what is Gavagai all about?

Gavagai is a place for writers and musicians to post content and find an audience for the work they produce. it is also a place where the audience can find writers and musicians that they like.

how does Gavagai do that?

Gavagai uses a unique tagging system to figure out who to show a writer's or musician's work to to get it the best exposure. tags are just words describing the content. you can control your tags or you can let Gavagai figure it out for you based on the other users you follow, the works and portfolios you rate and the scenes you join.

what is a work?

a work is anything that a user on Gavagai produces. Gavagai works are either text or audio. a text work is a story, essay or blog posting. an audio work is just that - some kind of audio, be it a song, instrumental, spoken word, whatever.

what is a portfolio?

a portfolio is a collection of works. you can think of it like a playlist, but it doesn't have to be all audio - it can be all audio works or all text works or any mixture of the two.

what are scenes?

just like in real life, scenes are groups that share a common theme, idea or goal. once you join a scene, you can add your works and portfolios to it to show that they are a product of the scene. this is a great way to give your works and portfolios wider exposure.

what do I need to do to post works or portfolios?

sign up! there are no special account restrictions with respect to who can post works or portfolios.

how much storage do I get for audio?

all users get 5 gigabytes of storage space.

how do tags work? I see "tag management" everywhere.

tags are how Gavagai decides what things you might like. you can specify tags yourself by selecting "manual tag management" where appropriate. in this case, click on the tag set to manage (basic tags or deep tags) and rate them from 1-5. if you don't want to go through the trouble of rating all your tags, let Gavagai do it by automatically rating them based on the people you connect with, the works and portfolios you rate and the scenes you join.

if you want more information about tags, click on the "what are tags and why should I care?" link on any of the tag management panels.

how do I get around on the site?

navigation on the site is pretty straightforward. if you get stuck at any time, click on the tab with the question mark - the last one on the right - to bring up help for that page. other than that, here are the main places on Gavagai:

login panel

the login panel is on the right side of almost all Gavagai pages when you're logged in. it shows your profile picture, your name and the link to log out of the site. it also shows any status messages from your connections or scenes.

home tab

the "home" tab shows your top 4 latest matches in each category - these are the other Gavagai users, works, portfolios and scenes that we think you'll like.

community tab

the community tab has two subtabs: "my connections" and "search community." when you click on another Gavagai user's profile, another subtab magically appears called "community profiles."

"my connections" is just that - it shows you all the users you're following and who is following you.

"search community" lets you search for a specific name on the site. if you get any hits, the same block and connect buttons are available as on the home page.

works tab

the works tab has three subtabs: "my works," "favorite works" and "search works." same as with the community subtab, when you click on another Gavagai user's work, another subtab magically appears called "other user works."

"my works" shows all the text and audio works you've posted. it's also the tab where an individual work appears when you open it.

"favorite works" shows all the works you've marked as your favorites using the favorite button.

"search works" lets you search for a specific work's title. if you get any hits, the same block and favorite buttons are available as on the home page.

portfolios tab

just like the works tab, the portfolios tab has three subtabs: "my portfolios," "favorite portfolios" and "search portfolios." also like the works subtab, when you click on another Gavagai user's portfolio, another subtab magically appears called "other user portfolios."

"my portfolios" shows all the portfolios you've posted. it's also the tab where an individual portfolio appears when you open it.

"favorite portfolios" shows all the portfolios you've marked as your favorites.

"search portfolios" lets you search for a specific portfolio's title.

scenes tab

the scenes tab shows scenes you've started and scenes you're a member of.

"scenes started by" shows the scenes you established. you don't have to be a member of a scene you establish.

"scenes including" shows the scenes you are a member of.

how do I edit my profile and post content?

profile edit

edit your profile by clicking on the "my profile" tab and clicking on the edit profile link. on this page, you can edit all your profile settings. most of the settings should be pretty obvious.

works edit

to post a new audio or text work, click on the "works" tab and then on the add new audio work icon or add new text work.

portfolio edit

to post a new portfolio, click on the "portfolios" tab and then on the create new audio workl icon.