Forum Guidelines Overview

Welcome to the forums! These guidelines will give you the tools you need to maximize your forum experience.

The forums are a gathering place for everyone in the nonprofit community to exchange ideas. All posts, including shared documents, are publicly available so you do not need a Blackbaud login to view them.  If you have a question about best practices, or have discovered a creative use for Blackbaud software, take advantage of this opportunity to share your knowledge and brainstorm with your peers.

The forums are organized into six broad categories, and then further divided by subforums. The categories are:

• Product Forums: Discuss Blackbaud software
• Technical Forums: For database administrators as well as VBA/API and RODBA users
• Nonprofit Industry Forums: Find people who share your goals
• Nonprofit Events Forums: Conferences, User Groups, and Trade Shows
• Blackbaud Community Forums: Job Postings, Feedback, and Web Resources
• Blackbaud Europe: Forums for the United Kingdom

Need help finding the posts that interest you the most? Read about searching the forums.

Have a question for your peers or an insight to share? Find all the ways you can contribute to the forums.

Do you want to make the most out of the networking opportunities through the forums? Learn how to personalize your forum experience!

Want to keep your finger on the pulse of the forum action? Subscribe to the forums!

Read our Acceptable Use Policy.

The forums are so full of ideas, inquiries, and insight that it's almost overwhelming. The key to finding the threads that interest you the most is mastering the search process.

The forums are accessible to everyone; you do not need to have a Blackbaud login to browse the forum threads you're interested in or search the forums. Before you post, search and review the other posts to determine if a discussion regarding this topic has already been posted. Someone may have already answered your question, or made the point that you were planning to make.

How do I search in forums? You can search in Forums by entering a key word in the search field and clicking the search button. If you are searching within a forum or subforum, you can choose to search that forum or subforum only, all forums of that type (e.g., Product Forums, Technical Forums), or the entire site.

How do I search for client documents in Forums? You can find Forum posts with client documents attached to them by clicking the client document tag in the Popular tags panel on the right in the main Forums screen.

What are the advanced search options? The advanced search options allow you to refine your search by using 'AND' and 'OR' to constrain the results of your keyword search, match tags, filter by date, and select a sort order

What are tags? Tags are key words used to search a post. They give the post relevance when displayed in the Popular Tags box on the main forums page. When listed in this box, tags appear in a variety of font sizes. The size of each tag is based on its occurance in the database. The larger a tag appears in this box, the more often it has been used.

What options do I have for sorting forum posts? You can choose to sort posts Oldest to Newest or Newest to Oldest.
To change the sort order, select the desired sort order from the Sort Posts dropdown
  
How do I navigate between Posts? You can navigate between forum threads using the Previous and Next buttons 
 
How can I use RSS?
1. Subscribe to an RSS Reader (such as Google Reader).
2. After you are subscribed, look for the RSS icon. Click it to get the address to use to subscribe to RSS feeds.
3. Log into your RSS reader and add the site to your list of RSS feed subscriptions.

To personalize your forum preferences and add favorites, you will need to log in to the forums.

• If your organization has Blackbaud software, log in to post to the forums or create a profile.
• If your organization does not have Blackbaud software, click Join on the top right of the Forums page to register and post.

How can I personalize my forum search results? All forums are displayed to all users by default. To display only select forums, follow these steps:

1. Click Personalize at the top of the list of forums.
2. To hide a specific forum, click Yes in the Display column. The word Yes will automatically become No. Repeat this for each forum you do not want to display. To hide an entire section of forums (i.e. Product Forums, Nonprofit Event Forums), click Yes to the right of the forum section name in the blue bar.
3. To return the forums home page, click Return to Personalized View at the top of the lists of forums.

How do I mark threads, forums, or users as favorites so I can access them again? You can select favorite forum users, forum posts, and forums.  Here's how:

1. To add a forum post as a favorite, open the post and click Favorites. Select "Add this post as a Favorite" from the drop down list.
2. To add a forum as a favorite, open a post in the Forum and click Favorites. Select "Add this forum as a favorite" from the drop down list. 
3. To add a forum participant as a friend:

• Open their public profile page (to visit a user's public profile, click their name anywhere in the forums) and click the "Add username as a friend" hyperlink.

OR

• Open a forum post by the member you wish to add as a friend, click Favorites and select "Add username as a friend" from the drop down list.

The purpose of the forums is to facilitate the ongoing conversation held among the members of the nonprofit community. The forums are a place to pose questions, share solutions, or just post an idea and ask for feedback.

