• the Free Joomlapolis Membership subscription, which is the regular free lifetime subscriptions option to this site. By default all registered and approved members are automatically added to this subscription type, as before.

• the Community Builder Documentation subscription, which is a yearly subscription that is meant to support the CB Team (expenses, tools, libraries, etc). The subscription costs 25 euros per year and the entire paypal workflow is handled automatically by the new subscriptions plugin. The plugin, when payment is confirmed by PayPal, will automatically modify the CB read-only "Member Status" field for the subscribed user and will also add the user to a specific docman group that is authorized for access and downloading of the detailed CB reference guide from "Downloads". So the entire process - end to end - is handled entirely automatically by the plugin. So for credit-card and paypal payment it gives now instant access to the documentation.

We have just updated this site to Joomla 1.0.12 RC internal Joomla core-team test-release. Same release has been made available to CB testteam for advanced compatibility tests, as usually with each Joomla! release. Please post here asap if you see something not working correctly on this site:

Welcome to Joomlapolis - The home of the Community Builder suite!

You have probably joined this site to learn more about the most popular Joomla extension - the Community Builder Suite (aka CB). And you probably have a million question. Please refrain from posting these questions to the forums before you have done some homework on your own. It is assumed that you are familiar with Joomla and its features and comprehend terms like component, module, mambot, etc.  If not, please take the time and familiarize yourself with all core Joomla features and concepts - otherwise you will have problems.

Since Joomlapolis is CB's home it has turned on and is using most of CB's features. You have probably experienced the different registration process and the additional application fields on the registration application (compared to the Joomla registration process). You have also received an email requesting you to confirm your email by clicking on a URL included in the email message. These (extended registration process and registration workflow) are some core CB features. When you login to Joomlapolis for the first time, you will see an empty avatar photo in the CB Login box (CB Login module). By clicking on this 'empty avatar' or by selecting the 'My CB Profile' item in the User Menu (left column of the front page after login) you will be taken to your very own CB profile on this site. The first thing you should do is to upload your profile image. Just select the Edit -> Update Your Image menu item from your CB Profile and upload your image. Make sure your image follows the size limits stated and the upload should be just fine. After you upload your image, you will see a pending approval status avatar in your profile. This is another core CB feature and your avatar needs to be approved by a CB Moderator. Once your uploaded image is reviewed and approved by a CB moderator, it will show up just fine in your profile (and also in the login module as a thumbnail).You will also see alot of extra tabs on your profile. Also try editing your profile by using the Edit -> Update Profile menu item on your profile. You should see some of the questions (CB fields) you already answered during the registration process and some more (that are part of your profile but were not required during registration).

In addition, you will see some more tabs in your Joomlapolis profile that have extra functionality and feaures. For example you see the articles tab (should site articles you have authored), the blog tab, the connection tab, the profilebook tab (once you have activated it - edit your profile and you will see how), the CB Gallery tab, the last visitor tab and many more. Most of these extra tabs are created by CB plugins that take advantage of the CB plugin framework intended to extend CB functionality without compromizing core code.

Once you login you can also visit the CB Lists functionality by selecting the CB Lists user menu item. This is also core CB functionality. Once you have selected a list you can just click on a row and see the corresponding CB profile. Once viewing a fellow Joomlapolitan's CB profile you will see additional CB functionality like the nice integration with third party PMS components (if you have no idea what this is then you should fo back to Joomla studying!)  and you will see more CB menu items (like request to connect or send pms, etc).

There are tons of features and many more CB extensions already waiting for you to play with. Also, there are many CB plugins under development - either by the CB team or by third party developers.

All this stuff has probably gotten you very excited by now and (if you haven't already done so) you are about to download the latest CB release and start pounding away. Before doing so please take the time to follow these steps:

• download latest release from this site (see download section - CB Team Releases)
• download installation pdf and READ it (see download section - Documentation)
• unzip the release package you downloaded and READ the readme file carefully

It is always a good idea to start experimenting on a local test site. Follow all instructions, install and experiment. The backend of the CB component and the modules have many parameters - most of them self-explanitory. You just have to read - study - experiment. If you are lazy and want more detailed instructions you can subscribe to the detailed documentation service and download and read it along with your experimentation. The document is offered for 25 EUROS and should be viewed as a donation towards the CB team's efforts (see article here).

Suggested reading:

• What is Community Builder? - read this artcle!
• Community Builder features? - read this article!
• Frequently Asked Questions - read all articles in this section!
• Tips and Tricks - read all articles in this section!

