Digital Tools Workshop
Knitters' Guild NSW Camp 2015
Ravelry Groups and Forums
Why have groups? Groups are a way to join a community of like minded people on a particular
subject, be it a podcast group or a particular pattern group, like socks. A place where people
can interact with each other, passing on information or asking questions, or just generally
chatting for the fun of it.
Searching for a group.
Browse all groups
Browse groups by location
Browse groups by category
Search by tag
Search all swaps
Knitalongs Crochetalongs other-alongs
Start a group now
Looking for events
(you can also scroll down below your list of groups on this page to find the most recently
started groups)
Joining a group
For example - type in 'socks'
Notice 'options' on the left hand side
where you could choose the craft type,
in this case Crochet, Knitting or
Spinning. The group type (knitalong,
general etc).
Scroll through the groups until you find
one that interests you.
Click on group.
Click 'join group'
Choose a forum tab.
If you have already set up some forum tabs these will be
displayed. If not then either create a new tab or if you
just press 'save changes', this new group will appear under
the 'Misc' tab in your forums page.
I have a 'Socks' tab, which is where I have placed this group.
After clicking on Socks a box comes up to show the groups already
in that tab.
Click Save Changes.
What a group looks like.
First is introductory information
of the group which is written up by
the one who started it.
There are avatars of those who
have recently joined this group
with the number of members just
above those and a number of how
many are on line at the moment.
On the right are recently shared
projects or stash and blog posts
from other members of this group.
Moving down to the discussion
threads -
The green arrows indicate a
sticky thread - meaning it will
always appear at the top of
the forum.
The next column shows when
the last comment was posted,
then how many comments you
have not read yet and how
many comments altogether in
that thread.
Note that some 'unread'
numbers are in bold and
others are not. The bold ones
indicate that you have opened
and read comments in that thread at some stage, with the number showing how many you
have not yet read. The unbold figures show that you have not opened that thread at all.
Note - any group member can open a new thread for discussion by clicking on the tab just
above all the threads 'start a topic'.
The last column sometimes has a star or
coloured dot. If you click on this you can
choose to either go to the first post,
go to the first unread post,
watch a thread,
ignore a thread,
mark unread
or mark all read.
If you hold the pointer over a particular thread, a box
appears with information from the very first post of that
thread. (if you have ticked that preference in settings)
When you open a
thread for the first
time you will be taken
to the very first
entry which will be
from the person who
has started the
thread.
There is information
at the top about the
thread then each of
the comments from
participants.
If someone has
replied specifically to
a particular comment the replies are shown on the right of that post. If you want to reply to
a comment from a specific person, click the 'reply' button at the end of their post. Or if
you want to add a comment to the general thread then click on 'reply to thread' at the top
of the page.
If you want to know more about the person who has posted a comment, click on their avatar
which will take you to their home page, showing their projects and details.
Forums Tab
Click on the 'forums' tab at the top of the Ravelry page.
The advantage of the Forums tab is to see, in one place, all the groups you have joined and of
the recent activity of each group.
Notice the tabs at the top of the forum page. The first one being 'your boards' which
covers every group you belong to. The rest are the individual tabs you have created for
sorting the groups into categories.
As you click on one of the top tabs you will see the
groups you have placed in that category.
For a quick glance at unread messages, click on the
'hey You have xx unread replies' under the tabs.
Otherwise you can click on any tab and scroll
through your groups to see new activity.
Settings.
The last tab at the top of your Forum page is 'Settings'. This is where you can change or
update your groups and categories.
The first settings, 'select your
Ravelry-wide boards' are for
groups of Ravelry specific
subjects. You can un-tick any
that you don't want to be
involved in. The information or
questions could however be quite
helpful and worth keeping your
membership.
The next settings are for the
voting buttons you would like to
see at the bottom of each post
to allow people to tag their thoughts about the posts.
Next are 'moderator settings' which you don't need to worry about unless you are setting up
your own group.
Further down are a few other options you can choose, which we won't go into here.
Next are all your groups in
their specific categories.
This is where you can move
groups from category to
category or create new
categories and adjust how
much you can view of each
group.
To add a tab click on the
'add new tab' button. This
adds a new tab at the
bottom of the page, so you
may need to scroll down to
see it.
Cick in the 'untitled' box and type in
the name you want for this tab. Click on
the next box 'small boards'. This
determines how many threads of the
board will be shown in your 'forum'
view. Medium is a happy medium
(pardon the pun).
You can then move groups from other
tabs into this one or add new groups as
you join them in the future.
Other settings
Activity
This section shows the most recent posts in each group subscribed Mark a thread to watch
Browse
Choose either one or your tabs or a group name to see all the latest threads.
Radar
This is a fabulous ticker involving all Ravelry groups showing all the comments being posted
right now.
Added to all of the above, there is much more to be learnt on the home page of Ravelry
almost every day.
KnitCompanion - Created by Sally Holt
Knitcompanion.com - main home page with all tutorials, classes etc
(Designer series - incl videos and full instructions - kCUniversity - to master kC)
Create2thrive.com -
patterngenius.com
in conjunction with
Patternfish.com
Package is free for quickstart projects - otherwise
1. kC Bundle (1yr) $10.99 ($13.99 Aus)
2. kC Bundle (30 Days) $.99
3. Magic Markers (1yr) $3.99)
4. Setup (1yr) $9.99
Intro to package -
Opening screen
Designs - contains free patterns with package + anything purchased from Patternfish
PDF's - again free patterns + installed (local and Dropbox)
Live Events - Intro classes - webinar (need to be connected to internet to see classes and
register)
Sam Seymour - kC mascot and super helper
Projects - What you are working on (Export to Dropbox in settings.)
Starting a pattern - Open in kC from Ravelry library or elsewhere
- import from Dropbox
- Local PDF
- Designs
Knit now
Demo Clapotis
Demo Dither - smart counters (only work on charts so far).