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What prompted the creation of Minti? and What does "Minti" mean?
Read the answers in the "About Us" section here: http://www.minti.com/about_us/
Is there an overview of the site?
Yes we have a very quick tour available here: http://www.minti.com/first_visit
There is also a great video tour to watch which you can access through the first page of the tour.
There are more details in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) below...
How do I write a Parenting Advice article?
Check out this guide from Rachel Cook: http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/233/Golden-parenting-advice-how-to-get-started/
or this suggestion from one of our members: http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/451/Writing-Advice-that-Will-Benefit-Us-All/
Some other suggestions to "add value" to your Minti advice:
1. Try to "link" other Minti articles that are relevant using the "related advice" link- your readers may get inspired about what you are writing and want to take part in knowing more about the topic.
2. Add some external links also provide the extra "text book" style resources and also links back to blogs are a great way for visitors to know more about the author.
3. Add some pictures: parents love pictures especially cute ones, that really support your article and give it a visual aid as well as adding feeling to the article.
There are a few places you can get "free-use with attribution" photos and here is one: Search at http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/ ..make sure you recognise where the photo came from and copy the link address of the photo and add to external links.
4. Give your article some initial Tags: Tagging is the best way to promote your article, by making sure the tags are relevant to your topic and your intended audience (other parents) who want your advice.
5. If you are responding to a requested parenting advice, copying the request first and giving it a title, like "The Issue... The Problem..." is really useful as it helps other visiting parents see if the issue is relevant to them and they are able to read the problem and solution, advice or experiences. Remember that you are talking to an entire audience, where many parents are experiencing similar problems.
6. Avoid copyright issues and do not make wholesale copies of text unless you have the permission of the original author to do so.
How do I know someone is reading what I write?
It's pretty exciting to see the number of people reading your advice shortly after it has been published. The number of visits to your advice article is shown next to the title and you will see this grow quickly after you have written your text. The more popular an article the more traffic is it likely to get from other members and also from non-member visitors to the site.
How do I get ideas for writing parenting advice?
Review the Q&A section for requests from members who are looking for advice here: http://www.minti.com/questions-and-answers/ where you can chose to give a quick answer if you have something small to contribute or if you feel like this is a topic that particularly interests you then start an Parenting Advice Article. (You don't need to write an article on any site issues)
If you want some of your own thoughts to blossom then one step that is useful is having a look at photos you have taken during your parenting journey so far. They may jog your memory of the issues you where dealing with, easy or challenging, happy or sad times.
You may also want to review the parenting books you have read earlier and remember what worked for you, as it may have been a mix of things.
Lastly. think back to try to remember when you canvassed for advice from other parents, and what you actually ended up doing.
Each parent has their own formula and everyone is different with parenting styles, so this type of advice is often very useful.
How does the voting system work?
Voting is a crucial part of the Minti site - how else could we provide you with the "best advice" powered by parents? Advice voting is shown at the bottom of each advice article using a 5-star system where 5 stars is the best score and 1 star is the worst.
We also provide for votes on comments just move your mouse over the star rating next to the comment and click on the star rating you want to give and magically the stars go from gold to "green".
Make sure you are logged in otherwise (it's happened to me) you will be anonymous in your vote. Votes help your member ranking and the higher your ranking the more influence you will have when you vote.
To save the effort of always logging in you can click "remember me" and never click "logout" just close the browser. Next time you return you will not have to go through the log-in process.
How do you improve your "Member rank" at Minti?
Ranking at Minti is a bit of a "special sauce" at the moment. Member rank improves from a number of factors including:
- writing articles that are well ranked by other Minti members, or
- commenting on articles, or
- answering questions, or
- commenting on blogs, or
- commenting in forums or groups (and getting ranked positively for the comments and answers you have given), or
- writing blog posts, your own Minti blog, groups, forums.
In all of these cases the higher ranked the member who is voting on your content; the more "points" you get towards your own membership ranking. We can detect anyone trying to game the system and this is a breach of Conduct.
If you click on "members" in the top bar you will see the highest ranked members and be able to see how many comments, articles and votes they have made...
Regular visits to Minti also help your ranking as your membership points degrade over time when you are away for an extended period (your rank is restored to 100% if you return to the site at any time though).
I am having troubles placing photos in my discussion posts/blog... can you help?
From the text editor screen you can click on the image icon (the one with a little mountain and moon/sun) and a window will appear.
If your photo is stored on the internet then Click in the URL field and paste in the picture location URL. If not then click the "browse server" button.
A bigger box will open up, this time look down towards the bottom right side of this bigger box and click on the "browse" button. This will enable you to browse your computer and find where your pictures are stored.
Select the picture you want and then go back down the bottom of the bigger box and click on the "upload" button.
This next part is optional: You will then return to the first little box you started off with. Now if you have uploaded a digital picture it may be very large. Look on the left mid way down and you will see "height" click in this field and type in say 300, this will automatically resize the width as well. You can then play with the height, a big size photo is around 300 and a smaller size is around 100. Click "OK" to load the picture into your blog post or forum post.
