• Beginners:
• • Registering at domeus
  • Logging in at domeus
  • Logging out at domeus
  • Starting a group at domeus
  • Subscribe to a group
  • Unsubscribing from a group
  • Reading messages
  • Writing messages
  • Editing your personal profile
•  
• Members:
• • Change eMail address
  • Change password
  • Forgotten password
  • Uploading and downloading Data
  • Password protection
  • Password protection as the default setting for your group
  • Password protection as method of authentification
  • RSS Feed Service for domeus
•  
• Moderators:
• • Managing your Community
  • Increasing your membership
  • Approving new subscribers
  • Deleting a member
  • Determining the rules for your group
  • Add or change the moderators of a group
  • Change from eMail/WWW mode
  • Advertising your group
  • Activities to avoid:
  • Removing messages
  • Deleting your group
•  

Beginners:

Registering at domeus

Everyone who visits www.domeus.com is able to find and read the online contributions of groups who have made their archives open to the public. If you would like to send contributions (a.k.a send an eMail message to a group), take part in online discussions or start your own group, you need to register for our free service. The personal information requested during registration will be strictly protected within our system. This means that your information will never be passed to a third party.

1. If you would like to register at domeus, please visit our home page and click on the icon "New Here?". You will then be asked to enter your eMail address (which you also use as your username), your full name, postal code and country of residence. To finish the registration process, simply click the "send" button.
2. Once you have correctly completed the registration process, a confirmation page will appear. Otherwise, the system will ask you to complete the previous form more comprehensively, indicating which blanks need to be filled in with an asterisk (*).
3. A few minutes after your registration, you will receive an eMail containing your domeus username and password. In order to complete your registration, it is necessary to confirm the receipt of this eMail either by sending us a reply eMail (simply click on "reply" and then send) or by logging into the domeus website with your username and password within a week of registering.

Logging in at domeus
If you would like to log into your domeus account, visit www.domeus.com and enter your eMail address as your username (example: me@emailaddress.com). Enter the password that was sent to you in your confirmation eMail, and click on the "Log In" button. A page entitled "My domeus" will then appear.
If you don't have a password because you are not yet a member of any domeus groups, please visit our homepage and register by clicking on "New at domeus".

If you have forgotten your password, please return to our homepage and click on the icon "Login Problems?", which is located in the Manage your Group area. At the prompt, enter your eMail address, and within a few minutes, your domeus password will be sent to you via eMail.

P.S.: Please remember to log out when you have finished using your domeus account.

Problems with logging out?
If you would like to use our system, you must also be able to use "Cookies".
For Internet Explorer Users: in the "Extras" menu, choose "Internet options". In the security category, choose the middle security setting or click on the "suitable security level" button and then choose to activate "Cookies".
For Netscape Users: In the "Customise" menu, choose "Cettings". Then click on "Roaming-action", "Object selection" and "Cookies".

Logging out at domeus
In order to log out of domeus, simply click on "Log out" on the left-hand side of each domeus page. Once you have logged out, your server will return to the domeus home page.

Starting a group at domeus
Starting a group at domeus is simple and free. Go to our home page and click on "Create a Group". In Step 1, you will be asked to decide what type of group you would like to start - either an eMail newsletter (one-way communication) or a mailing list (moderated two-way communication).

Click on the "continue" button. In Step 2, you will need to give your group a short name (that will be used as part of the eMail address for your group), and a longer, more descriptive name for the group. At this point, you can also decide to categorise your group in the catalogue, which will help other find your group in the domeus catalogue. Click on the "continue" button.

In Step 3, you can write a short description of your group (that will be used on your web forum page) and then create a welcome message that will be sent out to all your new members. Click on the "continue" button.

You will now arrive at page confirming the establishment of your group. You will then be given the choice of modifying your settings, adding members, writing message. You can choose to either invite or add members to your group at this time. Simply type their eMail addresses (one per line) into the appropriate box. For example, the settings for your group will determine primarily whether your group will be used as a newsletter or mailinglist, whether it is open to the public or private, and outline the rights of your group members. These settings can be changed after you create your group, on the "My domeus" page that appears once you have logged into domeus. Simply click on your group, and then make changes by clicking on the edit button under the appropriate section. If you invite members, they will need to confirm their participation by sending a reply eMail to their invitation eMail before they will be added to your member list. If you add members, they will automatically become members of your group. However, you should only add members directly if you are certain that they wish to be members of your group.

