Frequently Asked Questions - Using the Progressive U site and its features

The rating feature allows users that are signed in to rate blogs on a scale from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the best). The five blogs with the highest rating on the site at a given time are featured in the 'Highest Rated posts' block on the right side of the screen (a blog must have a minimum of 3 ratings to be placed on this list). You can only rate each blog once, and you cannot rate your own blogs.

Users are in control of the ratings each blog gets. If only one or two people rate each blog, the 'Highest Rated posts' block will remain static. The more users that rate each posts, the more the rating will reflect the quality of the blog.

The rating system is meant to be a valuable tool in assessing the quality of blogs, not a weapon to be used as reprisal against bloggers or blogs you don't like. ProgressiveU cannot control how each user rates the blogs that they read, but there have been a number of recommendations of how to rate the blogs, in order to have the ratings be fair:

• Do not rate the blog based on the topic, i.e. if the blog is a pro-choice argument, do not give it a rating of 1, simply because you are pro-life, or visa versa.
• Do not rate the blog based on the author, that is, if you have argued with the author in the past, do not rate their blog poorly for this reason alone. Read each blog separately and judge it based on its content, rather than the author. Similarly, do not rate a blog well simply because the author is your friend.
• Blogs that are written well should get higher ratings, i.e. blogs that have correct spelling and grammar and where the bloggers put some time into writing the blog.
• Blogs that provoke thought while providing some insight into an issue should be given higher marks.
• Blogs that are written for the purpose of accusing another user of some infraction, or for the simple purpose of complaining should be given lower marks.

Remember, these are just guidelines to help you rate blogs. We hope that in time you develop your own system for rating blogs fairly. If you have any questions regarding ratings, feel free to post a topic in the forums (see link at the top of the page), and the moderators will be happy to assist you.

At the bottom of your post, before the comments fields, you should see text that says something like "15 reads." In this case, that means that your post has been read 15 times. Every time someone loads the page for your post in their browser, either by clicking on the title of the post, or by clicking on "read more," or by coming from another website, the counter will go up by one.

Of course, you could increase the number of reads just by clicking on your own post yourself, but its more fun to see how many other people you can get to read your post. For ways to get others to see your post, see the FAQ answer on promoting your blog posts.

NOTE: Repeated reads from the same computer, use of auto-refresh tools, or use of other automated methods to increase read counts is prohibited under the rules of the contest. See official rules for more details.

Here are a few ways to navigate the site:

• Go to the "front page" of the website (www.progressiveu.org) and scan the teasers of articles shown in the center column of the page. If you see something interesting, click on the title or on "read more" to see the whole article. Articles here have been "promoted" to the front page for more exposure. If you write something interesting, your post might end up here!
• Look at posts from our Featured Bloggers.
• Scan the "Recent Blog Posts" section in the right column.
• Go to the sitemap and browse by topic. You can search for specific content with our search feature. Or, you can check out our "Active Threads" and "Active Topics" to see what others have commented on recently.
• On each post, there are a couple links you may want to try: <username>'s blog (all posts by that user), and Similar Posts (links to similar posts appear on the right sidebar under the "similar posts" heading).
• Check out the Choice Picks for posts handpicked by site editors.
• When you find another blogger whose posts you like to read add him or her to your buddy list (you can do this from the blogger's profile page). Once you've done this, you will have a new left sidebar block that shows recent posts for all of your buddies.
• You can also find content by clicking on a username and utilizing the "Track" feature (this is a tab at the top of their profile page).

Sometimes there's nothing recent that interest's you. That's OK -- be a pioneer -- write about something that does interest you. You'll be surprised -- people will find what you write, and if you're lucky you'll end up with an interesting dialog.

At the very bottom of each blog entry, there is a comment form for the blog. Typing into this form will post your comment as a reply to the blog itself.

Before posting a comment, read the entire blog to make sure that your comment is relevant to the blog. A one or two word post does nothing to add to the discussion on the blog and is not adequate to state an opinion. Writing a few sentences stating your views on the blog will help other bloggers understand where you stand on certain issues without being vague in your response.

If a comment is longer than a few paragraphs, however, it should probably be posted as a blog instead of a comment. Comments should address an argument, challenge the argument with a differing viewpoint, and offer some insight into your opinion. You should support you opinion with facts, quotes, logic, or an expert's opinion.

There are a few ways of determining this.

Subscriptions: ProgressiveU will send e-mails to your account to any blog or forum topic you have subscribed to.