If your organization has Blackbaud software, log in to post to the forums; if your organization does not have Blackbaud software, click Join on the top right of the Forums page to register and post. Before you post, it is important to search the forums and review the other posts to determine if a discussion regarding this topic has already been posted. There may already be a thread discussing the theme you wish to explore.

How do I create a new forum post?
1. Open the Forum that pertains to your topic.
2. Click Write a New Post or open the thread to which you wish to reply and click either Reply or Quick Reply.
Note: You have 30 minutes after clicking Write a New Post, Reply, or Quick Reply to to add a post.

3. On the Compose tab, enter a subject and the text for your post. There are several options besides text:

• To insert emoticons in your message, click the smiley face on the toolbar, then click the emoticon you want to insert. It will be placed in the post where your cursor is positioned.
• To include an attachment, select the Options tab. Click Add/Update under File Attachment, browse to the location, and click Save.
• To include an image, click the image icon on the toolbar, enter the url and any other settings you want to specify, and click Insert.

4. To preview the message, click the Preview tab.
5. You may enter tags, which are key words, in the Tags field. They give the post relevance when displayed on the main forums page.
6. Click Post to post the message to the forums.
Note: You have 30 minutes after clicking Post to edit a post.

How do I edit a forum post?
1. Open the Forum post you want to edit.
2. Click Edit.
3. Modify your content
4. Add any Edit Notes, if needed.
5. Click Post
Note: You have 30 minutes after clicking Post to edit a post. 

How do I delete a forum post?
To delete a forum post, open the post and click Delete.
Note: You have 5 minutes after clicking Post to delete a post. 

How do I spell check my posts?
From the Compose tab, click the ABC icon on the toolbar.

If you use Internet Explorer: Internet Explorer does not include a built-in spell checking program, but one is available for download. When you click the ABC icon on the Compose tab, Internet Explorer will prompt you to download and install ieSpell. Click OK and then download the latest version. Once it completes downloading, browse to the file and double-click it. Click Run to start the installation. Click I Agree to accept the terms and then click Install. Click OK to complete the installation. After you have installed ieSpell, click the ABC icon to spell check before posting.

If you use Mozilla's Firefox 2.0: Spell check is built in to Firefox. When you misspell a word, it automatically inserts a red underline. You can right-click the word to see suggested corrections. Select the correct spelling to update the text.

How do I add attachments to posts?

1. On the Compose tab, enter a subject and text for your post.
2. On the Options tab, click Add/Update under File Attachment.
3. Browse to the location of the attachment and click Save.
4. Add the client document tag to the post
5. Click Post to post the message and your attachment.

How do I attach screenshots to posts?

Using the Print Screen button on your keyboard allows you to capture an image on your monitor and insert it into a document.

1. In a Word or Paint program, select File, New from the menu bar create a new document
2. Press Shift + Print Screen or CTRL + Print Screen to copy the entire screen. [On some keyboards the button is named PrtScn].
   Press Alt+Print Screen to copy the active window only.

   Note: Although the screen shot is captured in the background when these keys are pressed, there is no viewable action on the screen

    

3. Once you capture the image, return to the word processor or paint program
4. Select Edit, Paste from the menu bar or press CTRL+V to paste the screen shot into the program a
5. Save the file to your desktop to add as an attachment.
6. Follow the steps above to attach the screenshot to the post.

How do I create a poll for my forum post?

1. Open the Forum where you wish to create a poll.
2. Click Write a New Post. You cannot add a poll to a forum thread by replying; you must create a new post.
3. On the Compose tab, enter a Subject.
4. Select the Poll tab and mark Include a poll in this post.
5. Enter the question and any description to accompany your question.
6. Under Add Answer, enter text for a choice that should appear in the poll. Click Add.
7. Repeat this until you have entered all possible answers you want to include. You may reorder or delete options you have entered.
8. Under Expires After, enter the number of days to leave the poll open to have the poll expire
9. Click Post to post the poll to the forum.

How do I quote other messages in my forum replies?

1. Open the post to which you want to reply.
2. On the Compose tab, click Quote to insert a quote displaying the message to which you are replying.
3. Enter the text of your response.
4. Click Post to post the response.

How do I rate forum posts I find helpful?

1. Open the post you want to rate.
2. Place the cursor over the rating stars box associated with the reply you found helpful.
3. Click and drag your mouse until the proper number of stars are lit.

You earn points when adding ratings to other posts, as well as when your posts are rated. These points determine your ranking in the forums.