Subscribe to a group
Please follow these general directions when subscribing to a group:

1. Send a blank email to listname-subscribe@domeus.es and replace "listname" with the name of the list you want to subscribe to (e.g. news-subscribe@domeus.es). You will also receive a welcome message. Once you have decided on which group you would like to join, click on that group.
2. Once your subscription request has been accepted, you will then find this new group listed among your other groups on the "My domeus" page of your account.

Unsubscribing from a group
To unsubscribe from a group, simply log into domeus, and check the "unsubscribe" box next to the group which you wish to remove from your account on the "My domeus" page, and then click "update" to complete the process.

Reading messages
If you are not a member of domeus, you can read the previous contribution of some groups (i.e. those which are open to the public) via the web.

As a registered domeus member (>see Registering at domeus) you can subscribe to other domeus groups (>see Subscribing to a group ). Depending on whether you choose eMail mode or on web read only, you can receive contributions as eMails sent directly to your account, or by viewing them online. You can choose how you would like to receive the contributions of each group you subscribe to, on your "My domeus" page.

Writing messages
Even if you aren't a member of domeus, you can still send messages to those domeus groups that are open to the public, via the web. As a registered member of domeus (> see Registering at domeus), who has subscribed to a group (>see Subscribing to a group), you can send messages either via eMail or the web interface.

To send a message via eMail, simply send an eMail containing your message to the address of that group: name_of_group@domeus.com (Each domeus group has its own eMail address). To send a message via the web interface, simply go the description page of that group (found in the catalogue) and click on "messages" on the left-hand side of the page. There you will find all previous contributions; click on "write a message" to make your own contribution. Enter the subject and text of your message and then click on "send".

Editing your personal profile
You can view your personal profile at domeus by clicking on the "Profile" category on your "my domeus" page, once you have logged into the system. Required information includes eMail address, full name and postal code; if you choose, you can enter additional information about yourself in the profile. Under the "security" section, you can determine if your profile remains private and/or who is allowed to view your profile:

1. only the moderators of the groups to which you have subscribed;
2. or all the members of the groups to which you have subscribed.

If you would like to change your profile, simply click on the "edit" button. Confirm your changes by clicking on "save".

Members:

Change eMail address
To change your eMail address:

1. Under "My domeus", choose on your personal profile.
2. Click on the "edit" button to change the settings of your profile.
3. Delete your current address from the "eMail address" field, and enter a new address.
4. Click "update" in order to save your changes. You will now receive all your eMails at the new address.

Change password
To change your password:

1. Under "My domeus", click on your personal profile.
2. Click on the "edit" button to change the settings of your profile.
3. Delete your current password from the "password" field, and enter a new password.
4. Click "update" in order to save your changes. You will now be able to use your new password when you log in.

Forgotten password
If you have forgotten your password, simply visit www.domeus.com and click on the "Forgotten Password?" option on the "Log In" page. On the next page, enter your eMail address. The password corresponding to this address will automatically be sent to you via eMail.

Uploading and downloading Data

1. If you would like to upload data into your account, remember that a maximum of 5 MB can be uploaded at any given time. Your account capacity for file sharing is 20 MB (you can view your remaining capacity on the table listing your data files).
2. Enter the name of the file to be uploaded into the "data upload" field, or choose your file using the "browse" button. Then click on "upload" in order to start the transfer of data to the domeus account.
3. To download a document, simply click on the name of the file you would like. If this is a Microsoft-Office or PDF file, it will automatically open in the correct browser. Go to the browser menu and click on "File" and then on "Save" or "Save under". The document will then be saved to your hard drive. By clicking on the "Back" button on your browser, you will be able to return to the file sharing table in domeus. With other types of files, a dialogue box will appear, asking you how you would like to save the file to your PC.

Password protection
If the password protection is activated, all messages which are sent to your group will need to have the group password in brackets in the subject line of the eMail in order to be posted. For example:

"Subject: [Password] Party next week
Text: Hello everyone, ... "

Once the eMail is sent to domeus, the system will check the password. If it is correct, the message will be posted as normal. If not, the message will be ignored by the system, and returned to the sender.