• Your blog: before you submit, check the box in the 'subscription' menu under the body of your blog/forum topic.
• For other blogs: Go to 'My account', and click the 'edit' tab at the top. Scroll down to the 'E-mail notifications' box. Clicking 'Always send e-mail notifications will subscribe you to every post you reply to.
• You can remove your subscriptions in the 'My subscriptions' tab on your My account page.

Tracking: Tracking pages can be used to view new comments on the site, rather than using the subscriptions feature.

• Track all posts by clicking on the 'Active Threads' link in the sidebar.
• Visit 'My Account' and click on the 'track' tab at the top to track blogs you've responded to. From the 'Active Threads' page, you can also click on the 'my recent posts' tab to view this page.
• Track others' posts by going to their profile, and clicking the 'track' tab at the top of the page.

Blog pages:

• On pages where teasers of blogs are shown (including 'my blog' from the sidebar, blog lists from user profiles, the recent blog list, and the front page), the number of total comments and new comments will be highlighted beneath the teaser of the blog.

Note that all new comments to any post will show up beneath the teaser of the blog, or in the tracker, as a link with the number of new comments ("1 new comments" under blogs, and "1 new" in the tracker).

At the present time, users cannot delete comments. You can only edit your own comments as long as someone has not responded to them.

However, depending on the reason you want the comment deleted, it can be deleted by a moderator. Simply flag the comment, using the 'flag this' link at the bottom of the comment. If the comment violates the Terms of Service, we will delete the comment (and all replies to that comment) for you.

We do value the freedom to say what you want, though, so we only censor comments when they are a clear violation of the Terms of Service. If you want the comment deleted simply because you did not like what it said, we probably won't be able to help you.

There are several features that allow you to connect with other bloggers. Of course, the blogs themselves allow you to discuss any topic with other people on the site. However, there are other features we have available as well.

Profiles

Each user has the opportunity to build his or her own profile on the site. A few questions are asked during registration, but the rest is up to you. The profile has fields for name, location, school, school status, degree and major, interests, personal website, etc. You can add as much or as little as you want to the profile, giving you complete control over your privacy. You can also add an avatar that will be associated with any post you make on the site.

Profiles can also be used to find people with similar interests. All the things you list in the favorite music and favorite books sections become links. When you visit a profile, you can click on these links to find people with similar interests! The results page will also bring you a list of other interests that those people have.

You can update your profile by visiting 'my account' in your user navigation menu, then selecting the 'edit' tab at the top of the page.

Buddy Lists

Our buddy list feature allows you to track all the forum topics and blogs that your 'buddies' make. There is a section on the sidebar devoted specifically to updating the most recent blogs from your buddies (conveniently titled 'My buddies' recent posts'). Other people can also add you to their buddy list to track your progress on the site.

To add a person to your buddy list, visit their profile page, and click the link 'Add (user) to my buddy list'. To remove, just visit their profile again, and click the 'remove (user) from my buddy list' link. It's as easy as that! You can also see your buddy list at any time by clicking on 'my buddylist' in your user navigation menu.

Of course, meeting people doesn't stop at the site, so we've compiled an outreach page for you to visit for ideas of things to do in your community. Remember, progress can only be made when you Reach Out.

If you would like to reply to a comment instead of a blog, click the link at the bottom of the comment reading 'reply'. This will open a new window with just the comment you wish to reply to in the window. Type your reply into the text box provided, and submit.

This process will indent the comment under the comment you are replying to. This is very useful for blogs in which there are many comments and many different conversations going on. Simply replying using the text box at the end of the page will add your comment to the bottom of the list of comments, and it is difficult to keep track of a conversation if replies are all mixed up together.

Please note that the comment reply boxes will thin with each new reply. It may be best to put a "Skinny Box Alert'' (or other such notice) alerting users that the discussion is being moved to a fresh comment field to prevent the reply box from thinning to the point where the comments are no longer legible.

While most people will never want to change or delete their blogs, in certain cases, a user may see it as valuable or necessary to do. Duplicate blogs should be deleted as soon as possible, in order to prevent having to later delete one with comments. The moderators would love your help in this endeavor, so here is how you delete a blog:

1) Click to open the blog you wish to delete.

2) At the top of the page, there should be two tabs, 'view' and 'edit'. Click on the 'edit' tab.

3) Scroll down to the bottom of the content. There should be two buttons: 'preview' and 'delete'. Use the 'preview' button if you have made changes to your blog and wish to save those changes (You must click submit on the next page to continue with your save). Click the 'delete' button if you wish to delete the blog. There will be a confirmation page. Click the 'delete' button again to delete.

If you have any problems, please feel free to post a topic in the forums, and one of our moderators will get with you as soon as possible.

