Blog Access

[IrmaJean]

Hello, members of the community. We are very happy to report that we have reestablished the blog section of the site!

The blogs of members who used a privacy setting at MentalHelp.net have been temporarily disabled in order to protect their privacy. This was done manually, one by one, so please let one of us know if there are any errors and we will correct them as soon as possible.

If you would like to access your blog, please PM one of us (Moderators or administrators) so that we can enable it for you. Once it has been enabled, each member can then set the privacy settings accordingly.

To change the settings, click on your blog from the Community Blog List ('All Blogs') and then hit ‘options.’ On the next menu, click on ‘manage settings.’ There you will see the option ‘Blog View Permissions’ where you may then manage the settings. These steps can also be followed by clicking on the arrow next to your screen name in the right corner of the front page.

To repeat, if you find that your blog has been disabled, please PM a moderator or administrator and we will enable it for you as soon as possible. Then you may change the settings to your level of comfort.

Thank you for your patience during this process.

[IrmaJean]

I wanted to clarify a few things.

If any member had a list of blogs over at mentalhelpnet, they have transferred over to the new site. The conversion was done sometime near the end of May, so any blog written after this time will not be here, but everything else should be. If you do not see your old blogs, this means they have been disabled. You will need to contact a moderator or administrator to have your blogs enabled. Please do not start up a new blog if you already had a set of blogs from mentalhelp .

I attempted to contact several members yesterday for the purpose of assisting them with their blogs, but I was unable to. This was likely because mailboxes are full. It is important to keep your mailbox below its capacity of 50 'conversations.' When I first checked mine, it was way over its limit and I had to delete a lot of old messages. So please check your mailboxes and empty them, as is necessary. There is archive ability if you'd like to keep any of your old messages.

I would be very happy to assist members in accessing their blogs. Please PM me or another moderator so we can help you with this. If there are any questions or concerns, I'd be happy to address those as well.

[smallstar]

Ok, I guess you weren't kidding. I just woke up from a nap and tried to go to my blog and it takes me to this site? That really sucks.

[IrmaJean]

We're still here for you, Starry. it's going to be just fine. It'll just take some time for all of us to adjust to the change. Take care.

[smallstar]

I've been getting notifications of people adding me as a friend. So far this is ok cause it's only people that were already friends. My question is, can anyone add you as a friend then have access to your blog? Because these notifications I get aren't asking for my approval, it's just letting me know they've added me.

[IrmaJean]

I should be home in half hour or so. Let's get you enabled and your privacy settings as you prefer them and I'll explain the rest once this is done. Your privacy will be in place.

[IrmaJean]

My question is' date=' can anyone add you as a friend then have access to your blog?[/quote']

I did want to address this question. The answer is yes, until you change your settings. There is an option to make it so you have to accept friendship requests. Go to the right corner of the front page where your screen name is and click on the arrow. Next click 'my settings.' Check off the option that says 'Allow me to approve members before they're added as a friend.' Save your changes and you'll be set.

[smallstar]

Thank you, I fixed it.

[smallstar]

I made it so private that I can't find it now? Just in case you didn't know, I don't like this at all.

OKAY, sorry, done pouting.

[IrmaJean]

It's okay, Star. I understand that change can be distressful.

Once your blog has been made private, 'friends only,' you may need to go to your profile page to access it. Look on the left side of the profile page and click, 'blog' to find your blog. Let me know if you need more assistance,

[smallstar]

Can my profile be private? I used to have a picture of myself, I'm hoping and assuming it's gone because I don't see it anymore?

[IrmaJean]

I haven't found any options to make a profile private. You can make your friends list invisible, but I believe (for now) that is it, unfortunately. I'm not certain exactly how the system works yet myself, but IPS has a website about their forums and I do know the blog privacy was recently implemented. Hopefully they will think to implement profile privacy in a future software update.

If your birthdate is visible, there is an option to change that, though. For anyone who would like the option of omitting their birth date from their profile, it is possible to change the settings so this information isn't visible. Click on the arrow next to your screen name in the top right corner of the page. Click on 'My settings' and then --- out your date (this is at the very top of the numbers). I can help more with that, if anyone needs more assistance.

[smallstar]

Thanks ij, as long as my picture isn't there I'm okay. I think I already took my birthdate off but I'm gonna check again.

[AndreaB]

Hi can you enable my old blog post

[IrmaJean]

I wanted to remind everyone about blog access. I'm still having difficulty reaching some members via PM. Please let one of us (moderators or administrators) know if you would like your blog enabled.

[devils daughter]

I'm confused about the the blog access and how to set the permissions. How do you set it so only members have access? Doesn't have to be friends, just members. Please let me know how to do that and -- if that is possible -- then please enable my old blog entries.

[malign]

Hi DD. The setting you're looking for is "Public- Everyone can view". Because we don't let guests view any blogs, that's the same as limiting it to Members. We can't change the settings for you (which I hope you see as desirable), but unfortunately, you can't change them either until we enable the blog. That means it needs to be coordinated: both you and an admin (IrmaJean or I) need to be online at the same time; you ask us to enable the blog, then after we do, you go in and make the setting change. {Beth, please check me if I'm wrong ...}

I know it's annoying, but it's the best we could do when the earlier privacy setting got lost in the conversion. We had to go the highest security setting to protect those who had the most restrictive privacy, even though it inconveniences us all. We thought it was worth it ...

[devils daughter]

Thanks, I appreciate what you all are doing and no problem for me.

I created a new blog and used the setting "Public - everyone can view" because the other settings seemed too restricted. I'm glad to know that's what I wanted anyway.

Is there any way that you or IJ can just merge the entries from my old blog -- which might have the name "devil's daughter" with the apostrophe -- into the new one? Or else just delete the old blog. I wanted copies for myself and did that before the old site went away.

[IrmaJean]

I'm not certain if there is a way to merge the blogs together or not. If there is, I haven't discovered how just yet. It does seem that a lot of the settings can only be altered by the blog's owner. We could simply leave the blog disabled or I could enable it and you could delete, if that's what you wish. It's up to you.

[IrmaJean]

If you need to PM an admin or moderator or any member, please empty your mailbox to below 50 messages. (Sue, your mailbox is full. You won't be able to pm until you empty it).

I'd be more than happy to help you set up your blog once we are able to communicate.