Best Of
New Features and How to Use Them
Hello, everybody. There are a ton of fun and interactive new features within our new Vanilla platform. While this list does not cover all of the features, here is a rundown of some of the most interesting ones.
Ranks:
Our new community offers a fun ranking system. Users are assigned points based off of actions within the community. Currently, our ranking system is based off of a post count, but points may factor in down the line. The higher your rank, the more abilities you have. This gives you a chance to work your status up in the community!
Note for returning users: Your post count from our previous forum has been migrated over. Your starting rank will be based off of your current post count.
Member (Level 1): Our Member ranking is our initial ranking. To earn this ranking, a user simply has to make one (valid) post or be a Registered User for one month's time. Members cannot send private messages, add links, add signatures or add polls.
Bronze Level Member (Level 2): Users must post 10 times to become a Bronze Level Member. Once the Bronze Level Membership has been reached, users are now able to send private messages, add links in discussions and comments and add a signature. Bronze Level Members still have some limited abilities, such as not being to add polls or add links in messages.
Silver Level Member (Level 3): Earning a Silver Level Membership is slightly more difficult, as users must post 75 times. In addition to all of the Bronze Level abilities, Silver Members can now add links anywhere, including private conversation, and can add polls to discussions as well. Additionally, Silver Members have the ability to edit their posts for a more extended period of time than that of the previous ranks.
Gold Level Members (Level 4): Gold Level Members have Global Moderator Permissions! These permissions include post moderation, tagging in posts, editing of posts and badge requests. You'll have to seriously work your way into this rank, as a user must have 350 posts.
Site Admins (Level 5): The coveted Site Admin rank gives its users the power! Site Admins have Administrator permissions, and can access nearly every aspect of the community. This is not a rank we take lightly, and currently it is only given out manually by administrators.
Note: Site Admins have the ability to manually assign ranks. This means Site Admins can promote or demote a particular user's rank when necessary.
Badges: There are several badges available for our users to earn! Badges are earned through interactions and activities within the community. This may be something like uploading a profile picture, making your first comment, connecting to your social network, celebrating your first anniversary with us and so much more more! Below is a screenshot of what your badges may look like on your profile.
Reactions: You will notice several "Reaction" buttons below each discussion/comment post. These reactions are used to tell a community member if you agree/disagree with their post. This also gives you the opportunity to report or flag posts deemed as spam or unnecessary. We are counting on the community even more now to report spam! With these reactions available, there is no reason to simply write something like "I agree with this post," because you can react to it instead. Below is a screenshot of the reactions.
Private conversations: Much like our previous platform, users have the ability to send each other private messages. There is also group message functionality. Remember, you have to be a Bronze Level Member to have private conversation abilities. You must be a Silver Level Member in order to include links in your messages/posts.
Partner Hosted Forums: StartupNation may create special forums, hosted by Brands and companies. These forums will offer special content in that brand's niche field, such as technical support, Q&A sessions, special offers, etc.
Profile Fields: There are several profile fields to fill out upon signing in. Things like work experience, your startup story, education, website and more can all be filled out on the "Edit Profile" tab in your settings. You can also upload avatars. Be sure to complete your profiles in order to introduce yourself to the community.
Note: Users can also manage their notification and email preferences under the "Notification Preferences" option on the "Edit Profile" screen.
Polls/Questions: Silver Level Members or higher have the option to add polls to their posts. This means you may ask a question such as "Are Angel Investors or Venture Capitalists better for startups to get funding from?" And then add options, which in this example would be Angels Investors or Venture Capitalists. The community can then vote. Additionally, users can pose questions to the community, as opposed to standard discussions. To access either feature (if you have the permissions) click the down arrow on the right side of the "Discussion" button on the right panel. Screenshot attached.
Social Log-Ins/Social Sharing: Also on the Reaction bar below posts are icons for various social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+. By clicking on these buttons, users can share posts from our community directly to their social pages. Users also have the option to log-in using their social accounts.
Tagging: You can now mention community members by user name. Simply tag the community member's name by using the @ sign and then start typing their name (similar to Twitter). Screenshot below.
Bookmarking: Users can now follow any topic. Simply click on the star-shaped icon to the right of any discussion in order to bookmark that thread and stay notified when new posts come into it. Note the star icon on the screenshot below.
Manage your notifications: You are able to decide when and how (email, popups or both) your are notified. You can choose certain topics, activities and more. Manage your notifications here.
