Help

To sign in:

1. Click Sign In at the top of any page.
2. If you're not already signed into GitHub, you'll be directed to the GitHub login page.
3. Enter your GitHub login credentials just like you would when using github.com.
4. You'll then be automatically redirected to the Community Forum homepage as a signed in user.

With the GitHub Community Forum you can ask questions, share knowledge, and connect with your peers.
Check out our GitHub Community Forum Resources post for a list of ways to get started and become familiar with the Community.

To change your avatar:

To change your avatar, you must access your profile in your GitHub account.

1. Sign in to your GitHub account to to change your avatar.
2. Once you've changed your avatar on GitHub, return to the GitHub Community Forum.
3. Click sign in on the GitHub Community Forum and your avatar should reflect the changes you made on GitHub.

Your signature is text that appears at the bottom of your posts.

To create your personal signature:

1. Go to My Settings > Personal Profile > Personal Information.
2. Enter your signature text in the Signature box.
3. Click Save.

You can tell other community members as much or as little about yourself as you want. You can enter a short biography, your location, your interests, or anything else (within community guidelines, of course).

To tell other community members about yourself:

1. Be sure you are signed into the GitHub Community.
2. Go to My Settings > Personal Profile > Personal Information.
3. Enter information about yourself in the Biography field. You can also enter your name, location, company info, and any other information you want to share.
4. Click Save.

By default, all community users can see this information.

You can customize the look and behavior of the community in many ways, including time zone and language preference, text size, menu behavior, message order, and privacy settings.

To set your viewing preferences:

1. Sign in to the community.
2. Go to My Settings > Preferences.
3. Click through the various preference tabs and make the changes you want.
4. Click Save on each tab where you make changes.

To search the Community, enter your search in the search field and click Search. A page of search results is displayed. Browse the search results in the same manner you would a message board.

To perform a more in-depth search, hit enter in the blank search field on the homepage. On the following page, click the Advanced link under the Search field. Here, you can limit your query to a specific board, specific parts of the message (subject vs. body), and other advanced parameters.

Auto-suggest accelerates your search by displaying results as you type search terms. When you see the post or user you're looking for, just click it.

To turn auto-suggest off, click Turn off suggestions in the auto-suggest list.

To turn auto-suggest on, click Turn on suggestions below the search entry area.

You can refine your search using one or more filters (location, author, date).

Want to limit your search results to accepted solutions? Click the Solved check box under the Metadata filter. Want only the most recent results? Use one for the date filters to see results for a day or a week ago. You can also filter your results by individual authors or members who have the same rank.

Most search filters work together to narrow the possible results. For example, you can search for accepted solutions in the last month. However, the filters for the type of post work a little differently. If you choose Forums and Blogs, you see results from either forums or blogs (not results that are both forum and blog posts).

Active filters appear at the top of the results list. To turn off a filter, click the X to the right of the filter.

You can customize your search results to make them more meaningful in several ways:

• Use the interactive filters on the left side of the page to refine the search results based on a variety of criteria: location, author, date, and others.
• See which filters are active at the top of the results list.
• Turn an active filter off by clicking the X button to the right of the filter.

You can search for posts and articles at any level of the community. When you type a search term, the system automatically searches at the current level. For example, if you're on the community front page, the system searches the entire community. If you're looking at a forum or GitHub Original Series page, the system searches that forum (and the associated knowledge base, if any) or Original Series.

To search for posts:

1. Start typing the search term in the search bar.
   Auto-suggest shows the topics that match the term you're typing.
   Tip: You can enter the full search term, or use an asterisk as a wildcard in your search.
2. If you don't see the term you're looking for in the auto-suggest list, click Search to see the full search results.

When you get your search results, use the filters under the search field to refine your results.

You can search for community members by name or by rank. The name you search for must be at least three characters long.

To search for users:

1. Hit enter in the blank search field.
2. On the next page, click the users tab under the search bar.
3. Type the name of an individual user or the name of a rank.
4. Hit enter to see a list of users or ranks that match your query.
   Tip: You can enter the full user or rank name, or use an asterisk as a wildcard in your search.

To post a message:

1. Go to the board where you want to post.
2. Click the Start a topic link.
3. In the Subject field, enter your message title.
   Tip: Make your subject clear and concise, as it's the only part of the message that shows up on the message-listing page.
4. In the Body field, type your message. Be sure to include all necessary details, especially for technical topics.
   Tip: When adding snippets of code to your message, upload them as an image/screenshot, rather than typing it directly into your message. When adding images to your message, use the photos option and either upload your image from your computer or enter the URL for the image via the URL tab.
5. Format and spell check your message, as needed.
6. Click Post.

