Guidance about posts

Please avoid possible disturbance during the breeding season by refraining from posting sightings revealing the location of rare or scarce breeding birds in our area, or anywhere for that matter. We reserve the right to remove posts which reveal such information, and also any posts which are offensive in any way.

The list of scarce breeders is longer than you think, but example species include Red Kite, Peregrine, Little Ringed Plover, Bearded Tit and Dartford Warbler.

When creating a post the default ‘Category’ on the site is ‘Sightings’ so there’s no need to do anything once you are ready, other than clicking ‘Publish’ twice.

Getting started

First and foremost, if you wish to post sightings on Glamorgan Birds, you will need a WordPress account.

Once you’ve set that up, please complete this form. Make sure the email address you use is the one you create your WordPress account with.

When we have received your request you will receive an invitation from our WordPress admin, and once you have accepted it, you should have access. You accept the invitation by clicking an ‘Accept’ link in the message. This will take you to your ‘dashboard’ which looks rather daunting. You can close that window and go back to the web site where you should be logged in. You shoul dsee “Howdy [your name]” top right, and “+New” top left. To post a sighting you simply click this “+New” button and select “Post”.
If at any time you don’t see the “Howdy” and “+New” buttons, you are logged out, and you can login via the WordPress login link in the RH sidebar – there should be a ‘stay logged in’ tick box which will obviate having to login every time [unless you prefer not to do that]. Then click “+New” at the top left, and a post composing screen will appear. You should see a screen with a large ‘Add title’ box at the top, and “Start writing or type / to choose a block”.

Blocks editor – put a title for the post in the ‘Add Title’ box [e.g. the location of your sightings], then click the ‘Start writing’ words and type in your message. To add an image or images, once you have typed the message, hover over the blue plus sign top left and it will show a list of options with various headings, starting with ‘Text’. Scroll down to ‘Media’. For images select ‘Image’ [for a single] or ‘Gallery’ [for more than one, but not too many please!]. You then get a box where you can upload an image from your computer. When you choose your image it will appear straight away in the post – you can size it by dragging the bottom or RH side.

When ready you click the blue ‘Publish’ button – it requires two clicks to publish immediately..

Names

We would like users to use their own name, so at the ‘dashboard’ screen you get when you log on, click on your short name top right (or your full name in grey in the drop-down menu that appears). On the blue/white screen that appears, click on Public Profile. On the next screen fill in your proper name in the Public Display Name field and then at the bottom click Save Changes, and you’re done. Also to prevent you getting e-mails every time someone posts, click on your name again top right and go to Subscriptions Delivery. Click that and on the next screen tick the ‘Block emails’ box bottom left, then click ‘Save Changes’.

To get back to the blog click My Blog in the top menu, then click Glamorgan Birds on the next screen.

Images

Some notes on inserting photographs in a post.

It should be noted that we are limited to 13GB of uploaded images and other media whether in posts or elsewhere. If you are posting an image from a digital SLR then it is likely to be a very large file. It would be good if posters could re-size their images before uploading, by reducing the pixel dimensions which on a digital SLR are huge. An ideal size is 640×480 or thereabouts as it’s not practical to display anything much larger than that. If you do upload a typical full DSLR image of say around 3000 pixels longest dimension the system will default the size to fit the post if you do nothing else, but the file size will still be as it was originally and will take a while to upload to your post.
Once you have inserted an image you can click on it and you then get an icon which if you click the ‘pencil’, allows you to edit it, including a re-size option, and also how the text you want to type wraps. When you click the image a ‘cross’ icon allows you to remove the image.

Copyright

All photos that are posted remain copyright of the photographer.