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Frequently asked questions
Find answers to the questions that Communities users ask most often.
- What is a community?
- A community is a group of people who share a common interest. Communities provide an excellent way to connect members of a project team, organize a task force researching a particular subject, or bring together a group of like-minded people who share an expertise.
- Can I join any community?
- You can join any public community that has public access. Some public communities have moderated access, which means that request membership. Your request must be approved by a community owner. Restricted communities limit membership to a specified group, and be added by a community owner to become a member.
- What is a tag?
- A tag is a keyword that you assign to a community or content within a community. All added tags are displayed in the tag cloud. You can click a tag in the tag cloud to retrieve a list of communities or community entries that use the same tag.
- What is the difference between a bookmark and a feed?
- A bookmark is a pointer to a Web site that makes it easy for you to retrieve the URL or Web page at a later date. You can add bookmarks to a community from Web sites or directly from your community. A feed is a regularly updated summary of content from a Web site, along with links to full versions of that content. Community members can subscribe to feeds containing content of interest to the community, allowing them to access updated content from the feed without having to leave Communities.
- What is a discussion forum?
- A discussion forum is a place where community members can share ideas with fellow community members and discuss topics of common interest. Every community has a dedicated discussion forum.
- How can I collaborate with other members of my community?
- You can share ideas and information with other members of your community by posting topics to the discussion forum, sending e-mail notifications, and adding bookmarks and feeds to the community. You can also collaborate using a wiki, if your community has one.
- What is a widget?
- A widget is a self-contained, HTML-based representation of a software application. You can add widgets to communities from the selection available in the content palette. When you add a widget to a community, you create an association between that community and the widget application. Membership between the community and the widget application is synchronized, and links to the full widget application are created in the community's user interface so that you can easily find and work with the full application.
- Why add widgets to my community?
- Add widgets to your community allows you to make extra functionality available to community members. For example, adding the Wiki widget makes a wiki available for members to collaborate and create community content together. Add the Files widget so that you can upload files to share with fellow members.
Communities overviews, how-tos, and FAQs