The "Community" tab

All of the features and functions in this section are designed to help you to keep in touch with the mo'time people that interest you the most. Once you find a blog that you enjoy reading, you can subscribe to it. Once you do so, you will find the latest posts and comments to that blog conveniently listed for you in the 'Digest'.

You can also use our built-in chatting system, keep track of mo'time friends online and block users who bother you.

When first click on the Community tab, however, you see your Community Center, a convenient "one-stop shop" to get an overview of Community activity.

Community->Messages

Community -> Messages -> mo'Mail

Mo'mail is mo'time's own private message system. It works much like many "webmail" systems. Here is how it works:

By clicking on the Messages tab, you arrive at the basic interface. From here you can see your Inbox and, on the menu on the left side, you can view your Sent Messages, too.

You can also get to your Inbox through the link on the Mo'time home page under the Community heading. If you have any unread messages, there will be a red number in between the parentheses to tell how many, like this: (2).

The ! symbol that you see alongside a new message means that it is unread and, next to a sent message, it means that the recipient has not yet opened it.

You can organize and save your mo'mail any way that you'd like by creating new folders and moving your messages there. Click on the 'Create new folder' link next to the heading Folder, above the folders menu on the left side of the page.

Work with the messages that you want to move or delete by clicking on the checkbox to the right of the message and then 'Delete' or 'Move to' button according to what you wish to do.

Messages->Mo'mail->New

To compose a new message, just click on the 'New' link, type in the mo'time username, subject of the message, content and then click the 'Send mo'mail' button near the top of the page.

Your sent mo'mail is immmediately visible in your 'Sent Messages' folder.

Community->Contacts->Friends

After a little while on Mo'time, you will probably make friendships with those other members with whom you exchange comments on a regular basis. The 'Friends' feature allows you to maintain a list of these people so that you can, at a glance, see who is online when you are. In this way you can chat, write mo'mails or leave comments when you know they are online.

Wherever you see the profile symbol next to the username of the person that you want to make a Friend, click on the profile icon. In the profile popup, click on the Add a Friend button . When you get to the Add a Friend page, click 'Add' and the deal is done.

You can also add Friends by going directly to Community->Contacts->Friends and filling in the username manually.

Friends can be removed just as easily from Community->Contacts->Friends. Just click the Delete checkbox of the person that you would like to remove and click 'Save changes'.

The Mo'time home page also contains a link to Friends under the Community section. The number in parentheses indicates the number of Friends currently online.

Community->Contacts->Blocked users

Community->Contacts->Blocked users

What is a blocked user?

Unfortunately, there may be people who bother you so much that you wish to block them from contacting you or from commenting on your blog.

Wherever you see the Block user icon next to the username of the person that you want to block, click on the icon. Doing so will bring you to Community->Contacts->Blocked user with username automatically filled in. Click 'Add' and the deal is done.

You can also block users by going directly to Community->Contacts->Blocked users and filling in the username manually.

Blocked users can be just as easily unblocked Community->Contacts->Blocked users. Just click the checkbox of the person that you would like to unblock and click 'Save changes'.

Community->Contacts->Friends of

Community->Contacts->Friend of

What is a 'Friend of'?

When someone make you a friend, they are shown on this page. You can satisfy your curiosity about this by consulting this list.

If, for whatever reason, you wish to not be on their friends list, you can simply and discretely take yourself off of that list by selecting the Delete checkbox and clicking Save Changes.

Community->Contacts->Subscribers and ->Linked In

The Subscribers page is a list of your blogs and those who have subscribed to them. Next to each member's name are the icons which you can click to view their blogs, their profiles or to send them a mo'Mail.

You can also see if they are currently online and if they have their mo'IM turned on (built-in chat/instant messenger). If they do, you can add them to your buddy list and ask them if they'd like to chat.

The Linked In page is a list of Mo'time blogs that contain links to your blog or blogs.

Community->Digest

All about subscribing to blogs

The first time you come to the Digest->Latest news page, if you haven't yet subscribed to any blogs, your digest will be empty. When you have subscribed, coming to this page (which is also linked directly from your logged-in home page) you will see a list of recent posts and comments in most-recent-first order, with 'Read me' links for each one.

