New here? This walkthrough gets you from a blank profile to hanging out in chat in about five minutes. Work through it top to bottom, or jump to whatever you're stuck on.

1️⃣ Finish your profile

• Add a photo and a few words about you. Head to Edit Profile to set your avatar, banner, status, and the "about me" blurb. This is the first thing people see.
• Pick a theme. Themes restyle your whole profile in a click. Browse the built-in ones in Edit Profile — or, if you're a Donor, design your own in the Theme Builder.
• Arrange your layout. Use the live drag-and-drop layout builder at the top of your own profile to move cards around — single column, sidebar, multi-column, masonry, or a header-banner look. Show or hide any card, and add your own custom cards too.

2️⃣ Find your people

• Browse members on the Browse page and send friend requests. When someone accepts, they show up on your Top Friends.
• Sign a guestbook on a profile you like, leave a comment, or fire off a private message to say hi.
• Post a bulletin from the Bulletins page — it's a quick broadcast to everyone, great for a first hello.

3️⃣ Jump into chat & cam rooms

• Open the Chat Rooms list and click one to join. Text chat works for everyone; rooms with cams let you go on video too.
• Set a chat nickname so a friendlier name shows next to your messages while your username stays in the userlist.
• Go on cam: click Cam Up and allow camera + microphone access when your browser asks. Only one app can use your camera at a time, so close Zoom/Teams/OBS first.
• On your phone? The cam room is built "cams-first" — the video grid fills the screen, and the chat box slides up when you tap the message strip or the keyboard button.

4️⃣ Make it yours

• Create your own room. Anyone can host. Go to Create a Room and pick a name, a layout, a size, and whether it's public, password-protected, hidden, or request-to-join. Once you've made one, the Room Admin Guide unlocks for you with everything about running it.
• Build a Page. Under My Pages you can spin up extra profile pages (band, business, fan page — whatever) that live under your account.
• Leave a time capsule on the Capsules page — a message that unlocks on a future date.

🆘 If something breaks

Most chat/cam trouble comes down to browser permissions, extensions, or your network — not the site. The FAQ & Connection Help page walks through the fixes: granting camera/mic access, ad-blockers, hardware acceleration, cookies, and more. Start there.