Whilemanyfeaturesandcapabilitiesof$Projectnamearefamiliartopeoplewhohaveusedsocialnetworkingsitesandbloggingsoftware,therearealsoquiteafewnewconceptsandfeaturesthatmostpeoplehavenotencounteredbefore. Someofthenewideasarerelatedtothedecentralizednatureofthegrid; others are associated with the advanced permissions system that is necessary to protect your data privacy. The purpose of this guide is to help you understand how to create, configure, and use your nomadic identity.
Notall$Projectnamesitesallowopenregistration.Ifregistrationisallowed,youwillseea"Register" link immediately below the login prompts on the site home page. Following this link will take you to the site Registration page. On some sites it may redirect you to another site which allow registrations. As all $Projectname sites are linked, it does not matter where your account resides.
Whenyoucreateanewchannel,youwillbeaskedtoselectapermissionrolebasedonhowyouenvisionusingthischannel.ThemostpopularpermissionrolesaretheSocialNetworkingroles.Youhavemanyotherchoices,providingoptionswhichareanalagoustoFacebookGroupsandPages,collaborativespaces,newsfeeds,andmore.Theserolesautomaticallyconfigureseveraldifferentsystemvariablesrangingfromwhatpermissionsaregrantedtofriends,toyourdefaultprivacysettingsandvisibilitychoices.Advancedconfigurationsareavailabletoletyouadjusteachoftheseparameterstoyourneeds,butwe'vefoundthatmostpeoplepreferto"set it and forget it". Thewfollowingdescribessomeofthedifferentroleswhicharecurrentlyavailableandhowtheyimpactyourprivacyandabilitytointeract.
Aftercreatingyouraccount,youwillbepresentedwiththe"Add a channel" screen. Normally, your first channel will be one that represents you - so using your own name (or psuedonym) as the channel name is a good idea. The channel name should be thought of as a title, or brief description of your channel. The "choose a short nickname" box is similar to a "username" field. We will use whatever you enter here to create a channel address, which other people will use to connect to you, and you will use to log in to other sites. This looks like an email address, and takes the form nickname@siteyouregisteredat.xyz
Onceyouhavedonethis,yourchannelisreadytouse.At[observer=1][observer.url][/observer][observer=0][baseurl]/channel/username[/observer]youwillfindyourchannel"stream". This is where your recent activity will appear, in reverse chronological order. If you post in the box marked "share", the entry will appear at the top of your stream. You will also find links to all the other communication areas for this channel here. The "hamburger" menu in most themes will provide you with navigation to other system components and apps. The Photos page contain photo albums, and the Events page contains events share by both yourself and your contacts.
[b]Profiles[/b]
$Projectnamehasunlimitedprofiles.Youmayusedifferentprofilestoshowdifferent"sides of yourself" to different audiences. This is different to having different channels. Different channels allow for completely different sets of information. You may have a channel for yourself, a channel for your sports team, a channel for your website, or whatever else. A profile allows for finely graded "sides" of each channel. For example, your default public profile might say "Hello, I'm Fred, and I like laughing". You may show your close friends a profile that adds "and I also enjoy dwarf tossing".
Youalwayshaveaprofileknownasyour"default" or "public" profile. This profile is always available to the general public and cannot be hidden (there may be rare exceptions on privately run or disconnected sites). You may, and probably should restrict the information you make available on your public profile.
Inaddition,ifyou'dliketomeetpeoplethatsharesomegeneralinterestswithyou,pleasetakeamomentandaddsome"Keywords" to your profile. Such as "music, linux, photography" or whatever. You can add as many keywords as you like.
Tocreateanalternateprofile,firstgoto[zrl=[baseurl]/settings/features]Settings> Additional Features[/zrl] and enable "Multiple Profiles" there, otherwise you won't have the ability to use more than just your default profile.
Thenselect"Edit Profiles" from the menu of your $Projectname site. You may edit an existing profile, change the profile photo, add things to a profile or create a new profile. You may also create a "clone" of an existing profile if you only wish to change a few items but don't wish to enter all the information again. To do that, click on the profile you want to clone and choose "Clone this profile" there.
Inthelistofyourprofiles,youcanalsochoosethecontactswhocanseeaspecificprofile.Justclickon"Edit visibility" next to the profile in question (only available for the profiles that are not your default profile) and then click on specific connections to add them to or remove them from the group of people who can see this profile.
OnyourConnnectionspageandinthedirectorythereisalinkto"Suggestions" or "Channel Suggestions", respectively. This will find channels who have matching and/or similar keywords. The more keywords you provide, the more relevant the search results that are returned. These are sorted by relevance.
