When you sign into Wiser Earth, you click on "My Profile" (up in the top right hand corner, under "Welcome Cindy/Marideth/Thierry" etc.
 
The view that comes up has a row of menu tabs directly under your name, user name and photo (or substitute photo) - it will be showing "Main".

Select the 4th tab along - "User Settings"

This brings up a page where you can change your password, etc.

Directly under the Password section and My Email Settings sections, you will see "My Watchlist Alert Settings" - this is where you can choose to get alerts sent to you whenever someone has added to the group in any way - replied to a discussion, uploaded a file or created a Wiki page, posted something on the bulletin board, etc.

There are 4 choices from frequency of alerts - "As it Happens", "Daily", "Weekly" and "Off"

Click in the little circle under the choice you prefer, then click on "Save Changes", and the alerts will start coming!
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ANOTHER WAY TO ADD THE GW GROUP (or any group) TO YOUR WATCHLIST

On the group's home page, directly under the logo of the hands cradling the earth, you'll see a row of tabs - select "About"

On the right hand side of the "About" page, there is a small box headed "Actions"  which has a little icon of an eye and the words "Add to your watchlist" - click on this and a box will appear above the "Actions" box with a tick symbol and the words "Added to watchlist" and it's done!

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SOME OTHER USEFUL FEATURES ...
Under "My Email Settings, you can change your e-mail address, choose  to hide your e-mail address from public view, and choose to e-mailed directly to you any message other people might want to send directly to you (these messages also will be listed under the "Inbox" tab, 2nd  tab from the left).

You can send a message directly to someone else by clicking on their photo in the Group Members area on the group home page, which will bring up that person's profile.  On that page you will see a box entitled "Actions" on the right hand side directly under their bigger photo where there are 4 choices:

Invite to your network - this invites them to show up in your network section under "People"
Invite to a group - this invites them to join your group - useful if you are looking at someone's profile somewhere else on Wiser Earth
Send a message - this allows you to connect directly with another person and the messgae shows up in their "Inbox"
Comment on this page - you can leave a comment for them that everyone else can read - eg. on Quentyn's profile page I commented on his new photograph and his lovely smile!

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DISCUSSIONS - TO START ONE ...

On the group home page, under all the Group Members photos and the Search facility, there is a box entitled "Discussions" - click on "Create".

A page comes up entitled "Post a New Topic in Gateway to Conscious Evolution Discussion Forum"

There's a box for the Subject line, a box for your text, and the option to click in the box to keep you updated by adding the discussion to your Watchlist.

Then you click on "Save", and the discussion will be posted on the home page.


DISCUSSIONS - TO RESPOND TO ONE ...

Click on the Discussion Title on the home page.

You'll get to see the whole discussion, with the latest contribution at the top, with each contributors photograph - it's really much easier to read and follow the thread than the Google group, and it looks good too!

At the top, click on "Post a Reply" and a text box appears for you to write in - when you're done, click on "Save" and your reply will appear on the group home page.

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LETTING EVERYONE KNOW YOU'VE POSTED SOMETHING ...

As far as I can see, this can happen in one of two ways - there is possibly a third way, which would of course be the most efficient, but I can't clarify if it's available to everyone.

1. You can go to each person's profile one by one, and send them a message - very clunky!

2. Whoever has chosen to receive Watchlist Alerts will get a message that you've posted something - this of course requires each group member to choose this in their profile.

3.  The one I'm unsure about is this - there is a function to send a message to all group members, or just select a few.

I'm just not clear if "members" can do this or only "editors" and "administrators" - perhaps someone who is a "member" can give this a go  and see how it turns out (put your cursor over your picture and you'll see which one you are next to "privileges" in the little box that pops up).

On the top right hand side under your name/user name/etc, created/updated date box, and the membership box, you'll see "Admin Tools".

Put your cursor over this and a box pops up with 5 choices:

Invite Members - any current member can do this
Edit Group Settings - only adminstrators and editors can do this
Change Logo - only adminstrators and editors can do this
Customize Layout - only adminstrators and editors can do this
Group Member Messaging - don't know if everyone can do this or not

Click on "Group Member Messaging".

You'll get a page with a box to write a message, and above that you'll see a box on the left with all the group members listed.

If you want to send a message to everyone, click on the top name, scroll down to the bottom name, hold down your "Shift" key and click on the bottom name, and then click on the "Add All" botton - all the names will transfer over to the box on the right.

You can write a short message letting them know you've just started a discussion/uploaded a file/created a Wiki Page, posted something on the Bulletin Board, click on "Send", and every member should get an e-mail (unless they've opted out of receiving e-mails!)

Good idea not to just send the info like this because it then won't be easily available for future members!  Just use this function to alert everyone to whatever you want them to read on the group pages.

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Hope this helps with navigating Wiser Earth - please give it a try.