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Frequently Asked Questions
Registration
How do I register?
What benefit is there for registering with Leicestershire Villages?
I’ve registered but I haven’t received my confirmation e-mail. What should I do?
Am I only registered in my own village?
How can I change my password?
Information
What is Find My Nearest for?
I can’t find what I’m looking for in the list on Find My Nearest. What do I do?
What do I do if the details of my group in Find My Nearest are not correct?
I can’t see my group/organisation/business on Find My Nearest. Can I add it myself?
How up to date is the information on local businesses?
How can I send you a suggestion for improving the site?
What is “What’s New?” for?
Local Postings
How do I add my own information to the Local Postings sections?
Why is there news on the home page and in the Local News section?
What can I include in Local News?
What can I include in Local Events?
What can I include in Local Contacts?
What can I include in the Local Web Directory?
What can I include in the Picture Gallery?
What can I include on the Noticeboard?
What are the discussion forums for?
How do I login to the discussion forums?
How do I complain about something on the discussion forums?
How do I add my own comments to the discussion forums?
Can businesses add their details to Local Contacts?
Is there a charge for adding items for sale to the noticeboard?
Can I add my item to all of the villages in my district or county?
What kind of file formats can I use for the picture?
What is the Go! Button for?
What do I use the attachment sections for?
Why does my article appear in pink on the site?
What does “Disable for posting appearing at Leicestershire Villages level” mean?
How can I change the details on my item if I’ve made a mistake?
Why can I see news that is not from my own village?
How do I add video clips or sound clips to my village?
How is the list of local contacts sorted?
What is the maximum file size that I can add as an attachment?
Village Pages
How do I create my own page?
Can businesses have their own page?
I’d like to be an editor for my village site. What do I do?
We have a history page but there’s nothing on there.
Is there a list of good projects on the site that I can get ideas from?
Is there any training available for using the website?
How many people can be editors on one village site?
How do I add a video clip to the website?
I have some video footage from the community on video tape. Is there any way that I can get it onto the website?
I have some sound recordings on cassette. Is there any way that I can get it onto the website?
Is there any equipment that I can borrow to take photos/video/sound from the community?
I’ve added a picture of a document to a history gallery but it’s too small to read?
How do I get a gallery for historical photos on my village site?
Other site features
What is “My Shortcuts” for?
How do I use the Search facility?
What are the links at the top of the page?
Is there any help for raising awareness of the site in my community?
Can we have our own web address?
Add a question to the FAQ list
Registration
How do I register?
To register, you’ll need to have an e-mail address. If you don’t have one, you can get them for free at sites like Yahoo or Hotmail.
If you have an e-mail address, you can go to your village and click on Register at the top of the screen. You should then see a simple form to complete, which asks for your name etc. When you click on Submit you should be told that you have been sent a confirmation e-mail.
Go to your e-mail and you should see that you have a confirmation message from Leicestershire Villages. It will ask you to click on a link. Once you’ve done that, you are registered and can now login to the website.
What benefit is there from registering with Leicestershire Villages?
Once you have registered with the website, you can start adding your own information to your own village site. You could:
- Add a news item about the local fete, a match report about the village football team, or write about anything that has taken place in the community.
- Add details of local events, whether it be coffee mornings, church services, when the local brownies meet, fixtures for the village football team, or even the pub quiz night.
- Add the contact details of local groups. You may be a representative of the local church, the leader of a local group, involved with the village football team, or anyone that offers some kind of service in the community.
- Add details of useful local websites.
- Add pictures of the village, whether points of interest such as the church, pub or duckpond, or images from events like the village fete.
- Add items for sale on the noticeboard. It is completely free to use and could also be used by businesses to advertise local job vacancies.
- Get involved with the discussion forums.
- Make use of the “My Shortcuts” facility by creating a portable list of your favourite websites.
I’ve registered, but I haven’t received my confirmation e-mail. What should I do?
If you don’t receive a confirmation e-mail from Leicestershire Villages when you first register, check in the Junk Mail section of your e-mail provider. If you still can’t find the e-mail from us, just send us a quick e-mail to admin@leicestershirevillages.com
Am I only registered in my own village?
