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Configuration

Jake van Berkel
Jake van Berkel Open Social • 18 March 2022

Platform configuration

There are basic configuration settings to make sure your community has the right name, email address and time and date formats. To check these, visit the Site Manager Dashboard to find the links below. You’ll find them in the Configuration section. 

 

Look and feel of the community

Your community is its own brand so the look and feel of your platform is an important factor. You’ll need to prepare the color scheme, a logo, a favicon as well as consider visual elements such as the border radius, hero gradient and header style. In the Site Manager Dashboard, you can change colors and styling in the Appearance section (direct URL: /admin/appearance/settings/socialblue). Learn more about the Appearance here.

Pro tip: you might want to engage a visual designer to help create a community brand. 

 

Member profile & account configuration

Each of your members will have their own account and profile. Their accounts have personal information including contact details and email preferences which are only visible to you and the account holder, while the profiles are visible to all of the logged-in members and include the personal description, interests and organization details. More about the user account here and user profile here.

As a Site Manager, you can control how members join your community, the content of the notification emails, and the profile fields and pages. For example, you can determine that any visitor of the community can freely register and become a member and determine the fields on their profiles. 

Control this in the Site Manager Dashboard in the People section:

 

Content & Group configuration

An engaging community relies on relevant content and dedicated groups so that your members can like, follow or join them. As a Site Manager, you’re able to control the experience of your members with content and group configuration, and therefore before you create content or groups on your platform, you’ll want to review the configuration options and determine some settings in the Configuration section of the Site Manager Dashboard:

  • Group settings ( /admin/config/opensocial/social-group)
  • Group Quick Join Settings ( /admin/config/opensocial/group-quickjoin)
  • Event enrollment Settings ( /admin/config/opensocial/event)
  • Add to calendar settings ( /admin/config/opensocial/event-addtocal)
  • Anonymous event enrollment settings ( /admin/config/opensocial/event-an-enroll)
  • Maximum Event Enrollment settings ( /admin/config/opensocial/event-max-enroll)
  • Enable geolocation ( /admin/config/opensocial/social-saas-geolocation)
  • Configure Geolocation ( /admin/config/opensocial/social-geolocation)
  • Event type settings ( /admin/config/opensocial/event-type)
  • Event organizer settings ( /admin/config/opensocial/event-managers)
  • Public visibility settings ( /admin/config/opensocial/visibility)
  • Social Comment upload settings (/admin/config/opensocial/comment-upload-settings)
  • Social tag settings ( /admin/config/opensocial/tagging-settings)
  • Social Sharing Settings ( /admin/config/opensocial/social-sharing)
  • Content Reporting Settings ( /admin/config/opensocial/content-reporting)
  • Configure email settings ( /admin/config/opensocial/swiftmail)

 

Content tags and types (taxonomy)

Content tags, content types and profile tags are among the available tags, or taxonomy, you can preset for your community. The platform offers a variety of tag categories which allow your members to easily search for content or members related to their interests. It's recommended that before you publish any content, think about the possible interests and expertise your members can add to their profiles, what types of events and topics you'll share and what tags will help categorize all the content in your community (direct URL:  /admin/structure/taxonomy)

Click here to learn where to find your tags and how to create new terms.

 

Data policy

As the owner of the data on the platform, including your members and your content, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your community complies with any necessary regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The platform offers the necessary features to ensure this. In the Site Manager Dashboard in the Data collection and usage section, you can determine:

  • Data Policy ( /admin/config/people/data-policy)
  • User consent overview ( /admin/reports/data-policy-agreements)
  • Data usage explanation ( /admin/config/system/inform-consent)

The platform also offers Spam protection (CAPTCHA) which can be enabled during the platform set up. If you've already received your platform and have not discussed this, get in touch with your Customer Success Manager to learn more. 

 

Now that you've pre-configured your community to fit your needs, you're ready to think about your community structure and content.