Finally, start searching the forums - the search button does wonders but unfortunately most of us just post away without investing any real effort in researching first. This results in many unanswered forum posts to questions that have been addressed many times before. And remember, there is no formal support team - its up to each one of us to help out!

Welcome again to Joomlapolis and the wonderful world of Community Building!

In addition to our General Terms all Joomlapolis.com site members (aka Joomlapolitans) and guests are responsible for knowing the information contained in the following Code of Conduct.

The CB Core Team (aka CBCT), reserves the right, but does not assume the responsibility, to restrict communication which CBCT deems in its discretion to be harmful to individual guests, damaging to the communities which make up Joomlapolis.com, or in violation of CBCT's or any third-party rights.

Prohibited CB profile content, private messaging, board posting, and e-mailing, behaviors include (but are not limited to):

• profanity, vulgarity, or explicit content For example:

  • "masking" by using alternative characters/spellings and spaces to get around profanity filters, leet-speak, and combinations of words that produce an offensive result (e.g. ura hugeazz, Tow El Head)
  • "filter testing"
  • discussion of or in-character enactments of "cybering" or sexually explicit material
  • discussion of or in-character enactments of graphic violence
    

• hate speech (e.g. racial, ethnic, sexist, homophobic and religious slurs)

• promotion of or engaging in certain illegal activities, For example: drugs, drug paraphernalia, rape or solicitation of a minor, computer hacking, and copyright violation

• harassment of another specific person (e.g. persistent flaming or continued personal attacks on the boards or "in-character harassment" without prior out-of-character permission.)

• trolling or baiting by putting to the screen inflammatory statements designed to elicit a negative response from the community

• spamming through repeated posts, or off-topic content by word or intent to boards or lists (e.g. scrolling, flooding, polling, or by "bumping" a boards post more than once in 48 hours)

• No useless posts. This includes: Thread bumping, useless one liners, Flamewars, Trolling and Spamming. What is spamming? Read this. 

• advertising or promoting a business or commercial site without the permission of the CBCT 

• impersonation of another person, site staff or CBCT member by either screen name or self-representation (e.g. faking a screen name by using similar-looking characters, "spoofing" speech in a chat room, or claiming to hold an official title or position relating to the site or using a CBCT avatar frame)

• reregistering a banned username, a variation of a banned name, or declarations under a new screen name that you are "really" the banned name or attempts to resubscribe under another address after being put on REVIEW by the moderator.

• off-topic posts or thread hijacking.

  These disruptive behaviors are grounds for removal; Joomlapolis.com site admins are the final judges of whether a member's behavior qualifies as inappropriate or a disruption.

• only one account per user

• Check that your question has not been answered anywhere else on the site. Use the search feature (both on site content and forum).
  
• Post your comment/question to the most appropriate place. Any posts deemed to be in the wrong forum will be moved. Do not cross-post the same question to multiple places.
  
• Ask Questions The Smart Way. Read this by Eric Raymond.
  
• Thank those who help you. Acknowledgement of a helpful suggestion not only placates those who helped you, it may also help others with a similar problem. All those who have been helped on this forum are invited to help other users by responding to their questions when they know the answer and /or to consider donating to the project.

In other words, behave yourself. Treat other people you encounter in the rooms just as you would treat them in person--politely.

Disciplinary Procedures

If a member of Joomlapolis has demonstrated he or she cannot behave, the member will initially have his/her profile banned and will eventually LOSE his or her username.

These procedures are only meant to be rough guidelines, as each profile, board, and content situation is different and may require other measures to ensure the community orientation of the site.

You Can Make Joomlapolis a Better Place

Our moderators can't be everywhere at once. Therefore, if you witness actions in boards, or other areas that you believe harms a guest, damages Joomlapolis, or violates CBCT's or some third-party's rights, please make a note of the time/place where the event occurred and contact a CBCT member or site admin immediately. If they aren't handy, please see our contact page.

Parts of this Joomlapolis Code of Conduct content have taken or inspired by the Joomla.org forum rules (http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,65.0.html) and the Wizard.Community code of conduct (http://boards1.wizards.com/community_coc.php).

The Joomla extensions site team has created extra categorizations to support component specific extensions (such as CB plugins). Discussions about this have been going on since May 2006 (see thread here) and this week a decision and solution has been provisioned.

You can see all CB plugin extensions by visiting this area. The CB Team hopes that this new environment will give new momentum towards the development of new CB plugins.