No. Once you have registered you can add details to any other village or town in Leicestershire. For example, if you have taken photographs at Bradgate Park, you can add them to the Picture Gallery on the Newtown Linford website.
How can I change my password?
When you are logged in you should see an option called “Control Panel” at the top of the screen. If you click on this you should see a number of different options, which includes “My Details”. If you click on My Details you should see the details that you originally registered with. You can change your password on this form.
Information
What is Find My Nearest for?
Find My Nearest is a powerful search tool that helps you to find facilities in your area. These include:
- Community Groups
- Local Businesses (restaurants, pubs, plumbers etc)
- Doctors, dentists, opticians
- Roadworks (current and future)
- Planning Applications
- Cash machines
- Bus stops
You can search from the centre of your village (or from your postcode if you included your address when you first registered) and can choose the radius of your search from ¼ mile to 15miles. All of the main search categories are listed in the drop down menu, you just need to choose one.
When you click on Search, you will see a map of all the entries that it has found. If you click on one of them, you will see full contact details and a more detailed map of it's location.
Remember that you can use the Planning Applications search to add your own comments about the proposals.
I can’t find what I’m looking for in the list on Find My Nearest. What do I do?
The drop down list contains the main search categories but if you are looking for something which isn’t on the list or is a little more specific such as Thai Restaurants you can click on “More”, which is next to the list.
You should then be asked what broad category you would like to look through (e.g. Accommodation, Eating and Drinking). If you click on this, you will see more options (e.g. Eating and Drinking) and by clicking one, you will see another list which contains more detailed categories (e.g. Thai Restaurants).
What do I do if the details of my group in Find My Nearest are not correct?
If you are responsible for a community group or business and the details in Find My Nearest are incorrect, you can change the information by clicking on the link called “Update this information” at the bottom of the screen. This will take you to a Leicestershire County Council form and once you’ve amended the details they will be verified by County Hall staff before they are made public.
I can’t see my group/organisation/business on Find My Nearest. Can I add it myself?
If you are responsible for a community group or business you can add your details by going to the bottom of the list of groups/businesses in your area. There you should see an option to “Add your organisation”. Click on this link and complete the form. This will be processed and verified by County Hall staff before it is made available to the public.
How up to date is the information on local businesses?
The business information is drawn from a large database which is effectively the Thompson Directory. This information is updated quarterly.
Information about community groups is provided by a database in Leicestershire County Council and is updated once a year. However, if the details change the group can amend them on the website themselves by clicking on “Edit details”.
How can I send you a suggestion for improving the site?
Most of the changes to the site recently have come from user input. There is a feedback form on the website called Have your say, which allows anyone to send in their own suggestions on how the website might be improved. We add the suggestions to a wish list which is regularly reviewed.
What is “What’s New?” for?
This gives you a snapshot of recent changes to your village site. It shows you all of the postings (news,events etc) that have been added to your village lately and you will also see the pages which have been recently added or edited as well (e.g. Village history).
You may notice that some of the postings don’t seem to be from your village. These will have been posted somewhere else and sent out to the whole district or county.
Local Postings
Why is there news on the home page and in the Local News section?
The three most recent news items automatically appear on the home page. This means that if you add a news item to the site, it will have more prominence for a period of time.
If you are an administrator for your village, you can change the default setting on the home page to prevent countywide or district wide news items appearing on the home page.
What can I include in Local News?
The Local News section can include information about anything which has happened in the community. You might want to report on the village fete, provide a match report on the village football team or write about activities that have taken place in local groups.
What can I include in Local Events?
The Local Events section is essentially a village calendar and can contain details of any future activity within the community. It could be coffee mornings, the village fete, church services, meetings of the local brownies/scouts, fixtures of the village football team or even the pub quiz night. It really can contain ANY activities taking place in the village.
What can I include in the Picture Gallery?