The"Grid" page contains all recent posts from across $Projectname network, again in reverse chronologial order. The exact posts that appear here depend largely on your permissions. At their most permissive, you will receive posts from complete strangers. At the other end of the scale, you may see posts from only your friends - or if you're feeling really anti-social, only your own posts.
Asmentionedatthestart,manyotherkindsofchannelarepossible,however,thecreationprocedureisthesame.Thedifferencebetweenchannelsliesprimarilyinthepermissionsassigned.Forexample,achannelforsharingdocumentswithcolleaguesatworkwouldprobablywantmorepermissivesettingsfor"Can write to my "public" file storage" than a personal account. For more information, see the [zrl=[baseurl]/help/roles]permissions section[/zrl].
Connectionsin$Projectnamecantakeonagreatmanydifferentmeanings.Aconnectionismoreaccuratelydefinedasasetofpermissionsthatyouhavegrantedtosomebodyelse. Intraditionalsocialnetworkapplications,allconnectionsaregrantedthesamepermissions; or at most there two levels (friends and 'followers'). In $Projectname, a range of separate permissions may be set/adjusted depending on the siutation and relationship you have with the other channel. You can allow somebody to view your posts but not your photos. You can also deny them permission to comment on your posts or send private mail to you. But let's keep it simple, you want to be friends with somebody like you are familiar with from social networking. How do you do it?
First,youneedtofindsomechannelstoconnectto. Therearetwoprimarywaysofdoingthis.Firstly,settingthe"Can send me their channel stream and posts" permission to "Anybody in this network" will bring posts from complete strangers to your matrix. This will give you a lot of public content and should hopefully help you find interesting, entertaing people, forums, and channels.
Visittheirprofilebyclickingtheirphotographinthedirectory,matrix,orcomments,anditwillopentheirchannelhomepageinthechannelviewer.Atthelefthandsideofthescreen,youwillusuallyseealinkcalled"connect". Click it, and you're done. Depending on the settings of the channel you are connecting to, you may need to wait for them to approve your connection, but no further action is needed on your part. Once you've initiated the connection, you will be taken to the connection editor. This allows you to assign specific permissions for this channel if you wish to make any changes.
Youmayalsoconnectwithanychannelbyvisitingthe"Connections" page of your site or the Directory and typing their "webbie" into the "Add New Connection" field. Use this method if somebody tells you their webbie and you wish to connect with them. The process is the same as connecting via the "Connect" button - you will then be taken to the connection editor to set permissions.
Theprocessforconnectingtochannelsonothernetworks(suchasGNU-Social,Mastodon,andDiaspora)issimilar-typetheir"webbie" into the "Add New Connections" box on the "Connections" page. Before you do this however, please visit your Settings page (Feature/Addon Settings) and ensure that the relevant protocol (Diaspora, GNU-Social/OStatus, or ActivityPub) is provided on your hub and [b][i]activated[/i] for your channel[/b]. These networks/protocols do not support account migration and location independence so if you move location or clone your channel elsewhere, communications with these connections may fail. For this reason these protocols are not activated by default, but only through your consent. Activating these protocols involves an important decision between communicating with friends on these networks or providing fail-safe account resilience if your server fails.
Somecommunicationsoffermorethanoneprotocol.IfyouwishtoconnectwithsomebodyonMastodon(forinstance)theycanuseeitherthe'ostatus'orthe'activitypub'protocolforcommunication.Generallythe'activitypub'protocolwillprovideabetterexperiencethan'ostatus',but$Projectnamewilloftenchoosethefirstprotocolitdiscoversandthismaynotbetheoneyouwant.Youmayconnectwithsomebodyoveraspecificprotocolbyprependingtheprotocolnameinsquarebracketstotheir"webbie". For example
YourhubadminmayallowconnectingtoRSSfeeds.TheprocessforconnectingtoanRSSfeedisthesame,exepttype(orpaste)theURLofthefeedintothe"Add New Connection" box. Feeds are only processed once or twice per day and your hub admin may impose limits on how many feeds you may add.
Somechannelsaredesignated"Premium Channels" and may require some action on your part before a connection can be established. The Connect button will for these channels will take you to a page which lists in detail what terms the channel owner has set. If the terms are accepted, the connection will then proceed normally. In some cases, such as with celebrities and world-reknowned publishers, this may involve payment. If you do not agree to the terms, the connection will not proceed, or it may proceed but with reduced permissions allowed on your interactions with that channel.
