Latest Contributions by MichelleMathias

All About Content  Content is organized into content boards (also know as Interaction Styles). Each board will contain one type of content. The  board options are: Questions Blogs Documents Videos Events Ideas   Questions A question is where the author is seeking a specific solution to a problem they are having. The questions functionality allows the author and administrators to mark the correct response to the question, allowing the author and others to find that solution faster. When to use it: Use the Question content type when you are seeking a specific answer to help solve an issue or want to start a discussion. Example: Re: Story Map Zoom Level Additional resources: How to ask a question How to write a good question that will generate responses How to insert code in your post How to post a reply or comment   Blog Posts Similar to documents, a blog post is intended to convey information to the community in the form of an article or story. It helps drives engagement through comments and allows readers to share their thoughts, opinions, or ask questions about the post. A good example of a blog post is the announcement of features for a product release or updates about an event. When to use it: Use a blog content type when you are trying to share a news story, product update, opinion, or thought leadership. When not to use it: Do NOT use blogs to only share a single link or if you want to collaborate on a topic. To quickly share links or start an open-ended conversation, use the Discussions content type (see above). If you want to share updates on information that you will be regularly updating, use collaborative Documents (see below). Example: Hurricane Maria Mapping Project: We Need Your Help  Additional resources: How to create a blog How to insert code in your post   Documents Documents, similar to Google Docs, are native documents you write directly in the community and use to collaborate with multiple people. When to use it: Examples of collaborative documents are when you need to create several versions to share and track meeting notes or create how-to guides, policy outlines, workflows, training materials, step-by-step how-to guides, etc. When not to use it: Do not use Documents to share news/events updates, start open discussions or stand-alone questions. Use the other content types above for each respective need.  Example: Compress Geodatabase Tool  Additional resources: How to create a document How to insert code in your post   Private Messages Creating a Private Message will allow you to send a personal message to another Esri Community Member. The message will then appear in the Member's inbox and they can reply. If their email notifications are turned on, they will also receive an email alerting that a message was sent to their Esri Community inbox. When to use it: Messages can be used when sharing a space, group, or content type, links, or other information that is only going to a select few members in Esri Community. When not to use it: Don't use messages to send out a blanket blast to others in the community. Remember to use the Esri Community Guidelines. Additional resources: How to connect and disconnect with members How to use Private Messenger (PM) How to search for community members   Videos  The videos can be inserted into questions, blogs, documents, ideas and event content types. The feature allows users to directly upload a video from their computer to the community as embedded into a post.  NOTE: Videos must be MP4, YouTube or Vimeo or another allowable URL source to be uploaded or embedded. Video size is unlimited. However, timeouts, loading issues and lag may occur with large videos over 1GB depending on a user's internet/network/browser.  When to use it: Videos are a great way to share information, entertain, or to provide a simple how-to in Esri Community. Remember to use videos from a reputable source that fall within the Esri Community Guidelines. When not to use it: Don't use video that does not come from a reputable source. Do not use video to create a Esri Community specific how-to instruction. If creating a Esri Community specific how-to, please contact the Esri Community team at Esri Community@esri.com to discuss your how-to needs and how we can help. Examples: How to Get Analytical Insights from your GIS Additional resources: How to create a video post   Ideas When to use it: Post an Idea when you have confirmed that your idea has not already been submitted by another member. Read Submitting a New Idea for further steps. To submit a post, you must be a Esri Community member.  Please Note: Esri staff and distributors cannot submit an Idea to ArcGIS Ideas. Please read the Idea Submission Guidelines for more details on posting an Idea in ArcGIS Ideas. When to not use it: Do not use ArcGIS Ideas for suggestions to improve the Esri Community, have a question rather than an Idea, or want to share a step-by-step process for using an Esri product or feature.  Note: You can post Esri Community enhancements to the dedicated Esri Community Ideas board. Also, only customers members can submit ideas. Esri Staff and distributors should use internal channels and Internal ArcGIS Ideas area of the community.   