User FAQ

Need help logging in to www.ptg.org and my.ptg.org?

The Piano Technicians Guild hosts two websites. The main site, www.ptg.org, serves PTG members, piano owners, piano teachers and students, and those interested in or pursuing a career in piano technology. PTG members can find a wide variety of resources to help them grow their skills and businesses. At www.ptg.org, PTG members have special access to the PTG Store, member benefits, My Portal, RPT certification exam information, an online Journal Search, business and marketing resources and more.

Invoices for PTG member dues are sent to your email inbox and are available for online payment. Make sure your e-mail address is correct by logging into www.ptg.org and clicking on PTG Members > My Portal on the portal page, click on the person image in the upper right corner and select My Profile.

Paying for dues or open invoices online is quick and easy. When an invoice is ready to be paid, a small red number “1” will appear on the bell image in the upper right corner of your My Portal page. Click on the bell and a link to your invoice will appear.

The my.ptg.org site provides discussion forums that connect members and non-members through a wide variety of general and special interest groups, and libraries.

  • Find others with similar interests and make easy connections.
  • Visit your regional and chapter communities to find out what's happening in your area.
  • PTG members are eligible to participate in any group open to them.
  • Pianotech and CAUT are open to non-members who create a new account.
PTG members automatically have an account to Sign In on PTG websites. Your email address is your username and you can create your own password. Click on Sign In to access member-only content and benefits, receive member pricing on PTG Store purchases and event registrations, participate in discussion forums, edit your profile and more. Read the instructions below to sign in as a PTG member. Please do not create a new account. You are also automatically subscribed to your chapter and region communities.

Non-members can also create an account that gives them any opportunity to participate in some open discussion groups, purchase PTG Store merchandise and register for events.

In May 2022, PTG upgraded to a new database system. If you’re not a regular user of the PTG websites, but are a PTG member or think you are already in our database but have never logged in, here’s how to update your login information. You do not need to create a new account.

First, clear your browsing history and delete any saved passwords and bookmarks for PTG websites.
Then, follow these 3 steps:
1.    Go to www.ptg.org.
2.    Click on Sign In, in the upper right-hand corner.
3.    The system will ask you for a Username. Please type in the email address that you use for your PTG account. Then, click on the Forgot Password link at the bottom of the page. You will receive a verification code sent to that email address. Enter the code to type in a new password. Note that you will need a password that is at least 8 characters with at least one capital letter, one lower case letter, a number and a symbol.

Once logged in you can go to PTG Members and click on My Portal where you will be able to edit your profile, shop in the PTG Store, search the Member Directory, pay invoices online and more. Please remember to keep your profile updated so we can better serve you! If you have any questions, please contact us at ptg@ptg.org.
Having trouble logging in? Check to make sure you are using the same email address that is listed in your contact information in the PTG directory as your username. You may need to clear your browser of any saved PTG website passwords used before the database change. If you have tried several times to login, you may need to clear your browsing history of any addresses ending in ptg.org so that your browser doesn't try to return you to invalid pages.
Any browser should work with ptg.org sites. You may find that ptg.org sites work best on computers and tablets.

Updating your Profile
Update your contact information (name, address, email, website, etc) in your profile at https://ptg.users.membersuite.com/profile and add a picture. Add directory information and check the services you provide so that they show up on your profile.

Click on Info, then the pencil symbol under Personal Information next to your name and click on it to make changes and add information. Scroll down to Directory Information to click on services you provide or add General Directory Information. If you are an RPT Member, your info listing will show up in the Find an RPT search. If you are a regular Member, you will show up only in the search for Find a Technician by Special Services Offered. Don't forget to hit the blue Update button when you are done.

Need some help navigating the PTG Discussion Groups and resources found at my.ptg.org?


Browse the list of video tutorials and other tips listed below.
Have a suggestion, experiencing another issue or have more questions? Please post a message to the User Help Group at my.ptg.org so we can help determine if the issues are isolated or widespread.