We rely on the ProgressiveU community to help us identify and remove posts that do not belong on ProgressiveU. If you come across a posting in the forums, in a blog or even in a comment that you feel violates the Terms of Service of ProgressiveU, we ask that you flag it for review by a member of the A-Team.

To flag a blog post, forum topic, or comment:

1) Look at the bottom of the blog or forum topic that you find objectionable for the "Flag This" link.

2) Click on the link.

3.) You will be brought to a confirmation page. If you clicked the link on accident, you may cancel the flag; if you truly want to flag the post, click on the confirm button.

4.) All information, including your username and the URL of the post you are flagging, will be sent directly to the administrators of the site. They will then review the post and decide what actions, if any, should be taken.

5.) If you return to the blog or content after you have flagged it, you will see an option to "unflag" the content. Should new information come to light (i.e., a joke you didn't catch until after you've already flagged it, or you find that the author has re-written the post), please use the "unflag" link to let the administrators know that you no longer find the content objectionable.

A few notes about flagging a post:

1) You have to be signed in to flag a post. Likewise, you have to have an account on ProgressiveU to flag a page. This is so we can contact you if we have questions about our flag.

2) Hate speech, name calling, plagiarism, copyright infringement, spam, libel and otherwise illegal content are all violations that should be flagged for review and removal.

3) Posts should not be flagged merely because you disagree with what is being said.

4.) You may also flag images and users, should you suddenly receive an offensive Private Message or should someone post an image that is truly offensive. However, please remember when you're trying to decide whether or not to flag a user or an image that a user has posted that this site is not meant to censor people. We will not delete images simply off of one flag

While we firmly believe in freedom of speech, we want everyone to feel comfortable at ProgressiveU. Please help us achieve that goal!

Linking to other posts is fairly simple if you follow the steps below.

• When you entering the body text for a new post, you will see a link icon that looks like a chain in the toolbar above the text entry area.
• Highlight the text in your post that you want to link from, then click on the link icon.
• A new window will pop up that allows you to enter the address that you want to link to.
• Enter the entire URL address if you are linking to a site outside of ProgressiveU.org (for example, http://www.campusactivism.org/displaygroup-1118.htm).
• Click OK, and your link is inserted.
• After you have submitted an image or blog post, you will see a URL in the address bar of your browser in a format like this: http://www.progressiveu.org/17302-why-i-blog. This is the address you should use if you are sending the link to friends by email, or if you want them to link to it from another site.
• You can also use this URL address if you are creating a link to your post or image from within ProgressiveU.org (say you're writing a new blog post and you want to refer people to something you posted earlier).

Every ProgressiveU user has their own in site inbox. This feature allows for users to privately communicate with other users, moderators and ProgressiveU administrators when the occasion arises. Private Messaging another user can be useful in many situations.

If you and another user find yourselves conversing about off-topic things via commenting back and forth, you might consider moving the conversation to Private Message. Private messaging also comes in handy when you find yourself wanted to say something privately to another user, ask a question of another user or moderator, or request help from another user/moderator.

• You can access your Private Message capabilities by clicking on "My Inbox" under your account features on the right sidebar.
• Once you have accessed your inbox, you will see a list of private messages that other users have sent to you.
• To read any messages, click on the Subject of the message and it will open the message for you to view.
• If you want to respond to the message, use the "Reply to this message" link at the bottom of that page.
• You can also delete the message or return to the message list by clicking the other links at the bottom of that page.
• When you have a new unread message, you will receive a notification upon logging in to ProgressiveU.
• That notification will contain a link that takes you to your inbox. From there, you follow the steps listed above.

You can Private Message another user one of two ways.

• The first way to do this is to send private messages via your Inbox, by clicking the "Write a new message" link at the bottom of the Inbox page.
• The second way to send a private message to a user is to click on his or her user name from any page on ProgressiveU.
• When the profile page loads, scroll down.
• If Private Message capabilities are turned on for that user, you will have the option to "send private message".
• Click that link and it will open a "Write a new Message" page. Write your message, and hit the "send private message" button.
• You can retrieve a list of all sent messages by accessing your Inbox and clicking the "Sent messages" link located above the messages list.

Please remember that your account can be removed should you abuse the private message feature. ProgressiveU will not tolerate the harassment of another user or moderator via Private Message, nor will we tolerate spamming users via private messages. ProgressiveU team members do not read your private messages unless they are forwarded to us by a user wishing to lodge a complaint, at which point your account will be placed under review while we investigate the complaint.