The picture gallery can include anything from the village, perhaps pictures of places of interest in the village, such as the pub, church or duckpond. It could also contain photos from particular events that have taken place, like images of the village fete or from the pub quiz night.
You can even add photographs taken with your mobile phone.
Remember that you can add photos to other villages. If you have taken photos of Ashby Castle, you can add them to the picture gallery in Ashby
What can I include on the Noticeboard?
The noticeboard is effectively the classified ads section. It can contain items for sale, or you can celebrate someone’s special birthday. We’ve even had details of lost cats added to the noticeboard. It is also available for businesses to advertise local job vacancies.
As always, there is no charge for any of the services on the site.
What are the discussion forums for?
The discussion forums are available for people to talk about any issues in their community: anything from family history queries to complaining about the traffic through your village.
Once you are registered with Leicestershire Villages you can contribute to the discussions yourself.
How do I login to the discussion forums?
Once you have logged into the site, you can use any part of it. There is no need to login separately for the discussion forum.
How do I complain about something on the discussion forums?
There is a "Report" button on every post in the discussion forums. If you find something that is offensive, simply click on the report button and send a short message to the admin team, who will act accordingly.
How do I add my own comments to the discussion forums?
You can add your comments to any of the discussion forums on the site. Once you have found the forum you want to talk in you can either start a new topic by clicking on the “New Topic” or you can contribute to an existing conversation by clicking on the discussion and clicking on “Post Reply”.
For full details on how to use the forums look at the forum help pages.
Is there a charge for adding items for sale to the noticeboard?
No, there is no charge for adding items for sale on the noticeboard or to any other part of the website.
Can I add my item to all of the villages in my district or county?
If you have an item that you think may be appropriate for your district or the whole county just add the item to your village and send an e-mail to admin@leicestershirevillages.com asking for it to be sent out to the wider area.
If you are responsible for an organisation that may use this facility regularly, you can ask to become a privileged user, which will give you this facility automatically.
What kind of file formats can I use for the picture?
Whenever you add a picture to any of the Local Postings section you should include a JPEG or GIF file.
What is the Go! Button for?
Whenever you add a web link to your item you will be able to test the link to see if it works by clicking on the GO button.
What do I use the attachment sections for?
The attachment section at the bottom of every Local Postings form allows you to add any type of document to your item. This could be any type of file, such as a Word document, Excel file, JPEG, sound clip or video file.
For example, if you are adding a news item and the text is quite long, you might provide a short summary of the article and then attach the full news item as a Word document. If you are reporting on the success of the village fete and have some video footage, you might like to add the video clip as an attachment.
Remember that whenever you attach a file, someone else has to be able to read it. People should find it easy enough to view Word and Excel files but might find it more difficult to view Powerpoint or Publisher documents.
Why does my article appear in pink on the site?
Whenever you add a Local Posting item to the site, it will not be available to the public until it has been checked by a moderator. This will be done within three days and usually much earlier. Items added to the discussion forum however will go live immediately.
As we are asking the public to submit content to the site, we need to check that the content is appropriate, so your item will remain pink until it has been approved. Even though you can see your item awaiting approval, no-one else can.
What does “Disable posting appearing at Leicestershire Villages level” mean?
This facility is available for anyone that would like to prevent their item being viewed outside of their village. Users can choose to view items from across the county by clicking on "Leicestershire" in the drop down list when they look at any of the Local Postings sections. If you would like to prevent your item appearing in a countywide view you can say yes to this option but it is very unlikely that you will need to use it.
How can I change the details on my item if I’ve made a mistake?
Whenever you add an item to Leicestershire Villages you can go back and edit it at any time. For example, if you have written a news item you can go back to Local News where you should see options above your article. One of these is “Edit” and if you click on this button you should be presented with the original form that you completed. You are now able to amend any of the details.
When you edit an item that has already been published it will need to be moderated again.
Why can I see news that is not from my own village?
The website is available for local authorities and local organisations to add information to as well. As these organisations are often responsible for a particular region or even the whole county, it is often appropriate for items to be added to a wider area.
