Welcome to wedin.org! This page is just a little orientation to get you started using the site and answer a few of the questions that have come up in the past. If you have questions that I don’t manage to answer here don’t hesitate to contact me, either by posting a comment below or contacting me via email, Twitter, or Facebook.
This page is getting a little long, so here are some shortcut links: Reading posts Commenting Registering Lost usernames and passwords Posting Editing Photos Photo galleries Flickr Video Other files Serious warning Privacy Donations Subscribing ORGmail Mobile apps Further reading
Reading posts
Get informed! The main page shows the most recent posts. Long posts are shortened to an excerpt, so you may need to click to get the whole story. To browse older posts, visit the archives, where you’ll find posts categorized in various ways. There’s also a search form you can use to find posts which contain some word, such as birthday or Penelope. If you’re dropping in for the first time in a while this is a good way to catch up on topics you’re interested in – or find out if folks have been talking about you!
Commenting
Share your opinion! After reading a post you’ll naturally want to make a comment about it. If you’re viewing the post by itself you’ll see a comment form right at the bottom. If you’re viewing the post at the main page, just click the comments link below the post and the commenting form will appear. Enter your name and email address, type in your comment, and click the submit button. Note that if you’re logged in you won’t need to enter any information – the site already “knows” who you are. If you haven’t made a comment before and aren’t logged in, your comment may need to be approved before it’ll appear on the site. This is to prevent unknown users from posting advertisements (“spam”) to the site.
You may notice a funny icon, known as an avatar, next to your comment. If you don’t like your avatar or just want it to look more like you, head over to gravatar.com and set up an avatar linked to the email address (or addresses) you use at wedin.org. Most people seem to use a photo of their face, but it’s up to you. Note that we only show G-rated avatars at wedin.org – if you rate your avatar PG it will not appear here.
Registering
Join the party! Once you’ve commented on a few posts, you’ll probably want to share some news of your own. To get signed up, contact me at isaac@wedin.org or post a comment below.
Lost usernames and passwords
If you forget your password or username you can get a new password sent to your email address by following the lost password link on the login page. The new password will be really secure – complicated and hard to remember – so you should log in and visit your profile to choose a new password that you can remember.
What if you no longer have access to the email address that you originally registered under? You’ll need to contact me at isaac@wedin.org or post a comment below so I can change your email address.
Posting
Share something! You should receive a welcome email to let you know your account is ready to use. You may want to change your password since the ones the site chooses are pretty cryptic. You can do that on your Profile page – just enter your new password twice at the bottom and click the update button. If you include both letters and numbers in your password it will be more secure – there’s a convenient password strength meter to let you know how you’re doing.
You can write a new post at the Posts tab. It looks a little complicated but you only need to do three things:
- Type in a title. This appears as a heading above your post. (This is actually optional – if you leave it empty the first few words of your post will be used as the title.)
- Type in your message, using the toolbar buttons to format it. Upload photos or videos if you’d like (more on this below).
- Click Publish and visit the site to see how it turned out.
Editing
If you’re not satisfied with how your post turned out, don’t worry! Go to the Edit page on the Posts tab, where you’ll find a list of recent posts. Your post was probably pretty recent, so you should find it right at the top. Click your post’s title and it will appear back in the post editor. Make your changes, then click the Update Post button when you’re done. Check the site again to see if you like it this time. You can also delete your posts at the Edit page if necessary.
If you’re an old hand at posting, you may have permission to edit other peoples’ posts. Be careful when doing this though – there’s a fine line between helping and meddling. Emailing or posting a comment first asking permission to edit is a very good idea. If you do edit without their permission, don’t be surprised or offended if they change their post back – it’s their post!
Photos
I blithely mentioned uploading photos in a previous section, but you may find it’s more difficult than I’ve implied. The main (only?) problem that people encounter with the photo uploader is that it can only handle photos that are relatively small, both in kilobytes and dimensions. If you have an older digital camera or a camera phone you might be able to upload the photos just the way they come out of the camera. In most cases though, you’ll need to resize your photos first, just like (I hope) you would if you were emailing them to someone. Around a maximum width or height of 1000 pixels and less than a megabyte should ensure success. Using a program like iPhoto or Picasa this can be done easily with their export functions. If you’ve had success using a particular program or process, please tell us all about it in the comments below.
