Site FAQs

(Frequently Asked Questions)

Below you will find the answers to many Frequently Asked Questions.

*Help:

Q. Where do I go to for help with the site?

A. The site contains a variety of ways to get help and to find answers to your questions.

1. Check the Site FAQ & Tutorials section for the Glossary, FAQs page, or helpful video tutorials.

2. Post a question on the Site Help forum, one of the Member Forums under "Ask A Question”. In this forum, any Member or volunteer Staff can see your question and provide an answer.

3. Check the blog topics under Department of Knowledge (see Community Bloggers). This blog provides videos and Powerpoint presentations for some of the more advanced features of the site.

4. Open a support ticket via the "Help Desk" link at the bottom of the main menu. One of our volunteer support staff will find out the answer to your question as quickly as they can.

Note: Please check FAQ’s whenever possible before submitting a "Contact Us” form.

Chat:

Q. What is chat?

A. Chat is the ability to enter into a private conversation with another Member currently online. Any Member wanting to chat must have clicked the "Display my 'Online Now' status and allow others to start a chat with me” box under Member Profile: Preferences.

Q. How do I start a chat session?

A. You can only chat with a member who is currently online. If you see the red "Online Now” caption under the Members profile picture, there will be a "click to chat” link for you to open a chat session. Simply click the link and a chat window will open up for you to type in your message. After the message is sent, a Chat Box will open up on the receiving Member’s screen for them to reply.

Community Search:

Q. What is the Community Search?

A. Community Search is an all encompassing search engine for the entire site and also serves as the AHS Membership Directory. Use it to search for topics of interest in forums, blogs or pages by entering a key word. Enter a member’s name or part of a name and find your daylily friends from around the world! You can even see which AHS members are online when you are, by clicking the "Who's Online Now" link from either the Group Directory or Community Search.

Q. Does "Who’s Online Now” show me only my contacts that are online?

A. No, the "Who's Online Now" functionality will show everyone that is online at a given time, not just your contacts.

Q. Can I "opt out” of "Who’s Online Now”?

A. Yes. You can set your preferences to NOT show your online status by unclicking the "Display my 'Online Now' status and allow others to start a chat with me” box under the My Preferences section of Manage Profile.

Connections:

Q. How do I "connect” with another Member?

A. Go to the profile of the Member you want to connect  with (can be found by searching, clicking their name from a forum or blog post or from a Group Directory). In the purple bar just under the Member’s name, you will see a "Connect” link. Click the link and a message box containing a Connection Invitation will open up. You can write text or just click Send Now. The Member will receive a message in their Portal mailbox inviting them to connect with you. 

Q. How do I know who I am "connected” to?

A. From your profile, click on "Connections”. This will show you the profiles of all Members you are connected to. If you have many connections, you can organize them by moving them to preset categories found at the bottom of the screen.

Q. What are the benefits of "connecting” with another Member?

A. Being "connected” allows you to share a more detailed profile including personal pages, personal blogs and personal photo albums. Additionally, you can send a message to all of your connections at one time without having to message each individually.

Email-Managing Notifications:

Q. How do I update my email address?

A. Go go Manage Profile and then Edit Bio. This contains all the fields to update email, physical address, and anything else you want to change in your profile.

Q: How do I stop all the emails about people posting pictures or other things I am not interested in?

A. These settings are found under "Manage Profile”. From here, go to "Preferences” where you can click On which emails you want to receive and unclick those you don’t. A tutorial video about Setting Preferences is available under Site Faq & Tutorials if you would like additional information about setting preferences.

Forums and Blogs:

Q. What is the difference between the Member (Community) Forums and the Forums in my Group?

A. You will find multi-region discussion of these topics in the "Member Forums” area while Region-specific forums are found in the Group area. Member forums are for participation with all AHS members while Group forums, although visible by all members, can only be posted to by members of that Region.

There may be some overlap in forums between the Community and the Groups and that’s OK. Group forums, through a smaller participation base, can foster greater friendships among members of the same Region.

Q. How do I add a new Forum or Blog for my Group?

A. If you have a forum or blog idea for your Region, contact your Group Leader.

Q. When I reply to a forum post, I cannot see the previous message. How do I include a copy of it in my forum reply?

A. To include a previous message in your reply, highlight the area you want to include with your cursor and then click the "Quote" button. The quoted message will appear in your reply box.

Forums and Blogs - Attaching Images and other files:

Q. How do I attach an image or file to a forum, blog or photo album.

A. Attaching photos and files is simply a matter of following the link provided which will either say "Attach Image/File” or "Select File”. Both of these links will allow you to search files on your computer to upload to the site. Note:  Maximum photo size is 250KB.

