Wardfriends

Well, if you know how to read, you’re doing pretty good!

But, if you want to really use Wardfriends, you’ll want to become a contributor.

Becoming a contributor is easy, free, and easy ;).  Just hit “Register” and join the site.  You’ll immediately be sent a password by email that you can change later.  Use that password to log-in to the site.  Every time that you log-in, you’ll be taken to the “Write” option in the Wardfriends user area.  There you can write a post and hit “Save” to submit it for publishing.  (It is the sole discretion of the site moderators, editors, and administrators to decide what will end up being published, so don’t bother submitting garbage that’s never going to be published at all - offensive material can get you banned, too! Please see the Terms of Service for more information).

Also, in the Administration Area you can update your “Profile” and your “Extended Profile”.

Your profile will not become available for all to see, showing up under the ‘wardpeople’ list, until you have had at least one post published.  You control how much information about yourself is made available in your profile by what you do or do not fill out in the fields contained (see the Wardfriends Privacy Policy for more information).

But, let’s talk submitting posts… there are several options in the “Write” area:

• *HTML or Visual Editor capabilities (switch to Visual Editor if needed in the “Your Profile” page).  (Dirty code will get you banned!)
• *Ability to add tags.  Tags increase readership and the searchability of your post throughout the web and on this site.
• *Ability to file posts by category for future reference.
• *Ability to add pictures (must know the URL of picture - registered users can upload pictures under the “Organizer” option in the administration area).
• *Add Podcasts and other media files to your posts.   (Full Podcast RSS and iTunes functionalities coming soon!)
• *Add optional excerpts.
• *Send trackbacks to sites and articles you’re attributing any content to (see Copyright/Intellectual Property Information).
• *Allow pingbacks and comments.
• *Password protect posts by adding a password which you can share with select individuals (administrator can still access your protected posts).
• *Plenty of functionality and other options not listed, too!

So, that’s still not enough for you, eh? How about a calendar?

Yes, we have a nifty event calendar, too.  At the bottom of the “Write” page you can use the Event Editor to turn any post into a calendared event.  This calendar also shows the regular posts, so it makes a handy search device.  Scheduled events show up in red.  Everyone can browse the calendar in the sidebar and see what’s coming up, like, say, your birthday.  Or the next big concert.  Or whatever!  The event will also show up as a post on the main page.

Don’t forget to use the latest and greatest technology.

In addition to being able to enjoy all the information that this blog has to offer on top of being able to contribute to it, you can use a feed reader to subscribe to 5 different kinds of Wardfriends feeds:

• *The main Wardfriends feed that contains all Wardfriends Posts (powered by Feedburner!)
• *The Wardfriends Comments feed, which contains all comments made on Wardfriends to all posts (also powered by Feedburner!)
• *Subscribe to feeds by author, with just the posts published from any individual author (follow your favorite!  RSS only)
• *Subscribe to feeds by category, with just the posts published in certain categories (for example, the event calendar feed, which can help you stay on top of all cool things going on.  RSS only).
• *Subscribe to feeds by tag, with just the posts published with the particular tag added (e.g. ’sports’ tag.  RSS only).

You can subscribe to all, some, or none.  The main Wardfriends feed and Comments feed are available through Feedburner, so you can access them from any web-based feed reader and subscription/syndication service, or right on Feedburner.  However, to read the other three types of feeds you will need to use the built-in feed-reading and subscription functions of your web browser or other feed reader software (RSS only).  Subscribing to the Wardfriends main feed is the best way to keep up-to-date with all things Wardfriends, however you can subscribe to receive the Wardfriends main feed via email.

Am I going to get all kinds of crazy emails if I post?

Wardfriends contributors will not receive any automated emails, so if they want to keep track of whether or not their post was published, if people are commenting on the post, etc., they will need to subscribe to the aforementioned feeds as well as subscribe to receive email notifications of all comments made to a particular post, post-by-post (see check-box below the comment box in individual permalinked published posts).  You can manage all of your subscriptions to comments on posts after you subscribe to at least one post’s comments.

That’s all, friends.  Enjoy the social hub of the westside.  And don’t abuse.