User Tips

Internet Access

For those who don't have a computer and internet access at home, there are some alternate ways to get internet access in Stratford

1. if you have a notebook, you can buy a wifi card and use a wifi hotspot. There are many of these around but I think most are from individuals who are unintentially providing an open connection. Perhaps we could get a listing of locations and connection instructions from only the intentional ones (eg a business that provides it to attract customers or an individual who has decided to open their own access to the public)
2. I think the public library has computers with internet access that are available for the public to use http://www.stratford.library.on.ca

Email access

We currently do not have the hosting available to allow you to use your account here as your primary email account, but you CAN use it to email other users on this site. Hopefully in the future we can arrange hosting that would provide the ability for you to use your account for general email usage .. wouldn't yourname@stratford-citizens.ca be a pretty good email address? When we implement it, we will likely start by providing this feature only to community groups that request it, and then expand the availability after a trial period. If you represent a community group, please inquire about the availability of this feature.

Email Notifications

You can configure your account to get email notifcations for a number of different things. This is useful to stay more up-to-date on what is going on here.

1. you can click on the eye icon near the top of the page on a wiki page to "monitor" that page. You will get an email whenever that page is changed.
2. you can click on the eye icon near the top of the page in a thread (inside a forum) to "monitor" that thread. You will get an email whenever a new post is made in that thread. Many people would find this useful to know when a new post is made to a thread that you are interested in.
3. you can click on the eye icon near the top of the page in a forum to "monitor" any new posts in that forum. You will get an email whenever a new post is made. Many people would find this useful for the press release forums where you might want to get notification of EVERY new post in that forum that is made.
4. you can change your MyTiki? preferences so that you get an email notification on your regular email account when you receive a message in your MyTiki? mailbox

Posting Images

You can't upload an image directly to the forums because we don't have enough space to store them all.
You CAN however upload an image to one of the sites that provides free storage for them and add a link in your post so that the image will appear.
Basically:

1. resize your image to a suitable size (340 pixels wide is a good choice). This will reducing page loading time for people, especially those with a slow connection. xnview is a great picture browser with a decent builtin image editor that is free http://www.xnview.com. I'm told that Microsoft Paint also allows you to resize images.
2. upload your image to a free site like http://www.imageshack.us or http://www.photobucket.com. Make sure you read their terms of service so that you can decide whether to use their service.
3. copy the url that the site assigns to your picture and paste it into your post
4. add the img quicktag to your post and input the url to the uploaded image
5. finish posting your message