Frequently asked questions in Communities

Find answers to the questions that Communities users ask most often.

How do I create a community?
Log on to IBM® Connections and access any of the Communities views (for example I'm a Member), then click Start a Community. You can then complete community details such as community name and description.
I just joined a community and am finding lots of useful information. How do I extend membership to colleagues who might also benefit from membership?
Only community owners can add members to a community. Why not send a link to the community to the people who might like to join, or ask a community owner to add them as members. Community owners of public communities can also invite people to join a community. The invitee receives an email that invites them to join.
What is the difference between a bookmark and a feed?
A bookmark is an easily accessible pointer to a web page. A feed is a regularly updated summary of content from a website, along with links to full versions of that content. Community members can subscribe to feeds that contain content of interest to the community.
How many important bookmarks can I add to a community?
You can add a maximum of 100 important bookmarks.
Can I create a community forum and make it private?
Only community owners can add a forum to a community. If the community is public, anyone who has access to Communities can see the content of the forum. If the community is private, only community members can see the content of the forum.
Can I edit another person's forum posts?
Yes, but only if you are a community owner.
How do I archive topics in a community forum?
Currently, you cannot archive topics from a community forum.
How can I collaborate with other community members?
You can share ideas and information with other members of your community in many ways:
  • Posting topics to the forum
  • Writing a blog entry
  • Sending email notifications
  • Sharing files
  • Posting topics in the community forum
  • Adding bookmarks and feeds to the community
  • Collaborating on shared projects by using community activities or a wiki, if your community has one.
  • Collaborating on shared documents in the library, if your community has one.

You can also collaborate by using the Status Updates app. You can post status update messages with information relevant to the community.

How do I create different distribution lists within a community?
If you are a community owner, you can create subcommunities within a community to bring together a subset of community members. This action is useful when you want to set up distribution lists that don't include every community member, or when you want to create specific focus groups within a community.
What is an app?
"App" is just a shorthand name for software application. Community owners can add apps to communities from the selection available in the app palette. Apps display on the community's Overview page and in the community navigation.
Why add apps to a community?
Adding apps to your community makes extra functions available to community members. You must be a community owner to add apps to a community.
How do I restrict members from adding content to a community?
As a community owner, you can restrict members from adding content by editing their membership role for specific apps.

If you are a community owner, you can also remove any of the apps in a community.

How do I unsubscribe from community emails?
There is no option available for unsubscribing from community emails. As a workaround, consider setting up a filter in your email client.
Note: You can disable email notifications for all of Connections from the E-mail Preferences tab. For more information, see Setting email notification preferences.
How do I keep up-to-date with the latest activity in a community?
You can stay current with what is going by selecting Recent Updates from the community navigation.
How do I find out what communities a person is a member of?
Open Communities, look for that person's name, and then try one of the following actions:
  • If your deployment includes the Profiles app, hover your cursor over the person's name and click the link to view their business card. When you click Communities in the business card, it displays the list of all the public communities to which that person belongs.
  • Alternatively, click the person's name to display a list of all the public communities to which that person belongs.
I accidentally selected the Leave Community option for a community that I own. How do I get reinstated as a community owner?
If you are the only owner of a community, you cannot leave that community. If you might leave the community, that means that there must be at least one other owner who can reinstate you as an owner.
How do I replace the image that is used as the logo for a community?
You must be a community owner to edit the community logo. To replace the community logo, select Community Actions > Edit Community and click Upload a Community Image.
What's the difference between a community and an activity?
A community is a teamspace where people can collaborate and share ideas. An activity is a place where the people who are involved in a project can assign tasks, and share resources like files, tools, and websites. Activities can be stand-alone or hosted within communities.
What's the difference between status updates and recent updates?
Status updates are updates that individual users post to a community. The recent updates page displays a summary of recent activity in the community (including status updates).
Can I change the type of a community?
Yes, you can change the type of an existing community.

Note: A subcommunity cannot be more visible than its parent. Therefore, if a parent community does not have Let anyone in my organization see the community's title, description, tags, and owners selected, then the subcommunity cannot have this set either.