How does it all work, then?

[JayC]

The first thing you really need to do is register for the site.  To do this, simply click on the "Register" button on the top menu button and follow the instructions - it is free, easy and takes less than a minute.  You’ll be required to give an email address that is used for confirmation that you are who you say you are (and not some nasty web-bot intent on spamming the site!)

Once you've registered, you are ready to go.  You can ask and answer questions in the "marketing” or “operations” areas, or if you have been looking through the Spa-Docs.com website and cannot find a form you need, you can request it here.

If you want to look at the Spa-Docs.com blogs, you can visit that area as a guest – just click on the The Spa-Docs.com Blog link from the homepage.

Alternatively, if you just want to chat with other spa professionals, you can do so in the café, talking about just about anything – but please keep it clean and avoid swearing.
 
Changing your profile picture (avatar)
If you want to change your avatar, it is quite simple.  You go into "Profile", then click on the left on "Forum profile information".  You can either upload your own pic, link to another picture on the internet, or you can use one of the avatars in the avatar library, including some pretty cool animated ones.  It is possible to add more avatars to the library - I've uploaded over 100, but will be doing more over the coming weeks and months.

Messaging
There is a messaging facility within the site that allows you to send private messages to other users.  However, you do have to make a few posts to the site to activate this feature - that is just spam protection, so we don't get people signing up and then spamming everyone with sales messages.  

Asking a question
Asking a question is very easy - just find the appropriate category (is it a general question, one about how the site works, or are you just wanting to have some fun, in which case the café is the best place), and then click on "New topic".  That will start a new 'thread' (question) within the section.  When asking, please try and put as much of the question as possible in the 'Subject" box (this should really be titled 'Question') so that other users can see, at a glance, what the question is about.  Complete the question, or add any supplementary information, in the box below.  

You can add pictures by clicking on "additional options" at the bottom, if you so wish.  

Answering a question
Simply click on "reply", and then away you go.  

How to stop getting email notifications of everything
Go to your profile, then in the 'Modify Profile' box on the left of the screen click on Notifications and email, from there you can select which, if any, notifications you get sent.