To limit the volume of email that NICHQ Collaboratory community members receive, you must explicitly mention them in your posts to trigger a notification. You can mention members wherever you see an text area field (one of the larger boxes for longer content). To do so, begin by typing the "@" symbol, followed by the first few letters of the member's first name (1). In a moment, the system will prompt you with a list of users who match the letters you typed (2). Click on the name of the person you want to mention.
When you do so, the user's name will be converted into a link in the text area (3). You can then continue to type the rest of your post.
Then, when you're done, you can click "Save" to see the results. You'll notice that the user's name remains a link, which will take you back to their profile (4).
As noted, the user who you mentioned will receive an email with the contents of your post, and with a link back to the community site so that they can review the full content or discussion. In addition, your site moderators may have set up special "mention groups" that you can use to trigger notifications to more than one individual without needing to type all of their names. This can be especially useful if on your project teams are grouped by geographic location (e.g., "@EastCoast" vs. "@WestCoast") or other designation. Use such mention groups the same way as you do for regular members—that is, type the "@" symbol and then the first few letters of the group's name.