Example: Audit log for ArcGIS Online  Additional resources:  ArcGIS Ideas FAQs   Content Creation Guidelines   Private vs Public Content By default, content you create is public in the community and searchable. The power of Esri Community is that everyone in the community can benefit from the shared and collaborative content. However, in some cases, you may want to limit who sees content and who can collaborate on it. Or, you can choose to publish your content in a private group that limits content to approved members.  Monitoring Your Content You'll automatically be subscribed to any content that you create, so you'll receive an update in your subscription feed whenever anyone responds to your content or, if it's a document, changes it.   Interact with Content   Comments or Reply: This is the main way members interact with content, by replying to a post or adding a comment to a blog etc. This creates a dialog of sorts and begins the collaboration process. How to post a reply or comment How to reply to a post from email Kudo: The ability to Kudo content plays a key role in connecting with your colleagues, their work, and showing your support for something. From a blog post sharing a story to a document that really needed to be created, Kudoing is an effortless way to express a quick sentiment in the community. Kudos aren’t only limited to new posts. It can be done for comments and status updates as well. @Mention: The @mention functionality allows you to link a person, or post in the community. This can be used when collaborating to connect existing content and places or bringing in someone to the collaboration.  When @mentioning a person, the user is sent a notification in their Inbox. Depending on the person’s preferences, there may also be an email notification. Additionally, @mentioning people in content where they are already participating will generate two notifications: one for the @mention, the other for the update to the content. When you @mention post (content), it creates a quick hyperlink to the content mentioned.     Tags and Labels A tag is a single keyword or phrase that describes the topic, theme, or subject of a post. You can add as many tags as you want, and so can other community members. For example, in a post about a mouse, you might add these tags: mouse, USB mouse, optical mouse, wireless, DPI. Labels are used within a community to help categorize questions, blogs, ideas, documents that you write based on the themes or content in your post. Unlike tags, labels are created by the Community Admin for consistency. When available, posts must have labels applied from a predefined list for the board in which the content appears. Tags are more freeform and can be created by authors. How to use tags and labels   Subscribe: Should you encounter a piece of content (post), or a board that warrants watching it closely, you may choose to Subscribe to the post or board to be apprised of its changes and activity. How to set subscriptions, notifications, and email settings About the notification feed and real-time notifications   Bookmark: Bookmarking enables you to easily return to relevant or important pieces of content without having to search for them. You can only bookmark content, not people or places. To bookmark a post, go to post options, bookmark. Then your bookmarks can be found on your profile page.       ... View more

I an excited to introduce you to our new team members! Recently we expanded our team to include two new Community Managers and a new Community Operations Manager.     Simi Basu - Community Operations Manager   Jesse Cloutier  - Community Manager, Engagement and Content   Brianna Ettley - Community Manager, Engagement and Content             Coming soon: Community Manager, ArcGIS Ideas - in recruiting process Chris Catania  and I are not going anywhere, so you will still see and hear from us as well.  Join me in welcoming them to the team and our community! You will start seeing more of them as they begin engaging in the community over the next few weeks.  Cheers, Michelle   ... View more

Group Owners and Inviters can now invite members to a group via email!  How to send email invites to new group members: 1. Click on Options Menu and select: Send Invite             2.  In the Invite pop-out window, add Enter email addresses (you can leave the username field blank) 3. Click on the info icon for info on how to add email addresses and note that they do not have to be community members.   4. Here is an example of the email the will receive but with your name and group hub information.   5. From the email they can click to Join this group hub. If the email address is associated with a current Esri Community member account, it will allow them into the group.  If it is not associated with a current Esri Community member account it will send them to the Sign In page to create an account.  If they run into an issue with their account or sign in, they can email the community team at esricommunity@esri.com note: if they reply directly to the email it will send to the Esri Community team email inbox. If that happens we can forward the message to the sender of the invite for follow up. Unless, of course, it is an account issue that we can help fix, in which case we will attend to it.    