Note: The Blog area will allow you to insert the photo directly into your post OR attach it at the end. The Forum area will only allow you to attach the photo at the end of your post. The attachment is a clickable thumbnail of the photo. Upon clicking the thumbnail, the photo will open up to full size in your browser. If you would like to add a photo directly to your forum text, please follow the steps outlined below.

Q. How do I add a photo to the body of my forum post?

A. Forums are not currently set up to add photos to the body of your post. However, by following the attached steps, you can include the photo with your text.

1. Upload the photo to your photo album.

2. Click on the photo.

3. Right click your mouse and "copy image location".

4. Go to the forum and start your post.

5. Click the Insert button at the top of the editor and then the yellow photo icon.

6. Paste the image location into "Source".

7. Click insert and your photo will be in the body of your post."

NOTE: If you subsequently delete the photo from your photo album, it will also delete from your post.

Forum & Blogs - Managing Subscriptions:

Q. Can I be notified whenever a new TOPIC is started on a Forum or Blog?

A. Go to the forum page and "Subscribe to instant updates". This allows you to receive an email notification whenever there is a new topic started in that particular Forum. If you prefer to receive all the new topics once per day, you can subscribe to the "Digest” instead.

Q: How do I know when there is a POST or COMMENT on a specific forum or blog that is of interest to me.

A. "Subscribe to instant updates" on the individual topic page allows you to receive an email notification whenever there is a new post on that particular Topic.

Q. How do I know which Forums, Blogs and topics I am subscribed to?

A. Go to Manage Profile. Under Community, click on Subscriptions. From here you can see which Blogs and Forums you are subscribed to as well as change your subscription settings.

Link or Hyperlink:

Q.  How do I add a website link to a Custom Page?

A.  Go to the website page that you want to link to your custom page and copy the URL.   Now go to your custom page.  Highlight the text where you want to add the link.  In the editor, click on "Insert" and then the "hyperlink icon" (it's the first one).  For source, click "http", then paste the URL that you previously copied.  You will need to delete the http:// from the URL since it is now included in source.  Then click Insert, Apply, and OK.  Click submit at the bottom of the editor.   When you view your custom page, you should see your link.  Click it and it will come up.  It is always a good idea to underline the link words so that people know they are clickable.

Password:

Q. What do I do if I lost my password?

A. Click the "Forgot Your Password?” link under Sign On. This feature allows you to reset your password.

Q. How do I change my password or update my profile information?

A. On the right side of your screen, click on Manage Profile and then Edit Bio.  Here you can change your username, password, address, email and any other information in your profile.  You can also indicate how much of the information is made available on your profile by checking the boxes next to the information.

Photo Size Restrictions:

Q.  What size photos can I upload to the site?
A.  The maximum size for photos uploaded to the site is 250KB.  If your photos are larger, please resize (see below).

Q.  How do I resize a photo so that I can use it on the site?
A.  There are many photo editing software packages available.  You can probably use the one that came with your camera.  If not, we recommend the FREE software program Irfanview as it is easy to use and allows you to resize photos by both dimension and dpi.

• IrfanView (Free) - IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative graphic viewer/editor for Windows.
     » IrfanView's website is www.irfanview.com.

Profile:

Q. How do I add my own photo to my profile picture (avatar)?

A. Hover your cursor over the existing avatar (profile photo). This will show you a link where you can change or delete the photo. Click on the link, browse our files and upload the photo that you want. For a video demonstration, see Site FAQ and Tutorials for the tutorial "Add Profile Headshot".

Q. How do I update my profile?

A. Go to "Manage Profile” and click on "Edit Bio”. This will provide you with a form for changing your email, physical address or any other information in your profile.

RSS

Q. What is RSS and why is it used?

A. RSS (Rich Site Summary) also called Web Feeds is a content delivery vehicle that brings updates directly to your computer. Many news-related sites, blogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.

RSS - Benefits and Reasons for using it:

Q. How do I use RSS on the Portal and why would I want to?

A. RSS allows you to easily stay informed of any new Topics or Posts on the Portal by retrieving the latest content from each forum or blog you are subscribed to. It also saves you time because it is not necessary to visit each forum or blog individually.

Screen Shot:

Q. The Help Desk volunteer asked me to send a "screen shot”. What is it and how do I make one?

A. As the saying goes, "a picture is worth 1000 words”. A screen shot is a picture of your screen and is useful for showing another person exactly what you are looking at. To take a screen shot, go to the page that you want to take a picture of. Press the Print Screen [Prt Sc] button on your keyboard (it may be located next to the F12 button, or above the number keypad on your keyboard). Nothing will appear to have happened. Now open the Microsoft Paint program (found under All Programs on your computer) and click "paste”. You will now see a photo of your screen on Paint. From here you can use the editor to cut and paste the section needed or just save the entire photo as a file.