Any dots assigned the old (manual) way are only valid until 9/20/2024. This post by Jay describes the automated system that you should use. Once you log into it and link it to your Talk account, the new green dot will be automatically assigned.
Original Post
You may have noticed that some people have green dots next to their name/avatar on Talk posts. That denotes people who are DMS members. This is a (manually-assigned) visual aid. With the visual aid comes the privilege to see the “members only” categories that are inside the firewall; mostly things about our internal maintenance and governance - including the Issues & Requests category where we report and track equipment problems.
Occasionally you will see a non-member who is trolling our site. Knowing that they are a non-member might influence how much interest/effort you spend on your response.
How do you get a green dot?
- Go to the Member Access category
- click on the large NEW TOPIC button on the RHS of the screen
- Fill out the requested information on the template (name and Talk ID).
That’s it.
Just wait for some generous volunteer to assign the green dot.
There won’t be any notification, but when you pull down the category list, you will now see some categories with a padlock preceding them.