User Help
Please review the frequently asked questions below if you need help to perform a task in dgCommunities.
For more general information, you may also refer to What is in this site?
1. How do I register for membership?
2. Can I be a member of more than one community?
3. Where do I change my user preferences?
4. Why/how should I add my profile to the Directory?
5. What is “My Contacts”?
6. How do I contact other members?
7. How do I post content?
8. Does someone review my content before it is posted?
9. Will my content posting be listed in the Highlights, Alerts, etc?
10. How do I subscribe to newsletters and e-mail alerts?
11. How do I unsubscribe from newsletters and e-mail alerts?
12. How can I become a community guide, advisor or associate volunteer?
13. What can my organization do to help?
1. How do I register for membership?
Please go to the registration page and complete the required information. You may make your member profile available to other members but your e-mail address will never be shown. Your personal information will never be disclosed to third parties. Please read our privacy policy for more information on how we use and protect your information.
2. May I be a member of more than one community?
Yes. You may join as many communities as you wish. You can add or remove membership in communities at any time by logging in and going to Update Subscription Preferences in the right column of My Gateway.
3. Where do I change my user preferences?
Once you are a registered member, you can change your user preferences for e-mail alerts, newsletters and more at any time by logging in and going to Update Subscription Preferences in the right column of My Gateway. You can change your account information and language preferences at View/Edit Account Info.
4. Why/how should I add my profile to the Directory?
All members are encouraged to post short professional profiles and a digital photograph as soon as possible after they register. It may include details about your organization, interests and expertise. Your personal e-mail address will never be displayed.
Once you register and log in, you can add your profile by going to Edit Profile in the right column of My Gateway. To upload a photo, place a jpg file on your computer desktop and then access it by clicking “Browse” in our edit page to locate the image. You can change or remove your photograph at any time.
5. What is “My Contacts”?
My Contacts is a useful tool for professional networking. It helps you contact or track dgCommunities members who post content that you like, or who share your fields of work and interest. Your personal contact list is kept in My Gateway and can also be accessed from the Member Directory.
6. How do I contact other members?
My Contacts offers an e-mail forwarding service to help you reach out to other members. Member e-mail addresses are not displayed and members may choose whether or not to respond to a new contact.
7. How do I post content ?
You must a registered member and logged in to post content in dgCommunities. Go to the community where you wish to add content and in the center column find the heading for “Latest Additions”. Click the button that says “Add content here.” A field will appear asking for the url link, a title, and a summary of the content you are adding. You may also add a pdf or Word document. You must also categorize your submission by selecting at least one content type and one region that it relates to. It is also helpful if you index the resource into one or more key issue areas. When all the fields have been entered, click ‘Submit’. The resource will then go to a bin where it will await approval by the volunteer community guide.
8. Does someone review my content before it is posted?
Content added to a community is reviewed by volunteer community guides or content coordinators who are Development Gateway Foundation staff members. Content is reviewed for relevance and quality only. It is usually approved within one day and will then appear as a resource on the community. An e-mail alert is automatically sent to our community members when a new resource is posted to the community. All volunteer guides and coordinators are committed to a community that is free of bias or preference for any particular source of content.
9. Will my content posting be listed in the Highlights, Alerts, etc?
E-mail alerts automatically are sent to all users when a new content resource is added. Volunteer community guides are responsible for developing regular topic highlights on the community pages. If your content is relevant to the highlight, the guide may choose to feature it as a highlight resource.
10. How do I subscribe to newsletters and e-mail alerts?
Members can choose to receive newsletters when they register for individual communities. This can be done on the registration page or, later, at Update Subscription Preferences in the right column of My Gateway.
11. How do I unsubscribe from newsletters and e-mail alerts?
Members can unsubscribe from newsletters by going to Unsubscribe on the right column of the My Gateway page.
12. How can I become a community guide, advisor or associate volunteer?
New team members are always welcomed at dgCommunities. Send an e-mail to the community Coordinator describing your interest in joining the team and you will be sent a description of team opportunities for individuals. Coordinators and other team members are listed in the left-hand navigation of each individual community. Learn more on the Get Involved page. You can also send a general e-mail to dgcommunities@dgfoundation.org.
13. What can my organization do to help?
dgCommunities depends heavily on collaboration with other organizations. Please go to the Get Involved page to learn more.
