Ad-hoc communities

Ad-Hoc Communities

   * Each user in Elgg has the ability to create communities and let others participate in them.
   * To create a community select ‘Your Network’ then the submenu ‘Owned Communities’
   * Now you need to create one – give the community a name (this can change later) and a username (this goes on the url and cannot be changed)
   * Once done press ‘Create’ – you now have a community
   * Click on the community icon (it will be the default system icon just now) – this will take you to the community site.
   * You now have a range of choices; you can edit the profile (this is the same process as your own profile, you can upload a community picture and edit the community details include setting up join restrictions. 

What can people do in a community?

   * Within Elgg, the community function is essentially a wrapper around some shared content.
   * Users in a community can all post to the collaborative blog, upload files to the community file repository, restrict access to members of the community or make things public
   * Each community has its own URL and RSS feeds making it easy to follow developments.
   * Communities can also subscribe to external content, creating an excellent resource 

How do you find communities on an Elgg install?

   * At the moment this is not very easy – you need to search by tag and hope the community owner has filled in the community profile or you can search for people who share interests with you and see what communities they participate in.
   * Future versions of Elgg are going to include a community finder which will allow users to find relevant communities.