In this help section you will learn about different ways you can see the content in and how best to use them.
There are different types of content you see on this site. Some examples are Blogs, Books, Forums etc. Each content type has its own charactersistics and will allow you to do certain special things.
You must note that to maintain clarity on this site and to get the maximum relevant exposure to their writing, our content creators choose different types.
You can click on the content names below to know more about them.
On this site, Blog is a chronological sequence of articles written by a single user. Each user has one blog and every article or 'blog post' he/she writes is stored in his/her blog.
Blogs are usually used to express an idea to an audience and to initiate a discussion through comments to the blog. Each blog post has its own set of comments where other users can write about what they think of the idea.
In order to maintain the quality of content on this site, only certain users called 'content creators' are allowed to create blogs. If you are interested in becoming a content creator, use the contact form and select 'join us as a content creator' on that page. Links to samples of your work would help.
A book is basically a collection of articles (pages or chapters) that are bound together as a group. Another significant aspect of a book is that it has its own navigation. Each page contains links to pages Previous to, after and above itself.
A book is a handy tool to use when you want to create a huge set of information individually or collaboratively. A book might hence be throught of as a collection of wikipedia articles that are liked through navigation. For example, the help topic you are reading is a part of 'What is a..' book.
Forum is an online meeting place where several people interact with each other. This is different from a chat because on a forum although you dont see the updates in real time, they are stored on the site so that users can respond to each other's comments irrespective of whther they were online or not when the original message was posted..
Forums on this site are classified into several caterories. Each caterory is a place for a different kind of topic. Under each topic, there are several 'threads' that hold individual discussions.
Forums provide a way to discuss a lot of topics simultanously in an organised way. In contrast Blogs provide a focused way to discuss a single topic. Depending on your need, you might choose a Forum or a Blog to initiate a discussion.
All users can initiate a forum thread and can respond to existing threads. But only admins have the ability to created new categories or topics (sub-forums).
Gallery is a set of online album.
Content creators can upload a photo to a gallery.
Each gallery shows thumbnails of images which when clicked show the full image.
If you want to insert an image to your blog, story or comment, you can do it in other ways. Click here to find out how.
On Praja, a group is a collection of users who are passionate about a particular cause.
On Praja, there are two kinds of groups. One is for cities which can be joined by people who care about a particular city. These groups are visible when a user registers on Praja. Alternatively, users can also join a group at a later date.
The other kindof group is based on an issue or a cause. These groups can also be the online avatars of existing offline groups like citizen associations, NGOs etc. Each group is managed by its own admin who choses whether the group is open to everyone or an approval is needed to join. These groups do not appear on the registration page of praja. You can find out which groups are under praja by going to the groups directory here. If you want to join a particular group, just click on 'Join' the group and your request will be sent to the group admin.
A story is an one-off article that is typically used by users to share news, events and other 'for information only' articles.
If you want to announce an event, publish an interview then choose a story.
A feed is a subscription that you can read in a convenient way on your reader. Feeds just make it easier for you to track all the web sites of your interest without you having to visit them to see the updates.
The video below should help you understand what is subscription.