Permissionsin$Projectnamearemorecompletethanyoumaybeusedto. Thisallowsustodefinemorefinegradedrelationshipsthantheblackandwhite"this person is my friend, so they can do everything" or "this person is not my friend, so they can't do anything" permissions you may find elsewhere.
Therearealargenumberofindividualpermissions.Thesecontroleverythingfromtheabilitytoviewyourstreamtotheabilitytochatwithyou.Everypermissionhasalimit.Thescopeofthesepermissionsvariesfrom"Only me" to "Everybody on the internet" - though some scopes may not be available for some permissions. The limit applies to any published thing you create which has no privacy or access control. For example if you publish a photo and didn't select a specific audience with permission to view it, we apply the limit. These limits apply to everything within that permission rule, so you cannot apply a limit to one photo. The limit applies to all your photos. If all your photos are visible to everybody on the internet and you reduce the limit only to friends, [b]all[/b] of your photos will now be visible only to friends.
AccessControlisthepreferredmethodofmanagingprivacyin[i]most[/i]cases,ratherthanusingpermissionlimits.Thiscreateslistsofeitherconnectionsorprivacygroups(orboth)andusestheaccesslisttodecideifapermissionisallowed.Anaccesslistisattachedtoeverythingyoupublish.Unlikepermissionlimits,ifyouchangetheaccesscontrollistonasinglephoto,itdoesn'taffectanyofyourotherphotos.Youcanuseprivacygroupsanda"default access control list"tocreateandautomatethemanagementofaccesscontrolliststoprovideanylevelofprivacyyoudesireonanythingyoupublish.
Wehighlyrecommendthatyouusethe"typical social network"settingswhenyoucreateyourfirstchannel,asitallowsotherstocommunicatewithyouandhelpyououtifyouhavedifficulty.Youwillfindthatthesesettingsallowyouasmuchprivacyasyoudesire-whenyoudesireit; but also allow you to communicate in public if you choose to. You are free to use much more private settings once you have learned your way around.
[*=Anybodyauthenticated]Thisissimilarto"anybody in this network"exceptthatitcanincludeanybodywhocanauthenticatebyanymeans-andtherefore[i]may[/i]includevisitorsfromothernetworks.
[*=Canviewmy"public" stream and posts. ] This permision determines who can view your channel "stream" that is, the non-private posts that appear on the "home" tab when you're logged in.
[*=Canviewmy"public" channel profile. ] This permission determines who can view your channel's profile. This refers to the "about" tab
[*=Canviewmy"public" photo albums. ] This permission determines who can view your photo albums. Individual photographs may still be posted to a more private audience.
[*=Canviewmy"public" address book. ] This permission determines who can view your contacts. These are the connections displayed in the "View connections" section.
[*=Canviewmy"public" file storage. ] This permission determines who can view your public files stored in your cloud.
[*=Canviewmy"public" pages. ] This permission determines who can view your public web pages.
[*=Cansendmetheirchannelstreamandposts.]Thispermissiondetermineswhosepostsyouwillview.Ifyourchannelisapersonalchannel(ie,youasaperson),youwouldprobablywanttosetthisto"anyone in my address book" at a minimum. A personal notes channel would probably want to choose "nobody except myself". Setting this to "Anybody in the network" will show you posts from complete strangers, which is a good form of discovery.
[*=Canpostonmychannelpage("wall"). ] This permission determines who can write to your wall when clicking through to your channel.
[*=Cancommentonmyposts.]Thispermissiondetermineswhocancommentonpostsyoucreate.Normally,youwouldwantthistomatchyour"can view my public stream and posts" permission
Theconnectioneditscreenoffersaslidertoselectadegreeoffriendshipwiththeconnnection(thistoolisenabledthroughthe"Extra Features" tab of your Settings page). Think of this as a measure of how much you like or dislike them. 1 is for people you like, whose posts you want to see all the time. 99 is for people you don't care for, and whose posts you might only wish to look at occasionally. Once you've assigned a value here, you can use the affinity tool on the matrix page to filter content based on this number.
Guestaccesstokens(sometimescalled"Zot access tokens")allowyoutoshareafile,folder,photo,album,orchannelwithaspecificpersonorgroupofpeoplewhoarenot$Projectnamemembers.ThesetokensallowyoutoshareindividualitemsbysendingalinkthatincludesthetokenintheURL; alternatively, people can actually [i]log in[/i] using the token credentials, after which they can seamlessly view whatever content has been shared with that token.
Onceenabled,anewtabwillappearonyourchannelpagelabeled"Webpages". Clicking this link will take you to the webpage editor. Pages will be accessible at [b][baseurl]/page/[observer=1][observer.webname][/observer][observer=0]channelname[/observer]/pagelinktitle[/b]
The"page link title" box allows you to specify the "pagelinktitle" of this URL. If no page link title is set, we will set one for you automatically, using the message ID of the item.
