Bakersfield.com

What is an Interest Group?
Interest Groups are pages that link blog posts, blog comments and discussions that share a common topic.

What is meant by the word “Beta”?
In the world of Web software development a Beta release is a sneak-peak at the full version of the software. There are many reasons to mark something as beta. Sometimes it’s not quite ready for primetime. In our case, we’re still working on some pieces of this feature, but we also wanted to let our users use it and let us know what they think about it.

Why do I have to join an Interest Group?
You only have to join an Interest Group if you want to participate in discussions. Also, if you join an Interest Group, a link to the group will show up on your user profile (below the hot or cool ratings).

What is the Talk area of the Interest Group page?
The Talk area is where you can start an online discussion related to the topic of the Interest Group.  Right now, there is only one discussion forum available for each Interest Group.  We are working on adding the capability for multiple forums, or threads, to allow for a greater diversity of dicussion topics. You will need to become a member of the Interest Group in order to participate in the online discussions.
 
How do I get my blog to show up on this page?
To get your blog to appear on an Interest Group page, you need to add the Interest Group category to your blog post. There’s a new “Change the category of only this post:” option you'll see at the top of the page you use to create a new blog post. Under that text is a dropdown menu. Choose the category that best fits what the post is about.
 
Why are blog comments showing up on this page?
If your categorize your blog post, then comments in response to that post will appear in the matching Interest Group category.
 
I have specific questions and/or feedback.  Who can I tell?
Please email jsperber@bakersfield.com with any specific feedback.

Do I have to choose a category for my blog post?
No, if you don’t choose a category, your blog entry will still post, it just won’t show up on any interest group page.

Why is there no threading in the discussions?
We are planning on releasing a new version of the discussion forums that will include threaded comments. For those unfamiliar with the term, it just means that you can post discussion topics and other users will be able to reply to those topics.