You can share an instance of a gear across multiple communities. For example, if you create an instance of the Poll Gear asking a question that applies to many communities within a company, you can share that instance of the Poll Gear across these communities rather than creating many duplicate instances of the same gear. Although a shared gear instance can appear in many communities, it is only configurable from the community in which it was created.
Shared gears are configured in the Community Administration Pages. Once a gear is shared, you cannot unshare it. To share a gear:
In the Community Administration Pages for the community where the gear was created, click the Community Gears tab in the top navigation bar.
The Current Gear Instances page opens.
In the list of available gears, click the Configure link for the gear you want to set as a shared gear.
The Configure Gear basics page opens.
Give the gear instance a name and a description.
Under the Sharing heading, check the Allow this gear to be shared with other communities check box.
Finish configuring the gear and click Update.
This instance of the gear is now available to other communities from the Select Shared Gears page of the Community Gears tab in the Community Administration. Its instance name appears listed beneath the community in which it was created.