Registration & Posting FAQ

Q. Are you treating me like a noob with this FAQ?
A. Of course not, noob.

Q. I’d like to register for the site. How do I do that?
A. First, give me $20. Just kidding, here’s what you do:

  1. On the sidebar, there are two small links side by side saying “Login” and “Register” — click on the link that says “Register”.
  2. Make up your user name and enter your email.
  3. A random password will be emailed to you. Retrieve it from your email inbox and log in. If you are having problems logging into the site, remember that it’s case sensitive and try again. If you’re continuing to have problems, you can email redshift, the site admin.
  4. If you want to change your password to something that you’ll remember, after you’ve logged in to the site you will see a white screen with “Halffull (view site)” at the top. Underneath that is a menu starting with “Dashboard” which should be greyed in. Click the “Users” tab, and change your password down at the bottom.

Q. Do I have to register in order to read the site or make comments?
A. No.

Q. I want to post some articles. What do I do?
A. Do this:

  1. From the front page of the site, in the same place where you clicked “register,” click on the “Post/Admin” link. It will take you to the white page that has “Dashboard” greyed in.
  2. Click on the “write” tab and type out your article. Don’t forget to enter a title and select an appropriate category(ies).
  3. When you’re done, click “save as draft” — it will be saved as a draft and redshift, the site Furor – I mean ADMIN — will review and either approve or disapprove. If he disapproves, you’ll cry in a corner and you won’t get any cookies.

Q. What do you expect in terms of articles for the site?
A. You can write about anything you want as long as it’s legal in the U.S. Just remember, there is a difference between comments and articles. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a rant – I realize this site is known for rants, but it doesn’t have to be. Just try to write it with the feel of an article in mind.

Q. Can I add pictures to my articles?
A. We’d prefer it if you didn’t, but if it helps make a good article, feel free. This site is growing exponentially and our bandwith usage is going up — we’re trying to keep the cost of the site down by staying away from images. Eventually we’ll either have to beg everyone to buy our paraphernalia or turn to the dreaded ads. I was surprised at how much bandwith was used by just adding that little image of our products on the sidebar. At any rate, redshift is careful about maintaining the look of the site, and in order to keep us from looking trashy, we’re staying away from a lot of images. Any time we ask redshift about adding more images there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. As an aside, a lot of halffull viewers are reading us through an RSS reader, so pictures are kind of moot for them anyway. shameless plug

Q. How do I go about adding pictures anyway?
A. Do this:

  1. Move your cursor wherever you want the picture and click the “image browser” button.
  2. Click the “Upload” button in the top right, then “Choose” to locate your file. If it’s a large image, and you’d rather just have a thumbnail in the post with a link to the full picture, check the “create thumbnail” box and give it a size in pixels – for reference, on an average screen there are ~50 pixels per inch. You should do this if it’s a large picture or it could mess with the layout of the rest of the site.
  3. Click the picture you want, enter a description in the box below, click “Get the Code” and “Add it to the post!”
  4. Lather, rinse, repeat.

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