Once you have a photo ready to upload, you’ll find the uploader by starting a new post. Clicking the leftmost Upload/Insert button should make the popup uploader appear. Check your popup-blocking settings if the uploader doesn’t appear right away when you click. Select your photo (or photos, if you’re using the Flash uploader) and start uploading. Wait patiently. If nothing happens after a while, or if you get an error, re-check the size of your photo. If you get an error about the size of your photo, you’ll need to resize it to less than a megabyte. If nothing appears to happen, the dimensions of your photo are probably too large. Resize it so the dimensions are around 1000 pixels. If you’re successful, you’ll get a screen where you can type in some information about your photo. This is optional but nice because it will appear in the photo album, and can be used later to search for the photo if you want to use it in another post. On the same screen you can select how you’d like the photo to appear in your post. If you’re only posting one photo, medium is best, but if you’re posting several then thumbnails are better. That’s it! You’re welcome to do a post just to find out whether your photo works with the uploader or not – self portraits are great for this!
Photo galleries
If you want to post a bunch of photos, there’s an easy way to put them all together in a gallery. Upload your photos as usual, but don’t insert them. Once you’ve uploaded the last one, go to the Gallery tab of the uploader and use the button at the bottom to insert the gallery – or just type [gallery] in your post where you want the gallery to appear.
Flickr
Flickr is a photo sharing site. You may find it’s easier to upload photos there than at the ORG because there are no photo size constraints. If you’re a Flickr user and you want to use some photos you’ve already uploaded there in one of your posts, try the pink and blue Flickr button on the toolbar. You’ll first need to look up your Flickr account using your email address or username. Then you can click your Flickr username to view your photosets, tags, and recent photos. Only your public photos can be viewed and inserted into posts, so if you want to post a private photo you’ll need to make it public at Flickr first.
Video
Most people want to share YouTube videos so I’ll describe how to do that, but most other video sites work the same way. First, go find the video you want to share. Next, copy the video’s URL, which you can find to the right of your video at YouTube or in your web browser’s address bar – look for something that has “http” at the beginning. Then log in to wedin.org and start a new post. Paste your video URL onto a separate line in your post, separate from any text or other stuff in your post. Publish your post as usual and check to see if it worked as you expected.
Other files
You can use the Upload/Insert tool to upload most any type of file you’d like to share, such as a PDF of your dissertation or an MP3 of you singing the Canadian national anthem.
Serious Warning
Please do not post copyright infringing or offensive stuff – we’ll just have to remove it and that’s no fun. If you’re not sure if the thing you want to post is infringing or not, email isaac@wedin.org. I know I don’t need to mention it, but we don’t tolerate abusive stuff or spam around here. Please let me know if you see something at the site you think should be removed.
Privacy
You should know that things you post on the site, including photos, are visible to the public. I know a lot of you are using services like Facebook to post things you want kept private, but you really shouldn’t post anything online anywhere that you don’t want made public. Maybe I’m a cynic, but if I post something embarrassing on Twitter or Facebook I fully expect my friends to share it at the Facebook Fail Blog or Twitter equivalent (which is called “Twitter”).
Donations
While the site costs very little to operate, I’ve received a request or two to provide some way to make monetary contributions. There’s a donation button in the sidebar menu which you can use to contribute to the site’s hosting bill. If the button is missing, it’s because there have been enough contributions to pay for the year’s hosting – in that case I may replace it with a link to a charity or something.
Subscribing
See the subscribe page for a few different options.
ORGmail
Google-hosted YOURNAME@wedin.org email accounts are now available! They’re just like regular Gmail accounts, but with an awesome @wedin.org address instead. Send a request to isaac@wedin.org with your desired username if you’d like an account.
Mobile apps
There are mobile apps available for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android that you can use with the ORG:
I use the iPhone app, but they all appear to have about the same features – you’ll be able to write posts, upload photos and manage comments. Just enter your usual ORG username and password to get started.
Further reading
This little orientation hasn’t covered everything, so here are a couple of links to further reading at the WordPress Codex for the curious. You can also post a comment below with questions and suggestions.