Password protection as the default setting for your group
You can activate password protection as the default setting for your entire group. In order to do so, you must first indicate that only moderators and/or members of your group are allowed to write contributions. Password protection is not an option for groups which allow all domeus visitors to post messages. Password protection can only be deactivated by the moderator, and it is applied to all members of the group. Therefore, password protection allows you to ensure that only those who have permission to write have the ability to do so.

Password protection as method of authentification
If you are a member of a group in which only members are allowed to post messages, and in which password protection has not been applied to the entire group, you can chose to activate password protection for yourself. In this way, you can ensure that no one except for yourself will be able to send messages to this group from your eMail account - especially helpful if you share your computer. This feature is, of course, only available if you are already allowed to write post messages to this group.

RSS Feed Service for domeus
Websites releasing information or news on a regular basis normally present them as headlines, which are linked to the latest news. RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, including major news sites like Wired and news-oriented community sites. But it's not just for news. Pretty much any information that can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated via RSS. Once information about each item is in RSS format, an RSS-aware program can check the feed for changes and react to the changes in an appropriate way. RSS-aware programs called news aggregators are popular in the weblogging community. A news aggregator can help you keep up with all your favorite news and information by checking their RSS feeds and displaying new items from each of them. RSS is a common standard for exchanging web content on the basis of XML. The latest information is presented as headlines linked to the complete content. RSS at domeus
You can subscribe to groupmessages via RSS feed, so you subscribe to messages of certain groups you are interested in and get the headlines as a message overview page. Each headline is linked to the actual message and can be read if you click on the headline.

1. You need a so called feedreader >>>
• WWW-based solutions
• NewsIsFree
• netbib-Beispielseite
• PC applications (downloadable)
• AmphetaDesk
• Newz Crawler
• FeedReader
• others
• RadioUserland
• sunlog
2. In order to subscribe to the feed service of a certain domeus group please insert the provided URL into the feedreader. Attention: the provided file is not meant to be shown in the browser but to insert into the feedreader!!!
3. The URL takes you to the XML-file which you can open on the groupinformationpage by clicking on the orange XML button.

Please select the update according to the sendout interval of your group.

Moderators:

Managing your Community
As the moderator, you can manage your group through the "My domeus" page, by clicking on your group and then on the "manage" tab. Here you can make the following changes:

• Under "Info", you can find out the number of new members subscribed and new messages sent to your group.
• Under "Members", you can add or remove members.
• Under "Edit", you can change the personal profiles of the members.
• Under "Requests", you will find the requests of new members wishing to join your group. Place a tick in the "accept" or "reject" box, and click on "update" to confirm your decision.
• Under "Settings", you can determine the rules for your group. Here you can decide if your group is closed or open to the public, if you would like messages moderated by a member of the group, who has the right to post messages, etc.
• Under "Description", you can change the title, homepage description, and welcome message to new members for your group, etc.

Increasing your membership
If you would like to add more members to your group, click on your group and then on the "manage" button. Click on the "members" tab to proceed.
Here you will find two possible ways to increased the membership of your group:

1. Click on "Invite Members" - this will open a window in which you can enter the eMail addresses of people whom you would like to invite to join your group. They will then be sent a welcome message, which contains a username and password for our system. Invited members must reply to this invitational eMail, in order to join.
2. You can also add new members directly to your group, by clicking on the "add Members" option. Again, enter the eMail address of new members in the window provided, and they will be sent a message (containing their username and password) welcoming them to your group. Added eMail addresses automatically become members of your group; however if they do not wish to be members, they can unsubscribe simply by replying to the welcome message. It is important, therefore, to only directly add the eMail addresses of people whom you are certain would like to become a member of your group.

Approving new subscribers
If a group is closed, people interested in subscribing to your group can send an eMail request to the moderator, requesting membership. As the moderator, you can approve the membership of new subscribers by changing the settings as follows:

1. Under "My domeus", click on your group and then click on the "manage" tab.
2. Then click on "requests". Here you will find a list of users who would like to become members of your group. Simply tick on the appropriate option ("accept" or "reject") and then click "update" to confirm your choice.