Express yourself in the forums! The forums are a place to network as well as share information, so create a forums profile and show other users what you're all about!

How do I set up my profile? Click Edit Profile on the top right of the Forums page. Each tab has profile options; click "Save" on each tab. All profile settings are optional.

a. Signature and Bio:

• Enter the signature you want to use in your forum posts in the Signature field.
• The Bio field is available for you to create a short biography which others can view from your profile.

b. About: Enter your name, the year you became a Blackbaud software user, any Blackbaud products you use, your location, and occupation. You can also add a list of your interests, your birth date, and your organization's web address.  If you write a blog, you can include a URL for your blog.  All this information will be visible to other users when they view your profile.

c. Avatar: What are avatars and how do I add one to my profile?
Avatars are images you select to represent yourself.  Our forums require that avatars be .gif or .jpg files.  Animated .gif files can be used, but will not be animated. Avatar dimensions are set to 80 X 80, but will downsize automatically.
 
To add an avatar to your profile, select the Avatar tab, and mark Enable Avatar.  Browse to the location of the image you want to use as your avatar. Double-click the file to open it. Click the Update button. It may take several minutes for the avatar to display.

d. Email:

• If you wish to receive emails from other forum participants, mark Receive Emails.
• If you want to receive emails in html format, mark the Receive rich (HTML) emails.
• If you want to be notified by email of new posts to forums/threads you have subscribed to as well as of any replies to one of your posts, mark Enable Email Notifications of forum/thread subscriptions and replies to my posts.
• Emails will be sent to the email address associated with your Blackbaud website login.
• The Private Email field is associated with your http://www.blackbaud.com/ email and can not be edited in the Forum Edit Profile. If the email listed in the Forum Profile Private Email field is incorrect, edit your email on My Profile Login Settings.

e. Site options: The site options tab allows you to customize the functionality of the forum display.

• Sort Posts: This setting allows you to sort the order of posts within a thread. Ascending displays posts in the order they are added. The first post will be at the start of the thread, and the newest post at the end of the thread. Descending displays the thread with the latest post at the start, and the thread starter post at the end. This is only applicable if the forum posts are displayed in the "Flat View" format.
• Font Size: You can make the size of the text on the site larger or smaller by selecting the size from this list.
• Forum Posts Default View: "Flat View" displays a forum thread as a sequence determined by the sort posts option. All posts within the thread are visible. "Threaded View" displays the thread in a bi-paned window. The left hand pane allowing you to select individual responses (posts) to the thread are displayed in the right hand pane. This view is useful to see replies that have been made out of chronological order.
• Display In Members List: This setting determines whether you want to be included in the members list. Setting this to "No" will not prevent other site members viewing your public profile, it only removes your name from the searchable member list.
• Enable Collapsing Panels: The "yes" option allows you to collapse forums so that only the forum title is displayed on the forum home page.
• Enable Emoticons: This setting allows you to toggle on or off the display and usage of emoticons in posts. This will only change the display of emoticons for you; other users will still be able to see them according to their setting.
• Display User Avatars: This setting allows you to toggle on or off the display of avatars in posts. This will only change the display of avatars for you; other users will still be able to see them according to their setting .
• Display User Signatures: This setting allows you to toggle on or off the display of signatures in posts. This will only change the display of signatures for you; other users will still be able to see them according to their setting.
• Items per-Page in Control Panel grids: This setting determines the default number of rows that are displayed on a page. Time zone: This setting allows you to select the time zone in which you reside, which determines the time and date information you see.
• Date format: This setting allows you to select your preferred format for the display of dates.

f. Favorites:

• The Favorites tab contains a list of forum participants you have marked as Friends and forum participants who have marked you as a friend, as well as forums and forum posts you have selected as favorites.
• If you mark the Share Friends, Share Favorites Posts, and Share Favorite Sections options, other users will be able to view your favorites when they view your profile.
• To remove a Favorite from your list, mark the check box next to the Favorite and click "Delete".

What contact options do I have for other forum members? To email an individual who posted a message, follow these steps:

• Click the Contact button on the post.
• Click Send [user name] an email.
• A pop-up window will open. Enter the text of the email and click Send Email to deliver the message.

To find other posts by an individual, click the Contact button on the post and select Find posts by [user name].

How do I send private messages? Private messages are messages stored within the forums for another member to read and reply. It is not a forum, so to receive email for private messages, click Enable Emails.

