Contributor How-To GuideContributor How-To GuideTo log in, go to the login page. Enter your username — the username an existing contributor has invented for you, not your displayed name (see Your Contributor Profile below). Enter your password. Click the Log In button. Simple, right? If you happen to run into problems with your password, some of the other contributors can reset it for you, so ask for help from the group leadership if you need to.
Note: This website has two domain names: buckeyenaturists.org and thebuckeyenaturists.org. (The presence of absence of the www at the beginning doesn't matter.) Both domain names lead to the exact same website, but your login session will only work for one domain at a time. For example, if you log in at buckeyenaturists.org, and then go to thebuckeyenaturists.org, your login won't be recognized. Then if you log in at thebuckeyenaturists.org, your login will no longer be recognized at buckeyenaturists.org. For this reason, it's probably best to stick with one domain name or the other.
The TBN Site Admin Management page has many functions. It's not very pretty, either. Think of it as the "basement" of the TBN site. Contributors rarely have to go there, and only for important maintenence tasks. But most contributors (contributors, users, site admins: these terms are used interchangeably) will go here at least once, for the purpose of changing their password. Other routine uses of this page include adjusting user privileges and adding new users. One thing that this page does automatically (if you have the ViewUsers privilege) is list each user's serial number, names and privileges. (Currently, it shows three names for each user: the log-in name, the "sticky" name, and the profile display name. The sticky name does not ever change, but its use will be phased out.)
As previously noted, this should be the most common use of the Admin Management page, so it's covered first. To change your password, enter your username in the Username field, your current password in the Pass field, and your new password goes in the New Pass field. Then click the button that says Update password. You need the OwnPass privilege for this to work, but most contributors should have that privilege.
If a user's password is lost or forgotten, that password can be changed or reset by one of a few users who have the PeerPass privilege. This is done by entering the target contributor's username in the Username field, and that contributor's new (hopefully temporary) password in the New Pass field, and then clicking the Update password button. The target contributor's current password is not required. The contributor whose password has been reset should then log in with the new password, and change his or her own password (again) as described in the previous section.
Note: Checks are in place to prevent abuse of the PeerPass privilege to gain additional, critical privileges.
To change the username you use at log-in, the process is similar to changing a password. If you don't have the NameSelf privilege, you can change your own log-in name: enter your current log-in name in the Username field, your password in the Pass field, and your new log-in name in the New Name field; then click the Change login name button. A few users have NamePeer privilege, which allows changing the login names of other users if necessary. (Note: you may notice that every user has a "sticky" name. It's internal in nature, existing compatibility reasons, and only of concern for debugging. "Sticky" names cannot be changed, but they will be phased out in the future.)
People cannot simply become contributors to the TBN site on their own. They must have their account created by an existing user, one who has the AddPeer privilege. To add a new user, simply enter the new username in the Username field, the new user's (ideally, temporary) password in the Pass field, and click the Add new user button. The new user will automatically have several privileges, including UpdProfile and OwnPass. When the new contributor is informed of his or her username and password, he or she should then log in, go to the Admin Management page, and change his or her password to something the other contributors don't know. Filling in one's new contributor profile by going to the Contributors page (see below) is a logical next step.
Any user with the KillPeer privilege (which very few users have) can delete any other user's contributor account. To do this, simply enter the name of the user to delete in the Username field, and then click the Delete user button. This action is permanent, so you will be asked to confirm. Please consider alternatives, such as removing privileges, before deleting a user's account.
Any user with the KillSelf privilege (which all users automatically have) can delete his or her own user account. The procedure is the same as for deleting someone else's account, except you enter your own username.
Any user with the GivePrivs privilege can bestow any* of his or her own privileges (including GivePrivs) upon any other user. To do this, simply enter the target user's username in the Username field, check the boxes of the privileges to give, and then click the Give privileges button.
