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Home > ThisChurch Support > User Accounts

User Accounts - How They Work

Perhaps the most important feature that makes ThisChurch sites powerful is the idea of user accounts. Anonymous users can browse most parts of your site at will without needing accounts. However, many of the fun features require them to create an account, which gives them their own identity on your site. It's very easy for them to do, and it gives them a reason to visit over and over, and it gives them a place to share information, photos, and more with other members.

You have an account on your site, even if you don't know it. Your initial email contained a special link which logged you on under a special account called 'admin'. The admin account is just like any other account, except that it has permissions to update the site.

Since you are probably still logged on as the administrator, you will need to log off in order to use this tutorial. This tutorial will put you in the shoes of a regular visitor of this site.

Step 1: Create An Account

  1. Log off of the administrator account if you haven't done so.
  2. Go to the front page of your site. This is what your users will first see.
  3. Notice the "Create an Account" link on the left-hand side of your page. Click this.
  4. Fill out the simple form and click the "Create Account" button. Depending on how you set up your account, you may need to follow the instructions of an email to validate your account. You are now a registered user on your site.

Step 2: Customize Your Account

  1. Now that you are a registered user, go back to the main page.
  2. Click the "Customize Profile" link. This page is the central place for you to edit your account.
  3. Whenever you need to change information such as your email address, name, or password, simply go to this page to update it. You can also use the more advanced customization features.

Step 3: Submitting Your Location

  1. We'll add your location the account now. Go to the "Customize Profile" page on the left side of your page.
  2. Click on the "Submit Your Location" link.
  3. Fill in either the City/State boxes, or the Zip Code box.
  4. Click the "Submit Location" button.
  5. Your location will now show up in your profile, and it will also be searchable in the member location search.

Step 4: Add Photos

  1. We'll add some photographs to the account now. Go to the "Customize Profile" page on the left side of your page.
  2. Click on the "Add Photos" link.
  3. Click the "Add A Photo" button at the top of the page.
  4. We'll assume you have a photograph on your hard drive at C:\photo.jpg. Click the "Browse" button and locate the photo.
  5. Give the photo a caption.
  6. Click the "Add Photo" button.

Step 5: Other Features

  1. Members can send messages to one another.
  2. Members can share their favorite links.
  3. Members can keep journals.
  4. There's more features than I could ever name here. Just play around and try it out, that's half of the fun!

Once you're done playing around with a regular user account, simply log off of the account using the link on the front page, then log back on as "admin" to make changes again.

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