Okay, we thought that it might be helpful to give our members some technical
info that may help them to get the most out of the network (with the least
amount of frustration). Please understand that the following information is only
a tool, and from time to time (for example as we update the site in different
areas), this information may actually change. Anyway, for all of you who need
this type of help, or who just like the technical side of things, here you go,
and enjoy:
Groups or Forums?
Our thinking with regards to Groups and Forums is that a Group defines a set of
people who share a common interest, ministry, hobby, or even a phase of life.
Examples would be "Married With Children", "Teen Group", or on the secular side,
"Right to Life". Groups should be assigned a category when they are formed. This
should help when one wants to search for a particular group, especially once
there are many. The site admin can create new group categories when needed, or
re-organize the ones which currently exist. This organizational concept so far
has been the design of just one person, so hopefully having more people involved
will make it more generally intuitive. Within a group, "Discussions" can be
started. These operate somewhat like forums and, depending on how the group was
started, can be restricted to just the group members. If one "Discussion" seems
to the moderator to have permanent relevance, then it can be made "sticky",
which keeps it at the top of the "Discussion" list, which is otherwise organized
by date.
Forums, on the other hand, are organized around topics, as opposed to people,
and don't have "membership". Participation is ad hoc. There are forum topics,
which describe broad areas of discussion, and threads inside the topic, which
follow a particular discussion. An example of a forum topic is "Baptist
Distinctives", and some threads would be "Baptism by Immersion", or
"Independance of the Local Church". The threads are where the discussion takes
place. By their nature, things like "Baptist Distinctives" and other basic
doctrinal issues would probably become "sticky", and stay at the top of Forum
topics. Note that on issues of basic beliefs, advocating a position opposite to
the doctrinal statement published on this site, and which every member expressly
promised to honor, will be grounds for ejection. Questioning the logic of
claims, or the appropriateness of interpretations is certainly welcome. We
should all be ready at any time to give an answer concerning our faith.
Blogs
Blogs are like
personal forums, but lack the organizational aspects of forums. We created
categories for blogs, but for now they are just an experiment. We're not sure
how much they will be used. You can subscribe to someone else's blog, which will
notify you when a new entry is posted.
Events
There is provision for the entry of events,
like an on-line virtual calendar. Event "Categories" were created to help
organize the various kinds of events anticipated. As with Groups, let us know if
new categories should be added. Anybody can be invited to an Event, and
notifications are sent out.
Uploading
Music Files
To post a Music file like a mp3 or m4a you can
click "Post Something" and then "Add Music"...then "Select File"....then simply
add the music file from your computer.Ripping from CD
You can use Windows Media
Player or your Mac Media Editor to rip music from CDs. The output can be in
multiple formats, depending on what you plan to do with the file. If you want an
archival copy, you should use a lossless conversion, making the file an exact
duplicate of the original. However, you can't post a file that large, so some
compression will be needed. Other programs may perform this function more
seamlessly, and will be described once we review them.
Real Player, WinAmp
Compression issues
The objective of uploading music isn't really to share audiophile
files, but to expose others to the styles of music which you prefer, some of
which they probably have not heard previously. Files don't need to be huge to do
this, and allows for more music to be posted. If a particular song strikes your
fancy, there should be enough information posted with the file to enable you to
obtain a licensed copy of your own.
Compression Programs
Audacity with Lame encoder
Audacity, Lame, WinAmp, Real Player,
ripping audio from video
It is possible to rip the audio track
from a movie file. Some of the files uploaded were obtained that way. A Firefox
plugin called "Download Helper" downloaded the youtube video, and converted it
to an avi file (lossless). Another program, AOA, was used to separate the video
from the audio, and store the audio with compression (from the "Lame" encoder)
as an mp3.
Uploading Video Files
.mp4 .mov .avi and most popular formats.
To post a video from youtube or vimeo you can click "Post
Something" and then "Add Video"...then "Choose Source"....then simply add the
link from youtube or vimeo and your video will be posted.
If you wish to
upload a video from your computer you must go to "Videos"....then "Post New
Video. Fill in the Video Title and description and category .....then click
"Video Source". You can choose "My Computer" then "Add Video" and upload your
video.