Any user with the TakePrivs privilege can remove any of his or her own privileges from any other user (including oneself). To do this, simply enter the target user's username in the Username field, check the boxes of the privileges to take away, and then click the Remove privileges button.
For a brief explanation of privileges, check the box(es) of the privilege(s) in which you are interested, then click the Explain privileges button.
*Note: There is currently a bug preventing the DelTUsers privilege from being transferred.
The ClearSess privilege is required for the use of the "Clear sessions" button. This action is performed as a security precaution, and may be done on a regular (quarterly, monthly, or even weekly) basis. Pressing this button will log every user out, requiring any user who wants to affect changes to the site to log in again.
The TBN site is powered by a database which contains tables for, among other things, users. In the unlikely event that the site becomes populated with hostile users (or some other disastrous event), a user with the DelTUsers privilege can delete the user table, which makes it impossible for anyone to log in to the TBN site. This is a permanent action and should only be performed as a last resort. The user table can then be re-initialized by the website programmer, and each legitimate contributor account must be created from scratch again.
The Contributors page lists TBN site contributors and their supplied profile information. If you have the ViewUsers privilege, you will see each contributor's actual username next to their displayed name. Some contributors may choose to be anonymous, and won't be displayed on this page except under two conditions. Firstly, you will always (when logged in) see yourself listed on the Contributors page. Secondly, if you have the Censor privilege, you will see all contributors' profiles, even the anonymous ones.
To edit your (or someone else's) contributor profile, click the Edit button under it. You can then edit the Displayed Name and Profile Text for that user. Setting the Displayed Name to a single asterisk (*) will make that contributor anonymous. The profile text uses formatting codes described below. When done editing, click the Save changes button. Then, use the Back to Contributors link to see the updated Contributors page.
The News page presents current news items, possibly bookended by a couple of other things. If you have the PostNews privilege, then at the top of the page will be a brief section with a link to allow you to post news. Just below that, if you have the Approve privilege, will be a listing of any news items awaiting approval. Then comes the actual news items. These are sorted with the newest news items near the top, and the items closest to becoming "irrelevant" near the bottom. If you have the Censor privilege, each one will have a link to edit the news item below it. Otherwise, if you have the EditOwn privilege, any news items you submitted yourself will have a link to edit the news item below it. Finally, at the bottom of the page, is a form to enter a range of dates to view old (or future) news.
To post a news item, first go to the Post a News Item page. There are links to it on the News page (if you have the PostNews privilege) and in the Site Navigation area of every page (if you are signed in). The Headline and Body fields should be self-explanatory. You can use formatting codes in the body of the news item. For the Posted Date/Time field, most of the time you'll want to leave it as "now". That's a special date keyword that gets translated to the current date and time when the page is submitted. Alternatively, you can enter a past or future date and time. If you enter a future date, the item won't appear on the News page (or the Home page) until then. The Date/Time of Irrelevance is where you specify at what time the news item will no longer be current. By default, this field will be pre-filled with a UTC (coordinated universal time) date and time that is exactly two weeks in the future. You can make it whatever date and time you want. The news item will remain on the News page until that time. Both of these fields are editable later. For more information on entering dates and times, see Dates and Times below. In case you haven't guessed, you need the PostNews privilege to post news. If you don't have the FreePost privilege, your new news item will have to be approved before it will be visible to everyone.
Approving moderated news items is very straight-forward. Under the news item you want to approve, click the "approve this item" link. You will be presented with a confirmation page. On this page is a checkbox, saying "Reset 'posted' date to approval date". If you uncheck this box, then after the message is approved it will appear with its original posting date, which will be some amount of time in the past. If this box is left checked, the newly-approved message will appear on the News page as if it were just posted the moment you approved it. This also has the effect of ensuring that the news item appears (for a time, anyway) at the very top of the News page, and as the first of the three news items on the Home page. Click the Approve News Item button to complete the approval process. This process requires the Approve privilege.
