HyperNews Membership
Becoming a "member" of a HyperNews site provides you with a UserID that
you use to identify yourself to the site later. HyperNews also
remembers other information that you provide, such as your name and
email address. Membership may also allow you to perform actions
restricted to members only; these restrictions vary from site to
site depending on how the administrator has configured HyperNews. You
may be required to become a member in order to write messages, for
example. To find out what the restrictions are, visit the membership form at
that site. But sometimes, even membership is restricted; in that case,
there might be a way to contact an administrator to request membership.
Note that "registering" or "joining" is very different from
"subscribing". You might be able to subscribe (and get email) without
being a member, and you are not subscribed to anything just because you
are a member. See the
instructions on subscribing for details.
Also note that each site has it own members. So registering at
hypernews.org does not mean you are a member at any other HyperNews
site.
Becoming a Member
To become a member of a HyperNews site, first click on the
button on any page at that site. With HyperNews version 1.9.7,
this results in a list of current members; you can select members to
view information about them. Also on this page is a button
that says: "Register (Become a Member)".
Click on it.
The membership information includes the following:
- User ID (e.g. joe)
- Email Address (e.g. joe@home.net).
- Email and subscription options.
- Password (8 character maximum)
- Name (e.g. Joe User)
- Personal URL - your home page.
- Other optional Biographical Data, which may be different for
each HyperNews site.
User ID
When you are first registering, you must select a User ID. This is an
identifier that will be associated with all the personal information
that you provide. Your User ID can be the same as your Email address,
or you can use a shorter nickname if it is available. A nickname must
have no spaces in it. You can choose a nickname for your User ID at a
later time if you wish; see special instructions below.
Case is significant, although we plan to make it insignificant in
the future.
Some sites may be configured to hide all User IDs. Your Email
address may be used instead, if you provide one.
Email
Your Email address is essential for getting email notifications of new
messages. Email is also sent when your membership information is
changed, whether or not you make the changes.
You can change your email address when you need to.
Just as for the User IDs, case is significant for Email addresses.
Your email address will be used in a "mailto" URL in messages that you
post. But to fight spammers, you can hide your email address from
public view by selecting that option (in version 1.9.7). Email
addresses are no longer displayed in the outline display of messages.
Below the Email Address field, there are some options for controlling
subscriptions to forums at a global level. The default (which may be
changed by configuration option) is to subscribe you to only what you
specify in each forum. But that includes automatic subscription when
you post a message. Or you can suppress your subscriptions to all
forums by selecting the "Nothing" option. Unselecting that option will
reenable your subscriptions. Another option that may apply to some
sites is automatic subscription to a global list that is used for all
forums designated as All-Member forums.
Password
To set up your password when you first register, or to change it later
on, enter the new password where it says "New Password" and "New
Password Again". You are encouraged to create a password that cannot be
easily guessed. Never use the password of your
login. There is no way for HyperNews or administrators to tell
you your password since it is immediately encrypted, so please try to
remember it. If you forget your password, an adminstrator can reset it
to a new random password that will be emailed to you. Then you should
change the password to one you can remember.
Name
HyperNews will use your Name to identify you in your
messages. You should enter a name, even if it is not your true name.
In previous versions of HyperNews (before 1.9.7)
your Name was made into a link to your personal home page,
but now it is a link to a page that shows your member
info.
How to Use your Membership
Membership applies to all forums on the site, so use the same User
ID and password each time it is requested. However, membership at one
site does not automatically give you membership at any other site. You
may set up a different User ID and/or password on every HyperNews site
that you participate in.
HyperNews can be configured to request your UserID and password, when it
is needed, in several different ways. If membership is required to do
some action (such as adding a message), and the browser requests your
UserID and password, you should only have to enter them once per browser
session. If you enter your UserID and password in a form for some
action, you will probably have to enter them every time for that kind of
action. Also, HyperNews may be configured to use "cookies" so you won't
have to enter your UserID and password more than once per browser
session.
Changing your Membership Information
You can change your membership information at any time later by
following the same instructions given above for registering, but this time
click on "Edit YOUR Member Info". You only need to enter the
data that you want to change - if you leave a field blank or unchanged,
that field will remain unchanged. Here are a few special instructions.
- If you are currently using your Email address as your UserID and
wish to use a nickname instead, go to the Membership form and enter the
new nickname in the UserID field, and your Email address in the Email
Address field. Don't try to change your password at the same time as
you change your UserID; if you do, someone is likely to get confused.
-
If the HyperNews site only allows members to post messages, and it
also supports incoming email, you must provide an email address which is the
same one that you will be mailing from.
- There is no way (yet) to delete a member via the web. An administrator
can delete a member simply by removing the membership info files for
that member. But also see the global unsubscribe feature, described
above.
After clicking on the "Do It" button at the bottom, you should get a
page telling you which information has been changed. You should
also receive email telling you the same thing, if you provide
a correct email address.
Other Issues related to Membership