To send a private message to the member who posted a message:
1. Click Contact on the post
2. Click Send [user name] a private message

To view private messages:
1. Click Inbox (on the top right of the forums page)
2. Click the message to open it and read it

To reply to private messages:
1. Open the message
2. Click Reply
3. Enter the text of your message and click Post

To delete private messages:
1. Click Inbox (on the top right of the forums page)
2. Mark the box beside the message to delete
3. Click Delete

Subscribe to forum emails and RSS feeds to keep up with all the latest happenings on the forums!

How do I subscribe to Forum Emails?

1. Click Edit Profile on the top right of the Forums page.
2. Select the Email tab
3. Mark Yes for the three Email Options
4. Click Save
5. Click Forums at the top of the page
6. Click Forum Subscriptions under Shortcuts.
7. Select Yes for the forums to which you want to be subscribed.
8. When new threads are added, you will receive emails for the posts.
9. To unsubscribe from forums notifications, select No.

How can I use RSS?

1. Subscribe to an RSS Reader (such as Google Reader).
2. After you are subscribed, look for the RSS icon. Click it to get the address to use to subscribe to RSS feeds.
3. Log into your RSS reader and add the site to your list of RSS feed subscriptions.

Read more about RSS.

Your use of the forums, blogs, and any other public discussion medium (collectively, the "Forums") hosted by Blackbaud, Inc. indicates your acceptance of the Blackbaud, Inc. privacy policy, those terms found in this Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP"). The AUP can be modified at any time, and your continued use of the Forums indicates your acceptance of the modified terms that can be found at http://www.blackbaud.com/privacy/overview.aspx.

Please remember that the open and real-time nature of these Forums makes it is impossible for us to vouch for the validity of any content posted. As such, we are not responsible for any messages posted or the consequences of following any advice offered within Forum posts. The views expressed in the posts you will find in these forums belong solely to their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Blackbaud, Inc. If you find any posts in these Forums to be offensive or objectionable, please contact us via email to the address offered as a contact for the Forums in question. If we determine that removal of a post or posts is necessary, we will make reasonable efforts to do so in a timely manner.

By using these Forums, you agree to the following:

• By posting messages, uploading files, inputting data, or engaging in any other form of communication through this service (collectively "the content"), you are granting Blackbaud, Inc., its successors and assignees, a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to use, adapt, transmit, publicly perform or display any such content on the site to which it was contributed (or successor site). In plain English, you allow us to continue to display your contributions to the site. We won't do anything else with them, however.
• If you contribute any graphic images or photographs, you accept all liability for any model or property release issues that may arise from an individual or trademarked property in the content. Please do not submit any images or photographs for which you do not have a current model or property release.
• You will not post any material that is knowingly false, misleading, or inaccurate.
• You will not behave in an abusive and/or hateful manner, and will not harrass, threaten, nor attack anyone.
• You will not use profanity in our forums, and will neither post with language or content that is obscene, sexually oriented, or sexually suggestive nor link to sites that contain such content.
• You will respect other people's right to personal privacy and will not post any other person's identifying information (including their names, contact information, and any other relevant information) within the forum but your own.
• You will not use these forums to violate any laws nor to discuss illegal activities.
• You will not to impersonate any person or entity, forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any posting, nor collect or store personal data about other users.
• You will not post any copyrighted material, nor link to any copyrighted material (with the exception of publicly available sites and pages that the legal owners of the copyrights have created to make that material freely available to the general public), unless that copyright is owned by you or by these Forums.
• You will not use these Forums for the purposes of sharing or distributing viruses, licenses, registration information, software keys, "cracks," or other information designed to do harm to or allow unlawful access to any computer hardware, software, networks, or any other systems.
• You will not post advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or solicitations, all of which are inappropriate and prohibited in the Forums. You will not, furthermore, collect personal information about forum members for the purpose of sending them any such advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or solicitations through other means (email, messaging programs, etc.).
• You will not post messages that are clearly outside of the stated topic of any Forums nor disrupt a forum by deliberately posting repeated irrelevant messages or copies of identical messages (also known as "flooding").
• You will not attempt to access any protected sections of the sites or Forums, nor make use of any hacks, cracks, bug exploits, etc. to bypass or modify the features of the forum software at any Blackbaud, Inc. site.
• You will, if asked by a representative of the Forums, cease posting any content, and/or links to content, deemed offensive, objectionable, or in poor taste by the staff of the Forums.

At all times, you remain solely responsible for anything found within your posts and agree to indemnify and hold Blackbaud, Inc. and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, co-branders or other partners, and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of any material you submit, post to or transmit through the Forums, your use of the Forums, your connection to the Forums, your violation of the AUP, legal notice, or privacy policy, or your violation of the rights of another.

