| |
What is HOASpace.com?
|
HOASpace.com is a provider of web sites for residents of communities and homeowners associations. By
having a community web site for your neighborhood, you can quickly create a sense of community with
your friends and neighbors. The discussion board feature is often one of the most used features of
any HOA web site, as it allows residents of the community to discuss various topics online according
to their schedule. There's no longer a need to schedule a physical meeting to answer a few questions
or gain resident feedback on a topic.
|
How will a community web site benefit our residents?
|
HOASpace web sites offer your residents not only an online multi-topic discussion forum, but they
will also have instant access to important contact names and addresses, such as the developer, homebuilders,
and board members. You can post copies of electronic home warranty repair/request forms, or links to
homebuilder and developer web sites. Classifieds offer a cost-effective way for residents to advertise
goods and services to their neighbors without having to pay for expensive ads in local newspapers that only
run for one or two weeks. Additionally, residents can easily learn about the newest developments and issues
by viewing the News page, which shows a list of news stories regarding their community. A calendar of events
allows community members to quickly see upcoming events during the current or future months. Once the
residents of your community begin using their web site for discussions, news, and information, they'll soon
wonder how they ever lived without one.
|
How much does a community site cost?
|
Probably much less than you might think. Even a small community can easily implement an HOASpace.com web site
without having to raise HOA dues or implement surcharges on residents. For more information on our
service pricing, please see our Pricing page.
|
Is there a demonstration site I can see?
|
Yes. Our "Sample Community" web site can be viewed by clicking here.
You can even view the administration pages after you log in. While you won't be able to add, change or delete any
information on the Sample Community web site, it will allow you to see just how simple the user-interface is to
navigate and configure.
|
Will our web site be viewable by the public and non-residents?
|
It's up to you. By default, HOASpace.com web sites require members to be registered and logged in to view
most of the web site's pages. While registration is an open process available to anyone, it does require the
new member to use a valid email address to confirm their account. Whenever a new resident registers, the
site administrator is sent an email notification allowing for human verification of the resident's name,
address, and other information. The administrator has the ability to delete any account at any time.
If desired, you can also configure the resident registration process so that only the administrator can
approve and activate new accounts. With administrator-only approval enabled, only registrations manually
approved by the site administrator will ever be able to visit private pages on your web site.
The administrator can configure specifically which pages (if any) are visible to non-members using the
Menu Editor feature.
|
Is it difficult to maintain the web site?
|
Not at all. If you can use your web browser, enter information into fields or make selections and click
a Save button, you've got all the talent you need to configure and maintain one of our HOASpace web sites.
Once you sign up, you will need to do some initial setup such as entering contact information,
uploading important community documents, and perhaps entering some news articles. However, once this initial
setup is complete, maintainance of the site will be fairly minimal. In fact, there is no "required" maintenance
on a regular basis to keep the site running normally. Of course, the purpose of a community web site is to
make current information available to the residents, so you will probably want to update the site as needed with
new community news, calendar events, or photos, as well as updating documents, contact information, or web links
as they change. This process is easy and intuitive -- Just fill-in-the-blanks and click the Save button to add a
new document, news item, or calendar event.
|
How many homeowners does the site allow?
|
We have no restriction on the number of homeowners that can participate on your community's web site.
|
Can we customize the web site's appearance?
|
Each member can choose from a selection list of several pre-defined visual themes on their
profile page, and the administrator can also select one of these themes as a "default" theme
for visitors who are not registered or logged in (and therefore have no profile).
If you want to customize your own themes, you can use our Theme Manager (also under the Admin page).
Once there, you can edit an existing theme, or create a new one. As part of the new theme,
you'll be able to upload images for the header graphic (across the top of
the site pages) and the background for the left-side navigation menu. You
can also customize some of the colors used for the various parts of each
page as well as the font colors. For a preview of some of the built-in themes provided with your
web site, please see the Themes Preview page.
|
Can we modify or remove some of the menu entries?
|
Yes. Our Admin page allows the site administrator to add new menu entries, or remove or modify
existing ones. You can create a new web page, upload it to the web site and set up a menu option to
point to it, or you can link to an external site on the internet via a menu entry. You can even
create menus entries with submenus using the administrator's menu editor.
|
Do we get to choose a domain name for our site?
|
Yes. If you have already registered a domain, we will supply hosting for the site and once your
account is set up, we can give you the information you need to point your domain name at the
web server hosting your account. If you do not already have a domain name, you can register one
yourself using any of the domain name registrars on the internet. Or, if you do not want to use
a domain name, we can create a subdomain for you free of charge (for example, yourcommunityname.hoaspace.com).
|
Can you bill me each month so I can pay by check?
|
Unfortunately, our payment processing partner is unable to process checks for recurring monthly charges.
For automatically recurring montly payments, you must pay using a credit card. If you wish to pay by check,
you must pay annually.
|
If I convert my trial account to a paid account, will I lose the information I've entered already?
|
No. Any information you have entered on your site will remain intact, provided you upgrade your trial account
before the trial expiration date listed at the top of each page of your trial web site. We will simply increase
your disk storage space and visitor traffic allowance to match whichever plan you are upgrading to. The conversion
process will appear transparent to you, except that you'll no longer see the trial expiration notice at the top
of each page.
|
My trial account is about to expire. Will you extend the trial period for me?
|
Unfortunately, we are not able to extend trial web site expiration dates. In order to maintain our low prices and
to have enough server space for other potential customers who wish to sample our services, we are only able to
absorb the cost of hosting each free trial web site for a limited period of time. In order to maximize your
ability to review the web site's functionality, we recommend that you request your free trial account at a time
when you are able to review and evaluate the site during the subsequent trial period. When the site has been created,
we recommend that you enter your initial content as soon as possible, and notify your residents at that time
that the new site is available for them to review for the duration of the trial period.
|
What do I need to do to set up my HOASpace.com web site?
|
We have prepared a help page to assist you in setting up and customizing your HOASpace.com web site.
It's very easy, but there are a few things you should do when setting up your account and this web
page will help you with the setup process. The help page contains information about configuring your
domain name (if you have chosen to host under a domain name), as well as using the Administration page
of your site to perform some initial setup tasks. Click Here to visit the
help page now.
|
Why was my account suspended?
|
If your account is suspended, your site will not be accessible. There are normally two reasons why an
account may be suspended: (1) Your most recent charge for your monthly fee was declined due to an expired
credit card or other credit card issue, or (2) the e-mail address you used to sign up for your account
is not valid and mail sent to that address is bouncing. Please contact us at
support@hoaspace.com as soon as possible to determine the cause
and correct the problem.
|
I signed up for a web site. Why haven't I received any information?
|
The most likely reason you haven't received a response from us is that the email address on your order form
is invalid or email sent to that address is bouncing. We recommend you contact us at support@hoaspace.com
with an alternate email address that we can use to send you the account information for your new web site.
|
|
