You are currently reviewing an older revision of this page.

What does “Connect” mean?
- While viewing someone’s profile, you’ll see an option to “Connect” with your fellow USMS member. Using this button, you can either send a private message (anchor to below FAQ), ‘follow’ (anchor to below FAQ), or ‘request friendship’ (anchor to below FAQ).

How to search Community for another USMS member
- USMS members will be added to Community automatically upon registration. Prior to members completing their user profile, their display name will be displayed as their permanent ID.

How to send a friend request
- After you’ve searched and located the USMS member you’d like to send a friend request, you’ll do so by first clicking the " Connect " button and then clicking " Request friendship " (Screenshot).

How to accept a friend request
- When someone requests your friendship, the request will be in the notification section of the page. From there, you can either accept the friendship request, view the request without action, or decline the request.

How to cancel a friend request
- If you’d like to remove your connection to another member, visit his or her profile page. Once there, click the “Connect” button and then click ‘”Cancel friend request”’ (Screenshot)

How to remove a friend
- If you’d like remove your connection to another member, visit his or her profile. . Once there, click the “Connect” button and then click ”Unfriend” (Screenshot)

How to enable and disable private messages
- Within your Community settings under the Options tab, you can set your preferences on private messages. (screenshot)

How to create and send a private message
- After you’ve searched and located the USMS member to whom you’d like to send a private message, click the “Connect” button and then click"Send a private message" (Screenshot)

How to view all private messages
- Your private messages are stored in the message tab in the top right corner of the page. Click ”View All” to display all of your messages. (screenshot)

Why do I see display name Former Member in Community?
- When we migrated the old Discussion Forums to the new format, there were many users who didn’t connect their Forums account to their My USMS account, so we were unable to identify those users as most were not members. To preserve the Forums threads, we needed to assign a single user as the poster of all the threads we couldn’t connect an account to. That single user is display name Former Member.

How to Manage My Friends and Private Messages