FAQs MyOpolis

• What is MyOpolis?
• How do I earn points?
• What tags should I use to describe my Blog, forum topic, etc.?
• What is a Blog?
• How do I start a forum topic?
• How do I respond to someone else’s forum topic?
• How do I create a poll?
• How do I join a group?
• Can I start my own group?
• Where can I post educational documents or videos?
• What are events and how do they work?
• How do I create an event?
• I signed up/volunteered for an event and now I can’t go? What should I do?
• What is a CO2 footprint?
• How do I turn off email notifications?
• How do I create a user profile?
• How do I send a private message?
• Can I email another member?
• How do I add a member to my buddy list?
• Can I remove a member from my buddy list?
• Someone posted inappropriate content on the site. Whom should I contact?

What is MyOpolis?

MyOpolis is the center of the Greenopolis social network, and the place where you can interact with other people who share your interest in living “green.” MyOpolis makes it easy to write a Blog, contribute to forums, create and vote on Greenopolis polls, and sign up for events where you can meet and work with other members of the Greenopolis community.

You can earn Green Points by:

• Writing a Blog entry
• Contributing to the forums
• Voting in a poll, or creating one of your own
• Signing up for an event, or creating one of your own
• Starting a group
• Inviting a friend to join Greenopolis.

As a general rule, any time that you contribute to the Greenopolis community, you’ll be rewarded with Points.

When you add content to the Greenopolis site, you will often be asked to create tags for your content. Tags are the keywords that best describe your contribution. If you choose good tags, people who are looking for what you wrote will find it. For example, if you were writing about a new hybrid car, you might select tags such as hybrid, car, automobile, technology, emissions.

A Blog (short for “web log”) is a place where you can write about any issue that interests you. Your entries will appear on your own personal Blog page with your most recent entry appearing first. To start a Blog, simply click “Blogs” in the MyOpolis navigation bar, and then select “Add.” You can view and edit previous entries by going to the My Blog page.

To start a forum topic, click “Forums” in the MyOpolis navigation bar, and then select “Add.” Make sure that you choose an appropriate Content Category and Forum to add your topic to. That way, the people you want to see your topic will see it. For example, if you are writing about wind power, locating your topic in the Energy category will achieve better results that placing it in the Water category, since people who are interested in alternate energy would find it more easily.

To reply to a forum topic that someone else has created, click the “Add new comment” link at the bottom of the original post. Comments appear below the original post with the most recent at the top.

To create a poll and see what other members of the Greenopolis community think about a particular issue, click “Polls” in the MyOpolis navigation bar, and then select “Add.” Enter your question, as well as the choices you want others to have. If you need more than five spaces for choices, check the “Need more choices” box and click the Preview button. You can set a specific duration for your poll, as well as direct your poll to a particular group.

To join a group, click the “Subscribe to this group” link. Once you join a group, you’ll be able to contribute content to the group and interact with other members who share your interest.

If you can’t find a group based on a particular interest or issue, feel free to start your own. To start a group, click “Groups” in the MyOpolis navigation bar, and then select “Add.” All you have to do is create a title for your group and write a brief description. You can also control how people can join your group, whether membership is completely open, by-approval only, or by-invite only.

As the administrator of a group, you can post educational documents and videos to that group's library. If you are not the administrator of any group, you need to create on if you want to post documents or videos. This content will be private to the group you associate it with, but can still be accessed by anyone who types in the URL, so don't post anything you want to keep a secret.

Greenopolis users can post upcoming events in MyOpolis in the hopes that other members will attend. If you are interested in an event, simply click “Sign up” and your name will be added to the list of attending members. The only exception is Volunteer events, which will often have a list of time slots for you to choose from. In this case, you sign up to volunteer during the time slot that is most convenient to you. With any event you register for, you will receive a confirmation email and a reminder email one day before the event.

If you are planning an event and you would like other Greenopolis members to attend, create an event in MyOpolis. To do so, simply click “Events” in the MyOpolis navigation bar, and then select “Add Event”. To submit an event with volunteer time slots, select “Add Volunteer Event.” Either way, you’ll be asked to fill out a short form with all the necessary information, including time, location, and a description of the event.

If you can no longer attend an event which you are signed up for, you can cancel on the event description page. If you are signed up for a volunteer event and the event is less than 24 hours away, you should also contact the Event Coordinator so that he or she is aware that you cannot attend.

Your carbon footprint is a measure of how much carbon dioxide you are directly or indirectly responsible for in the atmosphere. When you drive the car or buy plane tickets, your carbon footprint goes up. When you recycle, it goes down. It's called a footprint because it's a good measure of how big of an impact you're leaving on the Earth. Use the CO2 Footprint Calculator to figure out what your current impact is, and how you can improve.

To turn off email notifications, go to the My Settings page. Here you can opt to never receive email notifications, or to receive them selectively. You can also change other account settings from this page, such as the need for approvals and the ability of other members to contact you through email.

To create a user profile, go to the My Profile page. If you have not created a user profile, the page will only have one link: “Create your User Profile.” If you already have a user profile but would like to make changes to it, click “Edit My Profile” in the MyOpolis navigation bar.

A private message goes to the Inbox of another Greenopolis user and cannot be seen publicly. There are multiple ways to send one. One way is to go to the My Inbox page, click “Write a new message” and choose the user you want to send a message to. Additionally, you can click the icon that appears next to the user’s name to send a private message.

Greenopolis members can decide whether or not other members of the community will be able to email them. Therefore, you can email some Greenopolis members, and others you cannot. If a member allows email, an icon will appear next to the user’s name that looks like this: . Click the icon to send that user an email. If a member does not allow email, try sending him or her a private message instead.

To add a member to your buddy list, click the small icon next to the user’s name. An email is then sent to the user, who must approve your buddy request.

If you are friends with a member, the Add Buddy icon will become a Remove Buddy icon, , and will now feature a minus sign. Click it to remove the user from your buddy list.

If you come across user-created content that is unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic, or profane, click the “Flag as offensive” link that appears below the content, and we will be alerted of the problem. We rely upon all members of the Greenopolis community to monitor content that appears on the site, and we appreciate your help!