the ORG: help
From zefrank
Report ORG bugs using the bug report form on the ORG help page.
If you want feedback, possible fixes or just to chat then check out our forum. Start a new thread if your bug hasn't been discussed yet.
the ORG - start quacking!
Current Status
The ORG was hatched with v0.30 at 12:00am on 2007.Jan.01
Current Version 0.38
Quacker Page
Click on your avatar or screen name on the left side of the window, and voilá, you end up at your Quacker Page. Up top it has information about when you joined, when you last logged in, the perhaps less than intuitive how far away you are from yourself, your pack name, and your awesomeness (don't worry, that feature isn't really fully functional yet - but if you do something quackspendicular, you'll probably earn a few points in spite of that.).
But wait, there's more! Below that, you'll find 3 sections. First, you'll see thumbnails of your pics. Thumbnails with a darker, thicker border have comments that you haven't seen yet. After that, you'll see your own, personal, Quackers and Paddlers along for the ride. (You don't know what those are? You are pretty new! Go check out the FAQ.)
home
You have four locations: home, school, work, and play. Your current default is shown here.
People
What do the username colors represent?
- pinkish=female
- brownish=male
To display the most recent logins in your vicinity, beneath the "people search" field, click on the radio button "recent visits" and the user names will be sorted according to their last login time.
Although you could use this to find out who is now on-line by zooming the map all the way out, it is much easier to see who is online by going to
what's new? >> Logins
Businesses/Housing/Jobs
You can use the ORG map like Google Local if you check the Businesses, Housing, or Jobs box. When you search, your results will be displayed on the map as gray markers. Clicking on a marker will bring up a small information box with the address and a more info link. All local results will be displayed on the right hand side (where user names usually are) and are also links.
Events
By clicking on the "Events" check box at the bottom of the map on the ORG home page you will see a list of events in your area. If you would like to add an event and have it show up on the ORG map, go to upcoming.org and register. Once registered, add an event and it will soon show up on the ORG.
Packs
Checking "packs" and doing a search will show you "local" packs. The engine will search all the pack leaders, and display the packs whose leader's location is closest to you.
Media
Checking "Media" will display members who have added a video or an image recently. The sidebar will display the user name, the type of media, when it was added, and how far they are from you. Clicking on a marker will bring up the users avatar and a more info link which will take you to their profile. You can chose if you want to display just videos, just images, or both. You are discouraged from uploading cute snapshots of your housecats, which are beginning to overwhelm the bandwidth and sensibilities of more practical users.
Blogs
Blogs search is the same as a media search. You will see the user name, their distance from you, and when their blog was last updated. Click on a marker causes the same action as in media.
Shuffler (was Favorites, and probably will become again)
'shuffler' replaced 'favorites' which replaced 'most popular'. But that's more history for those in search of factoids here in the help section.
According to SupportandComfort, "there's a whole dealie deal with Favorites lurking just beneath the flannel sheets."
Shuffler seems to have a heuristic that does a fuzzy ranking similar to what is described below. Since it sounds like favorites are coming back in 0.36 or so, let's leave this description and say that this holds for Shuffler within an order of magnitude: The most popular images, videos, packs and members at the ORG (not just yours) are displayed. For ranking members, the number of people who have clicked them as a favorite "faves" is displayed. For packs, the total number of favs for all people in the pack is displayed.
If you'd like to see more images and videos than what's on the first page, use the little arrows up next to header. You don't see them? Look a little harder. They're there. Honest.
packs
Packs are transient groups which will focus on creating content, and will be known for their members and their deeds, not their names. Existing packs can be renamed.
Packs aren't meant to be used for locations -- there's a nifty mapping technology one click away that lets you find folks nearby.
Finding Packs
The easiest ways to find packs:
- find members you think are interesting and click to see what pack they're in
- check "packs" on the map and browse around your neighborhood/city to find packs near you
- click "what's new" and page through the new packs
- click "what's new" and page through recent pack changes
- click "what's popular" and page through the popular packs
- say "screw it" and start your own pack, let people come to you
Managing Packs
Click on packs in the sidebar. From the header menu, you can now view the most popular packs, new packs, and recent pack activity. The last item in the menu is a context sensitive link: If you are not currently a pack leader, you are offered to "create a pack". If are already the leader of a pack, you will be offered to "manage your pack"
The "Manage Pack Page" lists your affiliation, if any, and also gives you the option to either rename, merge, or dissolve your pack.
Currently, you are limited to founding one pack, and each pack my only be affiliated with one other pack.
Forming Your Own Pack
To start your own pack you must first leave (quit) any pack you are joined to.
After you have left you can now created your own pack, you can also post a comment or add your own mission statement.
Once you have created your own pack you can stand alone or form an alliance with one other pack.
If you want to merge with a different pack later on, you must first break alliance with your current pack and then form a new alliance or you can stand alone.
The pack you join in turn can align their pack with another pack making your overall numbers greater.
Once you have joined a pack you can leave comments for other users amongst the aligned packs. Click on you aligned pack icon, then click comments, then click add comment.
You can also add a pack to your favorites.
If you are having trouble click on flag and chose one of the options.
Currently, there are no controls for who may join or exit your individual pack.
Are Hierarchical Groups (packs) Genius?
