What IS this place?

One Samoana is the effort of Samoans - world wide - to stay connected with each other by celebrating our talents, our stories and our shared heritage.

Our site is made up of a BlogZine area, where we highlight Samoan-flavoured stories, opinions, blogs and people from around the world, plus this social network - what we like to call, 'the Village'.

In Samoa, Le A'ai refers to the central gathering place for a village. It's usually the field right in the middle of the ville where people play sports, hold big meetings, have parties and catch up with each other for in-depth gossip sessions.

In our Online ville, Le A'ai really is the hub of all our activity. Stop by here regularly to see - at a glance - the latest and most popular content posted up by our Natives (that's anybody who's a member here).

What to Do in the Ville

FIRST: We call your profile page your Faleo'o (Samoan for small traditional houses), and when you're new in the ville, expect company! You should start by customizing your Faleo'o.

• Upload a profile photo
• Change your skin/theme
• Add music and photos
• Rearrange the modules on your page

Visit our Help Notes & Geeky Tricks group for more tips and tutorials about getting settled into the ville.

SECOND: Get connected! Check out our Samoana by Village page to see if your village, island or district is listed there. If it is, make sure you join that group. If not, start a group for it yourself and invite all your people!

When you've created your new group, please leave a comment in Samoana by Village to tell us about it so we can add your village to the list.

NEXT: Let everybody know you're here!

• Introduce yourself in a blog post
• Post a reply to a discussion in our Village Fono (our forums)
• Start a discussion of your own
• Browse our groups and join the ones that match your interests
• Meet the other Natives in real time: Ning Chat (which you can also access at the bottom of every screen here) or UP Chat, our voice/webcam spot.

You will no doubt find a hundred other things to do in the ville, but this is a good place to start.

Oh, and if you've got a business or a project you'd like us to help promote, please send me a message and I'll let you know what we can do for you.

Hit me up if you have any questions, too.

In the meantime, welcome again to One Samoana. Please make yourself at home. :D

xx Hamo Geek Girl