Welcome to My Jo-Ann, an online community where you can share your creative passions with others who love all things homemade and handcrafted. We're excited by our new look and feel but the improved functionality is the star of this upgrade. We hope you will love it as much as we do!

All critical updates have been made to our backend and user interface (as they call it) to make the site functional and enable us to put it back online for you. However, please be aware that we will continue to make changes and tweaks to some areas...so "please excuse our dust" as we continue remaking YOUR Jo-Ann community.

With that in mind, please use this discussion thread to share your questions, comments and report any issues you experience that confound or confuse. For longtime members who are used to an older (granted sometimes eccentric platform), it may take a few tries and a little exploring to find things.

Please take full advantage of the FAQ, which is available as part of the footer of every page of the community site. If there are recurring questions that are not answered there, we'll try to add them as we receive your feedback.

Let me just add that this is a new site for all of us, so I/we appreciate your patience and understanding as we iron out wrinkles and pursue answers to questions when we don't have them at the ready.

Below is a quick introductory "tour" of the new community to familiarize you with some of its cool new and/or updated features.

Thank you!

Leigh-Anne for Jo-Ann

Admin/Moderator

New, Short URL - While the old URL will continue to direct you here, we've created a short URL for the community to coordinate with its brand new member-centered name: my.joann.com -- how cool is that?!

Community Dashboard - The main page of the community before you log in is called the dashboard. This offers an overview of what's happening and new in the community in general. After you log in, you can reach this community page by clicking Community again in the header at the top of the site.

Personal Dashboard - The default page you will reach after logging into the site is called your personal dashboard page. Similar but not exactly like the community dashboard, it provides a snapshot of what's new with your friends, your posts, etc. (for those familiar with Facebook, this is similar to your news feed). You can access community features from this page as well, such as "create a blog entry" or "upload a photo," etc.

This page is also accessible by clicking home in the menu. This menu item also includes a dropdown menu, similar to the Joann.com shopping site, that allows you quick access to your personal profile, messages, events, photos, etc.

Discussions - Rather than being overwhelmed with the entire list of category topics for discussions (formerly known as message boards/forums), you can navigate to the desired category and subcategory using dropdown menus on the discussions page.

How Tos - A new feature of the community is the ability to spare your own project directions and instructions as well as basic tutorials with other community members. We shared a Jo-Ann project just to kick things off and provide an example of how you might share your ideas and inspiration. With the holiday season fast approaching (at least it seems like it when I look at my to-do list), we think this section will be a whole lot of fun for sharing holiday inspiration, decorating, recipes, etc.

Screen Name - With this upgrade, we were able to add the feature of screen name in addition to username. In the old community, you set your username and that was also your screen (or display) name on the community. Your username remains the same and is used as the short URL for reaching your profile; however, you can now change your screen name any time you choose to do so. For example, the Admin/Moderator, aka Jo-Ann, has a username of Joann. You can reach her profile by typing http://my.joann.com/joan. BUT, the screen or display name for this account can be Jo-Ann, Jo-Ann Stores, etc. This means you can set up a short and easy username for your account and then get a little creative with your display name.

Login with E-mail Address - If you're an existing member and are reading this thread without logging in or haven't signed up yet, please note that you login using your e-mail address now (not your username). The Username is your profile's short URL and a tool for the system to use in managing your information.

Photos - It's easier to upload photos and the size restrictions are noted for you for quick reference. We've replaced the "Galleries/Portfolio" feature with a more straight-forward photo stream for sharing your pictures. You can still organize your images into sets and people can view your entire photo collection or the individual sets, but the main section simply streams all uploaded photos to eliminate blank "albums/portfolios" (that were a problem in the old system).

Member Settings - Once you are logged in, you can use this link in the header of any page of the community site to access and edit your profile and member/account settings, which includes changing your profile picture, adding profile details or changing your privacy and e-mail notification settings.