Create Account

The first thing you will need to do to participate in this website is to create a user account. You can do this by clicking on the link at the bottom of the user login box. You will need to enter all of the requested information.

• Username

  Your username does not have to be your real name, as your username will be visible to anyone who visits the site. There is a text box on the registration page for you to enter your real name.

• E-mail Address

  You will need to enter a valid email address. After filling in the registration, an email will be sent to your email address to complete registration. Your E-mail address will NOT be shown to anyone.

• Password

  The email that is sent to your email address will contain a pre-assigned password that you can use to login. You can then change this password if you like on your user page. Alternatively, you can click on the one-time link to log you in the first time to get to your user page and change your password.

• Real Name

  Your real name will only be visible to authenticated users. This way us users can tell who's content it is if you use a nickname for your username.

• Location

  The location field will let us users know where you are, so that we can see where our family and friends are living at.

• User Picture

  The registration page also allows you to upload an avatar (user picture) that will show in the forums, giving a quick idea of who is writing the comment without having to read the submitted by text. It also provides a more personal level of conversations in the forums.

• Captcha

  You will be required to complete the captch challenge on the registration page before the registration email is sent. This is to allow only humans to register and fight against bot registations and spam in the comment fields.

Logging In

You can login by entering your username and password in the User Login panel.

Loggin Out

By clicking on the log out link in the user navigation (which will show once you are logged in), you will be logged out of the site. If you do not log out, you should not have to sign back in to the site on your next visit, but you will be shown as online until you do logout.

Request New Password

If you misplace or forget your password, you can get a new password by clicking on the request new password link at the bottom of the user login block. You will need to enter the requested information and a new password will be sent to the email address that is on file for your account. This will work in the same manner as the original email you received during registration.

Profile Page

Each user has a profile page that lists the information about them. When you are logged in, you can click on a users name to view their profile page. Here you can view their real name, location, and a link to their user gallery.

Forum

The forum operates just like any other forum. There is only one forum container, called General Discussion. This provides a single place for family and friends to have discussions. You can create a new forum topic by visiting the forum and clicking on create a new topic, or alternatively, you can use the user menu and click create content and then click forum topic. Forum topics can be replied to in the form of comments on the topic. You can do so by clicking on the add comment link. This will only show when you are logged in. Otherwise, a login link will be displayed to post comments.

Acidfree Albums

The gallery feature is called Acidfree Albums. The name comes from acidfree paper, which is photography paper that will provide a long life for pictures. This relates to the the content that is uploaded because your media will not deteriate. Each users Acidfree root album will be created the first time they log in.

User Albums

Each user has their own album for storing their uploaded pictures and videos. Sub-albums can be created off of each users root album, for organization of content.

Recent Pictures

In order to view newly added pictures without visiting everyones gallery individually, you can click on the recent pictures tab at the top of the screen. This will display all of the pictures that users have submitted from newest to oldest. Only a certain number will appear on the screen, with a next page link at the bottom to navigate through the list.

Recent Videos

In order to view newly added videos without visiting everyones gallery individually, you can click on the recent videos tab at the top of the screen. This will display all of the videos that users have submitted from newest to oldest. Only a certian number will appear on the screen, with a next page link at the bottom to navigate through the list.

All Albums

To view everyones albums, click on the all albums tab at the top of the screen. This will display a listing of everyones albums so that you can view pictures and videos that were submitted by a specific user.

Upload Image

You can upload an image by clicking on the upload image link or by using the create content link and choosing image. You can add a title for the image and some text explaining the picture. Thumbnails will be created automatically. You can place the image either in your root Acidfree album, or if you have created a sub-album off of the root album, you can choose to upload the image into that sub-album.

Upload Video

You can upload a video by clicking on the upload video link or by using the create content link and choosing video. You can add a title for the video and some tect explaining the vidoe. Please note that video size and length are required. If you are unsure of the video size and length, just put something like 600 x 600 for the size, and 1 minute for the time. The size is the size of the player window. If your video is smaller than 600 x 600, then it will still play in the player, just that the player would be larger than the video. The time of the video will not matter, as it is just informational for the user and will not change the time that your video plays for. You can also add a video thumbmail to the video. This is what will be displayed on the album page of the galleries. This can be a small picture retrieved from the video or whatever other picture you might want to use. The video thumbnail will NOT be generated automatically, thus if you are unaware on how to take a video frame for a thumbnail, just do not upload a thumbnail. If you do not upload a thumbnail for your video, a nice Acidfree video generic thumbnail will be used. This is actually what we would recommend, this way videos will be easier to tell apart from images, since they are both listed in the albums.

Create New Album

The create new album link will take you to a page that you can add sub-albums off of your root Acidfree album for organizing content.

Mass Import

When viewing your album, there is a tab for a mass import. You can use the mass import to upload five different images or videos.

Random Image

The random image block will show a random image from the user albums just as a fun little way of viewing a different picture on the page.