Welcome to RC!

Welcome to Renewed Culture!

Thank you for registering.  This guide will give you a quick introduction to Renewed Culture so that you can get started blogging and contributing to this community.

Tabbed Sidebar

The tabbed sidebar is the white box at the top right of every page.  It allows you to easily navigate the website.  Lets look at each tab:

User Tab

The user tab, by default, will always be the selected first.  You will see a welcome message along with your Avatar.  The Avatar is the small image that appears on the user tab when you are logged in and next to the comments that you make on blog posts.  See “Adding Photos” for instructions on adding your personal Avatar.

Dashboard: This is your personal administration area where you can create and edit your blog posts, update your profile, and upload pictures.

My Profile: Takes you to your public RC Profile.

Edit: Takes you to the ‘Profile’ section of the Dashboard where you can update your personal information and upload pictures.

Logout: Logs you out of your session.

My Points: The redeemable points that you have accumulated by using Renewed Culture.  (More Info)

Pages Tab

This tab is a list of the pages on Renewed Culture.  You can navigate RC there or by clicking the pages at the very top of the website.

Connect Tab

You can connect with Renewed Culture in a variety of ways.  RC has profiles on Facebook and Twitter.  On these profiles, you can be keep up with the latest posts and news.  You can also subscribe to the RSS feed.  RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.  It allows you at read every RC post on a single page.  You can also subscribe by email.  In doing so, you will receive the latest RC posts directly in your email.  We use Google’s automated Feedburner service for this.  Your email will never be shared and you will only receive an email if there is a new post…but no more than one email per day.

Support Tab

This tab is for those who wish to donate in support of Renewed Culture.  Donations are accepted via Paypal, so you can use any major credit card  or your Paypal account to give.  Sowing financially into this ministry is not required but greatly appreciated.

Search Tab

For your convenience, all the posts on RC are searchable.  The built-in search uses post titles, tags, and content to deliver results.  So if your search term in “wisdom,” the results will be every post that contains the word “wisdom” in the title or in the body.

Your Profile

Before you start blogging, you should update your public RC profile information.  Your RC profile is the page that other users can see when they click your name on the ‘RC Profiles’ page or on blog entries that you post.  It displays your name, bio, and other contact information:

To edit your personal profile, click ‘Edit” on your User sidebar or  click “Edit Your Profile” on your public RC profile page.  This takes you to the ‘profile’ section of your Dashboard.  Here, you can add or change your personal information, change your password, and add other ways that you can be contacted (Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc.).  After you have filled in your information, click “Update Profile.”  Tip: Fill out as much profile information as you can.  Adding your personal websites and social networking profiles is a great way to connect with other RC users.

Adding Photos

After you update your profile, it’s a good idea to add a few pictures.  While in your Dashboard, you will see a tab on the left called ‘Profile.’  Click the arrow to expand the tab and click ‘Your Gallery.’  On the ‘Manage your Photo Gallery’ page, you can upload up to 10 pictures.  Note that each image must be smaller than 2 MB.  If the pictures you want to upload are too big, here is a nice online photo resizing tool:  PicResize.

After you upload your photos, there is an option to set images as ‘Main Picture’ or ‘Avatar.’  The main picture is what is displayed on your public RC profile.  The avatar is the small image that appears on the sidebar when you are logged in and next to the comments that you make on blog posts.  You can set both to be the same photo if you like.  Your personal photo gallery can be viewed by other RC users when they visit your public RC profile.

Earning Points

On Renewed Culture, you earn points by participating in our online community.  This is just a way of rewarding the active members of RC.  When you post blog entries and comment on other posts, points are added to your total.  Points can be redeemed for great stuff such as shirts, CD’s, DVD’s,  and books!  A break down of the stuff available is coming soon.  In the meantime, start racking up those points!

Now you are ready to Start Blogging!

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