Instant Communities Home and Support

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is an Instant Community?

An Instant Community is a member-created set of web pages designed to facilitate discussion and collaboration on various technical topics.

What features are available?

Instant communities will be launched in phases, and will be enhanced over time to include more features.

During the first phase, we are offering each community message boards, blogs, wikis, polls, and more.

Computer Society members can create Instant communities at no cost.

Who can create an Instant Community?

Any Computer Society member in good standing can create Instant Communities.  If a member has violated the terms of service, they may be restricted from creating communities.

Who can participate in an Instant Community?

There are three types of Instant Communities:

Open communities will allow anyone with a free web account to participate in the community.

Restricted communities require the owner of the community to approve membership before participation is allowed.

Private communities are like restricted communities, but they are not included on the Instant Community Directory page

When will they be available?

Instant communities are available in Beta form now. 

What are the limitations?

An Instant community is expected to be a place for useful professional discussions.  It will be governed by terms of service, similar to other public discussion venues.  For example, spamming of commercial offerings will not be allowed.  The exact terms of service are being developed now.

There may be a limit on the number of communities each member can create.  It is expected that the member will actively participate in and administer communities that they have created.