To edit a news item, click the link below it that says "edit this item". You are then presented with a page that looks very much like the page for posting a new News item, except it's already been filled in with the item you've selected to edit. When you're done editing, click the Update News Item button. This action requires either the EditOwn privilege or the Censor privilege. With EditOwn, you may edit news items you have submitted. With Censor, you may edit any news item. If you don't have the FreePost privilege, and you edit a news item that has already been approved, its approval may be reset.
To delete a news item, click the link below it that says "delete this item". You are then presented with a confirmation page. To finalize the deletion, press the Confirm Delete News Item button. This operation cannot be reversed. If the news item is simply no longer relevant, then please consider the following alternative: edit the news item, and enter "now" for the Date/Time of Irrelevance. This way, the news item will no longer appear on the News page or the Home page, but can still be viewed by entering a suitable date range when viewing old news. Deleting news items you submitted requires either the EditOwn privilege or the Censor privilege. Deleting any other news item requires the Censor privilege.
Feature and documentation coming soon.
The semi-static content system allows certain parts of the website to be occasionally modified by some site admins. To begin, log in, and click on Manage Website Content, found in the Site Navigation area of most pages. Further documentation on this subject is coming, as well as further flexibility of the Semi-Static Content system in general.
By default, all text processed for formatting codes is placed in paragraphs. Certain codes exist to do headings, lists, and other non-paragraph features, but in the absence of these codes, paragraphs result. To end one paragraph and begin another, enter a blank line. Single line-breaks will not result in hard line breaks within paragraphs.
A heading is entered on a line that begins and ends with one or more equals signs (=). A first-level heading begins and ends with one equals sign, a second-level heading begins and ends with two, etcetera. The text formatting processor will adjust the end-result heading levels based on the context in which the text is used. Headings must be set apart from other text by blank lines to be recognized.
A bullet (unordered) list is made by entering a series of lines which begin with an asterisk (*). There should not be a blank line between list items, except where one list ends and another begins.
A numbered (ordered) list is made by entering a series of lines which begin with a hash mark (#). There should not be a blank line between list items, except where one list ends and another begins. The numbers appear automatically in the end result.
Lists can appear within other lists. This is done by doubling up the symbols that identify list items. For example, an item in a numbered list that itself is an item in a bullet list would start with the sequence *#. Examples will be made available soon.
More text formatting codes are planned, but other website components are a bit higher priority. Look for the following formatting capabilities in the future:
Literal dates and times have a particular format that must be followed to be understood. The date always comes before the time. The date must be written in numerical year, month, day format. The year can be two or four digits, while the month and day must be two digits each. Separating these numbers can be a period (.), slash (/), or hyphen (-). Specifying seconds portion of the time is optional. Time can be specified in 12-hour or 24-hour format. The hour, minute, and second can be separated with a period (.), comma (,), or colon (:). The time zone, if not explicitly declared, is assumed to be Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Eastern Standard Time (UTC -5) can be specified by adding "est" or "EST" to the end of the time. Eastern Daylight Time (UTC -4) can be specified by adding "edt" or "EDT" to the end of the time. Please be aware of which is in effect at the time you intend to specify.
The most useful date/time keyword is "Now". When processed, it is translated to the exact current date and time. It's not case-sensitive. Other keywords are given to respresent extremes, in order to approximate open-ended time spans.
The earliest time understood by this website is 1901 December 13, 8:45 PM UTC. This time can be represented by entering the following case-insensitive keywords:
The latest time understood by this website is 2038 January 19, 3:14 AM UTC. This time can be represented by entering the following case-insensitive keywords:
There's one more date/time keyword. "Epoch" refers to the Unix Epoch, or 1970 January 1, 12:00 AM UTC. It's not really an important date to most people, but the programmer is a geek, so we have this keyword. Practically speaking, it can generally be used as another "beginning of time" keyword, as the TBN site isn't likely to encounter dates before 1970.
When additional website features are completed, an effort will be made to document those features here in a timely manner.