Any further questions or problems? Email [email protected]
Ranks:
Our new community offers a fun ranking system. Users are assigned points based off of actions within the community. Currently, our ranking system is based off of a post count, but points may factor in down the line. The higher your rank, the more abilities you have. This gives you a chance to work your status up in the community!
Note for returning users: Your post count from our previous forum has been migrated over. Your starting rank will be based off of your current post count.
Member (Level 1): Our Member ranking is our initial ranking. To earn this ranking, a user simply has to make one (valid) post or be a Registered User for one month's time. Members cannot send private messages, add links, add signatures or add polls.
Bronze Level Member (Level 2): Users must post 10 times to become a Bronze Level Member. Once the Bronze Level Membership has been reached, users are now able to send private messages, add links in discussions and comments and add a signature. Bronze Level Members still have some limited abilities, such as not being to add polls or add links in messages.
Silver Level Member (Level 3): Earning a Silver Level Membership is slightly more difficult, as users must post 75 times. In addition to all of the Bronze Level abilities, Silver Members can now add links anywhere, including private conversation, and can add polls to discussions as well. Additionally, Silver Members have the ability to edit their posts for a more extended period of time than that of the previous ranks.
Gold Level Members (Level 4): Gold Level Members have Global Moderator Permissions! These permissions include post moderation, tagging in posts, editing of posts and badge requests. You'll have to seriously work your way into this rank, as a user must have 350 posts.
Site Admins (Level 5): The coveted Site Admin rank gives its users the power! Site Admins have Administrator permissions, and can access nearly every aspect of the community. This is not a rank we take lightly, and currently it is only given out manually by administrators.
Note: Site Admins have the ability to manually assign ranks. This means Site Admins can promote or demote a particular user's rank when necessary.
Badges: There are several badges available for our users to earn! Badges are earned through interactions and activities within the community. This may be something like uploading a profile picture, making your first comment, connecting to your social network, celebrating your first anniversary with us and so much more more! Below is a screenshot of what your badges may look like on your profile.
Reactions: You will notice several "Reaction" buttons below each discussion/comment post. These reactions are used to tell a community member if you agree/disagree with their post. This also gives you the opportunity to report or flag posts deemed as spam or unnecessary. We are counting on the community even more now to report spam! With these reactions available, there is no reason to simply write something like "I agree with this post," because you can react to it instead. Below is a screenshot of the reactions.
Private conversations: Much like our previous platform, users have the ability to send each other private messages. There is also group message functionality. Remember, you have to be a Bronze Level Member to have private conversation abilities. You must be a Silver Level Member in order to include links in your messages/posts.
Partner Hosted Forums: StartupNation may create special forums, hosted by Brands and companies. These forums will offer special content in that brand's niche field, such as technical support, Q&A sessions, special offers, etc.
Profile Fields: There are several profile fields to fill out upon signing in. Things like work experience, your startup story, education, website and more can all be filled out on the "Edit Profile" tab in your settings. You can also upload avatars. Be sure to complete your profiles in order to introduce yourself to the community.
Note: Users can also manage their notification and email preferences under the "Notification Preferences" option on the "Edit Profile" screen.
Polls/Questions: Silver Level Members or higher have the option to add polls to their posts. This means you may ask a question such as "Are Angel Investors or Venture Capitalists better for startups to get funding from?" And then add options, which in this example would be Angels Investors or Venture Capitalists. The community can then vote. Additionally, users can pose questions to the community, as opposed to standard discussions. To access either feature (if you have the permissions) click the down arrow on the right side of the "Discussion" button on the right panel. Screenshot attached.
Social Log-Ins/Social Sharing: Also on the Reaction bar below posts are icons for various social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+. By clicking on these buttons, users can share posts from our community directly to their social pages. Users also have the option to log-in using their social accounts.
Tagging: You can now mention community members by user name. Simply tag the community member's name by using the @ sign and then start typing their name (similar to Twitter). Screenshot below.
Bookmarking: Users can now follow any topic. Simply click on the star-shaped icon to the right of any discussion in order to bookmark that thread and stay notified when new posts come into it. Note the star icon on the screenshot below.
Manage your notifications: You are able to decide when and how (email, popups or both) your are notified. You can choose certain topics, activities and more. Manage your notifications here.
Any further questions or problems? Email [email protected]
Community Guidelines
Community Guidelines:
*Disclaimer 1: By posting in the community, you are giving consent to StartupNation to reuse, repurpose, quote or otherwise use information, statistics, articles, etc., at its will.
*Disclaimer 2: This is a free-posting community. The views of StartupNation are not necessarily reflected by the discussions and comments posted from our community members. StartupNation reserves the right to remove any content or members it deems necessary to do so.