Yes.
what's new
6 Jan 2007: 1) If you lead a pack, you can "throw support" to the pack you're allied to. This will dissolve your pack and "throw support". 2) Notification of quacks. These appear directly under your new messages notification.
messages
Messaging has been improved. Messages from your inbox can now be either deleted or saved. You can now empty your deleted messages. Also, you can move something from the "saved" area back to the inbox, or you can delete it.
Sent items may neither be saved nor deleted.
Exporting Messages is in the works.
toys
quack attack!
"Which image is more awesome?"
Pick between two (of similar orientation).
add media
The header menu (up and to the right) gives you options to add photos & videos, audio, or to update your blog.
Images must be hosted on Flickr
Video must be hosted on YouTube, blip.tv or Revver video
Audio must be hosted on archive.org
photos, videos and audio
From the menu below the header and above your uploads (still on the right hand side), you can choose to add either a video, image or audio, add captions, make a headshot, view or delete your media.
To upload media, simply copy and paste the URL to add the media. Once the media has been added, you can use this page to manage your media. Click the image once to select it, and then you can choose to add a caption, etc. Clicking twice opens it, just like you'd expect.
headshot
These are used as your avatar. They are a 5x6 ratio rectangle taken from one of your uploaded pictures or videos.
add media >> {select picture} >> make headshot
I made this
The "I made this" check box simply attaches your user name to the image or comment. If you check this box users will see: "created by <username>." If you leave this box unchecked users will see: "contributed by <username>."
Please do not take credit for others' work.
- I forgot to check "I made this" when I linked one of my flickr pictures -- is there a way to change this?
- add media >> {select picture} >> set caption
- (a slightly bolder line will surround your image)
- In this dialogue box there is a little box with the 'i made this,' click it, it will update.
- Is there a place to write descriptions for the pictures?
- Yes, add a short description in same dialogue box as above
Update your blog
In order to manually update your blog on your profile page, your blog must have an rss feed as well as the appropriate link to the rss feed in the header of the main page of the blog. Most blogging tools create an rss feed and add the appropriate link to the header automatically. In order for the ORG to 'discover' your blog's rss feed correctly, the following code must be in the header of the main page of your blog (substitute your own blog's feed info):
- <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 2.0" href="http://www.yourblog.com/yourRSSfeed.xml">
locations
You actually have four locations: home, school, work, and play. Each location stores it's own private/public location pair (grey/red markers).
Public locations are how you appear on the map to others.
Private locations are used for driving directions, finding nearby businesses, and so forth. If the driving directions are wonky, move the private location closer to your house.
Add Location
- To change your default location, simply click one of the options, and click "Set to default". The sidebar command will be changed to 'Home', 'School', 'Work', or 'Play' accordingly, and your new location will be used to judge distance between you and others.
- To change your location inside of an option, you can either drag both your private and public markers to a new spot, or you can use the address finder. In the top right corner of the maps to the right of the zoom in/zoom out buttons is a small button with an icon that has one square inside another. Click this icon to enter an address (Note: Enter the address as if you were using google maps to find something. For example: both 2850 Ocean Park Blvd, Santa Monica, CA and 2850 Ocean Park Blvd, 90405 work. As do just zip codes [90405] or just cities [Los Angeles]). This will automatically move both your public and private markers to your address (private) and a spot a few blocks away (public).
- When you log into the ORG each time, you will be taken the default map page where you will see your default location as well as nearby sports racers.
- The purpose of locations is to allow users to see how many sports racers are in the area. All other sports racers will see your "public" location (for me it's a supermarket down the block).
- When a user looks at a profile, they will see a distance measurement. This distance is calculated using the browsing users private, and the browsed users public locations.
Having problems with the map?
Try zooming out, then back in again.
invite a friend
Now enabled.
You will be rewarded for all quality members you refer and penalized for those who turn out to be hard chargers
Outside Goodies (things ORG not accessed from the menu)
the ORG Google Earth feed
Click on the ORG Google Earth feed to get the nightly update of where all you little duckers were quacking from at your last login.
(You'll need to install Google Earth in case you don't have it yet... but what are the chances of that?)
FAQs
What is quacking?
Quacking adds people as your contacts - like adding friends list on MySpace. If you quack, the other duckie can quack back. After this happens, they will appear at the bottom of your profile. You can unquack before they quack back by visiting their profile later and clicking 'unquack.' You can't unquack after they quack back.
If you have been quacked, it shows up on your messages page on the far right hand side.
Want to know who you have quacked, but who hasn't quacked back? Go to "Messages->sent" and it will displayed on the far right hand side.
The avatars, a.k.a. headshots of your "quackbacks" are listed on your ORG user homepage and are called "quackers" underneath the display of your uploaded media. Your quackers are listed in the order of most recently created headshots.
(example http://www.zefrank.org/user/zefrank) (example http://www.zefrank.org/user/supportandcomfort)
What are paddlers?
Paddlers are the people who have viewed your profile. It appears that once someone is noted as a paddler their place in the list never changes (so if they come back to view your page again, they aren't moved to the top of the list).
How do I change my location?
You edit your location using the location option, not in "account settings".
Unimplemented Speculation
Awesomeness
supportandcomfort seems to give out awesomeness points as rewards for doing awesome deeds. For example, "kicking butt on the wiki" will get you ten points, and signing up early to the ORG gave a 5 point early signup bonus. The purpose of awesome points is currently unknown.
Help and other treasures
legal
be awesome
The ORG is a place to be as awesome as you can be. Go forth and be awesome!
Collaborate, connect, discover and be inspired.