NEW GCU Forum!
Hello, fellow GCU artists!
Some of you know me from the Design Challenges, others, GCU veterans like me, know me from years of conversations on the old forum and blog posts.
As most of you are aware, the old forum has become inaccessible to most. It’s old and GCU has no control over upgrading or fixing the software. Several times over the past couple of years, I’ve been asked by Corrie or Mindy to post something on the forum.
Community Manager, Mindy, mentioned that GCU had been considering a new Discourse forum, which would be a time-consuming transition thus it was low on the priority list. I volunteered to take a peek and see if it had all the bells and whistles we wanted in a new forum. And it did!
Having been part of GCU’s community since 2009 and still having access to the old forum via an old Windows 7 platform, I knew that I could discern the important information from the old posts. GCU enlisted my help and I was happy to transfer the 18-years of essential communications from the old forum to the new one. I also felt I could setup the new forum so that it served our community of artists well. This is why you will see many of the new forum posts authored by my account. I will remain an active forum Admin for GCU. Still an artist, just like you, just one who longed for the old days when artists had a place where we could gather and share, inspire and teach each other. I hope you’re as excited for this refresh as I am!
READY to go see it?
1- If you are using a Windows operating system that is older than Windows 10, you may need to upgrade to Windows 10, or preferable Windows 11, to access the new forum. The old Windows systems (I know from experience) simply no longer communicates with the outside world consistently.
2- When you create your login on the new forum, BE SURE to use your same GCU Artist login that you have now. Doing so will ensure that any thread that links to something on the GCU site can be viewed properly.
NOTE: This is a private forum for GCU, therefore new logins must be approved by Admin, so please be patient.
3- When you first access the forum after creating a login, you will see this post generated by the system:
https://discourse.greetingcarduniverse.com/t/welcome-to-gcu-forum/5
If you follow the instructions and click on the “Your Profile” link, it will take you to where you can add your Profile Picture – a photo of you, or like me, your business logo used on GCU. Click SAVE and that’s all you need to do on that screen. There are instructions in my Tip Post below on how to add your GCU Storefront Link to your Profile.
After that, go to this thread posted by me which will give tips on how to maneuver the new forum:
https://discourse.greetingcarduniverse.com/t/welcome-gcu-artists-to-our-new-forum/279
See you there!
Start here to get started: https://discourse.greetingcarduniverse.com/
Doreen Erhardt
https://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/salonofartgreetings
GCU Community 
So looking forward to having our community forum back and better than ever!
Me too, Mindy! Thank you and Nasser for helping make this happen!
I’ve never used a Username before on GCU. Do I make up one and use the same password for my account? I tried to use my email but it says Username is too long. Thanks, Jay
Hi Jay – You want to use the same login as you do for your GCU store, so use the same email and password and if there is a User Name also requested, then if I were you, I’d use: Shoaff-Ballanger Studios since that’s your store name. Keeps you, you – does that answer your question?
Yes. I had to go back in my GCU account to change my password because 10 digit passwords are required on Discourse. Seems to have worked. Thank you!
Glad you got it to work for you! See you there!
Hi Doreen, thank you so much for your hard work on the new forum!
I am having trouble logging in with my GCU login credentials. It says not valid username, password or email. When I click the option to skip the password and get a login link to the email associated with GCU (I tried both of my logins), I never get an email with a login link.
Hi Betsy, when you click on the link in the blog post, you need to CREATE a login (it’s not automatic) – BUT when you create your login, it’s best to use your existing GCU login so the links to the site will work for you when posted on the forum.
Keep in mind that the password field is a MINIMUM of 10 characters.
You know how to reach me via email if you continue to have trouble. I’ll keep my eye open for your new login request and approve you quickly.
Doreen
Ah ha! Thank you! I am signing up now!
I just approved you!
Not going to bother since our commissions were reduced so much. I hope fellow artists recognize their true worth and realize they deserve better treatment than what GCU provides.