Special thanks to Maggie Jusiel, RPT for her work in developing the video tutorials listed below.

View these on YouTube.

Discussion Forums and Communities

Discussion forums are a place to collaborate, ask questions, provide answers and resources, and discuss the hot topics of the day. Discussion module is where your members post messages to share ideasask questions, and answer the questions posed by others.

  • A community's discussion is where its members can post messages to share their thoughts and ideas on a particular topic, ask questions for support, and answer the questions posed by others to offer help and guidance.
  • Every community comes with an associated discussion, offering its members a place to connect and engage by creating threads; within these threads is where the discussion grows, as other users respond by posting replies.
  • Our discussion forums are powered by Higher Logic software.

How to post a message online

To post a message online, navigate to the desired community and:

NOTE: You must be a member of the community to post to that community. In your profile, click on Communities under My Connections to see which communities you belong to or are eligible to participate in. On the top menu under Communities, click on All Communities to see the complete list. You can also participate in any that have a blue Join button.

  • From the Community Home page, click on the green Add button.
  • From the Discussion page, click on the green Post New Message button.
  • Click Post New Message.
  • You also have the option to post a new message under the Participate menu at the top of the page.
  • On the resulting page, write and format your message using the available options.

To

The community you're posting to may already be selected here, but if you'd like to post to a different Discussion, you can select any communities you belong to from this menu.

Cross Post To

You can simultaneously post your message to the selected Discussion and cross post to other communities you belong to.

From

Indicates the owner of the thread; your name is automatically selected and cannot be changed.

Subject

Provide a clear subject so users know what your message is about.

Message

Write your message here, along with any formatting, images, videos.

Signature

This field displays your default signature, which will be added to the bottom of your message. You can also edit in your post. You can edit your default signature in your profile under My Account.

Attachments

If you'd like to include attachments with your message, click Attach and browse for your file(s) via the available options. Note: Files attached via this method are automatically added to the community’s library.

 
When finished, you have a few options:

  1. Click Send to post your message. Any community members who subscribe to receive digests and/or real-time emails will also receive your message via email.
  2. Click Schedule to schedule your post to release at a future date and time.
  3. Click Save as Draft to save your post as a draft you can finish later. As an additional safety net, your work is also automatically saved as a draft any time you're idle for 10 seconds. Need to find your draft later? 

    Go to My Profile/ My Postings/ My Content. You will find your post as a draft amongst your other posts. If it is recent, it should be near the top.  You can open it and edit it as you see fit, and then post it.  

Post a message via email

If you're subscribed to a community's Discussion, you'll receive email notifications about new posts per your subscription type (e.g., Real Time, Daily Digest). It's from these emails, like the one below, that you can participate in a variety of ways.

  1. These options allow you to reply via your email client without going online. You can either post a new, standalone message to the Discussion or send a reply to the entire Discussion group. As long as the system recognizes your email address as belonging to a Higher Logic account, your message will post.
  2. Clicking on these options takes you to the Discussion to reply online. You can reply to either the message's author directly OR the entire Discussion group.

 If you're opted-in to real-time participation emails, you'll be notified via email when someone:

  • replies to one of your discussion posts
  • leaves a comment on one of your library uploads.

These participation emails ensure you're immediately aware of the latest developments related to the content you've contributed.

Reply to email

Edit a message you've posted

Whether you've posted your own message or replied to someone's, you're free to edit your messages at any time. To do so, navigate to one of your messages and select Edit from the menu on the right.

You can also access all of your Discussion posts (and all your other contributions) right from your profile. Just click on My Postings.

Replying to a message

If you read a thread and want to contribute to the conversation, there are two ways to do so:

1 - Reply to the entire Discussion

Click on Reply to Sender at the top of the email or in the online discussion group, click Reply to post your response inline to the entire discussion group. This will likely be your default response method much of the time to ensure the entire community can view it and engage with you.

