YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO EVERYTHING ON THIS SITE!
This guide should help you get around and understand everything that this site has to offer (which is a LOT — we apologize)! If there’s anything missing that you need help on, please don’t hesitate to contact us, and we’ll answer your question as quickly as we can. Click on the titles below to be taken to each section:
1). Your Profile
2). Members
3). Chat
4). Groups
5). Forums
7). Events
8). Plan a Meetup!
YOUR PROFILE
Please fill out your profile as full as you can. The more information you provide (especially what comics you read, characters you enjoy, etc.) will better help you connect with other, like-minded fans. It also helps others to discover new content they might not have known about.
Your profile page has a number of tabs:
* ACTIVITY – Shows your personal and group activity, and gives you the ability to add a status update that friends can see. Includes threaded commenting, direct posting, favoriting, and @mentions.
* PROFILE – Here you can view and edit your profile, as well as change your avatar image.
* NOTIFICATIONS – Get notifications whenever someone sends a message, someone comments or likes your content, etc. Click on the title of the notification to read it. Or click “read” (which archives the notification) or “delete” (deletes forever) if the title says enough, and you want the notification to go away.
* MESSAGES – Send direct private messages to one or multiple members. To compose new messages, click on the “Compose” tab and start typing in a friend’s name (give it a second, and the name should appear). You can also attach certain file types to your messages. As always, be respectful of other Gay League members when sending messages.
* FRIENDS – You can add anyone as a “friend” — where you’ll be notified of their activity, have quicker access to them, and have the ability to restrict various things to friends only.
* GROUPS – Quick access to any groups that you have joined or created.
* FORUMS – See what topics you’ve created, replied to, favorited or subscribed to.
* ALBUM – You can upload up to 20 images in your album, and mark them as “Public” (any visitor of the site can see them), “Registered Members” only (recommended – only logged in Gay League members can see), “Only Friends” (only people you’ve added as friends can see), or “Private” (only YOU can see). And no, you can’t “unlock” private photos for select members. There’s actually no useful reason to upload Private photos, unless your intention is to change the visibility later.
* SETTINGS – The place to update your e-mail, password, e-mail notifications, and profile field visibility.
* ACHIEVEMENTS – This is where all of your Mission and Honor badges are displayed! What the frak are those, you ask? We have a whole section about them below….
MEMBERS
The Members directory lists ALL the current members of the Gay League. The default view of Members shows the most recently active on the site. You can filter this view by using the drop-down menu and change it from “Last Active” to either “Newest Registered” or “Alphabetical.” Or, you can use the Search tool to find specific members by using keywords. For example, you can search by a specific city to find members near you, or by a comic title to find members with similar interest.
If you see someone you know, or someone who you would like to make as a friend, just click on the “Add as Friend” button near their name. That member will then get a notification, and he/she will need to “accept” your invite in order to become your friend.
Having “Friends” allows you to more quickly find the members you’re most interested in, while also allowing you to filter certain content (like the images you upload to your “Album”) to friends only. You will also need to have someone as a friend FIRST before you can invite them to any group that you’ve created or belong to. (A member doesn’t need to be a friend of yours to request membership in a group you’ve created, however).
If at any time you no longer want a certain member as a “Friend” for whatever reason, just hit the “Cancel Friendship” button near their name and you will automatically not be considered friends within the website’s system (but hopefully you’re still friends offline!). The other member won’t need to do anything on their end, and they will not be notified.
While we encourage making new friends on this site, please use the “Add as Friend” feature judiciously. Please do not add everyone that you see as a friend simply to have the biggest list of friends possible. It defeats the purpose of the Friends feature.
CHAT
The chat window automatically appears on login, and shows you what other Gay League members happen to be online at the moment. You can start a private, one-on-one conversation with any other member this way (your messages will only be seen between the two of you). Or click on the “Public Chatroom” to join in on the ongoing conversation there (all members can see what’s discussed here).
To adjust your visibility, click on the down arrow next to your name — and choose “Available,” “Busy,” “Idle,” or “Offline.” (Choosing the latter will make the chat window collapse to a small icon. Just click on the icon for the window to reappear, and for you to be online again). You can also “Mute” the chat sounds here.
Please be respectful of others in private and public chats. (This applies to private “Messages” as well). Reports of any disrespectful conduct will be taken very seriously by administrators, and could result in being banned from the Gay League site. Play nice!
GROUPS
Groups are a wonderful way for Gay League members to connect and discuss very specific topics! You can instantly join any Public group that you see, or request membership to a Private group (it is up to the Private group’s creator to add you or not). Group types explained:
* PUBLIC — Any registered Gay League member can join. Group activity, forum discussions, and image uploads can be seen by anyone, including non-registered visitors of the site.
* PRIVATE — While the group name and description are listed in the Groups directory, all activity, forums discussions and image uploads are only visible by that particular group’s members ONLY. You must request membership to be added into the group, or be invited by another member.
* HIDDEN — These groups are NOT displayed in the Groups directory, and are ONLY known by the group’s creator, and anyone he/she has invited to the group.
Any member also has the ability to create a NEW Public, Private or Hidden group. Want to create a group centered on a specific publisher, title, or character? Or a specific topic? Or for fans who speak a certain language? Here’s your chance! Just click on the “Create a Group” button on the Groups directory page, and follow the steps for group creation.