You do have the option to only view information from your own village. If you go to any of the Local Postings sections, you can choose, for instance, Rothley Only from the drop down list and this will remove all of the countywide and district wide items for you.
How do I add video clips or sound clips to my village?
You can add video or sound clips to any item on the website by including it in the attachment section. For example, you might have some video footage of the village fete or the local football team that you would like to add or you might have a sound recording of someone talking about an issue in their village.
You do need to bear in mind that other users will have to download the file, so you will need to consider the size of the file. If you are using a video file, you might want to consider using Windows Movie Maker that comes free in Windows XP to reduce the file size and produce a Windows Media Video file. If you have appropriate software you might be able to produce an MPEG file, which could be played an all computers.
What is the maximum file size that I can add as an attachment?
The attachment section can include any file up to a maximum file size of 25 Megabytes.
Village Pages
How do I create my own page?
When you register with the website you are a Registered User. If you would like to add your own page to the Village Pages section, you will need to be an Editor. If you would like to become an Editor, then please contact us at admin@leicestershirevillages.com and we can help you get started.
Can businesses have their own page?
Although we don’t provide a facility for businesses to add their own pages to the site, Site Editors in a village can create pages to represent businesses in their community. You can see an example in the Rothley site.
Business information is held within the Find My Nearest section and if the business has a website they can add their details to the Local Web Directory as well. The Noticeboard is also available for businesses to add details of local job vacancies and is completely free of charge.
I’d like to be an editor for my village site. What do I do?
If you would like to become an editor on your village site you can simply contact us at admin@leicestershirevillages.com. There are a number of different editor levels that are available, Page Editor, Content Editor, Site Editor and Site Administrator. Full details of the different levels are available in the Help section.
Basically, if you are interested in just working on one page, for example, a history of the local pub, you would become a Page Editor on that page. If you wanted to work on a whole section, perhaps the history section with many pages, you could be a Content Editor. If you would like to work on the whole village site you could become a Site Editor but if you would like to be responsible for moderating content from other people you could become a Site Administrator.
We have a history page but there’s nothing on there.
We have created a village history page for every village and town in the county and have used some generic material from the Record Office to get you started. We have created the structure, but the pages belong to the community, so anyone who would like to start adding history content to the village site can do so by clicking on the link “Register your interest and get involved” and filling in the simple form, or they can contact us directly on admin@leicestershirevillages.com.
Is there a list of good projects on the site that I can get ideas from?
There is a list of the history pages that are currently on Leicestershire Villages and you can access them by going to any Village History page on the site and looking for the View all history projects link at the bottom of the page.
You can also look at the pages for the Annual User Group Event which has details of all of the nominees and winners of the village oscars. This should give you some ideas for good projects across the county.
How many people can be editors on one village site?
There isn’t a set limit on the number of editors for a village. What we recommend is that, if you have enough interest from people in the community, you could have a few Site Administrators that are responsible for managing all of the users in the village, while Site Editors can work and edit all areas of the village site. You can then give permissions to people for certain sections of the site, such as the history section, or for specific pages such as the page for the local pub.
Click for full details of the different user levels but please feel free to contact us directly if you have any queries on admin@leicestershirevillages.com.
How do I add a video clip to the website?
You can add video to your web pages when your are an editor simply by using the "Document" tool. If you click on the document tool at the bottom of the screen you will be presented with a simple form to complete. You basically give your video a name, find the video file on your computer (using the Browse button) and give it a description. Once you click on Save it should appear as a link on your page.
Bear in mind that other people have to download the file so try to make sure that it isn't too big. You can use Windows Movie Maker, which comes free with Windows XP to reduce the file size of your video clip before you upload it to the site.
I have some video footage from the community on video tape. Is there any way that I can get it onto the website?
We can help you to transfer video footage from VHS into a digital format that you can add to the website. It may also be possible for us to help getting footage from cine film. If you would like some help getting video footage added to the site then contact us at admin@leicestershirevillages.com
I have some sound recordings on cassette. Is there any way that I can get it onto the website?
