You've been let into the members area.

What you will see

Open any members page on the site. Members pages are the ones whose address has /members/ in it. If you are not signed in yet, the site sends you to its sign-in page, which has one button: Continue with Google.

After you sign in, the members pages look and work like the rest of the site. There is no Kiln button and no menu. Those are for editors.

The things you will do

1Sign in

Press Continue with Google and pick the Google account for the exact email address the owner added. If they added your personal address and you choose your work one, it will not match. The page says Finishing Google sign-in…, then welcomes you by name and takes you to the page you were trying to open.

2Open pages and files

Everything in the members section opens for you, including files such as PDFs that those pages link to.

3Come back later

You stay signed in, in that browser, for as long as the owner chose: anywhere from 1 to 360 days, or with no end date. When the time is up you are sent to the sign-in page again. Sign in the same way and you are back in.

Each browser signs in on its own, so your phone and your laptop each need it once.

What happens when you press Publish

You won't find a Publish button. Members can read the members pages and open their files, and that is all. If the owner also wants you to change the site, they will add you as an editor, which is a different kind of access. The guide for editors covers it.

How to undo a mistake

• Signed in with the wrong Google account? You see a page headed You're not on the list (yet) that names the address you used. Press Back to the site, press Continue with Google again, and pick the right account. Google asks which account to use every time.
• Used a shared computer? The members area has no sign-out button. To sign out, clear that site's cookies in the browser. On a computer that is not yours, use a private window in the first place.

If something goes wrong

“You're not on the list (yet)”

The Google account you signed in with is not on the site's list. Either you used a different address from the one the owner added, or they have not added you yet. Try your other address, or ask them to add this one under People & access.

“Sign-in expired”

Too much time passed between Google and the site. The handover is good for five minutes and works once. Press the Google button and go through it again.

It asks me to sign in every time I visit

Your browser is not keeping the site's cookie. That happens in a private window, or when the browser is set to clear cookies when it closes. Use an ordinary window and allow cookies for the site.

I don't have a Google account for that email address

Gmail addresses have one automatically, and many work addresses do too. If yours does not, you can make a free Google account for an email address you already have at accounts.google.com (choose “Use your existing email”), or ask the owner to add an address of yours that already has one.

It worked last month and now it doesn't

Sign in again. If you get “You're not on the list (yet)”, the owner has taken your address off the list. They can put it back in a few seconds.

“Members area not configured yet.”

The owner has not finished setting the members area up. There is nothing for you to fix. Tell them you saw this message.

Who do I ask?

The person who runs the site. They keep the list of members and are the only one who can change it.