Useful Tips on using this Website
Keep scrolling down to review the various areas and a list of common questions you may encounter at any time.
My Account
“My Account” is where you “do” most things about yourself. Here you will see all settings and various things you can do with the site including updating profile information, renewing your membership, uploading photos, videos etc. This page will only ever be visible to you.
If you click on your avatar (picture) in the top left of your Account you will be taken to the profile that others will see of you in the directory, so it’s worthwhile seeing how your information is reflected for others. We also hope you upload your own avatar.
Member News
Everything you will want to read in one spot. This has all of the article posts from every category in one spot in chronological order plus a sidebar of useful shortcuts. Member News also includes a special Members/Boosters section which includes things such as Member’s/Booster’s photos and spotlights on special people.
Write your own articles/posts!
All the articles you see throughout the Site can be written by any Member or Booster and we encourage you to do so. You will be able to select the category so the article will appear both in the headlines and in the corresponding section of the Site. This is your opportunity to populate our Site with up-to date information and articles or to promote upcoming events. Regular posters will even get a little heart below their profile picture.
Local Services Directory
Members/Boosters, let’s help support our favourite local businesses by making sure they are on this list. You can even submit them yourself (we will email them to let them know they have been included). Wouldn’t it be nice if you can vet a service first and find out who has used them before? That’s why we encourage you to comment when you have used a service and then only other Members/Boosters will be able to contact you privately (without knowing your email), through this Site, for more information (whether it be good/bad/indifferent).
Directory and Profiles
Helps you find someone based on any number of criteria. When you click to “see profile” you will be taken to that person’s visible profile which includes their information, photos & videos. Above their avatar (picture in the circle) will be an envelope which will allow you to click and send a private message to the person which will go directly to their email without revealing their email address. Your own profile will have an additional wrench icon which will take you back to “My Account”.
You can also see profiles by clicking on someone’s avatar anywhere you come across it on the Site.
Remember these profiles are only visible to Members/Boosters when they are logged in.
There is an error occurring on the “reset” button of the directory search. Put all fields back to their headings or blank and it will reset to the full directory for you to search again. Hopefully this will be fixed in the next few months.
Forum
This is where you go if you have a question or special need like buy/sell or lost/found. We encourage all Members/Boosters to respond to various questions as it helps us all in the end. The sidebar on many of our pages has the most recent Forum topics as well as ones that have not yet had a reply.
Additionally there are some Forum subjects that will only be visible to logged in users and will be identified as “Private”.
Events
Read the upcoming events listed to the side of most pages or under the main menu. For a full list select “View all Events”. We also encourage you to advertise your event. If you wish to have an event listed, please select “Adding an Event” in the drop down menu under Events to see what you need to do because at this time they may only be added by the webmaster.
Committees
Helps you to see who’s on a committee and how to reach out to them.
CAN’T FIND SOMETHING? Look for this search icon. Typing one word will bring up every article or page related to that word. The Forum has its own separate search bar.
My Profile Related Questions
How do I change my profile information?
Click on the “My Account” menu or on the wrench icon from your profile.
Scroll down to “My Profile”. The original sign-up form is displayed and you can update your information. Make sure to hit “Update” at the bottom of the screen when you are done.
What is an avatar or how do I get a profile picture?
Click on the “My Account” menu or on the wrench icon from your profile.
On the top left you will see “Upload Avatar”. Press this and then select a file from your computer and save.
I can't seem to edit my involvement, it's all greyed out - why?
The OLA web administrators have the ability to assign who is involved in which organizations. Make sure someone on your new committee informs us at ola@oxtonguelake.com of the change and we will make the adjustments. It was a conscious decision to not allow users to change this at will.
I see some people have a heart on their profile - what does that mean?
A heart means that person has written x number of posts.
How do I add pictures or video to share from something like the Regatta?
Click on the “My Account” menu or on the wrench icon from your profile.
Scroll down to either “My Photos” or “My Videos”. Click the appropriate one. Here you will see a button “Add Gallery”. Enter a name for the gallery like “Regatta 2015” and a brief description like “Wilbur’s photos from a great and sunny day” and submit.
A new icon will appear with a camera and your gallery name. Click on the camera and you will see “Upload Files”, at which point you can drag and drop photos or “Select Files” from your hard drive.
On both the gallery and on the individual pictures you will notice a pencil and a red negative. The red negative allows you to delete either the entire gallery or an individual picture. The pencil allows you to edit information about the picture/gallery. At the moment, the only way to categorize a picture (which we encourage you to do) is to click each picture’s pencil icon and then select a category from the drop down menu. Categorizing it will help everyone locate pictures.
You will also notice in the gallery that if you edit it, that you have the ability to change its visibility to “Public”, “Registered” or “Friends”. Leaving it on “Public” means it will only be available to other Members/Boosters and will be the same as “Registered”. “Friends” is an unused aspect of this Site.
The same process is followed for adding video.
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User Content Related Questions
How do I add pictures or video to share from something like the Regatta?
Click on the “My Account” menu or on the wrench icon from your profile.
Scroll down to either “My Photos” or “My Videos”. Click the appropriate one. Here you will see a button “Add Gallery”. Enter a name for the gallery like “Regatta 2015” and a brief description like “Wilbur’s photos from a great and sunny day” and submit.
A new icon will appear with a camera and your gallery name. Click on the camera and you will see “Upload Files”, at which point you can drag and drop photos or “Select Files” from your hard drive.
On both the gallery and on the individual pictures you will notice a pencil and a red negative. The red negative allows you to delete either the entire gallery or an individual picture. The pencil allows you to edit information about the picture/gallery. At the moment, the only way to categorize a picture (which we encourage you to do) is to click each picture’s pencil icon and then select a category from the drop down menu. Categorizing it will help everyone locate pictures.