Thank you for taking the time to review the StartupNation community guidelines. These guidelines have been put in place to explain what is expected from our users, to help you become a valuable member and to ensure our users’ experience is positive and respectful. The purpose of the forums is for like-minded individuals – CEOs, small business owners, entrepreneurs, startup founders/employees, managers, marketers and more – to connect with each other, provide valuable insights and learn what it takes to succeed in business. Always keep that in mind.
1. Keep it professional: Every post should make a positive contribution to the community and should be suitable for all users. The community is open to all opinions and views on each of our business-related topics and subtopics. We encourage mature, polite debate and expect disagreements. However, we will remove any post or reply that includes derogatory, racist, abusive, offensive, obscene, violent or inappropriate content of any kind. Always interact with other users respectfully, as you would in any professional setting.
2. Stay on topic, post relevant content: Good contributions help the entire community by providing relevant, insightful information or asking important questions related to small business, entrepreneurship, startups, marketing or other related fields. If your post contains anything unrelated to the forum or article topic, it may be removed. If it includes spam, such as irrelevant links, viruses, duplicate copy from other websites (or from our website while trying to claim it as your own) or overly self-promoting content, it will absolutely be removed. These actions can also cause you to be banned from the community.
3. Banning/deleting users and spam: StartupNation reserves the right to delete a user’s account and content, as well as ban the user from the forum without warning. If a user posts irrelevant links, links to illegal products or software, derogatory or disrespectful content, duplicate copy or another act we deem as inappropriate and/or spam or malware, that user will be banned.
Feel free to share an informative link when services or articles are relevant to the topic and can be helpful. Otherwise, your content should only include your insights, advice, comments or questions related to the topic. There is also a signature option available on your posts, where website links may be placed. The signature space is where we prefer company links to be posted. Please note that a member must reach Bronze Level membership (10 posts) to add a signature.
We consider spam to be anything that is irrelevant, inappropriate, illegal, malicious, duplicated from another source or overly promotional. We solely reserve the right to determine what we consider as spam and what we do not. If you think your post may contain spam, chances are it does. Users may report posts with spam by clicking the “Flag” button on the reaction bar.
4. Honesty is the best policy: The intended use and most basic function of the StartupNation community is to be used for the helpful exchange of information between members. False, inaccurate, or otherwise misleading information is not helpful. Please be sincere in your community participation by only contributing content you know is accurate, and does not misrepresent your identity or your business qualifications. Failure to comply with this guideline may also get you banned or deleted.
5. Personal introductions to the community: If you would simply like to introduce yourself (and your business) to other members, you may do so in our “New Member Welcome” forum. This is located in the “Lobby” section near the bottom of our forum topics. Please keep introduction-related posts in this section of the community, otherwise they may be moved or deleted by community moderators or admins.
6. Do not use this forum as a marketing channel: A post or reply with the sole purpose of self-promotion or the pushing of products and links only benefits the person who writes it, not the community as a whole. Likewise, unsolicited advertising adds distracting clutter and irrelevant content to the forums. Please respect the community's mission by not using it as a marketing channel or submitting any content you've been paid or otherwise rewarded by a third party to write or post. The community is not a personal marketing channel for your business, and this would be yet another example of spam. Also, please refrain from directly copying and pasting articles from your website or third party sites into a forum post.
7. Proper attribution of content: Help us maintain the community's reputation and observe the intellectual property rights of others by only submitting content you have personally written or else properly attributed. When posting content that is not yours, please cite the name of the author, website, publication or entity. The community should not be used to distribute unauthorized copies of any copyrighted material.
8. Respect the privacy of others: While we would advise against sharing private information, it is your choice, and solely your choice, to decide whether or not to share personal information about yourself or your business. Any post or reply that includes another user's (other than yourself) postal or email addresses, phone numbers, or other contact information will be removed immediately.
9. Posting etiquette: Once again, your posts should be respectful and relevant to the community. When posting, use the English language only. Try to refrain from using internet slang, symbols, special characters, all capital letters or derogatory language. Also, please do not post a link without explaining the source it is coming from and why it is relevant to the forum topic. Please try to follow standard online etiquette.
10. This is your community. Take care of it: The community is designed for the enjoyment and education of its members. If you notice content within the community that does not abide by the guidelines, please report it to our site moderators or administrators by selecting “Report," located under the "Flag" option on the reaction bar. Please note that deliberate misuse of the “Report” function can result in your account being banned from the community.