Click Reply to respond to a particular post.

The Reply Message screen is similar to the Post Message screen, with these differences:

• When you reply to a post, the subject line is filled in automatically. You can change it if you want.
• You can paste the message to which you are replying into the body of your reply by clicking Quote Message.

Your reply is added to the existing thread. It won't create a new thread.

Yes. You can use macros to create boilerplate text that you can paste into any message. You can create up to 9 macros.

To set up a macro for boilerplate text:

1. Sign in to the community.
2. Go to My Settings > Macros.
3. Enter a short but memorable name in the Macro Title field.
4. In the Macro box, enter your boilerplate text. (You can use HTML tags if your community allows it.)
5. Click Save.

Tip: To add text at the bottom of your posts, you can include that text as part of your signature instead of using a macro.

To add your boilerplate text to a post:

1. Go to a post.
2. In the comment area, place your cursor where you want to add the boilerplate text.
3. Open the Macros menu and select the macro you want to add.

Bookmarks enable you to list community content (boards, articles, topics, or individual posts) on a special page so you can easily find it again.

To bookmark a piece of content:

1. Go to the item you want to bookmark.
2. To bookmark a location, choose (Location) Options > Bookmark.
   To bookmark a specific post, go to the post and choose (Post) Options > Bookmark.

To view and manage your bookmarks:

1. Go to My Settings > Subscriptions & Notifications.
2. Click My Bookmarks.
   You can click a bookmark to go to the item.
3. To delete a bookmark, click the check box for the bookmark and click Bookmark Options > Delete Selected Bookmarks.

Subscriptions let you get email updates whenever new content appears in an area of the community that you're interested in. You can subscribe to a board, a blog article, or any other location in the community. You can also subscribe to a specific post.

To subscribe a piece of content:

1. Go to the item you want to subscribe to.
2. To subscribe to a location, click (Location) Options > Subscribe.
   To subscribe to a specific post, go to the post and click (Post) Options > Subscribe

To view and manage your subscriptions:

1. Go to My Settings > Subscriptions & Notifications.
2. Click My Subscriptions to see a list of the items you've subscribed to.
   You can click a subscription to go to the item.
3. To delete a subscription, click the check box for the subscription and click Email Subscription Options > Delete Selected Subscriptions.

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." It is a way for you to get the latest content from this community, along with many other sites that you visit, all in one place. With an RSS feed reader, you subscribe to web sites, and those sites feed you new content so you can stay up to date.

To use RSS, you need a feed reader, such as Google Reader, MyYahoo, or the Live Bookmarks feature of Firefox. There are many free options. After you have your feed reader set up, you can find RSS feeds in the community by going to a board, blog, thread, or message and selecting Subscribe to RSS Feed from the options menu. There you will see a preview of the feed. Most RSS readers give you a button to click at this point. After you click it, the RSS feed appears in your reader as well as new content from that section of the community whenever it becomes available

The GitHub Original Series is a collection of articles written by GitHub staff, covering topics ranging from making sure all your commits show up on your contributions graph to community management philosophy.

Posting a comment to a GitHub Original Series article is a lot like replying to a message on a board. If the article is open for comments, you'll see a Comment link or a comment count link at the bottom of the article.

To post your comment:

1. Click Comment.
   You can post a comment to an article or to someone else's comment.
2. Type your comment in the comment area.
   You can use simple HTML and quote the article you're commenting on.
   
   Tip: Unless you have special permissions, you can't edit or delete a comment after it's posted, so be sure to preview your comment and spell check first.
   
3. Click Post Your Comment.

No. In order to post a comment you'll need to be signed into the Community.

Some articles display new comments almost immediately. Others don't display new comments until the article author or a moderator approves them.

If your comment doesn't appear immediately, check back in a few minutes. If it still doesn't appear, your comment is most likely in the approval queue.

No, you can't. Be sure to check your spelling and preview your comment before you post it.

To share articles with friends, you can use any shared bookmarking, social network, or other tracking service, such as Reddit, Facebook, Google, or Twitter. However, you must have a valid account with the service.

To share an article:

1. Go to the article you want to share.
2. Click Share.
3. Click the service you want to use.
   The next steps depend on the service.

Yes. You can subscribe directly to a series or article, or you can subscribe to their RSS feeds. If you subscribe to an RSS feed, you can use an RSS reader to view new content that's added to the series. If you subscribe directly to a series or article, you receive an email alert when new articles or comments are posted.