These Forums do not and cannot review all of the content of every message posted and do not accept responsibility for the contents of any messages. We reserve the right to delete any message and/or restrict posting rights in our Forums for any reason whatsoever. Should you continue to post messages that violate the rules of the Forums, your account may be terminated, your access to the Forums may be banned, and your service provider(s) may be contacted about your behavior. Furthermore, we expressly reserve our rights under the law to take any other actions we deem necessary.

We at these Forums also reserve the right to disclose personal information when required by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to conform to the edicts of the law or comply with a legal process served on Blackbaud, Inc., protect and defend the rights or property of Blackbaud, Inc.'s network of sites, or visitors to Blackbaud, Inc., identify persons who may be violating the law, the legal notice, or the rights of third parties, and cooperate with the investigations of purported unlawful activities.

Blackbaud Employees are now encouraged to participate in the Forums.

To provide guidance to employees and to let other forum participants know what to expect, we have crafted the following best practices:

The forums are a comfortable, casual place to exchange ideas and share knowledge; they are not bound by extensive rules and regulations. The list of guidelines below is intentionally broad to encourage forum participation.

1. You are the voice of Blackbaud: All Blackbaud employees represent our company, which can add significance to your public statements. Be respectful of how other Blackbaud employees may be affected by your words When you post, use your real name. Forum participants might find it difficult to take someone calling themselves “skunkywintergreen” seriously.
2. Strive for accuracy: If you are making a statement of fact in a forum post, ensure that it is accurate and up-to-the-minute. If you are uncertain about the accuracy of a post, contact the Blackbaud employees who are responsible for the products, services, or other initiatives that you are writing about.
3. Tell the whole story: If you have a question to ask or advice to share, include enough detail in your posting for readers to understand your solution or goal. If you are starting a forum thread, make the subject heading as descriptive as possible. When you post a response, be descriptive and place your post in context so that it moves the discussion forward.
4. Choose the correct location: If you are posting a new thread, find the forum or sub-forum that is most relevant to your topic. Before you post, search and review the other posts to determine if a discussion regarding this topic has already been posted. Someone may have already answered your question, or made the point that you were planning to make. Do not post duplicate threads
5. The Forums are not Case Central: The forums are foremost a community for users to exchange ideas and share knowledge. If you have knowledge to share that might help answer another poster’s question, by all means share it, but do not feel obligated to answer every question that is posted.
6. Keeping in touch: If you post a question, receive a response and have a follow up question, post it to the forum. If you have questions, there are probably other forum participants who have the same questions. If you’ve posted a suggestion for someone, follow up with another post a few days later to see if it worked. There may be times where you exchange direct emails with other posters, but only send an email when asked. Users participate in forums for a reason, and they may ignore an email from an unfamiliar source.
7. Peer reviewing: If you have an opinion, correction or criticism regarding another Blackbaud employee’s forum posting, let them know. If you feel it is appropriate for the forum, reply to their post If you don’t feel that your feedback is appropriate for the forums or if you do not feel comfortable responding in the forums, contact that person directly. Peer feedback lets us know what we’re doing well and what we can improve.

These Best Practices were originally posted to Forum Feedback for review by the User Community

• Respect your fellow community members. If you praise or criticize an idea, include examples as to why you think something is good or bad. Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
• Refrain from posting the same message to many topics or forums. Do your best to post new topics to the appropriate forum or subforum.
• Responses to a particular thread should be on-topic and pertain to the discussion. Start a new thread for a new topic.
• Forum posts should be reserved for matters of interest to the whole community. For private discussions, use the option to send a private message.
• Do not use the option to send an email to other forum participants unless they request a direct email or you have a relationship.
• Commercial content as a direct or indirect (either intentional or non-intentional) attempt to solicit customers through a forum post is not allowed.
• If you have an issue with a specific post/topic on this board, use the ‘report abuse’ link in the lower right hand corner of the post.

The forums feature a points system to recognize contributors. If you read a post that you find helpful, place the cursor over the rating stars box, then click and drag your mouse until the proper number of stars are lit. By rating a post, you will earn points for the poster, and points for yourself as well. Member points are accumulated as follows:

• 1 point for each post a user creates
• 1 point for each unique user that replies to a post
• 10 points for each rating star awarded to a post
• 10 points for being having one of your posts marked as a Favorite by other users
• 25 points for being selected as a Favorite User (Friend) by other users
• 1 point for rating other users posts