Accounts and Access

Accessing the Members-Only Areas of the Website

To access the restricted portions of the Villas at the Boulders website, you need to log in using a Google account — but don't let that stop you if you're not a Gmail user. A Google account is simply a login that Google recognizes, and you can create one using any email address, whether it's Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, MSN, or something else entirely. If your email already ends in @gmail.com, you automatically have a Google account and are ready to go. If your email is with another provider, you can still create a free Google account tied to that address. It's free, quick, and easy. Just visit google.com/account/about and choose "Create an account." You won't need to switch email providers or get a new address — you just need Google to recognize the email you already have.

Think of it this way — all you are doing is sharing a new password with Google, so it can verify you are you.

The reason this matters is that we control access to the members-only area through Google Groups. We maintain groups for owners and residents, each containing the email addresses we have on file for people in the neighborhood. When you log into the website with your Google account, it checks whether your email address appears in one of those groups — and if it does, the restricted content becomes visible to you automatically.

In practice, this is less of a hassle than it might sound. Most of the website is publicly accessible — you can browse freely without logging in at all. It's only if you click on something in a members-only area that your login status matters. At that point, if you're not already logged in to Google, a pop-up will appear asking you to do so. And once you've logged in — whether for the website, Gmail, or anything else — you'll typically stay logged in until you restart your computer, so most of you will rarely see that pop-up at all.

We currently have email addresses on file for 169 of our 197 owners and residents, and we're actively working to fill in the remaining 28. If you're unsure whether we have your correct email address, or if you've had trouble logging in, or you want to change the email address we have for you, please reach out to Josh so we can make sure your correct email address is in our records.

Why Google? Why not Apple, Amazon or Microsoft? There are two reasons. First, because Google account penetration is likely in excess of 75% of our residents already. Lots of people in the community (over 60%) already have their email with the gmail service, so they already have Google accounts. In addition, everyone who has an Android phone already has a Google account. The second reason is the technical infrastructure provided by Google, for free — Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Groups, Google Sites, Google Calendar, Google Meet, and Google Contacts — which gives the HOA the ability to put services together at very low cost. This stuff isn't great, but it is practically free.