Getting the most out of the site

The closed-beta of OpenMx has begun, and we're looking forward to start hearing from our beta-testers. With the release of OpenMx 0.1-1, we've also released the OpenMx website, where we host the SVN commit log, issue management (bug tracking, etc.) and documentation, as well as the OpenSEM forums and wiki, for wider use in the structural equation modeling community.

In order to get the most of the site, I wanted tell you about a couple features that you may not have discovered:

Your community presence

Once you log into the site, you'll see your username on the left with a link called "My account" underneath. That link will open your account information. Click the "Edit" tab and, underneath, "Account". Here you can upload your picture, which will show up on all of your posts. Under "Personal Information", you can add a few things about yourself, including your name, homepage, and a blurb about yourself.

Stay updated

We know that there's a lot going on with the site, and, as much as we're sure you'd like to, you can't be on 24/7. Thus, we've provided you with two ways to stay in touch. The first is by subscribing to content using feeds. Whenever you see this icon, , it means that you can use your favorite RSS news reader to update whenever something new pops up on that page. An even easier, more direct method, however, is by using email subscriptions. On any piece of content on the site, you'll see a link just below the body of the content, called "Subscribe". Click that link and a panel will expand allowing you to "Subscribe to this page". That way you'll get emailed whenever the content is edited or someone responds. This is especially useful in the forums and on the wiki. I, personally, subscribe to anything I post to or create, just in case someone edits a wiki page I authored or responds to something I posted in the forums. Want to take a more active role in the site? Click on the "My account" link on the left, and then on the "Subscriptions" tab. Here you can not only manage the page/threads you subscribe to, but also entire types of content, such as all forum topics, or all wiki pages. As this is a community-driven site, this level of involvement would be highly appreciated--the more eyes on things, the better.