Make sure your group has a very clear title, and that it makes it quite clear what the group is about. The group description should can go into even further detail (but try not to make that too long). Be sure to click on the box that includes a FORUM with your group (otherwise your group will be quite limited). Choose an appropriate image for the group that makes sense. You will be asked to crop the image into a square, which is something you can do during the image upload process. (If you need help with a group image, just let us know — create the group without one, and then drop us a line).
When you visit a group, the home page has an area where you can see recent activity, as well as send a general quick message to other members (much like the “Activity” tab on your Profile). The Forum tab shows all the topics being discussed, and is where most of the group’s activity will happen. You can also click on the Members tab to see who else is in the group, or Send Invites to add others (limited to your friends only).
SOME NOTES:
* Every member can create up to a maximum of two Public or Private groups combined per month. So please consider your group creation carefully, and make sure it’s something that really matters to you and others! If you have a great idea for a group beyond your limit of the month, let an administrator know and we’ll see if we can accommodate it. (There is no limit to the number of Hidden groups you can make).
* Before creating a new Public or Private group, please do a search first and make sure that there isn’t a similar group that already exists.
* Make sure your group’s theme is something that would appeal to LGBT comics fans. Any off-topic or inappropriate groups may be removed at site administrators discretion.
* In addition, please do not create groups for the specific purpose of self-promotion!
* Private groups are not meant to be exclusive, and group creators should consider accepting all requests by other registered Gay League members who show interest. Their purpose is simply to be for members only, and not for casual visitors of the site.
* Please be active in your group and keep discussions going! It’s up to you to keep it alive, interesting, and worth joining. If there is no activity, and no interest in your group after a certain period of time, it may be considered for removal by site admins in order to clean up the Groups directory.
FORUMS
Forums are an extension of Groups. At this time there are no ways to create new forums without being attached to a group — though this can change, if there’s enough demand for group-less forums.
To contribute to a forum, click on a Group, then on the Forum tab. You’ll see a list of the most recent topics on top (and “sticky” topics, if any, will be on the very top). Click on any topic to read it and any replies. From here, there are a number of options:
* If you like a particular topic thread, you can “favorite” it to have quick access to it later.
* You can “subscribe” to a topic to get notifications (within the site) whenever a new reply is added to the thread.
* You can reply to the topic yourself in the text box that’s on the bottom. There are some style buttons to make text bold, italicized, centered, quoted,
* To attach an image, there is a button on the very bottom (before the “submit” button), that you can click on to attach files. Click “add another file” for multiple images (you can attach up to four at a time).
To start a NEW topic, make sure you are on the main page of the group’s forum (and within an already created topic). You may need to click the “Forum” tab again to make sure. Scroll to the very bottom of the recent replies where you’ll see “Create New Topic…” Starting a new topic is the same as replying to one, with the addition of adding a required subject line (up to 80 characters). Before submitting your new topic, you can click on the button to be notified of follow-up replies via e-mail.
Just like with Chat and Messages, please be respectful of others in Forums. Bad behavior, verbal attacks, name-calling, or any other kind of cyber-abuse will NOT be tolerated. If you see any of this type of behavior occurring among others, please click “report” on any topic of reply, and an administrator will be notified. Offending topics or replies may be deleted, and the user and may be banned from the site. So play nice!
ACHIEVEMENTS
To encourage people to actively participate in the social areas of this website, we’ve created fun little Missions for members to do! When you complete a mission, you get a badge (that’s displayed in the “Achievements” tab of your profile, as well as other areas of the site). See if you can collect them all!
The badges are just for fun…for now. But in the future, we plan to have giveaways, contests, and other cool activities — and the number of badges that you have by then, or the types that you’ve acquired, may make a huge difference in your favor. So start collecting early! Below are the different types of MISSION and HONOR badges you can receive. (NOTE: Badges will appear faded here, until you actually acquire them and then they will appear clear. To see larger version of the badges, click on MISSIONS and HONORS).
MISSIONS & HONORS:
EVENTS
The Events calendar is the place where you can see all upcoming events that are relevant to LGBT comics fans. You can see Events in “list” view, “month” view, or “day” view by clicking on the tabs on top. You can also search by a particular date.
Anyone (including non-registered members) can submit an event by clicking the “Add an Event” button, and filling out the form. Please fill out as much as you can on the form, and make sure the event is of genuine interest to LGBT comics fans. If we feel your event is not suited for this site, we will let you know.
PLAN A MEETUP!
The Gay League has had in-person meetups in the past, and we encourage anyone that wants to plan a local Gay League meetup in their city! There’s a long list of tips we provide, which we won’t repeat here. But if you’re interested, click HERE.
DONATE/CONTRIBUTE
The Gay League website and all the community functions that it brings is possible by just a small number of people. If you like what you see here, and take enjoyment from the groups, forums, information, and other members here, please consider helping us continue by donating to the Gay League. Your contributions go towards keeping this site up and running, and also helps us to get incentives for our writer contributors!
Yep, that’s right! We are also looking for contributors to this site! We need people willing to write articles, essays, reviews, LGBT character profiles, and more. To learn more about donating, or contributing writing, click HERE.