Welcome to OpenZA, a community of freedom-loving individuals. To get the most out of OpenZA we recommend you read this document. It provides a quick guide to the major features of the community, ways you can get involved as well as what to do if you get stuck. This guide is not exhaustive and focuses on the things new members of the community might find less than clear. If your particular question is not answered here then it’s worth taking a look at the frequently asked questions, help docs or join the OpenZA help and tips and tricks groups and ask a question.
I’m here, now what?
There are many things you can do on OpenZA:
Create your profile: You can provide as much, or as little, as you want but it’s a good way to provide others with a little bit of information about yourself.
Make friends: One of the things you can do on OpenZA is make friends with other users. by making friends with others you’ll be able to send them direct messages, keep up with their activities and comments and invite them to groups and events. When you send friendship request to a friend they will have to agree to be your friend.
Post on a wire: The wire is a place to post comments, status updates notes etc. You can post comments on your own wire or you can post comments on the wire of groups you belong to.
Join a group: One of the main features of OpenZA are groups, places for members to meet new friends, discuss issues and make plans. Take a look at the groups directory to see what groups are available.
Create a group: If you can’t find a group that interests you then you may want to start one of your own. As the administrator of the group you’ll be able to
Join a forum discussion: There are two ways to join in with forum discussions: The easiest is to post replies (or start new topics) in groups you belong to. The other is to visit forums.openza.co.za and join in there.
Start a blog: When you join OpenZA you’re given an option to create a blog of your own. Even if you didn’t do this you can still start a blog at any point from the My Blogs menu. Your blog will be included in the OpenZA directory and new posts will be added to the various activity streams.
Write for the OpenZA blog: The main blog on OpenZA is known as the OpenZA Blog. Anyone is welcome to write for this blog and all new members are automatically registered to write for the blog when joining OpenZA. All posts to this blog are, however, moderated so one of the editors will have to approve all posts before they are published. If, for some reason, your post is not approved, an editor will let you know and give you feedback.
Keep up to date: To keep up with news of the latest developments on OpenZA subscribe to the low-volume update newsletter
Contribute to OpenZA development: OpenZA is an open platform. Anyone can get involved in helping it evolve. If you have ideas, can programme, edit, write or illustrate then OpenZA needs you. To get involved join the OpenZA mailing list which will be used to discuss ideas around improving OpenZA and adding new features.