[headerl]Where to start?[/headerl]Jappleng is really big; it’s so
big it would take a lot of tutorials to write about how to do
everything. But instead of explaining everything, how about a quick
understanding about how Jappleng works so you can get started!
First, Jappleng is a unique not-for-profit project, meaning we
don’t expect income, and we don’t allow ads on the site. The point
of the website was to give back to the Japanese community with an
awesome website tailored to bringing out the best of Japan to an
English speaking market. With that said, it’s all for fun and we
will not sell your personal information to a third party, got it?
Good! [headerl]What can you do around Jappleng?[/headerl]For
starters, you can create an account, make friends (and study
partners), post on our forums, learn Japanese, study the Japanese
culture, learn about what to do in Japan (Travel section),
socialize with J-Spot (our own social networking app), chat with
others on our online chat, read news about Japan or submit your own
(and vote for the ones you like!). Whew, that was a lot but is
there more? Absolutely! Almost everything you do on Jappleng allows
you to collect J-Points and A-Points can be collected by completing
achievement pre-requisites. With those points you can unlock new
features, buy neat items and so much more which
you can learn
about here. Want to Join or create clubs? You can do that too,
and what about managing your own j-blog? Of course that’s free too!
Every action on Jappleng somehow correlates with other parts of
Jappleng, so if you complete an x amount of lessons, you will earn
an achievement, which in turn will be posted on your J-Spot for
others to see, and you’ll also earn A-Points for being so….
AWESOME! There are many more sections and features to explore, so
take your time and come back daily (you get rewarded if you do
too!). [headerl]Let’s begin with the basics; you will need to
become a Student![/headerl]Don’t worry; becoming a student (member)
is absolutely free. There are no fees, and again, your personal
information is safe! How do you do this? Well, first you have to
click on the registration button. You can find this button in a lot
of places; you can use the menu at the top for a quick link to it.
[img]http://www.jappleng.com/application/assets/Media/documents/getting-started/register-step-1.jpg[/img]
You’ll be prompted to enter in your information, choose your alias,
it doesn’t have to be your real name in fact we request that you
stay anonymous by using a nickname (maybe use kana?). Then enter
your password and confirm it. Don’t make it easy, but also don’t
make it so you can’t remember it unless you use a password manager.
Enter your date of birth and confirm that you’re not a bot by
answering two questions. You think this doesn’t work but so far it
has prevented bots from registering at 100% success rate!
[img]http://www.jappleng.com/application/assets/Media/documents/getting-started/register-page.jpg[/img]
After you have clicked on submit, you are a proud member of
Jappleng! We think you’re awesome so as a token of our appreciation
we humbly gave you 100 J-Points, 5 A-Points and your first
Achievement. Let’s continue by learning about navigating around
Jappleng. You will also receive an E-Mail confirming your
registration was a success. Be sure to keep it so you can remember
your username. [headerl]My Menu[/headerl]This is your main Menu; it
gets you places quickly without having to go through different
sections to get to where you need to be. It has a Menu which brings
down a list of Personal things that you can check like if you have
any new notifications, J-Mail and so forth… It also has a shortcut
to change your User Settings, be sure to remember this! Click on
the Menu to see what content lies inside.
[img]http://www.jappleng.com/application/assets/Media/documents/getting-started/menu-system-part-1-jappleng.jpg[/img]
Great, now the rest of the menu is also pretty straight-forward.
Next to the menu is your J-Points balance, this tells you how much
J-Points you currently have available. If you click it, you will go
directly to the J-World Market where you can redeem your J-Points.
Next to this is the Notifications Ticker, here you will find any
notifications relating to your account or by a GM (Global
Moderator). These messages can be modified by clicking on the
Settings button directly next to it, and paused using the pause
button right underneath Settings. The rest of the menu tabs are
Quick Access links to various parts of Jappleng.
[img]http://www.jappleng.com/application/assets/Media/documents/getting-started/menu-system-part-2.jpg[/img]
[headerl]The Navigation Menu[/headerl]This Menu can be found
throughout Jappleng and is used to get from one section to another.
There are many sections to see but there’s even more sections
within those sections to explore. It will take a while to see
everything but don’t worry, we’re not going anywhere!
[img]http://www.jappleng.com/application/assets/Media/documents/getting-started/navigation-menu.jpg[/img]
[headerl]Changing Your Personal Settings[/headerl]Let’s change your
personal settings, and this will lead to another Achievement!
Simply click on MENU and navigate to settings. Here you can change
various settings such as your Username, Gender, and so forth… What
we will focus is your avatar. Click on Visual / Themes and then
change your avatar from here. You may either upload your own or
browse our ready-made avatars. Once complete, save and you will
receive yet another achievement!
[img]http://www.jappleng.com/application/assets/Media/documents/getting-started/change-avatar.jpg[/img]
[headerl]Creating your first Forum Post[/headerl]Our community
forums are very active and much more than most other relating to
Japan. Why not take advantage of this by introducing yourself? This
will also earn you your third Achievement! Simply click on
Community Forums in the main Menu and click on the “Student General
Chit-Chat” category. Then click on the “New Students and
Introductions” sub-category. At this point you can either say hi to
others that are new to Jappleng or you can write your own. For this
achievement, let’s write an introductory post about you. Click on
to
open the new post dialog and enter the information like an E-Mail.
[img]http://www.jappleng.com/application/assets/Media/documents/getting-started/introduce-self-jappleng.jpg[/img]
Once complete, click on Submit and you will receive your
Achievement! Go back to that post whenever you feel like to thank
others for welcoming you. Perhaps there are achievements for
getting many likes and replying to posts too? [headerl]Going from
here[/headerl]Are you ready to do more? Try exploring Jappleng with
its endless possibilities! J-Spot is our social network, Club
Jappleng is for clubs relating to Japanese interests (studying,
anime, food, jpop etc…), News in Japan is for the latest happenings
in Japan and so on… Don’t forget to study Japanese every day if
that’s your goal and be pro-active with your account, you’ll earn
so much from doing so! Ganbatte~
