Frequently Asked Questions - About Progressive U

Most people begin blogging for personal reasons, either to keep a diary, remember thoughts and experiences, or even to win a scholarship. However, blogging offers several other benefits as well:

• Build a Name for Yourself
  Blogging is an incredible way to build a readership of devoted fans who wish to share in your thoughts and experiences. You may never have the fans or the recognition of a celebrity or a rock star, but you will find that your readership comes from people of diverse geographic, cultural, and professional backgrounds. Very few outlets offer this kind of networking capability.

• Share Knowledge
  Besides sharing stories and reading the stories of others, blogging offers you an outlet to share your knowledge, perception, and experiences about various things. In return, you'll meet people from all over the world who share your views, and some who will offer new points of view. In addition, you'll receive more information and knowledge from your readers and from other blogs you subscribe to.

• Create a Personal Voice
  Whether writing a blog for a professional reason or a personal reason, blogging will help to "humanize" the font behind the monitor. Blogging helps create a deeper understand of the writer and the readers and allows people to connect on a more personal level than most static web pages can offer.

There is plenty that makes ProgressiveU different from social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and MyYahoo. Here are just a few reasons:

• On ProU you're more than a face (in a book). We're not a social networking site, we're a blogging community.

• We value our members for their writing, knowledge, and contributions to the ProU community, not how hot they are, how many "friends" they have, or what extras they add to their profiles.

• Think, Speak Up, Reach Out. Our motto says "Think" first because we want our bloggers to have thoughtful, intelligent discussions and debates. We also want you to "Speak Up" about the issues that are important to you, and to "Reach Out" to your community and the world.

• People from all over the world will read what you write, and you may even have articles indexed on Google News (you won't get that out of a page on Myspace!).

• We value learning. The Progressive U community seeks to support those in college and planning to go to college, by providing scholarships to our most active bloggers, and encouraging discussion on issues related to higher education.

• Want to socialize? Check us out on Facebook, Myspace, and Bebo, or email your favorite social networking site to network[at]progressiveu.org.

There's plenty that differentiates ProgressiveU from other blogging sites such as Wordpress, Blogspot, or Live Journal.

Level of Readership.
It's true--the Internet offers several blogging sites and hosts where you can share your thoughts with all of cyberspace. But rarely can you build as large a readership with as a high a level of interaction quickly as you can here at Progressive U.

No Advertising.
Additionally, although other Blogging sites claim to be free as well, several of them clog your blogs up with advertising, hiding your thoughts behind their dollars. At Progressive U, you will never have to worry about your blog being hidden beneath advertisements or unrelated links.

Chance for Advancement.
Progressive U also offers you a chance to enhance your resume. After some time on the site, you can volunteer and help run the site as a member of the ProgressiveU Faculty. This membership is on a voluntary basis, but can be written as volunteer hours onto your resume. We also offer some internships to interested individuals. None of the other blogging sites, like Blogger or Wordpress, offer such an opportunity to their users.

Blogging For Progress Scholarship.
And, let's not forget that chance at a scholarship! Currently, we are the only blogging web site offering scholarship monies for your blogs and comments on other blogs.

There are just three simple steps:

• If you don't already have a ProgressiveU account, create one here.

• On the account creation form, check the box indicating that you will participate in the Blogging for Scholarship competition.

• Start blogging!

Having problems? Email us at info[at]progressiveu.org for assistance!

Progressive U's Faculty, made up exclusively of volunteers, does most of the work running the site. There are several jobs done by the faculty members, both on the main site and behind the scenes.

The faculty are distinct from other members on the site in that they are required to be active, and are not permitted to participate in the scholarship contest.

The faculty is divided into several teams, each of which has different responsibilities.

The teams have the following responsibilities:

Editorial Team: Reviews and promotes posts, explains good blogging and journalism practices, provides guidelines for rating posts and making the most out of your writing, etc.

Members Services Team: Provides support and encouragement to users, answers question, enforces terms of use, etc. Additionally, oversees the various incentives in the Progressive U Incentives Program.

Public Relations and Communications Team: Promotes ProgressiveU to the "rest of the world," writes press releases, seeks out partnerships with other sites, etc.

Technical Support and Product Management Team: Deals with the more technical aspects of the site, including working out bugs that appear in the site. Additionally, helps to develop new features or improve on existing features.

News Team: Manages news feeds and highlight news sources that may be of interest to users.

Featured Bloggers Team: Reviews Featured Blogger nominees, selects those to be featured, writes up pages on each new featured blogger, etc.

The following users currently make up Progressive U's Faculty (click names to visit their profile):

Progressive U Team, manager
Art, manager
shayla2004, Progressive U Spokesperson

Note: Please do not contact the preceding three people. Contact the team leads instead. Thank you.

