GardenStew Starter Pack

Hi there,

If you are reading this you are probably new to our community here at GardenStew.com. In case you have not heard it from our members yet...
WELCOME!

The point of this topic is to help you quickly get up to speed on all the things you should know about getting started on this site. Read through all of the following steps and you will feel at home in no time Wink

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GardenStew Starter Pack

1/ Rules: Ok let's get the most formal point out of the way first, which is we ask you to please read through our forum rules at least once.

2/ Forums: Where to next? We suggest to make yourself a cup of tea/coffee and starting scanning through our many forums to get an idea of the topics covered by the site. You will find endless reading here. The forums make up the main bulk of the site and where the most activity occurs.

3/ Introduce Yourself: Make your first post by writing a simple introduction in the "Welcome to GardenStew" forum.

4/ Blogs: Next up check out the second biggest feature of the site, our member blogs. These are blogs (online journals) kept by our members where they write about their gardening experiences and stuff that is going on in their lives. They are amazingly interesting and each members values their blog very highly. You can leave comments for members on their blogs and they love this! One important point to make, each member can start their very own blog for free. There is no special requirement for starting a blog other then being a member of the site.

5/ PlantStew: We have our very own plant database called PlantStew. It is a place where the whole community can share their plant knowledge and learn lots of new things about plants everyday. For an introduction to this feature is recommended to read our quick getting started with PlantStew page. It is a very useful feature that we hope will benefit you very much.

6/ Calendar: Add your important events to our calendar. We recommend that members add at least their birthday so that when it comes around we can wish you a very happy birthday

7/ Member Map: Add yourself to our cool member map so that others can see what part of the world you are in at a glance.

8/ Customising your Profile: Members like to customise their profile to give them more personality within the site. They do this by uploading an image to represent them (avatar/profile picture) as well as adding a signature that will appear at the bottom of each post/message they write. All this can be done by editing your profile page (note: you must be logged in for the last link to work).

9/ Posting Photos: Members love to post photos of their gardens, pets, homes, family, everything really. This is mainly done in the special Member's Gallery forum. To learn how to do this read "How To: Post Photos" and also please read the resizing photos tutorial before posting.

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We hope you found this topic quite useful. A top priority, apart from giving out great advice and help, is to make all members feel welcomed and comfortable within the community. So if you need any further assistance feel free to start a topic in the Suggestions / Comments / Help forum, read through our FAQ or contact the administrators or moderators directly by Private Message.

Thanks for reading and see you on the site!!!