Who runs this website

At the moment, only Michael Muller, (formerly a ’’Staff Assistant’’ in the UMass President’s Office in the Mass Ventures building in Hadley) runs the 5-College Social website, although he is open to allowing other people to help out.

Michael is a website software engineer, and owns the local website company Montague WebWorks. He authored a website software package called ’’WebWorks Community Server’’ and decided to use it to benefit the Five College community. Thus this website was born.

Why does it exist?

Sprung from the um-soc listserv, this website was an alternative place to post buy/sell and local events messages where it could be shared across the five college area of Western Massachusetts. Additionally, this space was set up so staff could share other information outside the rules for the um-soc listserv, such as political debate and personal business listings. In contrast to a listserv, all posts are databased for future searches and lookups, (something you cannot do easily with a listserver).

Since setting up the original website in March of 2003 the um-soc listserv was shut down (January of 2004). FiveCol-Soc.net is now the only community resource for the staff and faculty of UMass or the Five Colleges in the Western Massachusetts area. Ten years later it hosts over 1800 members.

In July of 2006 the website was upgraded from the original v0.9 of the software to v3.1.

Where is the site hosted?

This website is on dedicated server owned by Montague WebWorks and located at a hosting company in Michigan called Cloud Mail Store. Michael's company pays for the domain name and monthly hosting of the server.

He set it up for free?

Yes he did. Perhaps it’ll lead to a sale or two of the software the website runs on (WebWorks Community Server). Whatever the hosting and domain name fees, it’s small change for such a high profile presence.

Additionally, now that advertising has been brought onto the site, Michael retains a free ad hawking his services and this software.

Advertising? Yes. For the first five years there was no advertising. Now there is. Buying advertising space on the website helps pay the hosting bills.

If you have any questions about the software or the website in general, please contact Michael.

Why can’t I post to the corkboard?

You must be a registered member of this website, and be logged in. If the "Member Area" on the left side doesn’t say "Hello (yourname)!" then you’re not logged in. Once you are logged in, and on a corkboard page, you’ll see a link that says "Add a post."

If you ARE logged in and you still don’t see the link, please log out and then log back in again. If you still can’t see that link, please contact the website administrator.

Why can’t I log in?

It could be any of the following reasons:

o This website requires "Cookies" be enabled in your browser. If you do not have cookies enabled, you cannot log in.

o You have not yet created an account. Click on the "Sign up Today" link on the left.

o You have not yet verified your account. Click on the "Forgot Password / Verify" link to generate a new verify email.

o Your account has been disabled. Please contact the site owner (link at bottom of page) to verify that your account has not been disabled.

So, why should you join www.FiveCol-Soc.net?

You can stay on top of events not directly sponsored by the five colleges, and stay in touch with staff and faculty as well, selling your old albums etc, like a socializing mailing list. Website membership is free, but only people with e-mail addresses from one of the five participating campuses may join: amherst.edu, hampshire.edu, mtholyoke.edu, smith.edu and umass.edu. Staff with umassp.edu may join as well.

Members can post and browse the corkboard for stuff, exchange messages, join event groups, post events to the calendar, submit business listings (if they have a side-business, like making soap or whatever) or submit links they feel the community can use. Other features will be added over time.

UMassP members should read this:

If you were an employee of the President’s Office in Hadley and are no longer employed by the University, but you still want to retain your FiveCol-Soc user account, you can edit your account and change your email address to any address you now use.

http://www.fivecol-soc.net/edit_me.cfm

Having a staff email address for one of the local colleges or the University is only a requirement for signing up, not for membership. Just like the Five College Credit Union, you need only have been employed at one time. You can move on to other employers and still retain your account.

Since the President’s Office has moved out of the western-Mass area, umassp.edu is no longer a valid email address for new members. If you are a PO staff member working in Whitmore and would like to create an account please contact the website adinistrator (link is below).