11. Account Cancellation: While there is currently no charge for any feature of the community forums, StartupNation reserves the right to change this at any time, at which time current users will have 30 days to cancel their accounts or subscribe under the new model. If you wish to have your account removed, please contact a site admin.
Images:
We at StartupNation encourage our community members to upload a profile picture or avatar to their accounts. We also allow images to be uploaded into posts. With that said, please keep in mind this is a professional community of entrepreneurs, business owners, startup employees, marketers and more. We expect your imagery to reflect that.
StartupNation reserves the right to delete images deemed inappropriate. To ensure your image is acceptable, make certain it does not contain the following:
Copyright Infringement: Any images that do not belong to the member cannot be used unless that member was given permission to use it. Please use original images if possible. An example of a copyrighted image would be using the likeness of the Nike logo or a photo of Batman.
Obscenity, Nudity or Vulgarity: Any image that is explicit, pornographic, or obscene will not be tolerated. For instance, a nude person, or a person with their middle finger raised.
Violent, Illegal or Inappropriate Behavior: Any image that depicts violence, illegal activity, self-harm or similar content depicting inappropriate acts. For instance, drug usage or a person holding a gun pointed at himself/herself or another person.
Impersonation: Pretending to be a celebrity or famous person, such as the president of the United States, or another well-known public figure. This can also be the impersonation of a StartupNation staff member or community member. For example, pretending to be a StartupNation community moderator or official of StartupNation, LLC., or another StartupNation community user.
Racism, Discrimination or Hate Speech: Any offensive imagery or words directed toward other members of the community. Examples include images that are derogatory based upon skin color, disability, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion, or sexual orientation.
*Disclaimer 1: By posting in the community, you are giving consent to StartupNation to reuse, repurpose, quote or otherwise use information, statistics, articles, etc., at its will.
*Disclaimer 2: This is a free-posting community. The views of StartupNation are not necessarily reflected by the discussions and comments posted from our community members. StartupNation reserves the right to remove any content or members it deems necessary to do so.
Thank you for taking the time to review the StartupNation community guidelines. These guidelines have been put in place to explain what is expected from our users, to help you become a valuable member and to ensure our users’ experience is positive and respectful. The purpose of the forums is for like-minded individuals – CEOs, small business owners, entrepreneurs, startup founders/employees, managers, marketers and more – to connect with each other, provide valuable insights and learn what it takes to succeed in business. Always keep that in mind.
1. Keep it professional: Every post should make a positive contribution to the community and should be suitable for all users. The community is open to all opinions and views on each of our business-related topics and subtopics. We encourage mature, polite debate and expect disagreements. However, we will remove any post or reply that includes derogatory, racist, abusive, offensive, obscene, violent or inappropriate content of any kind. Always interact with other users respectfully, as you would in any professional setting.
2. Stay on topic, post relevant content: Good contributions help the entire community by providing relevant, insightful information or asking important questions related to small business, entrepreneurship, startups, marketing or other related fields. If your post contains anything unrelated to the forum or article topic, it may be removed. If it includes spam, such as irrelevant links, viruses, duplicate copy from other websites (or from our website while trying to claim it as your own) or overly self-promoting content, it will absolutely be removed. These actions can also cause you to be banned from the community.
3. Banning/deleting users and spam: StartupNation reserves the right to delete a user’s account and content, as well as ban the user from the forum without warning. If a user posts irrelevant links, links to illegal products or software, derogatory or disrespectful content, duplicate copy or another act we deem as inappropriate and/or spam or malware, that user will be banned.
Feel free to share an informative link when services or articles are relevant to the topic and can be helpful. Otherwise, your content should only include your insights, advice, comments or questions related to the topic. There is also a signature option available on your posts, where website links may be placed. The signature space is where we prefer company links to be posted. Please note that a member must reach Bronze Level membership (10 posts) to add a signature.
We consider spam to be anything that is irrelevant, inappropriate, illegal, malicious, duplicated from another source or overly promotional. We solely reserve the right to determine what we consider as spam and what we do not. If you think your post may contain spam, chances are it does. Users may report posts with spam by clicking the “Flag” button on the reaction bar.
4. Honesty is the best policy: The intended use and most basic function of the StartupNation community is to be used for the helpful exchange of information between members. False, inaccurate, or otherwise misleading information is not helpful. Please be sincere in your community participation by only contributing content you know is accurate, and does not misrepresent your identity or your business qualifications. Failure to comply with this guideline may also get you banned or deleted.
