The Activity Stream provides users with a go-to place to track all their actions onsite.

Activity Streams are updated when a user has:

• Posted a comment
• Replied to a comment
• Commented on someone’s wall (i.e. their user profile)
• Posted a blog entry
• Uploaded a photo
• Followed another user
• Favorited an item
• Rated an item
• Reviewed an item
• Sent a message to another user (messages are private)

Or when a staff moderator has:

• Approved or Dismissed content that has been sent to moderation.

The Activity Stream only contains items that have been published. An example can be seen at http:yoursite.com/users/username/recent/:

Within the Activity Stream, users can filter the Activity Stream view by Favorites, Comments, and Votes. An example of the Activity Stream filtered by Favorites:

Users can also view an Activity Stream listing the activities of people they follow. An example can be seen at http://yoursite.com/accounts/activity/. An example is below:

Preferences for ‘email notifications types’ can be updated by checking or un-checking the box next to the activity type. Most of the notifications are about friends activity. If site is using Moderation tools, then the users can select ‘content approved’ and ‘content not approved’ to receive confirmation when their moderated content has been approved or rejected.

Email notification frequency is determined by which subscription is selected. The options for subscriptions include: - Any time activity happens - Daily digest - Weekly digest - Never email me

The email will include a link to the email preferences. User can easily navigate to this page if they want to edit their options.

The corresponding data for user activities in the admin is the ‘Activity’ application. In all of the models, except activity types, staff members can review user activities that have occurred on the site. For template help with Activity Streams, see here.

The core of the social features in Ellington is the user profile, which can be tailored and customized to your needs. Via user profiles, which are similar in functionality to the Facebook ‘wall’, users are able to interact with each other publicly.

As you can see, your users have the ability to leave each other comments on their walls. Their profiles also allow them to share information about themselves. You are able to determine which information is and is not required.

Here you can see the right bar of the user profile. It has links to several different areas. The Profile, Information and Interests links only point to information already displayed on the page. The Upcoming Events link will show the user events that are coming up soon at their favorite places. The Favorites link shows the user any events they have clicked clicked that they are attending. The comments link will display the most recent comments a user has made on the website, including posts to other users’ profiles. Finally, Create a playlist allows your users to add band’s MP3s to a playlist. Lastly, the friends link shows a list of users you are ‘following’.

The right bar also includes several ‘edit’ options for the user to edit their profile and account, as well as setup search alerts. The images at the bottom are the avatars of their friends.

Ellington’s social features also tie into Events. If an event starts tomorrow (anytime tomorrow is fine) then users will have three options, to click ‘I’m going’, ‘Share’ or ‘Remind me’. If the event starts today, users only have the option of clicking ‘Share’ and ‘Remind me’.

Users also have the ability to comment on an event, and if they have clicked ‘I’m going’ then they will see their image under ‘Who’s going’ on the bottom right of the event. Other users that have clicked ‘I’m going’ will also be displayed here. Events you have clicked ‘I’m going’ will also be added to your favorites. As you can see, you can also subscribe to events via iCalendar or RSS.