User Login/Accounts
The users in the VCP are called collaborators. The VCP home page includes a listing of the latest public VCP posts visible to the given collaborator. Each entry shows the image of its author and that image links to the profile page for that collaborator. Primary links are displayed in the upper right corner of the page, and additional navigation links are provided in the left column. Collaborators can see images of other collaborators currently logged in displayed in the upper right column. Below that is a block of images showing the most recent collaborators to join the portal.
For unauthenticated users, the navigation links are limited and that the user can only see public posts. From the login page, shown below, anonymous users cannot access profile pages. From here the user can either login or create a new account on the portal.
The image below shows the creation of a new user account. The fields marked in yellow (username, email, and full name) are mandatory. Users are invited to join any “open” groups (see Groups) at this time. The portal prevents spam by using a module that integrates Drupal with the reCAPTCHA anti-bot service to ensure that a human is interacting with the portal. After creating an account the new user will be sent an email with a link to a temporarly login, from which the user can enter a new password and activate the new account.
