Posts

Posts are a way to create long-form, structured content with specific purposes, and come in several post types.

Posts are the primary way to share lasting, structured content in Hylo. Unlike chat messages — which are real-time and stay within their chat room — Posts are designed to be found, referenced, and built upon over time.

What Makes a Post

Posts come in several types, each with a specific purpose:

• Discussion — open-ended conversations and questions

• Resource — links, files, and reference materials

• Event — gatherings with date, time, and location

• Project — collaborative work with status tracking

• Proposal — decisions or ideas brought to the group for input or agreement

• Offer — something a member can give to the community

• Request — something a member needs from the community

  • If you are a group steward, any post can be made into an Announcement, which sends the content in a push notification/email notification to all participants

Posts and the Stream

Every Post — regardless of where it's created — automatically surfaces in the Stream, your group's live feed of all Post activity. This means:

• A Post created in a Chat room is still visible to the whole group via the Stream

• A Post created directly in the Stream is findable by anyone in the group

• Posts can be filtered in the Stream by type, making it easy to find exactly what you're looking for

This is what separates Posts from chat messages. Chats stay in their room. Posts travel — they become part of the group's shared, searchable record.

When to Use a Post

If the content needs to be found later, it should be a Post. Use Posts for anything you'd want a new member to discover, a decision that needs to be documented, or a resource the group will return to over time.

Creating a Post

To create a post, there are two options: Click the plus button in the bottom left corner of the screen, or start writing a chat message in a chatroom.

• Once the chat message box is open, the chat can be expanded into other post types (which come along with more meta-data like dates, topics, location, etc according to which post type it is.)

• When creating a post, you will see a list of Groups in the “To” box, as well as each chatroom in each group as options to send the post to

  • Ex: Sending a post to Building Hylo #Bugs will:

    • Add the topic #Bugs to that post

    • Send the post to the #Bugs chatroom in Building Hylo

• When adding a #Topic to a post, it will pop up a list of suggested Topics / Chatrooms in that group

Types of Posts

Discussion

Share something that is important to you! What do you want to discuss with your group or the broader Hylo community?

Request

What can your group or the Hylo community help you with? Put a request out for members in your community to offer support.

Include a timeframe for your request if it's relevant. Once you've created a Request Post, you can go back and mark a request as "no longer needed" if it has been fulfilled.

Offer

What do you want to offer or share with the community? This can be something physical or a service you offer. (i.e. job offer)

You can specify a timeframe for how long your offer is available. Once you've created an Offer, you can go back and mark it as "Unavailable."

Resource

Let others know about available resources. A resource is a physical thing or digital resource that you want to share with your group. (i.e. article, book, video)

With Resource posts, you can include a timeframe. If the resource you posted is no longer available, you can go back to your post and mark it as "unavailable."

Project

Create a project that your group or Hylo community can help you with.

With projects, you can invite members to Join, include a timeframe, a donation link, as well as a project management link (if relevant). Custom Icons will display for certain websites like Trello, Asana, GitHub, PayPal, Open Collective and more.

Others in your Group can choose to join your project once posted.

Event

Share your event on Hylo and invite people to join. This could be a virtual or live event.

With events, a timeframe is required prior to posting. You can invite people to join and RSVP.

Proposals

Share proposals in your community for other members to vote on. On a proposal you can set:

• Options that can be voted on

• Quorum - the percentage of members that need to participate in a decision for it to be valid

• Whether single or multiple votes are allowed

• To: Select the Groups + Chatrooms [in your Groups] to which you want to share your Post

Post Fields

Title: Titles are required for Posts

Description: Use a rich text editor to customize your description. You can include

• Links

• Embedded/Playable Youtube or Vimeo videos

• @_mention other members so they get tagged on your Post

• Hashtags or #topics to categorize your post. If a #Topic is used in a chatroom, your post will be shared in that chatroom.

• Location: Add a physical location to your Post if you want it to display on the Group's Map. Keep in mind, once you type out the Location, you will need to select it from the drop-down menu.

• Attachments: You can attach files (paperclip icon) or images (image icon) to your Post. For Images, the optimal ratio is 1024x768, between 4:3 to 19:6 aspect ratio (1080 wide).

Other Post Fields: Depending on the Post type, you may have additional Post options.

• Requests

  • Include a timeframe

  • Edit your post to mark your Request as "No longer needed

• Resource

  • Include a timeframe

  • Edit your post to mark your Resource as "No longer available"

• Projects

  • Invite others to Join your project

  • Include a timeframe, donation link, and project management link

• Event

  • Timeframes are required for Events

  • Invite people to join your event

Editing, Duplicating, and Deleting Posts

After creating a Post, users can go back and Edit it, Duplicate it, or Delete it.

Click on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of your Post to Edit or Delete it.