When you have joined, click on the PROFILE button in the blue bar at the top of the page, then in the Modify Profile panel on the left click on Account Related Settings and take a few minutes to check that it has the details you'd like:
Are you happy to let other Forum members know your email address? Useful for them, as it makes it easy for people to get in touch with you privately if it's clear you share particular interests. But if you want to keep it private, that's fine. Just click on the check box beside Hide email address from public.
By default, the Forum will give your user name in the list of those who have been on line in the last 15 minutes, at the bottom of the home page. If you would prefer not to be named there, just click on the check box beside Show others your online status to clear it.
In the Forum Profile Information section, the Signature box is really useful. What you write there will be added automatically to all the messages you post on the Forum. It is very helpful to everyone else if you put your location as well as your real name in this box. Knowing where you garden as well as who you are gives valuable extra meaning to any Forum comments you make about plants and their cultivation. And it is nicer for other Forum members to know you by a real name than by the user name which shows automatically beside your posts, especially if this is something very anonymous like Hedgehog or Petunia or Cabbage Patch! Do say "MGS member" if you are.
If you have a picture of yourself on your computer, why not add it to the Profile? Or if you are particularly interested in one type of plant and would like to be known for that, you might instead prefer to add a portrait of that plant. If you do, people will see it when you post a message, giving a real sense of personal involvement. It's easily done: click on the box next to I will upload my own picture, then click on the Choose File button, then when the Attach box opens click on the blue Browse button on the right, to open a box showing the folders on your computer. Navigate through these just as you would to find any file, and when you have found the file with your picture click on it. The name of the file will then show in the box. Then click on the Open button, which will load that photo as your self-portrait.
When all the settings of your Profile are exactly as you want, click on the Change Profile button, at the bottom of the page on the right.
The other sections of your profile are worth checking, too. You may find changing some settings very useful. For instance, under Look and Layout Preferences lets you set a Time Offset, if you live in a time zone many hours different from Forum time (which is what used to be called Greenwich Mean Time, as used in Lisbon or London). And clicking the box next to Return to topics after posting by default means that when you post a new message you will at once see it on your screen – this is the quickest way to see any photos you add
