Most functions of the website require you to have an account on one of the home sites in the network. There are many attributes or settings that you can configure to suite your own preferences. Here are some of the most important attributes:
Please note that most of account attributes are private, except for username, picture, avatar and profile. You should keep your private information private. Especially, never give your password to others. Nobody, including the system admin, knows your password.
To change your account settings, go to menu: My account => Edit.
Though you can set your username to pretty much anything you want, remember that your username is your identity in the community. When you create content, your username is shown with the content. When you communicate with fellow community members, it is your username that identifies you to others. So your username is publicly visible to everyone in the community. To be a good citizen in the community, please follow these simple guidelines when creating your username:
1. Since the username is visible to everyone, avoid using your private information as the username. For example, you shouldn't use your email address as username, unless you really want others to know it.
2. Don't use anything that may appear offensive or inappropriate to others. Don't use any profanity words.
3. Use something that is easy to remember.
4. There are a few special characters that you cannot use in your username. Avoid these characters.
5. You can use Chinese characters in your username. However it requires you and your computer are capable of entering Chinese characters. Be aware that even if your own computer is capable, not all computers can do it. So you may get stuck if you have to access the website from a computer that cannot do Chinese. Also other community members may not be able to type Chinese, and therefore won't be able to communicate with you because they can't type your username.
You may be wondering why some of the posts have a nice cute icon. This icon is called an avatar that represents the author's "face" in our community. You can have yours too.
To add an avatar, click on "My account" and then "Edit". There are a few dozen avatars for you to select. Hopefully you can find one you like. But if you don't, you can upload your own avatar or even your own picture. Just make sure the picture you upload is not too big.
Avatars are mainly for fun. But you can use it as a way of self expression.