You will also notice in the gallery that if you edit it, that you have the ability to change its visibility to “Public”, “Registered” or “Friends”. Leaving it on “Public” means it will only be available to other Members/Boosters and will be the same as “Registered”. “Friends” is an unused aspect of this Site.
The same process is followed for adding video.
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How do I add and then edit a post?
You will see that there are multiple spots for you to add your own articles. Click any of those buttons to begin a post. Please select an appropriate category so that it automatically is included in the appropriate sections of the Site. You may also upload a picture to accompany the specific post.
If you want to go back and edit at a later date: Click on the “My Account” menu or on the wrench icon from your profile. Then, Scroll to “My Posts” and you will see a list of all the posts you have written. Beside each one is an icon in the shape of a pencil. Click that, and you will be able to edit and then save it. You will also notice that there is an “Add Post” button in here too and is another way to start a new post.
Also read the detailed steps in the next question!
Can you give me a step by step adding a post article?
Only logged in users are allowed to actually make a post.
Title: Give it a catchy name or follow a trend that you see.
Category: Select the category that best describes what you are posting about from the drop down menu. The default category if you forget will be “Community News”. It is not necessary to pick a sub-category (which can be used to quickly identify certain posts).
Photos: You are allowed to drag and drop (or click “Select File” and use your file browser to find a file on your computer) as many photos as you would like to include; however, only the first picture will be the feature picture to be included with the post. This picture will appear just below your heading when you click on the post. Only jpegs are accepted. Multiple pictures won’t automatically appear and an email to the ola@oxtonguelake.com will be required to have the administrator group them into a gallery on your post.
Description: Write your full post here. You can also copy and paste text from other documents you may have as well.
Adding a link to another website: when writing in the description, write the words you wish to have linked like “read more here” and then highlight them and click the picture of what looks like a chain link right after the arrow icon. This will bring up a pop-up menu where you can type or copy and paste the website link. You can also choose to link to pages on our Site as they are all listed there. To break the link click the chain icon that looks broken.
Tags: we don’t use tags at this time.
If by chance you have found you clicked the tab “Text” in the description area, you just have to click “Visual” to get you back to where it looks more normal.
Submit: When you are done click this. Your post will appear in your “My Account” page under “My Posts” and you will be able to edit at any point in time.
Have a pdf or Word document you would like to include as well? Unfortunately at this time only the web administrator can add those in (we hope that will change soon), so in the meantime, email the web administrator or ola@oxtonguelake.com and include the document and post name of where you would like it inserted. Remember this may take some time. To ensure expediency, it’s best to copy and paste any Word document text directly into your post. If you are a regular contributor, access will be given to a shared dropbox account.
Require your post to only be visible by Members only or logged in users (both Members and Boosters)? Please email ola@oxtonguelake.com to request this for your post.
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How do I add and vote on pictures for the photo contest?
Follow the instructions for adding a photo. At the moment, the only way to categorize a picture for the photo contest is to click each picture’s pencil icon and then select “photo contest” in the category from the drop down menu.
You may vote on any pictures from the Members News page. There is a a tab for both Latest Added and Top Voted. You may use the search button and select the category “photo contest” to isolate the photo contest pictures to vote on those specifically.
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Common Questions
How do I upgrade from Booster to Member?
Click on the “My Account” menu or on the wrench icon from your profile.
Scroll to “membership status”. There will be a green checkmark beside “member” and you can click “upgrade account”. If you are already a member there will be no checkmark and nothing to upgrade.
How do I logout so my husband/wife can login?
Click on the “My Account” menu or on the wrench icon from your profile.
Scroll to the bottom and press “Logout”. The Login screen will now appear.
Oops, I was logged in as my husband and meant to add a post with me as the author...How can I change it?
Fear not! There is a way to change the author of a post but this must be done by the web administers. Please email ola@oxtonguelake.com with the post name that needs to be changed and the correct author.
If a post date needs adjusting, you can email us too.
How do I use the Forum?
For our Members/Boosters, we recommend that you are logged in to ask/answer questions so that the topics get assigned to your profile.
When in the Forum section, click on the title of the area for which you wish to ask a questions, or on the title of a topic to which you wish to reply. You will see a box that allows you to enter a topic title (if not replying to one), compose a message and hit submit. You may also check the box that will send automatic emails to the email on your account, if anyone replies to the topic.
If you are not logged in, your email address and a user name will be requested.
Email Related Questions
How do I change my email address?
Click on the “My Account” menu or on the wrench icon from your profile.
Scroll down to “Settings”. Here you can change your email address.
How do I email a Member?
What happens when I send someone an email?
When you click on the envelope icon from someone’s profile, a pop up box will allow you to send an email to that person. No email address is ever released. The Site will automatically forward your email to the recipient’s personal email and will show the sender as the Oxtongue Lake Association with the subject “Private New Message”. The recipient will be able to read the entire contents of the email from their personal email. They will not, however, be able to reply directly and must go back and log into the Site in order to reply.
Click on the “My Account” menu or on the wrench icon from your profile. You will come to the dashboard which will show your messages and you can reply from there. Obviously, anyone is welcome to voluntarily include their email address for a reply, through this initial point of contact.
(Note that in the profile you will also see a red number which indicates the number of new email messages you have. You may click the red number to go to your account dashboard as well).
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Still having trouble? Questions? Suggestions?
You can always contact us if you need to help understand the new website or what to do.
We would also love to hear any suggestions from you including: what you would like to see added or changed, big frustrations, or anything else that comes to mind. We can’t promise anything, and we know that new things take time to get used to, but once you feel comfortable we hope that with the support of the community and constructive feedback, we will make this website an extremely useful tool for all.