What is this "Blog" thing on my personal homepage?
Blogs are personal weblogs where you can share your thoughts, ideas, experiences or whatever you feel like writing. There is no fixed format nor requirements from your blog post and other members cannot "rate" a blog post - it is exclusively yours. Some use the blog for recording significant steps in the growth of their children, some for sharing beautiful moments in day to day life and others for exploring topics they feel particularly passionate about. Use your blog any way you like (within the Terms of Service guidelines).
A blog is short for a "web-log" and it is a place where you can write about your thoughts, experiences, areas of expertise or interest, things that make you happy or sad or whatever else comes to mind. It can be viewed as a combination of a diary with a notepad of your thoughts - BUT it is shared with the member community.
Some people like to use blogs to communicate with lots of family members who can log on any time to get the latest news on the grandkids/nephews etc. Some people like to share their days of glory or frustration with the community and prompt some feedback.
A blog is "your space" to write what you like without getting "rated" - you can even use it to promote other products or websites you particularly like.
I hope this helped and to start a blog just click the "blog" text in your orange member menu bar (top right) and follow the prompts to add a Title to your blog post and then write out whatever text you feel like below the title.
Some tips about Blogging from co-founder Rachel Cook:
"It's so great to see members entering a post on their blog (which you can do from your personal member page)... For those who might be saying...what is a blog? Well, the answer is really simple. A blog is an online journal, where you can talk about whatever you like. The funny word 'blog' comes from the word 'web log'. For example; On a ship, the captain records each day what has happened at sea (a captain's log)...so a web log (nicknamed blog) is your free platform to talk about your day or any topic you find an interest in. The special thing about blogs is the freedom given to be your own amateur commentator, journalist, expert in something you love and the feeling of self expression is very satisfying.
Over the last couple of months, I have also learnt to write more freely, friendly and more informal. I think blogging has helped me break down my "business-like" structure (learnt over the years) in regards to how I write content .
However, a few tips: try and keep very specific information like the suburb in which you live, names of schools and so on, private. If you would keep things private in the real world it is a good idea to do the same online. All you would know about me is that I live in Perth, Western Australia. On my mommy blog (time4mom.com) I talk about my day with Codi, but I don't say the name of the places I go. I say our favorite park, or we went to the shops today, but not the name. I actually had to re-read my content on my mom blog and edit some of the info I had previously written."
If I have a personal blog can I link to Minti?
We love links back to Minti and you can use this button to make you link more attractive if you like:
Image location
http://www.minti.com/imagedb/2551/button-120x60-minti.GIF
and link to http://www.minti.com
What is the difference between Groups and Forums?
Groups are for people with the similar issues (eg: those who share age of children; come from the same country or have a common interest such as a local parents group. Groups can be created by members and they can be set as Public or Private.
Forums are for anyone who wants to chat with others about a range parenting related topics.
How do I update my profile which shows information about "Me and my family"?
Go to your personal homepage at [membername].minti.com then:
- click on "Settings" in your left hand navigation bar
- then click on "My Family" which appears below settings in the same navigation bar
What is my "watch list" and how is it updated/used?
You can choose to "watch" almost any activity on Minti (including specific members if you like) so that the Watch list is updated whenever something new happens on a watched area. When you add a discussion post to some advice, create advice or otherwise participate in writing on the site you will automatically have your watch list updated for the "conversation" you participated in. If you want to remove any item from your watch list you simply click "unwatch" which appears for all watchable items.
You can decide to receive daily emails on changes which have been flagged on your watch list and this will help you find your way to only the most interesting areas of Minti tailored exactly to you.
When should I use the "Report" article feature?
Here are some some general guidelines on "reporting" versus "voting down" an article.
Reporting can be very distressing for the member whose article disappears.
From our opinion "Advice" should only really be reported if it breaches the Terms of Service or the Code of Honor guidelines on the site. Examples include poor language, abuse, negative suggestions against children etc.
As a contrast, value judgements regarding the format and content of an article should be reflected in the voting of the article.
For example if you find the article is too short, not of sufficient quality or not particularly about parenting then we would suggest members just vote it down by giving it very few stars in your rating; to improve on this it would be really great to mention the concerns as a "comment" to the member's article and suggest they move the article to "Q&A" or to a "blog" as it will probably not get great scores as a full article. Members may delete their articles if they wish in order to improve their average vote (and thus their rank) and this helps solve short articles in the wrong place
Having said all of this we accept that it can be confusing and that the site lacks a certain "order" to it where poor quality articles may continue to exist and detract from the excellent articles written by many members. It is a user controlled web-space however, and members may wish to report items for format or structure or short content, we can't stop this without substantial sites changes.
Minti is less than a year old and we are learning all the time how to improve it, we will change the reporting and review system to make the above views clearer in the near future and I hope this helps members consider articles the use of the reporting button carefully.
UPDATED 30 NOVEMBER 2006 - Comments welcomed for further updates - thank you all !
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