When replying this way, you'll use the Basic editor, with a limited set of options. Click the ellipsis (...) icon to expand the Basic Plus editor with additional formatting options (shown below).

Reply to Sender

2 - Reply only to sender

Click on Reply to Sender at the top of the email or in the online discussion group, select Reply Privately from the menu to respond only to the post's author. This is a great way to keep your response hidden from the rest of the community and only reply to the author of the post.

TIP: When replying to a message via either of these methods, click the Original Message button to view the original message and all associated replies in the thread. This is helpful when replying to long or complicated messages that you want to reference as you draft your reply, and when a thread contains numerous posts.

The Recommend button displays with the content, which makes it easy to recommend and to see what's been recommended.

  • Click the "Recommend" button to recommend a post or its reply. The adjacent recommend count increases by 1.
  • Click the recommend count (if 1 or greater) to display a pop up and see who has recommended the content.

Mark As Inappropriate

When a community is set to Self Moderation, this option becomes available to all members for each thread post, thereby making the community "self-moderating."

Edit

Super Admins, Community Admins, and the thread's original poster can change the content of the post.

 

Libraries

Through Libraries, users can share files, including multimedia, in a socially-enriched environment. Multimedia content can be viewed directly on Library Entry pages, and even embedded on other web pages. You can add Creative Commons licensing notices to Library Entries when uploading copyrighted content. View a PDF on how to upload files to PTG libraries.

Upload a file

  • Our discussion group software scans all files—standard file and email uploads—for malware and viruses.
    The Community product does not allow the uploading of some file types, such as .exe(executables), that historically harbor malicious content. The system will automatically reject such files and notify the member who attempts the upload.
  • The maximum file size is 1GB.
  • Higher Logic supports most file types. If you are having trouble uploading a file, you might try again using a different file type.

Adding a library file via email

Files that are attached to an email are used as the basis for a Library Entry that will be an attachment to the discussion post created. When attaching files via email, keep in mind the following limitations:

Email Providers

There are hundreds of email providers, and not all of them encode their email messages in ways that allow our software to discern attached files. For example, AppleMail can encode attached files such that the files get wrapped into an unusable .MSG attachment. Other providers may present similar limitations.

File Types

Not all of the file types that are supported by Resource Libraries can be included in a Library Entry via email. For example, video files and .TXT files are not supported.

Directory

Find members, create a private network of contacts, form communities, and connect with your colleagues. There is also a member directory located at www.ptg.org with more features. (Coming soon.)

My Profile

Update your profile by clicking on My Profile in the top menu bar. You can also manage your notifications, view recent postings, privacy settings and more. When you click on the pencil symbol, it will take you to the profile edit page at My Portal.

Finding and Organizing Your Communities

To easily find your communities or those you can join, click on My Communities under the Communities menu item at the top of the page. If you are a PTG member, you are automatically subscribed to a chapter and a region community. These will appear in your community list automatically. You can always set your own email notifications by going to My Profile>My Account>Community Notifications. However you set your notifications, you can always view community content online.

Members are also eligible to join a number of other groups (Pianotech, CAUT, PTG-L, Exam Prep, etc.) Look for the blue Join button to add yourself to the group and set your email notification.

If you are not a PTG member you will be eligible to join Pianotech, CAUT and a few other special interest groups.

At the top of the My Communities page, you have several sort options. From left to right: Community Types, Access, Sort Order and Number per page. Find communities quickly by using these filters. For instance, if you are looking for your region or chapter community, choose those items under All Community Types. Sort Alphabetically if you aren't sure of the type. Choose Communities to which I belong if you'd like to see which communities you've already joined or are automatically subscribed to.

Some communities have a brief description and information about the number of Discussions, Libraries and Members to date.

Try out the different options to find the quickest way to see what group or special interest you are looking for. Don't forget that you can always type the name of the community you are looking for in the upper right search box. The search function will let you narrow down the results to Communities under All Content.