Group Join Troubleshooting   For Public User Groups, no invitation or requests to join are needed to facilitate membership. Anyone can view content without membership and joining as an official member does not involve steps beyond opting in via the “Join Group” button on a User Group’s home page. For Closed and Hidden User Groups, access is managed by membership. Esri Community must recognize that a user’s Esri Community account is an official member of a given group before it will permit entry. This is intended behavior to prevent unauthorized access. This Troubleshooting FAQ can help users understand and navigate issues they may encounter while attempting to join or access Closed or Hidden User Groups. Q: I attempted to join a User Group from an email invitation, but I’m seeing a message that I have to be logged in to request to join. A: When a user sees the message that they must be logged in to send a request to join, this indicates that the user should log in (or create an Esri Community account first if they do not have one) and then try again. Image: User Group information page with a message in an orange bar that indicates the user needs to be logged in to send a request to join the User Group. Q: I attempted to join a User Group from an email invitation, but I received an error message: “There was a problem with your invitation. You might try contacting the person who invited you to resolve the issue.” A: An unresolved error has prevented the group join process from completing. In the event of a failure to join a Closed User Group via an email invitation, the user can use an alternate method to become a member of the User Group by (1) locating that group via the User Groups page or via the hyperlinked group name in your email invitation, and (2) use the “Send request to join” button on that page. This will notify Group Owners of your request so that they can review and either Approve or Deny your membership. Image: User Group information page with a callout to a blue button that can be used to request membership in the group. In the event of a failure to join a Hidden User Group (these are not listed on the User Group page), please contact the Esri Community team: esricommunity@esri.com Q: I’ve sent a request to join a Closed or Hidden User Group and I’m still not able to get in. A: Your invitation must be accepted by a Group Owner to be made an official member and before you can access the User Group. If a reasonable amount of time has passed since your request was made (we recommend waiting several business days), you may try privately messaging a Group Owner. Image: User Group information page with a callout to the hyperlinked usernames of the Group Owners. Clicking on their username on the group information page will take you to their profile. From there, you can initiate a private Direct Message (button found on right-hand side) if you both have this feature enabled. Q: I’m attempting to access a page in a User Group I already belong to, but am getting a message that the page is Hidden or Archived. Image: Esri Community page with a banner reading "Hidden or Archived Page" and a red ribbon with a message indicating the page is either no longer public or the user does not have permission to view it. A: When a member of a User Group sees this message, it may indicate that they are not currently logged into an Esri Community account that has membership in the Closed or Hidden User Group. Because Closed and Hidden User Groups are private to members by design, the system must recognize members to grant them access, and it can only do that when they are logged into their Esri Community account that has specifically been given membership. For clarity, membership in Esri Community does not automatically mean membership in a User Group. A user must have both to access a given Closed or Hidden User Group. Because Esri Community accounts are automatically logged out after a set time as a security measure, User Group members may encounter the Hidden or Archived page message while following a bookmarked page or an activity notification email to a post in that group without realizing that they are no longer logged in. To remedy this, simply log in and try again. Q: I am a member of a Closed or Hidden User Group and am logged into my Esri Community account, but I still can’t access the group. A: Esri Community permits users to have more than one account, and sometimes users will log into an account whose email address or other identifying credentials don’t match the email address they received their invitation to join the group at. Or, it may be that they are logged into an Esri Community account that is different than an account they own which does have access to the User Group. To remedy this, either log into the Esri Community account that has membership or request User Group membership for your preferred account by (1) locating that group via the User Groups page or via the hyperlinked group name in your email invitation, and (2) use the “Send request to join” button on that page. This will notify Group Owners of your request so that they can review and either Approve or Deny your membership. . . . . . Still encountering issues and need help? Contact the Esri Community team: esricommunity@esri.com ... View more