Access — Be aware that there are different levels of access:

• Anonymous users — If you have not logged in, the site treats you as an anonymous user. You can read everything, but you can't post comments or use any of the other interactive features.
• Authenticated users — If you log in with a user name and password (and anyone can sign up for one of these), you are treated as an authenticated user. You can post comments to many of the existing posts, add events to the calendar, upload images, and access user profiles.
• Moderators — If you want to get more involved, you can request permission to become a moderator. Then you can do all of the above plus add quotes and new pages, as well as edit existing pages. If you are involved in river organization, for example, you could create a whole section of the site devoted to the story of your river and the activities of your group.

Display problems — Various web browsers display content differently. Although we work hard to make this site display correctly on the major browsers (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox), certain parts of the site (like the calendar) may appear to be out of position in some of them. We are continuing to work on this. Please let us know if you notice a display problem that seems serious.  

Menus vs. tags — Content is organized in two different ways. First, there is a conventional menu structure, which allows you to navigate to particular pages. Second, most posts are categorized or "tagged" according to subject. If you click on a tag, you will go to a specially generated page that summarizes all the postings that have the same tag. One advantage with the tags system is that a post can be categorized under several tags (such as energy, economy and transportation) to indicate a story that relates to several issues. Sustainability is all about understanding relationships.

How to make a comment — Assuming you are logged to the site, look for the "add new comment" header on a post. It will take you a new page with a Reply box at the bottom. Just add your comment and hit "Post comment."

How to add an event — Assuming you are logged in to the site, click on "create content" in the left-hand menu box under your name. Then click on "event." Give your event a title, give it one or more subject tags if appropriate, and then add some body text to explain what the event is about and how people can get more information. Finally, fill in the date, time, and location (an accurate address is important if you want the automatic mapping feature to work; however, don't add a zip code because for some reason that messes up the system).

How to upload an image — Assuming you are logged in to the site, click on "create content" in the left-hand menu box under your name. Then click on "image." Give your image a title, assign it to an Image Gallery and a subject if appropriate (it will be important to put it in the right gallery, if you want it displayed with other images about the same topic). Then select the image you want to upload by browsing to the file on your computer. Write a description of the image if you wish. Then submit.

Adding a hyperlinks — You can create links to other websites in your posts by typing in the URL address (such as www.greencitybluelake.org). The address will be converted automatically to a hyperlink. To create more elegant links, you can use some simple HTML code. If this doesn't seem simple to you, please contact our staff for help!

Posts are immediate — If you make a comment, it will be live on the Internet as soon as you click the "Post comment" button. So please think before posting. If you make a mistake, however, you can edit your comments after posting them.

Images are queued — Unlike text postings, images are not posted immediately. They are submitted to a moderation queue for approval.

Title style — We use a lower-case style for titles. Please capitalize only the first word and proper nouns.

The site isn't working right — Occasionally, the site may slow down or some features may not work properly. This is ususally a transient problem with our web host (for instance, they may be installing a security patch or changing server settings). Please try the site again in an hour or two. If the problem persists for more than a day, please let us know!

For more help, please contact the site Webmaster, or call 216-961-5020. For much more information on how this site works, see the handbooks about the Drupal content management platform.