Here is a great “how to” guide for Community Crew Chiefs. It explains what being a Crew Chief in the NASCAR.COM Community involves and outlines best practices. It also explains how to add hyperlinks to ALL of your stuff here on the NASCAR.COM Community. So here we go…
A Crew is a group of NASCAR.COM Community Members who have come together because of a shared interest…a driver, a race, a personal hobby or…ummm…a current event. Such as the KB/Jr. incident last week.
Anyway, each Crew has its own Crew profile page and a Crew Chief.
Creating a Crew
To create a Crew, you must already be a Member of the NASCAR.COM Community. Once you log in, select “My Crews” from your dashboard. Then select the “Create a Crew” button from the right-hand side of the page or from any of the header bars on your Crews page.
There are several items to complete on the Crew creation page:
• Photo: Upload your own photo; select a photo that represents your Crew’s concept. This image will be displayed as a thumbnail, hyperlinked to the Crew profile, in various locations on the site.
• Select a Theme Image: Choose an image from our official NASCAR.COM photo library. This image will be displayed at the top of your Crew page. Once you click on an image, you will be able to preview it instantaneously on your screen.
• Select a Theme Color: Choose from our swatches to add color to your Crew’s profile. Once you click on a color, you will be able to preview it instantaneously on your screen.
• Name: Type in the name of your Crew
• Description: Add a description of your Crew
• Private/Public: If you want your Crew to allow only members you know or approve, check the “Private” box. This means that the only Community Members who can join are the ones YOU invite or the ones you approve after they request you to add them
• Membership Size: Your Crew can accommodate either an unlimited amount of Members or you may choose to limit the size of your Crew.
• Initial Crew Chief Blog: Every Crew Chief should post a blog sooner or later in their Crew. Type up your initial Crew Chief blog so that it is ready for people to read on day 1 of your Crew’s existence. We put this option on this page just to make it easier and faster for you to get your Crew’s message out there. Not only will your Crew show up in “Newest Crews,” but your initial Crew Chief blog will show up in “Newest Blogs” on the Community main page.
Want to increase your chances of getting people to join your Crew? Post a Crew Chief blog, invite current Community Members and invite any other people who are not yet Community Members by using their regular email addresses.
Adding Hyperlinks
You can embed hyperlinks in the following areas:
• Photo/Video Descriptions
• Blogs, including the Crew Chief Blog
• Comments
• Crew Descriptions
• Private Messages
To embed a hyperlink, enclose the link text in quotation marks, followed immediately by a colon and the URL. Make sure there are no spaces on either side of the colon. For example:
Visit the “NASCAR.COM Superstore” : http://store.nascar.com/home/index.jsp to shop for new Dale Jr. gear now!
Will look like this:
Visit the NASCAR.COM Superstore to shop for new Dale Jr. gear now!
(Note: Spaces were added before and after the colon ONLY to illustrate how this works. Remember there should be NO spaces there!)
Inviting Buddies and Friends to Your Crew
Once you have created your Crew, you can invite your Community Buddies by going to one of your Buddy’s profile pages and selecting the “Add to Crew” link. A menu will open where you can select which Crew to add your Buddy to. All Crews that you have created and all Crews that you have joined are available in the menu.
You can invite people to your Crew by going to your “My Crews” page and choosing “Manage Members”...or choosing a particular Crew and then choosing the “Invite Others to Crew” link.
You can invite:
• Non-Community-Members to your Crew if you know their email address
• Anyone off your Community buddy list
• Other Community Members as long as you know their Member name.
Managing Your Crew
To manage membership privileges in your Crew, go to your “My Crews” page and select the “Manage Invitations” link under the appropriate Crew. Here, you can:
• Ban Crew Members (banned Crew Members cannot rejoin your Crew)
• Remove Crew Members (removed Crew Members may rejoin your Crew)
• Assign moderator privileges to Crew Members
• Transfer ownership of your Crew to another Member
Private Messages
You can send private messages to all or some of your Crew Members. Just select the “Send a Message To All Members” link in the “Crew Members” header bar. The messaging form will slide open. The “To:” field of your message has all Crew Members checked by default, but you can uncheck names as necessary. Note that the body copy can be styled using textile HTML, but styling is not required.
When messaging all Crew Members, please keep in mind that if you have a lot of Crew Members, you may be generating a lot of messages, and that some Crew Members may not be interested. To message just one Crew Member at a time, navigate to that Members’ profile and select the “Send This Member A Message” link underneath their Member name on the top right side of the page.
Being Active in Your Crew
As Crew Chief, we recommend that you contribute to the Crew Chief blog and that you upload photos and videos to the Crew on a regular basis. The Crew Chief blog is a great way for you to stay in touch with your Crew Members – you can post announcements, share information and ask questions. Uploading photos and videos gives your Crew Members good reason to visit your Crew page often. We have found that your Crew is likely to be more vibrant if you lead by example!
Crew Content
Crew members can also upload photos and videos to the Crew galleries. The Crew blog is a great place for Crew members to sound off about their shared interest, whether it is a driver, a track, a personal hobby or a current event.
Superlative Crews
The Community has several areas that spotlight Crews. These modules are:
• Featured Crews – Chosen by the NASCAR.COM staff and rotated regularly
• Most Members – Determined by the count in the database
• Most Recent Crews – Updated automatically as new Crews are created, with the newest at the top of the list
Note: Some Crews have been designated as official by NASCAR.COM. These Crews are managed by drivers, tracks, teams and other entities, and must be approved by NASCAR.COM. There also are sponsored Crews with custom designs. Currently, these special layouts are available only to sponsors, but we are working on ways to provide Community Members with special functionlity like this in the future.
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11 Comments
linedrives20
Jun 01 2008 21:07
can you...
...give me a link to an example?
scotthicks88
Jun 01 2008 00:41
Sometimes my hyperlinks get messed up
I’ll write a hyperlink into a blog, or create a link when I email everyone in my crew to be able to click the link to go to my blog, but after I post the blog sometimes after the hyperlink code there appears a bit of code ‘target=_blank’ and it messes up the link.
Any idea where that is coming from? It appears after I hit the “create” button or after I hit “send” on the email.
justice4ever
May 14 2008 16:56
This Blog was Extemely Helpful
Thank You for This Blog.
I would like for you to judge my new crew page to ensure that it is user friendly, all criticism is greatly appreciated to ensure that NASCAR’s Coldest Water Cooler crew is the elite of crews. At first I was lost yet now I am found.
Thank You,
Justice
Smile With Kyle
linedrives20
May 10 2008 16:43
public vs. private Crews
neither is really better than the other…it really just depends on your goals for the Crew
Cyndiluvs20
May 10 2008 15:24
thanks
it’s great timming, i am going to start my first crew today, thanks for the help. I have a question, which is better Private or public?
changingto18
May 10 2008 01:39
You forgot to put
you have to put up with harassing comments and personal attacks before you can ban members. Unless your crew is private. But even then you have to police your blogs. A tedious job with no reward.
Kit_Kat
May 09 2008 18:06
Thanks LD20,
you just helped me out a bunch.
MTBuschFan
May 09 2008 18:05
Thanks
for the hyperlink info. Definitely will come in handy!
cartercrew
May 09 2008 17:18
THANKS
for the info. A refresher course is always welcome!
Steve_CA88
May 09 2008 17:13
Howdy!!
The biggest feature I’d like to see added to the crews is the ability to search the members (either to ban someone or make them a moderator). As you know, some of us run some pretty BIG crews and that would make managing them a lot easier. Keep up the good work!