Deleting a member
As the moderator, you have the right to remove members from your group:

1. Under "My domeus", click on your group and then click on the "manage" tab.
2. Click on the "members" tab. A list of your current members will appear. You can find a particular member using the "search" function.
3. Tick the "delete" box located at the end of the member's name and address in order to remove them from your group.
4. Confirm your decision by clicking on "update".

Determining the rules for your group
As the moderator, you can determine the settings for your group, so that they best suit your needs.

1. Click on "My domeus", and then click on the group whose settings you would like to change.
2. Choose the "manage" tab.
3. Click on the "settings" tab, which will have appeared under the previous tabs.
4. You will now be able to change the settings to best suit the needs of your group. Remember to "update" in order to save any changes.

Add or change the moderators of a group
Moderators are members of a group who act as administrators and are allowed to determine settings for the group (for example, they can decide who is allowed to post messages, how messages are sent, the security of the group, etc.). The owner of the group (the individual who initially created it) is automatically a moderator, even if a group is completely unmoderated. He or she is therefore the primary moderator of the group. If you would like to give a current member of your group moderator status, please proceed as follows:

1. Under "My domeus", click on your group and then click on the "manage" tab.
2. Under the "manage" section, choose the "members" tab.
3. Find the eMail address of the member whom you would like to make into a moderator, and click on the "edit" button next to the name.
4. A new window will appear, in which you will find a field called "Moderator". Tick the box indicating that this member should be allowed to act as a moderator, and click "update" to save your changes.

Change from eMail/WWW mode
There are two ways in which your members can access messages sent to your group: via eMail or online via the web.

1. Click on "My domeus"
2. After the name of the group to which you are a member, you can choose the way in which you would like to receive your message from this group:
• WWW You read your messages online at the webpage of the group.
• EMail You receive your messages as eMails into your Inbox.

Advertising your group
Here are a few ideas for increasing web awareness of your group:
Allow your group to be open to the public -
More people will be able to find your group, if it is recognised by a well-known search engine. Eventually, your group will accumulate a quantity of information on a specific topic, which will also help search engines to recognise your group and to direct other web surfers to it.

Register your group at a search engine -
Register the homepage of your community at a search engine, under the heading eMail-List and/or Mailing lists; recommended search engines include: Yahoo!, Lycos and Google. You can also register the homepage of your community by its topic and contents.

Allow visitors to contact you about your group via your personal homepage. Moderators will find the HTML coding for registration boxes on the "forum" page of the "manage" section. Simply copy the HMTL coding of the box you like, and place it on your private homepage.

Tell family and friends about your mailing list. Many people now have their own personal eMail addresses and would be pleased to become a member of your group.

Be active, and collect the eMail addresses from friends and acquaintances, whom you haven't seen in a long time, and create a group just for them.

Write to other newsgroups and mailing lists, inviting them to subscribe to your group. Be careful, as such invitations can sometimes be intrepreted as Spam by these groups. You can also contact the members of other groups directly, if you know that they might be interested in your group.

Work with your current members to spread the word about your group. Remind your members, from time to time, that they are welcome to invite others to join the group.

Contact organisations which could be interested in your group and your topics of discussion.

Activities to avoid:
Do not buy mailing lists containing eMail addresses, as such lists are usually illegally obtained, and highly frowned upon. Sending eMails to such list will only cause you aggravation and will promote very little interest in your group.

Do not invite too many people to a new group. If a group does not have many contributions yet, invite a few interested individuals, and start a conversation which could interest others. Once such a discussion is underway, it is usually easier to encourage the interest of other possible subscribers.

Removing messages
Each moderator can delete messages in the archive of the group's website.

1. Under "My domeus", click on your group and then click on the "messages" tab.
2. All the messages stored in the archive will be listed for the moderator. Tick the box next to those messages which you would like to delete from the archive.
3. Click "update" in order to save changes.

Deleting your group
Only the owner is allowed to dissolve a group.

1. Click on "My domeus".
2. Tick the box labeled "delete" next to the group you would like to dissolve.
3. Click "update" in order to save changes.

   FAQ