Gay Christian Outreach

As with any website on the Internet, certain questions arise on a pretty regular basis. Prospective or new members may not be familiar enough with the layout to find the answer or perhaps it was simply overlooked. This F.A.Q. exists to help answer some of the more common questions received by the GCO Leadership Team. A lot of the questions have answers available in MSN Groups online Help. This Help feature is VERY simply to use. All you need to do is click on the small link above that says Help. It's located near the top of all Gay Christian Outreach pages, just above the GCO Features Menu. If you're not able to find your answer there or within this F.A.Q., then please submit your question via email to the GCO Leadership Team using the link given at the bottom of this page.

Due to size limitations enacted by MSN Groups, some F.A.Q.'s may have only a few questions. You can navigate through the different F.A.Q. pages using the links in the GCO Feature Menu. The F.A.Q. on each page is divided up into two sections: All of the questions and then all of the questions with their answers. If you wish to read the response for a particular question, just scroll down to the appropriate response. I include the questions by themselves and then the answers to make it easier for members to find the F.A.Q. page that has the specific question on it that they need. When possible, I will include a direct copy of what MSN Groups Help says regarding each question.

GCO F.A.Q. 1 Questions

Why can't I view new replies only without scrolling through the entire discussion thread?

Why doesn't my name appear in the Member Directory?

Why was my message deleted?

Why was my profile deleted from the Member Directory?

Why can't I get into chat?

I'm having trouble signing in. Can you help me?

GCO F.A.Q. 1 Questions & Answers

Why can't I view new replies only without scrolling through the entire discussion thread?

Actually, you can choose whether or not you want to view the replies associated with each new Discussion thread on any of our Message Boards. Here's what MSN Groups Help says about this:

Make sure you're in a group message board. To get there: Click Message Board on the far left. (If the page you are currently on has no links on the far left, click Back until you reach a page that does.)

Look at the list of discussions.

You can change from a Discussions Only view to a Discussion & Replies view by selecting the View buttons at the top of the page. Discussion & Replies displays all messages by date and time starting with the oldest discussion. Discussions Only does the same except it displays the newest discussion first.

Click any discussion in the list to read it.

If the discussion opens with just the first message showing, click View All Messages to open any replies.

Why doesn't my name appear in the Member Directory?

The Member Directory is an optional listing that allows GCO Members to add additional information about themselves, as well as e-contact info (birthday, homepages, ICQ, e-mail, etc) that isn't listed in the default MSN Groups Member List. If you have not visited the Member Directory and entered your information, then no information about you will appear there. To enter your information simply click on the Member Directory link in the GCO Features Menu. Once there, select Add Member. You will be taken to a form where you are able to fill out as much information as you'd like.

Why was my message deleted?

The GCO Leadership Team reviews each message posted to every Message Board. Any message that is inappropriate or contains content in violation of the MSN Groups Guidelines or GCO's Message Board Guidelines will be deleted. If your message is deleted, you will receive an email from the GCO Leadership Team member who deleted your message along with a copy of the deleted message and a brief explanation of why it was deleted. You can edit and re-post your message if you would like. Once a message is deleted, a manager can not "un-delete" it.

Why was my profile deleted from the Member Directory?

A Member of the GCO Leadership Team reviews every entry in the Member Directory. If your entry contained content in violation of the MSN Groups Guidelines or GCO's Guidelines will be deleted. If your entry is deleted, you will receive an email from the GCO Leadership Team member who deleted your entry along with a copy of the deleted entry and a brief explanation of why it was deleted. You can edit and re-post your entry if you would like. Once an entry is deleted, a manager can not "un-delete" it.

Why can't I get into chat?

There are a number of reasons that could be causing this. Unfortunately, the GCO Leadership Team has very little control over the actual operation of the chat room (other than removing disruptive members). The best way to obtain help if you're having problems with chat is to access MSN Groups Help as soon as you encounter the error. I will, however, address a few issues that seem to occur somewhat regularly.

First, you might encounter an error stating that chat is for members only. If you have already joined GCO, then you will need to sign into your MSN Passport before you try to access chat. See "I'm having trouble signing in. Can you help me?" for more help with Sign In issues.

If you encounter a message stating that your user name is not allowed, double check to make sure you GCO Member name does not include any punctuation.

If you encounter an error message stating that you were not able to connect to the server, then MSN is currently experiencing technical problems that is preventing you from accessing chat. The best thing you can do is to just keep trying to access chat.

Finally, please make sure your computer meets the system requirements for accessing MSN Groups. The following is taken directly from MSN Groups Help, with emphasis added to information directly related to chat.

System Requirements
Here are the system requirements for using MSN Groups:

Operating System

Windows 95 (minimum), 98, 2000, Millenium, or XP

Macintosh 8.5 (minimum) or 9.x (the chat feature does not work on Macintosh computers)

Web Browser

Internet Explorer 4.01 (minimum), 5.01, or later
MSN Explorer
Netscape Navigator 4.08 (minimum), or Communicator 4.7 or later (the chat feature does not work on Netscape 6.x)
Internet Explorer 4.5 or later for Macintosh (the chat feature does not work on Macintosh computers)
Note:
At this time we do not guarantee our performance on WebTV, I-Opener, and other Web access devices.

Monitor

16 colors at 640 x 480 pixels (minimum), or 32-bit true color at 800 x 600 pixels (strongly recommended)

Modem

28.8 K (minimum), or 56 K or faster (recommended)

Processor

90 MHz Pentium (minimum), 233 MHz or faster (recommended), or as required by your operating system

RAM

16 MB (required), 64 MB or more (recommended), or as required by your operating system

I'm having trouble signing in. Can you help me?

This information is taken directly from MSN Groups Help

Ask yourself these questions:
Do I already have a Microsoft .NET Passport account? If you don't or you're not sure, create a new account. See the Help topic Get a .NET Passport.
Did I type my complete e-mail address correctly? Be sure to include the @whatever.com part of your address.
Did I type the correct password? Passwords are case-sensitive, so make sure you type uppercase and lowercase letters exactly as you entered them when you created your password. If you have forgotten your password, see the Help topic Get help with your password.
Are my browser's cookies enabled? In order to get a .NET Passport and sign in successfully, your browser's cookies must be enabled. Cookies are small files that store information on your computer's hard disk. If cookies are disabled, .NET Passport cannot verify your account. See the Help topic Change your browser's cookie settings.

Tip
If you still need help with signing in, click Contact us at the bottom of the MSN Groups Help window and complete the form in detail. MSN support staff will respond via e-mail as soon as possible.

Submit A Question

Submit a question to the GCO Leadership Team