Digest->Subscriptions

Once again, if you haven't got any subscriptions, the Subscriptions page will be empty. Once you have subscribed, however, you will see a list of your subscriptions (indicating whether you are subscribed to post, comments or both), a check box for deleting individual subscriptions and the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom of the page.

To delete a subscription, simply choose the blog by clicking the checkbox and then the 'Save Changes' button.

Digest->Add blog

The Add Blog page is where you can choose the blogs that you want to subscribe to by entering the URL of each blog in the field: http://_URL_here_.motime.com. The 'URL' is NOT the name of the blog as it may appear on the blog, but its internet address that you see in your browser's address bar!

However, the easiest way to subscribe to the blog is to click on the 'subscribe' button located on the blog itself. Doing that brings you to this page with the field automatically filled in.

Choose whether you are interested in subscribing to just posts, just comments or both.

We recommend subscribing to the comments of your own blog or blogs so that you can be notified here when you get a comment!

If you use our built-in instant messenger (chat program), you will also receive update alerts from your subscriptions in real time when you're online! Read more about this in the Chat section of the manual.

Community->Mo'timeNow

This section explains the various ways that mo'time keeps you in touch with your personal "blogosphere" in real time, hence the name mo'timeNow.

Not only can you chat with other mo'timers, the system is integrated with our subscription system. Think of it as "live blogging." Simply put, if you download and open the instant messenger, you can:

• receive alerts in "real-time" whenever a blog that you subscribe to is updated. The alert contains an excerpt of the first sentence and a hot link directly to the post or comment;


• chat one-on-one with other motimers and, in most instances, with your friends on AOL, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo and all Jabber/XMPP instant messaging systems; and

• create group chats or conferences with other motimers and Jabber/XMPP users.

Community->Mo'timeNow->Chat & Alerts

This page describes how to utilize a number of different instant messaging applications to take advantage of some of mo'time's coolest features.

The quickest and easiest way to try the chatting and alert features of mo'time is by using mo'IM.

mo'IM is a one-click instant messenger that pops up directly from within the browser. You can open it up by clicking the direct link ("Open IM client") on the mo'time home page, if you're logged-in, on the same line as the Community headline.

When the pop-up window opens up (it may take a minute or so, depending on the speed of your Internet connection and your computer) you will see one buddy already in your list, evdisp, our software agent which will deliver your blog update alerts to you.

To add another user (or any friend of yours with a Jabber-compatible username in this format: jabberid@domain.com) just choose Add Contact from the only menu on the popup, aptly named "Menu." :-)

The Menu also allows you to:

Change contact view: toggles back and forth between showing all contacts or just online contacts.
Set my Status: change your "presence" settings.
Change Avatar: change the photo which appears next to your name.
Sound on/off toggle: Turn sound alerts on and off.
Motime Alerts: Opens a popup in which your alerts will appear.
About: Credits.
Logout: To end your instant messaging session.

Community->mo'timeNow->TipicIM

TipicIM is a 'desktop' instant messenging program for Windows. It works much like MSN Messenger, AIM, ICQ and other similar applications. If you set it up right, you can also chat with your buddies on these other systems when you are online with TipicIM through your mo'time account. Try it!

Step one: download the TipicIM client

(If you use a computer that does not allow downloads, you can use mo'IM our browser-based instant messenger instead as described in the previous page.)

Tipic, Inc. is the company that brings you motime and, apart from hosting this blogging community is a provider of Jabber/XMPP instant messaging technology.

Click here to go to download page (Windows users only.)

Macintosh and Linux users can use any Jabber/XMPP client to take advantage of the service:
We recommend iChatAV (available only as part of Apple Macintosh's Tiger OS, 10.4) and GAIM for Linux and PSI for Macintosh.

Step two: install the TipicIM client



Double-click on this icon and follow the installer\'s instructions. Choose your installation preferences and click "next".


First screen of the setup process.

You will then be asked to choose the directory of the installation and how to set up your Start menu preferences if you chose that shortcut, above.

In most cases, you will be just fine using the default settings that we built into the installer.

At the completion of the installation process, the TipicIM client will be present in your Start menu and probably on your desktop with this icon:



Double-click to launch the program!

Step three: Setting up the TipicIM client

Upon launching the application, you should see this window:



Do not check "new user"!! All motime members are automatically registered on the service.

