[EBeditor]

There soon will be changes to your Essential Baby and Essential Kids membership.

Tomorrow Tues Nov 8, we will be integrating our membership system with Fairfax Media digital (our parent company) which will allow you to have one login and password across all Fairfax websites, including Essential Baby and Essential Kids.

This is great news, because it means:
- It will be easy to manage your newsletters across EB and all Fairfax Media digital sites
- You'll have the ability to use tools like polls and article commenting on EB and other Fairfax sites
- You can easily enter member-only promotions and competitions.

Here are some questions and answers we have prepared to guide you through the process.

How you login to the forums will change.
Essential Baby and Essential Kids are undergoing some exciting changes and becoming part of the Fairfax Media membership network, our parent company.
Please take note of these important points:
- The login and registration pages will have a fresh new look.
- If you are not already a Fairfax Media digital member, your current Essential Baby login password will continue to work. You will be asked to confirm your details when you login for the first time through the new login screen. Then continue to use the forums as per normal.
- If you are a Fairfax Media digital member (we will make this connection by matching up email addresses), your current Essential Baby login password will not work. Instead, you will be required to login with your Fairfax Media membership details.
-Not sure if you're a Fairfax member? Check the Member Centre here: https://membercentre.fairfax.com.au
- You will still be able to select 'remember me' on the login screen to automatically log you in each time you visit the forums. For security reasons, however, we do not recommend selecting this option if you are using a shared computer.
- The option to login as invisible will no longer be available on the login screen. Instead, you will be able to easily toggle your status from visible to invisible once you are logged in.

Why is this change necessary? What will be the benefits to me?
We are confident that this change is the best step forward and will make your EB/EK membership much more rewarding for you.
As previously mentioned, the benefits include:
- Easy management of newsletters across EB/EK and all Fairfax Media digital sites
- Easy entry to member-only promotions and competitions.
- Upcoming website features such as in-article commenting, polls and reviews.

When are the changes happening?
The change is scheduled for tomorrow nov 8, 2011. There will be minimal downtime and you can continue to use the forums throughout the day. You may be interrupted at some stage during the day asking you to log in to the forums. For these changes to take effect it is important that we ask all members to log in at the time the change is made.

What will happen with my personal data? Who will have access?
Once the change has been made, when you re-visit our forums and login to confirm your details, some of your basic account information will be securely encrypted and moved in to the Fairfax Media member database. This includes your account login details, email address, name, date of birth, postcode and gender. Your details will not be moved across unless you consent to the terms at the time you login and confirm your account information. Fairfax Media has a very strict privacy policy, so your personal data will continue to be safe. You can view the Fairfax Privacy Policy here: http://www.fairfax.com.au/privacy.html

Will my personal data be visible on my forum profile?
No. You can choose which personal information you share with other forum members.

What happens if I don't login to the new system?
If you don't login to the new system after the changes are live, your membership with Essential Baby and Essential Kids will still remain active. However, you will not be able to post on the forums, read member-only forums, enter competitions, and more.

Will I receive any Fairfax communications?
From time to time Fairfax may send you additional offers from our sites. However, Fairfax Media takes your privacy seriously and will not provide your information to third parties unless you give us permission to do so. You can personalise your experience by updating your membership details in the Fairfax Member centre: https://membercentre.fairfax.com.au

Can I still have the same display Name?
Yes. There will be no change to your Display Name on the Essential Baby and Essential Kids forums. Your email address will never be disclosed publically.

Do I need to do anything now?
You will not be required to make any changes until the new membership system is live. You will receive another email when this happens, and any changes will also be posted in this forum.

One thing which would assist the new process is to ensure your current log-in email address is still active before October 31. You can change this using 'My controls' in the left hand side navigation of this page. After clicking on 'My controls' scroll down until you see the link to 'Change email address'.

If you have any queries regarding your account please contact us.

[melaine]

What if we don't know our Fairfax media password?

[Therese]

There will be a forgotten password section at the log in page so it is easy to update it

[EBeditor]

Another question we've been asked is whether you'll be forced to have the same username across websites like RSVP, and the SMH/Age as well as EB.

The answer is NO, your usernames will be able to be set per site. Fairfax will just hold your main account information - email address and password.

[jfl]

Will Fairfax be making any information based on being members or what we do on EB available to advertisers or other companies?

[EBeditor]

Will Fairfax be making any information based on being members or what we do on EB available to advertisers or other companies?

No.

[Infinite*Hope]

So if someone has a FD membership, that one becomes the primary. (Based on email addresses as mentioned above).

Will the post count and registration details be transferred from the EB account over to the FD one so that a long term EB member that also has a FD account won't look like a newbie when posting with their FD account.

Hope that makes sense.

[EBeditor]

Hi Lisa,

All the info like your username, post count and signature will still be stored on our forum software rather than in Fairfax membership. Fairfax membership will just be the main storage area for your email address and password, then that will be linked to your forum profile which contains all that information, so it is specific to Eb/Ek and not visible if you are in another area of Fairfax.

[Infinite*Hope]

Thanks Amber. Makes perfect sense.

[Therese]

Your EB username will always remain the same

If you are a Fairfax member already you will log in with those details.