If you have any oral history recordings from the community and you are not sure of how to get them onto the website contact us at admin@leicestershirevillages.com as we will be able to help you convert them from a cassette or CD into a format that can go onto your village site.
Is there any equipment that I can borrow to take photos/video/sound from the community?
We have a multimedia pack that we allow users to borrow if they are interested in recording sound clips, video clips or even to take some photographs of their community. The multimedia pack contains a digital camera with a large memory card, a mini disc recorder, mini discs and a microphone.
We can also provide you with some simple training to get you started. If this is something that you would like to use please contact us at admin@leicestershirevillages.com
I’ve added a picture of a document to a history gallery but it’s too small to read
Whenever you add an image to a gallery, the website will automatically resize it to fit on the screen and sometimes this makes historical documents difficult to read. When you add an image, you have the option of including an attachment. If you use the attachment facility and add the same image it will be available for people to access in its full size. For an example see this Syston example.
How do I get a gallery for historical photos on my village site?
If you have historical photographs from the village and would like to have a history gallery then please contact us at admin@leicestershirevillages.com
Other tools
What is “My Shortcuts” for?
The “My Shortcuts” facility is available for anyone to keep a list of their favourite websites. Although many people use the Favourites facility on Internet Explorer on their home computer, those web addresses are not available to you if you use a computer elsewhere (e.g. at the local library). By using “My Shortcuts” you can access your favourite sites wherever you are, even if you choose to use the Internet on holiday.
Once you are logged in, you should see that the My Shortcuts facility appears on the right hand side of the screen beneath the village pages. In order to add any new web addresses to your list, simply click on “Control Panel” at the top of the screen and click on “My Shortcuts”. You will see a simple form to complete to add more web addresses.
How do I use the Search facility?
You can use the Search facility at the top right of the screen to either search within your village or to search the whole of the website. If you type a word into the box (e.g. whirlwind) and choose to search “all villages” you will find 10 entries on the site, 9 of which relate to articles about the 1930s whirlwind in Cosby, which appear under the heading of “Web Pages”. There is also one entry under the Find My Nearest heading about the Whirlwind Quad Bikes.
If you are interested in searching the site for pictures, audio clips and video clips you can choose “multimedia” instead of “all villages”. If you click on Search you should see a few options that allow you to search in your village or across the whole county and you can specify what type of multimedia content you would like to view (Audio, Documents, Images, Video).
What are the links at the top of the page?
The links that you see at the top of the page that look similar to “>>Home>>Local Events” are called “breadcrumbs” and they help you to find your way back to different pages.
For example, if you go to your Village History page you should see something like “>>Home>>Village History” at the top of the screen. If you now click on Oral History you should see “>>Home>>Village History>>Oral History”. If you want to get back to the home page from here you can simply click on “Home” and it will take you back or you can click on “Village History” to take you back to the main history page. This is a simple example but it can be very useful if an area that you are looking at contains numerous pages.
Is there any help for raising awareness of the site in my community?
We have marketing material, which we can distribute to you. We have a comprehensive leaflet that covers the main areas of the site and we have a series of laminated posters that we are happy for anyone to use on village noticeboards, in shops and pubs, and anywhere that is willing to have them.
We are also keen to give presentations to raise awareness of the site in villages across the county. If someone from the community would like to volunteer as a Site Editor, we can help to arrange an event, either in the village hall or anywhere suitable in the community. We can then invite everyone in the village to attend a presentation on using Leicestershire Villages and provide refreshments. This has been particularly effective in engaging with the wider community in numerous other villages.
Can we have our own web address?
Absolutely. If you would like to buy your own domain name for the village and direct it to your pages on Leicestershire Villages you are more than welcome. This is what has been done in Barrow Upon Soar - www.barrowuponsoar.org.uk
It is cheap enough to buy your own domain name but it may be possible to arrange it through Leicestershire Villages. For more information you can contact us at admin@leicestershirevillages.com
- FAQ Form
If you have a question that isn't listed above but you would like to include please fill in a simple form and we will consider adding it to the list.