To	Do this
Subscribe to a series	Go to the series page and click Options > Subscribe.
Subscribe to an article	Go to the article and click Options > Subscribe.
Subscribe to an RSS feed	Go to the series or article and click Options > Subscribe to RSS Feed. Then, save the live bookmark or whatever you usually do to add an RSS feed.

To insert an image in a post:

1. Start a new post.
2. Click Photo in the toolbar.
3. Choose one of the image source options and follow the on-screen instructions.

An Accepted Solutions is a way for you to choose the reply that best answers a question that you've posted. When you accept a solution, both the question and the solution get special icons and links that take you directly from the question to the answer.

An Accepted Solutions icon also appears on boards and in search results so you can see which messages have solutions.

You can mark a solution as accepted only for questions that you've posted (you started the thread). Community moderators can also mark one of the replies to a message as an accepted solution

To mark a message as a solution, click Accept as Solution on the reply.

If you change your mind or if another reply provides an even better answer, you can revoke the first selection and accept the second reply.

To revoke an accepted solution, click Options > Not the Solution.

You can choose another solution or leave the question unsolved.

Kudos is a content rating system that lets you vote for the messages you think are the most useful or important.

When you give kudos to a message, you are giving a thumbs-up for good content and a pat on the back to its author. Your kudos help to boost the value of certain messages and enhance the reputation of their authors.

Giving kudos is as easy as a single click, but the impact of kudos ripples across the community.

You can give Kudos to any posts in the community except your own.

To give kudos to a message and its author, click Kudos on the message.

If you change your mind about the quality of the message, you can revoke your kudos.

To revoke kudos you've given, click the Kudos button again.

Want to know who thinks a message is good? It's easy to find out which regular community members and community experts have given kudos to a message. Kudos from community experts can carry more weight than those from brand new members. (Community administrators can choose to have kudos granted by experts carry more weight than kudos granted by regular members.)

To see who's given you kudos:

1. Go to the message page.
2. Click the Kudos total.
   The Who Kudoed this Message page shows you all the community members who've given kudos to the message.
3. Click Experts to see kudos given by high-ranking members of the community.
   Experts are usually moderators and other users who had a kudos weight of more than 1 when they gave the message kudos.
4. Click the Date Kudoed, User ID, or or kudos link to sort this page by the date the kudos were given, the name of the user who gave kudos or by the kudos count.

To see who's given you kudos:

1. Go to you profile page.
   Your Profile pages shows the names of community members who have given you kudos, the messages they kudoed, your top kudoed messages, and the kudos you've given.
2. To see all of your recent kudos activity in an area, click view all.
3. Click the tabs to see more info about your kudos activity.

Your kudos weight is the number of kudos you give each time you click Kudos!.

If you're new to the community, your kudos weight is probably 1 (each kudo counts as 1). More experienced community members might have a higher kudos weight, so they could give two kudos, ten kudos, or more each time they click.

There are a few reasons why you might not be able to give Kudos to a post.

• You've already given Kudos to this message (you can only give them once).
• You wrote the message (you can't Kudo your own messages).
• Your community manager wants you to give Kudos only to a message that starts a thread and not to replies.
• Your community manager has turned Kudos off for a message or a forum.
• Your community manager has frozen Kudos for this message. You can still see how many Kudos the message has received, but you can't Kudo it any more.

Sometimes a message gets so many kudos that we run out of space to show the number. When that happens, you'll see a Hot Kudos symbol or icon instead of the kudos count on the kudos badge.

A tag is a single keyword or phrase that describes the topic, theme, or subject of a post. You can add as many tags as you want and so can other community members. For example, in a post about a mouse, you might add these tags: mouse, USB mouse, optical mouse, wireless, DPI.

Be sure to use commas between tags.

A tag cloud displays tags used frequently within the community or within an area of the community. The more frequently a tag is used, the larger it appears in the tag cloud. By looking at a tag cloud, you can get a sense of what the hot topics are in a given area.

Tagging is a way to help other users discover interesting posts. It's also a way to organize content in the community that you think is related. When you apply tags to a post, you add to the value by providing another way for people to find it.

Some users will tag posts for their own convenience in finding them later. Other users enjoy helping categorize interesting posts for the benefit of the community. Users who tag lots of posts gain status by appearing on Tag Leaderboards.

To add a tag:

1. Navigate to an interesting post or comment.
2. Click in the Add field and type your tags (separated by commas).
3. Click Add Tag.

You can find messages you've tagged by visiting your profile and clicking the tag. You can also click on a tag on any cloud and look at the Most Tagged section.