Migration to the new Tripawds Supporter platform introduced much more functionality for memberships and account management. And with that, came a whole new level of complexity. Blogger accounts and memberships, Free and Supporter, member blogs and forums, so many options! As if Tripawds accounts were complicated enough, right? We get that. Well...we've been working hard behind the scenes for a long time now to simplify matters, and provide members with a better understanding and more control.

Previously, Account membership functions were only available to members in the dashboard of their own blogs. So, we've created a set of front-end pages where registered users can view their accounts, add sites, or upgrade memberships. We're documenting this all here for anyone interested. Reply with any questions, or to report any bugs undocumented features.

Account, Memberships, and Sites, Oh My!

For starters, Tripawds member accounts are always free. Registration is required to participate in the live chat, and bypass moderation in the forums. And, anyone can create a free blog. In addition, optional Tripawds Supporter accounts help with the ever-increasing costs of maintaining the Tripawds network. It is now much easier for members to modify their membership, or add a blog if they didn't create a site when registering.

There are two membership levels for users to register without creating a site:

• Member: Free!
• Subscriber: ($1.50/month)

Three Tripawds Blogs account levels include your own site:

• Basic: Free
• Supporter: ($3.33/month)
• Supporter +: ($9.00/month)

Get additional savings when selecting quarterly or annual payments. Subscriptions auto-renew and can be cancelled anytime. thank you for your support!

The following Account Management pages are now available:

• Account: Review Your Account
• Memberships: Update Your Membership
• Sites: View Your Sites
• Add Site: Add A Site

NOTE: Registered members must be logged in to view or change any account details. These pages will appear blank to public visitors.

Log in to view or modify your membership.

Your Tripawds Account

On the Tripawds Account page, you will see a general overview of your account status. Here you will see your current membership level, and any associated cost (if a Tripawds Supporter ). Tripawds does not currently offer any "additional packages and services" since account management seems complicated enough, for now.

Here we see our member Cisco has the Basic account, which includes a Free Tripawds Blog. The Change button is available to upgrade the membership with a Supporter Blog or Subscriber Account.

Your Tripawds Memebrship

Visit the Tripawds Membership page, if you ever wish to upgrade or downgrade your account. Please note that cancelling any membership will never remove your Tripawds account. Blogs and forum posts will always remain online, unless you ask us to remove them.

Select from any of the available options to modify your membership. Change the subscription period from months to quarterly or yearly to see different savings available.

If you didn't create a blog when registering, no problem. You can do that with the Sites pages.

Your Tripawds Sites

Here it seems to get a little confusing for some. All registered Tripawds users are members of the main Tripawds site by default. This is where you have an account to access the forums and chat. New members can also create a Free or Tripawds Supporter blog when registering. Visit the Tripawds Sites page to review your existing sites, or add a new one. All membership levels include at least one site. Supporter Blog accounts include up to two sites. And the Supporter + membership level includes up to three sites. Ads are automatically removed from Basic sites immediately upon upgrade to a Supporter blog level.

Here we see Ren has created a blog, in addition to being a member of the main Tripawds site. Tripawds is not shown in the list of sites, since the member does not have an Admin account.

You will also notice the sites and blog dashboards can be accessed from the My Sites link at top left. And, you can always tell if you are logged into Tripawds if you see the black Admin bar with your user Profile account at top right.

Here we see misterdobalina did not create a site when registering his Tripawds account. That's okay, you can add a site to your membership anytime.

Add A Site

If you're still following along, you may have noticed the Add New Site link on the Sites page. That will redirect users to the Add A Site page, and populate the related membership ID. Or, we'll figure that out with magic if you visit the Add A Site page directly.

The first step when adding a new site is to select your preferred blog template. There are currently two default template options. However, once you log into your new site, you can select from numerous themes to customize your blog design.

Next, add your site title and subdomain. This is your Site URL. And that is where your site will be found. You only want to include the subdomain part. Don't include tripawds or tripawds.com! We think this is pretty clear. Yet, we still get some users registering sites like myprettyponytripawdscom.tripawds.com. This can't be changed. Well, let's just say it take quite a bit of time and effort to change the site URL, especially after any blog posts have been published or media uploaded. So, select your subdomain (Site URL) carefully. And keep it simple. We'll let you know if it's taken. Or rather the database will...

Confused Yet?

That's why we're here. For extra credit, you can also find account management functions in the dashboard of your member site.

Here is Stimpy viewing the Account tab in his blog dashboard. We see he has a site titled Not Ren found at stimpy.tripawds.com ("stimpy" being the Site URL used instead of "mrbob" in the previous example). Notice how Ren could also use the Change button here to upgrade to a Tripawds Supporter . But he's a cheap cat. Though he's not as dumb as he acts.

Stimpy knows that when viewing the Main Tripawds Site dashboard here, he won't find his account management pages. Those are only available on his own member blog dashboard – accessed from the My Sites link in the Admin bar. Or...on the Tripawds Account Management pages we've done our best to document here.

Clear as mud?