Beneaththepagecreationbox,alistofexistingpageswillappearwithan"edit" link. Clicking this will take you to an editor, similar to that of the post editor, where you can make changes to your webpages.
Three"macros" have been defined for your use.
[code]
$htmlhead-replacedwiththesiteheadcontent.
$nav-replacedwiththesitenavigationbarcontent.
$content-replacedwiththemainpagecontent.
[/code]
Bydefault,$navisplacedinthe"nav" page region and $content is placed in the "content" region. You only need to use these macros if you wish to re-arrange where these items appear, either to change the order or to move them to other regions.
Toselectathemeforyourpage,usethe'theme'tag.
[code]
[theme]suckerberg[/theme]
[/code]
Thiswillselectthethemenamed"suckerberg". By default your channel's preferred theme will be used.
[code]
[theme=passion]suckerberg[/theme]
[/code]
Thiswillselectthethemenamed"suckerberg" and select the "passion" schema (theme variant). Alternatively it may be possible to use a condensed theme notation for this.
Thisplacesthemenucalled"mymenu" at this location on the page, which must be inside a region.
[code]
[menu=horizontal]mymenu[/menu]
[/code]
Thisplacesthemenucalled"mymenu" at this location on the page, which must be inside a region. Additionally it applies the "horizontal" class to the menu. "horizontal" is defined in the redbasic theme. It may or may not be available in other themes.
Thisplacesablocknamed"contributors" in this region.
[code]
[block=someclass]contributors[/block]
[/code]
Thisplacesablocknamed"contributors" in this region. Additionally it applies the "someclass" class to the block. This replaces the default block classes "bblock widget".
WebDAVprovidesawaytocopyfilesdirectlytoorfromyourcomputer'soperatingsystem,whereyourcloudfilesappearasavirtualdiskdrive.Thisshouldbeusedtouploadlargefilessuchasvideoandaudio; as it is not limited to available memory. See [zrl=help/member/member_guide#Cloud_Desktop_Clients]Cloud Desktop Clients[/zrl] below.
WhenusingWebDAV,thefileiscreatedwithyourchannel'sdefaultfilepermissionsandthiscannotbechangedfromwithintheoperatingsystem.Italsomaynotbeasrestrictiveasyouwouldlike.Whatwe'vefoundisthatthepreferredmethodofmakingfilesprivateistofirstcreatefoldersordirectories; then visit [observer=1][baseurl]/cloud/[observer.webname][/observer][observer=0][baseurl]/cloud/username[/observer] select the directory and change the permissions. Do this before you put anything into the directory. The directory permissions take precedence so you can then put files or other folders into that container and they will be protected from unwanted viewers by the directory permissions. It is common for folks to create a "personal" or "private" folder which is restricted to themselves. You can use this as a personal cloud to store anything from anywhere on the web or any computer and it is protected from others. You might also create folders for "family" and "friends" with permission granted to appropriate privacy groups.
Where[baseurl]istheURLofyourhub,/mount/pointisthelocationyouwanttomountthecloud,and<DesktopUser> is the user you log in to one your computer. Note that if you are mounting as a normal user (not root) the mount point must be in your home directory.
Note:Therehavebeenreportedissueswithclientsthatuse"chunked transfer encoding",whichincludesAppleiOSservices,andalsothe"AnyClient"and"CyberDuck"tools.Theseworkfinefordownloads,butuploadsoftenendupwithfilesofzerosize.ThisiscausedbyanincorrectimplementionofchunkedencodinginsomecurrentFCGI(fast-cgi)implementations.ApacherunningwithPHPasamoduledoesnothavetheseissues,butwhenrunningunderFCGIyoumayneedtousealternativeclientsorusethewebuploader.Atthetimeofthiswritingtheissuehasbeenopenandnoupdatesprovidedforatleastayear.Ifyouencounterzerosizefileswithotherclients,pleasechecktheclientnotes; as there are occasional configuration issues which can also produce these symptoms.
Thesavedsearchwidgetwillprovideautocompletionofchannels(theresultsareprefixedwith'@'),andhashtags(prefixedwith'#'). Youdonotneedtoenterthesetags; although entering the desired tag will reduce the autocomplete results to only hold the relevant information. The behaviour maps as follows:
[list]
[*]@name-searchyournetworkstreamforpostsorcommentswrittenby'name'. Thiswillalsochangetheposteditorpermissionstoincludeonly'name'; as if this was a privacy group.