Type in your motime username: your username is the name you see at the bottom of your posts. You must use this format: username@motime.com!! NOTE: this is not a valid email address; Motime does not give you an email address. Technically speaking this is your Jabber ID, or JID.

Type in your motime password, the same one you use to login to the site. Check "save password" only if your computer is securely under your own control. Otherwise, leave it unchecked and type it in each time you login with the TipicIM client.

Click Enter.



Step four: your ready to begin! Here's what you'll see next: This is your main messenger window. Notice that you already have one contact on your list: evdisp@alerts.tipic.com is our "event dispatcher", the technology that reads your subscription list and sends your alerts. [We have nicknamed it "Ed", but we have left his technical name as the default so that you can see "his" real address. This way you can manually add him to any other Jabber-compatible messaging software, or back here in case you accidentally delete him. You can change his nickname by selecting Ed and right-clicking on his name. As you can see, from this menu you can also manage other aspects of this contact.] In general, we think you will find the menus and right-click mouse menus rather intuitive and self-explanatory. Just explore a little bit and in a minute or two you'll find everything you need more or less where you'd expect it. Just in case, here's a quick-start rundown of the options: File menu: Change your online status / Disconnect / Close. Action: Add contacts / Join-create group chats / Manage profile Tools: Headline and News (your alerts appear here) / Options An example of how the menu bar works. Your "avatar" in the last menu item refers to the little picture that you see next to your name. If you have a small jpg graphic, in square format (32x32, or 16x16 pixels work best), you can upload it to the server and use it as your personal avatar. Otherwise, just use one of the canned ones. Using the instant messenger (IM) Step six: Using TipicIM client After you've set up the IM client, your main window could look something like this: 1: Using groups: You can create new groups and organize your contacts into these groups. Clicking on the group name toggles between show group members and hide group members. Instructions for creating and managing your groups are found below under 3. Username. 2: Change view: Clicking on this double-arrow icon will toggle between show online contacts and show all contacts. 3: Username: If you right-click with your mouse on the username, you can see the menu choice Create new group. In this menu you can manage all aspects of your contact list, including moving users from group to group, deleting users and blocking users from contacting you. Alerts: "the beauty part" When you are online, and your status is Available or Away, you will receive an alert from Ed, the event dispatcher, every time somebody posts or comments on the blogs on your subscription list. Using the TipicIM, the alert will be a "toaster pop-up" that will appear for a few seconds in the lower right hand corner of your screen. It looks like the image below and is a clickable link that brings your right to the blog and entry in question. You can also see your alerts after the pop-up disappears in your Headline window, available under the Tools menu of your main TipicIM window! This feature is very cool, especially if you're online for long periods of time at a stretch. You *feel* the site come alive as your favorite bloggers post and comment on the blogs you love to read. It really is "live" blogging. The pace of commenting and posting can reach frightening speeds if you have a large group of friends online! Check it out. Adding Contacts Step five: Managing your contact list (also known as your roster) Go to your Actions menu and choose "Add a contact": Your can add addresses that you know, or search with partial information. Searching for a user: Click the top radio button and then click the Next button at the bottom to advance to the next window. Adding a known address: If you know the correct Jabber ID (JID) of a motime member or any other user of a Jabber IM client, enter here in the form of "username@jabberserver.com". The click Next. Communicating with other networks: If you'd like to try instant messaging with MSN, AOL, ICQ or Yahoo contacts, click the "configure the transports" links and follow the directions. This service is offered on a best effort basis. We cannot guarantee the interoperability between Tipic and these other services, but we try to keep up with their protocol changes. If you chose "Search": Note: the descriptive text in this window may not correspond with the text as shown here. Enter whatever information you have, even if just partial. In the example above I entered "how" even though I wanted to find "howard." It would have found "andhow", "show" or "howdy" too. Here are the results, though: Search results appear showing usernames containing the letters in your search string. Click on the user that you'd like to add to your contact list and then the Next button. Follow the rest of the instructions and that's it! The other user will receive an authorization request and can choose whether or not to let you add his or her name to your list. Next: Commmunity->Mo'timeNow->TipicME (mobile) Community->mo'timeNow->TipicME (mobile) Interested in receiving update alerts on your blog subscriptions via your mobile device? Want to chat with friends on your contact list on your cell phone or PDA? Try TipicME! Visit the TipicME download page to see if your device is compatible.