So, now you've got your account set up, you've started posting a few blogs, and you would like to reply to some of the comments on your blogs - or maybe leave a comment on someone else's blog - and you'd like to know how to get that cool little signature set up, right?

That's easy! Just follow these steps, and you'll have a signature to include famous quotes, a favorite quote, or even a link to your favorite blog title.

First, go to your account page by clicking on "My account" in the navigation menu on the right side of the screen.

At your account page, click on the tab towards the top of the screen labeled "Edit". This will bring up several options; but for this item we're only worried about that front page under the label "account settings".

Scroll down the page until you see the section entitled "Comment settings". There, you'll see a text area with the word "Signature" in bold just above the area where you can type in your signature.

Type in your message. You can use basic HTML to provide links, italicize, or bold your message.

Once you've typed in your signature the way you like it, scroll down and click the "Submit" button. You should see the page turn back to your profile view with a message above in red font reading "The changes have been saved."

Be mindful, though, before typing in a novel :) A signature is made for a brief message; as such, there is a limit on how many characters you can type into the text area. This includes the codes for links - the longer your code, the more space it takes. You may want to view one of your blogs to make sure your entire comment appears as you would like it to. If it looks skewed, or the entire message doesn't fit, go back through and edit your signature again.

It is relatively easy to embed videos from video sharing services like YouTube; you just need to make sure you are using the correct editor when you paste in the code that references the video.

Usually it's best to write the text of your post first, and then insert the video where you want it to appear. Note that for blog posts you still need to write at least 100 words of text. For forum posts you can post the video and nothing else, if that's what you want. If you have more than a paragraph of text you may want to use the rich-text editor to enter your text (that's the editor with all the word processing icons at the top).

Once you have your text entered, following these steps:

• Save what you've done so far. Click Preview to temporarily save your text.
• Click "disable rich-text" below the editor window to go to HTML view.
• Copy the "embed" code from YouTube, or other video source, and paste it into the window either before or after your text.
• If there are HTML tags that say "pre" and "/pre" in the window, remove them before continuing (remove the angle brackets that precede and follow the tags too).
• Preview your post, and Submit when you are satisfied. You should now see the video window in your post.

Do not insert copyrighted video into your posts unless: a) you own the copyright, or b) use of the image would fall under fair use guidelines. If you do use a video segment under fair use, be sure to give proper credit to the copyright owner. We reserve the right to remove video that are deemed inappropriate or are clear violations of copyrights, fair use guidelines or the ProgressiveU Terms of Service.

Posting photos can be tricky at times, but it can be done if you keep a few things in mind during the process.
It is usually best to write the text of your post prior to inserting the photos where you want them. Once you have your text entered, follow these steps:

• Save what you've done so far. You might want to use this time to copy your text into a wordprocessor such as Microsoft Word, so that you can easily return should things go wrong. Click preview at the bottom of the post to temporarily save your post on the website (note that, except in rare instances, your blog will not be saved if you exit out of your browser with this.)

• If your photo is already available somewhere on the internet, skip to step 5. If not, click the 'file attachments' link near the submit button, and attach your photo to your post by uploading it from your computer.

• Near the bottom of the input form you will see a ProgressiveU.org URL listed for your attached photo. Highlight and copy this URL.

• Place your cursor in the Body edit box in the place where you want to insert the photo. Click on the Insert/Edit image icon (it looks like a tree) if using the rich-text editor (clicking the link that reads 'enable rich-text'). Skip the next five steps if you do not want to use the rich-text editor.

• Paste the URL for the photo into the Image URL field.

• Choose the alignment that you prefer. Left or Right usually work best (text will wrap around photos this way), but you can experiment with other alignments.

• Vertical Space and Horizontal Space are for padding around your photo. We've found that a value of 5 for both of these usually works well.

• Click Insert.

• You many need to resize your photo in the Body editor box. We recommend a maximum size of 450 x 450 pixels, to avoid throwing off the formating of the right sidebar.

• Here's the most important step, which many people fail to do at first: Under the editor window in the input methods section, select the Full HTML radio button.

• If you are not using the rich-text editor, write <img src="YOUR URL HERE">. You will also uee this method to post photos into your comments.

• Preview your post, and Submit when you are satisfied.

Once you feel comfortable with the image insert functions you can skip some of the extra 'save your work' steps above.
Do not insert copyrighted images into your posts unless a) you own the copyright, or b) use of the image would fall under fair use guidelines. If you do use a photo or image under fair use, be sure to give proper credit to the photographer or copyright owner. We reserve the right to remove images that are deemed inappropriate or are clear violations of copyright or fair use guidelines.