Fallon, Director of Public Relations, Editorial Team Committee
Fanaile Essence, Technical Support team leader, Volunteer Services Coordinator, Editorial Team Committee
mvenus929, Director of Member Services, Member Services Team Leader, Editorial Team Committee
AdamLabo, Assistant Director, Fundraising Committee
Reboloke, Assistant Director, Editorial Team Committee

• BurningExample
• Ediblewoman
• sawaboof
• Whispers Awnesty
• DragonWolf
• Bamers
• _Meke
• Jsaj
• Child of Light and Dark

The editors of Progressive U constantly strive to do their best to maintain a standard of quality for the content of the site. To better serve our base of readers and bloggers, the editors have detailed their policy, which can be viewed here.

The ProgressiveU Terms of Service states:

We welcome active debate but in order to ensure a safe and civil online environment, ProgressiveU reserves the right to remove any content you post on the Site or terminate your participation. To maintain that safe and civil environment, you agree not to upload, post, display, distribute, transmit or otherwise publish on the Site any material that:

(1) is libelous, obscene, pornographic, harassing, invective, or abusive;

(2) is violent, hateful, or threatening to anyone or any group.

But what exactly does all of that mean? What is a personal attack and how do we enforce it? Read this guide for specific information on what the policy entails.

Personal attacks, including name-calling, harassment, or violent, hateful and/or threatening statements made about or to any individual or group, are expressly forbidden at ProgressiveU.

When engaging in discussion, you should comment on the content of the blog itself and not on the blogger. Personal attacks will not help make a point. Instead, they degrade not only the discussion, but your personal integrity, that of the website and the mission of ProgressiveU.

Debate and discussion are a vital part of the ProgressiveU mission. Users should be civil and adhere to good netiquette when engaged in discussion, debate or general blogging. Comments should not be personalized and should be directed at content and actions rather than individual(s). When in disagreement about content, remember that it is not a personal attack to say "Your statement about this is wrong because ______." Nor is it a personal attack to debate with the individual who made the statement.

When in debate or discussion, the following types of comments and actions are never acceptable:

There are several features that allow you to connect with other bloggers. Of course, the blogs themselves allow you to discuss any topic with other people on the site. However, there are other features we have available as well.

Profiles

Each user has the opportunity to build his or her own profile on the site. A few questions are asked during registration, but the rest is up to you. The profile has fields for name, location, school, school status, degree and major, interests, personal website, etc. You can add as much or as little as you want to the profile, giving you complete control over your privacy. You can also add an avatar that will be associated with any post you make on the site.

Profiles can also be used to find people with similar interests. All the things you list in the favorite music and favorite books sections become links. When you visit a profile, you can click on these links to find people with similar interests! The results page will also bring you a list of other interests that those people have.

You can update your profile by visiting 'my account' in your user navigation menu, then selecting the 'edit' tab at the top of the page.

Buddy Lists

Our buddy list feature allows you to track all the forum topics and blogs that your 'buddies' make. There is a section on the sidebar devoted specifically to updating the most recent blogs from your buddies (conveniently titled 'My buddies' recent posts'). Other people can also add you to their buddy list to track your progress on the site.

To add a person to your buddy list, visit their profile page, and click the link 'Add (user) to my buddy list'. To remove, just visit their profile again, and click the 'remove (user) from my buddy list' link. It's as easy as that! You can also see your buddy list at any time by clicking on 'my buddylist' in your user navigation menu.

Of course, meeting people doesn't stop at the site, so we've compiled an outreach page for you to visit for ideas of things to do in your community. Remember, progress can only be made when you Reach Out.

If you would like to change your username, please follow the steps below:

• Go to "My Account"

• Click the "Edit" tab

• Change your username in the "Username" field to the desired name.

• Submit the changes.

Please be advised that the new username will not take affect if that username has already been taken by another user.

• To ensure that the username has been changed, click on the "Edit" tab again.

• Check to ensure that your new username is listed in the "Username" field.

• If the new username is not listed in the "Username" field, that username is already taken and you must either keep your old username or choose a different one.

Remember to repeat the double check any time you choose a new username, and please note that users wishing to access your profile via typing in the address must use your original username.

Yes, you can delete your account.

You need an administrator to do for you:

• Email info[at]progressiveu.org with your ProgressiveU.org username. Please also include the email address with which the account was registered.

• An administrator will contact you via email to ensure that you wish the account to be deleted.

• Once the deletion has been confirmed, an administrator will delete the account and send along a final confirmation.

Please note:

The Progressive U Alumni Association, formerly known as the "A-Team", is a group of long-time members of Progressive U who have attained credibility and respect for their work with Progressive U.

Many members of the Progressive U Alumni Association may choose to volunteer to be Faculty members; however the Association was set up primarily to offer a spot where survivors of the Progressive U Blogging for Progress Scholarship contest could relax and recuperate.

Members of the Progressive U Alumni Association can be spotted by the badge viewable on their profile page. Regardless if these members have volunteered to join the faculty or not, they have earned the respect of Progressive U and its members; any advice from an Alumni Association member is generally warranted and can help you, as a newer member of Progressive U, to learn the ropes of our site.