InsaneJournal

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To create an asylum, visit [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/create.bml]. You will need to fill out a new form, similar to the one for which you created your own personal journal. The username you choose for the new account will become the separate username of the asylum, which will not need a password.

When you create a new asylum, you will be able to select different settings and options. See [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=79] for more details. You can always modify these preferences later at [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/manage.bml].

To view your asylum journal, go to [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/asylumname/] and replace ("asylumname" with its actual username).


If you have already created a seperate username that you want as an asylum journal, see [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=152].

For information on creating a new asylum, see [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=78].


If you have already created a seperate username that you want as an asylum journal, it is possible to convert it. Please note that once you convert a personal journal to an asylum, you cannot change it back. Before proceeding to the next step, make sure that the journal (for your new asylum) has no journal entries [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=59].

Login as your main personal journal (the one that you would like to maintain the asylum with) and visit [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/settings.bml?mode=create]. You will need to type the username that you will convert and its password. Below the page are the asylum settings and options, which you can always modify later at [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/manage.bml].

There are several various settings that you can control for your asylum. An asylum maintainer can modify these options at any time by visiting [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/manage.bml] and clicking the "Settings" hyperlink next to the asylum's name.


Membership

-- When "Open Asylum" is selected, any InsaneJournal user can go to the Asylum Info page and join from the hyperlink at the top.
-- When "Moderated Asylum" is selected, users wishing to join the asylum must click on the link, which makes a request to join the asylum. The maintainer of the asylum can either approve or reject the user's request to join.
-- When "Closed Asylum" is selected, users can only join by responding to an invitation from a maintainer.

Posting Access

-- When "All Members" is selected, any user who becomes a member is automatically able to post entries in the asylum.
-- When "Select Members" is selected, no one can post an entry in the asylum until a maintainer has given individual permission.

Non-Member Posting

-- When "Non-Members Can Post" is selected, any InsaneJournal user can post in the asylum by visiting the Asylum Info page and clicking on the blue pencil icon.
-- When "Non-Members Cannot Post" is selected, users must first join the asylum in order to post in it. If this option is selected in combination with "Select Members" for posting access, the maintainer must individually give each member access to post in the asylum.

Moderation

-- When "Unmoderated" is selected, entries that users post to the asylum will immediately be placed in the asylum journal.
-- When "Moderated" is selected, entries must first be approved by a user designated as a moderator before they will appear.

By selecting the "Open Membership" option, with posting access for "All Members", you do not have to do anything. These settings will allow any user to obtain membership and posting access in the asylum, without needing your approval.

You can modify your asylum's options by going to [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/manage.bml] at any time. For information on the different settings, see [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=79].

You can individually add or remove posting access at the Manage Asylum page. Simply click on the "Members" hyperlink, and you will find a list of the existing members.

If you have a Moderated Asylum, users must request for membership by attempting to join [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=72]. Pending membership requests can be found at the Manage Asylum page, and you can also choose to be notified via e-mail of any new requests. Then, it is up to you whether or not the user is allowed to join.

If you have a Closed Asylum, nobody will be able to join. To allow a user to become a member, you will need to invite them to the asylum.


-- To invite users to your asylum

You can also invite users to your asylum, which will give them the choice of accepting or declining membership. It does not matter whether your asylum is open, moderated, or closed, but this is most useful for closed asylums.

To invite users to your asylum, visit [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/manage.bml] and click on the "Members" hyperlink for the asylum you want to invite the users to. At the end of the list of existing members, there will be blank text fields. Enter the usernames whom you wish to invite to your asylum and select the access levels that you want to give them. When you are finished, click on the "Update settings" button.

These users will be invited to your asylum, but they will need to respond at [http://www.insanejournal.com/manage/invites.bml]. They will not receive an e-mail to notify them of the invitation, so you should tell them to check on the Manage Asylum Invitations page.

Invitations will be valid for only 30 days. To check on the invitations, visit [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/manage.bml] and select the appropriate "Invitations" hyperlink.

In order to remove or ban a member from your asylum, you will first need to login under the maintainer account.

-- Removing a user

Membership, posting access, and maintainership can be removed by visiting [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/manage.bml] and clicking on the "Members" hyperlink.

If you have an Open Asylum, however, anyone you remove from the asylum can re-join. If you allow posting access to all members, as well as the Open Asylum option, anyone whose posting access you remove can leave the asylum and re-join to get posting access again.

To prevent a member from re-joining an asylum, you can ban them.


-- Banning a user

To ban a user from an asylum, you must be logged in and go to the Admin Console [http://www.insanejournal.com/admin/console/]. You will then need to execute the following commands, replacing "asylum" with the username of the asylum and "user" with the username of the user. Be sure to remove the quotation marks when executing the commands.

