A great way to begin as a Board member or Online Committee volunteer is to add a Comment or even Publish a Post (see Publishing Your First Post on SVMHA). Add your Comments to let us know about any problems you encountered in getting signed up, or ideas you have about what might make it easier.
Dashboard
If you’re feeling comfortable browsing the website and writing Comments or Posts, it’s probably time to explore the Dashboard. When you’re logged in, a gray bar shows up across the top of the SVMHA screen (if it doesn’t, make sure you have JavaScript turned on in your web browser software). The gray bar looks something like the following, captured from the upper-left corner of the SVMHA website using a Mac and the Firefox web browsing software:
While logged IN (anytime the gray bar is visible across the top) you have a bunch of new options to explore. You might start with the “My Account” pull-down menu at the top left, and edit your Profile (but be sure to write down any changes you make).
Notice that the gray bar also has an option for My Dashboard, with more things you can tinker with. Next to the right is New Post, where you can of course create and Publish a new Post of your own. Anyone logged in can create a Post, but if you have the Role of Contributor you won’t be able to edit anything including your own Posts. If you have the Role of Author you can both create and edit your own Posts. Anyone with the Role of Editor can edit both their own Posts and those of others, and can also edit Pages. Although the Role of Administrator enables you to do almost anything including Invite and Remove any User, some things done or created by others can not be accessed. Here’s a link in case you’re interested to learn a little more about the four different Roles.
SVMHA 