To find out about the non-hidden communities on your BSCW server,
•      
select  GoTo  
  Other 
Communities  in the top menu, which presents a list of 
all those communities where you are not a member. You can tell by its icon 
whether a community is open ( ) or 
closed (
) or 
closed ( ).
). 
You may now become a member of such a community by
•      
selecting  Join 
Community  in the action menu of an open community, 
which immediately makes you a member, or by
  Join 
Community  in the action menu of an open community, 
which immediately makes you a member, or by 
•      
selecting  Request 
Admission  in the action menu of a closed community to 
ask the community manager(s) for admission to the community. This leads to 
an e-mail form where you may apply for community membership.
  Request 
Admission  in the action menu of a closed community to 
ask the community manager(s) for admission to the community. This leads to 
an e-mail form where you may apply for community membership. 
With hidden communities, you may only become member through explicit invitation by the community manager(s).
After you have become a member, the community will disappear from the ‘Other Communities’ folder. The associated workspace will instead appear in your home folder and in the folder ‘Communities of your-user-name’ which contains the community workspaces of all communities where you are a member. To access this folder
• select GoTo My Communities in the top menu.
•      
Alternatively, you can click  in 
the instant access bar.
 in 
the instant access bar. 
The folder ‘Communities of your-user-name’ additionally has the entry ‘public’, containing all folders and discussion forums that have been made publicly available.
Leaving a community is only possible for community members in open communities: delete the respective community workspace in the folder ‘Communities of your-user-name’. With closed and hidden communities, you have to ask a community manager to remove you as a member from the community. You cannot delete community workspaces of closed and hidden communities from your communities’ listing yourself.