5. Personal introductions to the community: If you would simply like to introduce yourself (and your business) to other members, you may do so in our “New Member Welcome” forum. This is located in the “Lobby” section near the bottom of our forum topics. Please keep introduction-related posts in this section of the community, otherwise they may be moved or deleted by community moderators or admins.
6. Do not use this forum as a marketing channel: A post or reply with the sole purpose of self-promotion or the pushing of products and links only benefits the person who writes it, not the community as a whole. Likewise, unsolicited advertising adds distracting clutter and irrelevant content to the forums. Please respect the community's mission by not using it as a marketing channel or submitting any content you've been paid or otherwise rewarded by a third party to write or post. The community is not a personal marketing channel for your business, and this would be yet another example of spam. Also, please refrain from directly copying and pasting articles from your website or third party sites into a forum post.
7. Proper attribution of content: Help us maintain the community's reputation and observe the intellectual property rights of others by only submitting content you have personally written or else properly attributed. When posting content that is not yours, please cite the name of the author, website, publication or entity. The community should not be used to distribute unauthorized copies of any copyrighted material.
8. Respect the privacy of others: While we would advise against sharing private information, it is your choice, and solely your choice, to decide whether or not to share personal information about yourself or your business. Any post or reply that includes another user's (other than yourself) postal or email addresses, phone numbers, or other contact information will be removed immediately.
9. Posting etiquette: Once again, your posts should be respectful and relevant to the community. When posting, use the English language only. Try to refrain from using internet slang, symbols, special characters, all capital letters or derogatory language. Also, please do not post a link without explaining the source it is coming from and why it is relevant to the forum topic. Please try to follow standard online etiquette.
10. This is your community. Take care of it: The community is designed for the enjoyment and education of its members. If you notice content within the community that does not abide by the guidelines, please report it to our site moderators or administrators by selecting “Report," located under the "Flag" option on the reaction bar. Please note that deliberate misuse of the “Report” function can result in your account being banned from the community.
11. Account Cancellation: While there is currently no charge for any feature of the community forums, StartupNation reserves the right to change this at any time, at which time current users will have 30 days to cancel their accounts or subscribe under the new model. If you wish to have your account removed, please contact a site admin.
Images:
We at StartupNation encourage our community members to upload a profile picture or avatar to their accounts. We also allow images to be uploaded into posts. With that said, please keep in mind this is a professional community of entrepreneurs, business owners, startup employees, marketers and more. We expect your imagery to reflect that.
StartupNation reserves the right to delete images deemed inappropriate. To ensure your image is acceptable, make certain it does not contain the following:
Copyright Infringement: Any images that do not belong to the member cannot be used unless that member was given permission to use it. Please use original images if possible. An example of a copyrighted image would be using the likeness of the Nike logo or a photo of Batman.
Obscenity, Nudity or Vulgarity: Any image that is explicit, pornographic, or obscene will not be tolerated. For instance, a nude person, or a person with their middle finger raised.
Violent, Illegal or Inappropriate Behavior: Any image that depicts violence, illegal activity, self-harm or similar content depicting inappropriate acts. For instance, drug usage or a person holding a gun pointed at himself/herself or another person.
Impersonation: Pretending to be a celebrity or famous person, such as the president of the United States, or another well-known public figure. This can also be the impersonation of a StartupNation staff member or community member. For example, pretending to be a StartupNation community moderator or official of StartupNation, LLC., or another StartupNation community user.
Racism, Discrimination or Hate Speech: Any offensive imagery or words directed toward other members of the community. Examples include images that are derogatory based upon skin color, disability, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion, or sexual orientation.
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https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243099
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243099
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1. Know where you're going: Set actionable and attainable goals over a marked period of time.
Check out the rest of this great article by clicking on the link below:
https://goo.gl/CLoiy9
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Check out the rest of this great article by clicking on the link below:
https://goo.gl/CLoiy9
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Be sure to DOWNLOAD StartupNation's FREE Marketing and SEO Fundamentals e-book!
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For the rest of the tips, and helpful tools, click below!
https://goo.gl/58zxYE
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For the rest of the tips, and helpful tools, click below!
https://goo.gl/58zxYE
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For a limited-time, download the FREE e-book to learn how to:
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A pitch deck is a visual summary used to communicate your
business idea to potential investors. I am curious, who in the community has created a pitch deck presentation? Who is interested in doing so?
If you would like to learn more about pitch decks, download our free Pitch Deck Fundamentals (produced by Venture Formations) e-book here.
If you would like to learn more about pitch decks, download our free Pitch Deck Fundamentals (produced by Venture Formations) e-book here.