The following command is to ban a user from your asylum:
ban_set "user" from "asylum"

The following command is to unban a user from your asylum:
ban_unset "user" from "asylum"

The following command is to list the banned users of your asylum:
ban_list from "asylum"

Banning a user from your asylum does not remove their membership, but it does remove the ability to comment and post into the asylum. However, if you remove and also ban a user, they will not be able to re-join.

You can give another user maintainership of your asylum if you no longer want to maintain it, or if you would like to co-maintain it with them. If you no longer want to maintain it by yourself, you will first need to work out an agreement with another member to transfer the asylum to them. The new maintainer will have the same privileges to control the asylum as you do, which includes adding/removing members or maintainers, so you should make sure to select a trustworthy user for this role.

Once a new maintainer has been chosen, visit [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/manage.bml] and click on the "Members" hyperlink. You can select the checkbox for "Maintainer" status of the new maintainer. If you no longer want to be a maintainer, you can also deselect the checkbox for your own "Maintainer" status.

Passwords are no longer associated with asylum accounts, therefore users cannot login as an asylum. However, some older asylums still have passwords. If you have been given the password to an asylum, but you are not a maintainer (when you do not see the asylum listed at http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/manage.bml), you can go to [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/transfer.bml] in order to gain maintainership of that asylum.

Moderated asylums are designed to help stop off-topic or abusive entries in the asylum. If the moderation option has been selected for your asylum, a notification is sent to the asylum's moderator(s) when a new entry has been made. In the notification e-mail, there is a hyperlink where the moderators can either approve or reject the entry. The entry will be visible to other members in the asylum journal only when the entry has been approved.

Once an entry has been approved, a notification will be sent to the poster informing them that it was accepted. If an entry is not approved, it will be deleted and the poster will receive a notification--which includes the full text of the entry and the reason why it was rejected (if the moderator chooses to give one).

-- Moderating an asylum

You can have moderation enabled for your asylum by visiting [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/manage.bml]. Then, click on the "Settings" hyperlink next to the asylum that you want to moderate. Below the "Moderation" heading, select the "Moderated" option. Finally, click on the "Update settings" button. Your asylum will now be moderated.

Once your asylum is moderated, the current maintainer will automatically be the asylum moderator. If there is more than one maintainer of your asylum, the maintainer who switched the asylum to moderated will be the moderator.

You can make other members as moderators or remove a maintainer's moderator status by going to [http://www.insanejournal.com/asylum/manage.bml]. Click on the "Members" hyperlink. All the current members of the asylum will be listed. Now, check the "Moderator" checkbox next to the username of each member that you wish to make a moderator. If you wish to remove a maintainer's moderator status, uncheck the "Moderator" checkbox.

You can also give a member the "Unmoderated" status. This will automatically approve the member's entries, which will be visible to all asylum members as soon as they are posted. To give a member Unmoderated status, check the Unmoderated checkbox next to their username. When you are finished with all moderation changes, click on the "Update settings" button. "Unmoderated" status can also be given to a user once their entry has been approved.


-- Moderation queue limit

There is a maximum limit of 50 entries that can be waiting in an asylum's moderation queue. If a user tries to post to the asylum after this limit has been reached, they will receive an error message stating "Maximum queued posts for this asylum+poster combination reached," and the entry will not be sent to the moderation queue or to the asylum journal. The moderator will need to approve or reject moderated posts in order for the user to be able to post more entries to the asylum.

If you do not want to maintain your asylum anymore, you can do one of two things. You can either transfer maintainership of the asylum to another user or delete the asylum account.

Instructions for transferring maintainership can be found at [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=82].

Deleting an asylum is the same procedure as deleting a personal journal [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=14]. Simply select your asylum's username from the "Work as user" drop-down menu and click "Switch" before you delete it.

Once you have created your asylum and are ready to get members, you should first join [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=72] and post in it [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=74]. Users may be more inclined to join an asylum if there has already been a topic discussed or posted entry, in contrast to an empty journal. In addition, your asylum will appear in the "Recent Asylum Posts" list at [http://www.insanejournal.com/], so people will be able to see your asylum.

The best way to get more members is by joining the InsaneJournal Asylum Promotion [http://asylum_promo.insanejournal.com/] and posting about your asylum. For a complete list of the InsaneJournal Official Asylums, see [http://www.insanejournal.com/community/asylum_promo/4658.html].

You can also directly invite certain users to have membership/posting access [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=80]. Note, however, not everyone will accept it.

Another tip is to try to customize your asylum [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqcat=customization]. Some users do judge on the appearance of your asylum, and that can be a factor of their choice to join or not. Simple and easy customization can be done by using the S2 style system [http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqcat=s2].