GrownUps Help & FAQ

CONTENTS

1. Login Problems:

-    Having Trouble Registering?
-    Login Problems
-    Turning off “Keep me logged in” feature
-    Having to Re-Login
-    Editing Your Profile
-    Unsubscribing from Newsletters & Special Offers

2. Discussions & Classifieds:

-    Edit / Delete Comments
-    Subscription to Threads (Emails Regarding Discussions)
-    Changing Font Size
-    Posting a Photograph or Image from Photobucket
-    Removing a Classified

3. Clearing Your Cache

-    What is a Cache?
-    How to Clear the Cache?

4. Listing an Event

5. Manually Entering a Competition

6. Games Help:

-    Game Not Loading or Not Showing Images?
-    Updating Your Flash Player
-    Firewalls Affecting the Games Page

If you would like to learn more about computers or the internet, then click here to read about SeniorNet.

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1. Login Problems:

1.1 – Registration Issues

The privacy and safety of the information you submit in the registration form is guaranteed by GrownUps in our Privacy Policy.

When you register with GrownUps, you will be required to fill in some specific information – these fields are marked with a red *. It is important that you take the time to fill out these details as you can’t register if one of these fields is blank. Note that if you are not living in New Zealand, you do not have to fill out the field “Location within NZ”.

When choosing your Alias, you will need to choose a name that is completely unique (i.e. hasn’t been chosen by another GrownUps member). An alias allows you to navigate the site anonymously and helps protect your safety while on the site. Once you have chosen an alias and clicked outside the text box, you can see if the alias you have chosen is available or not (marked Valid or Invalid). You will not be able to save the changes to your profile if you have not successfully filled out a required field (marked by a red *).

If you would like to receive our regular GrownUps Newsletter and Special Offers, please tick the box “Receive Emails” in the blue area titled “Subscribe to Emails from GrownUps”. These emails will be sent, a few times a month directly to your email address. Some special offers may be sent to your GrownUps inbox instead.

Please note that signing up to our Mailing List via the Quick Sign Up form will not register you as a full GrownUps Member. If you have signed up to the Mailing List only and wish to become a full member, you will still need to fill out the registration form as well.

Sign up to the Mailing List will ensure that you are sent the regular GrownUps e-newsletter. However, becoming a full member gives you full access to all areas of the site; including Chat, Discussions, Games and the Friends Network, as well as being able to enter competitions and contribute to the site. You can also receive the e-newsletter and member-only specials via email.

Please note that your personal information will never be sold and you will never receive spam from other sites unwillingly due to your use of GrownUps.

1.2 – Logging In

If you are having trouble logging in, please try following these instructions:

• Click into your email address area and type your email address in, in full. Please don’t let the computer populate this for you. Just keep typing until you’ve typed the whole address.

• Click into the password area. Type your password in, in full. Again, please don’t let the computer populate this for you once you start typing.

• Click Login

This is a very common problem but is easily remedied. If you are still having problems logging in, please read the suggestions on the Login page or email the GrownUps team here.

1.3 – “Keep Me Logged In” Feature

When you login you have the option of staying logged in. If you tick this box, you won’t be logged out if you close your browser or if you are away from your computer for a long period of time.

You can turn this feature off by simply Logging Out.

1.4 – Re-Logging In

If you are away from your computer, or if you are “inactive” on the GrownUps site for a period of time, you will be logged out of your profile. This is a security feature, but can be inconvenient if you are writing an article to submit and you are logged out before you can hit the submit button. Here are a couple of ways you can get around this.

If you are submitting an article, it may be a good idea to write it in a text document first and then simply copy and paste it into the submission page.

Alternatively you can re-login:

• Open a new tab in your Internet Browser (Ctrl + T)

• Open GrownUps

• Enter your login details on this page

• Return to the first tab you were working in either click on the Refresh button (blue circular arrow) or pressing “F5”

By refreshing this page, GrownUps will pick up that you are logged in again and you should be able to continue working as you were before.

1.5 – Editing Your Profile

To edit your profile, you need to be logged in to GrownUps. Once you have logged in, you can edit your profile either by:

• Clicking on the “Update your email address and profile” button in your MyGrownUps Toolbox, or

• By clicking on MyGrownUps, then My Profile, then Edit My Profile.

If you change your email address, you will be able to login using your new email address and, if you are subscribed, will receive the newsletter and special offers at your new email address.

When choosing or changing your Alias, you will need to choose a name that is completely unique (i.e. hasn’t been chosen by another GrownUps member). Once you have chosen an alias and clicked outside the text box, you will be notified if the alias you have chosen is available or not. You will not be able to save the changes to your profile if you have not successfully filled out a required field (marked by a red *).

You can also add a picture to your profile by editing your profile image. To do this, please choose a photo or image you would like in your profile. Click Browse, find where you have saved the image on your computer, select it and click Open. Your photo will be resized to fit properly and will appear in your profile.

1.6 – Unsubscribing from Newsletters & Special Offers

• If you are only subscribed to the GrownUps Mailing List and are not a member, please email us here to unsubscribe from the mailing list.
  

• If you are a GrownUps Member, you can unsubscribe from our regular Newsletter and/or Special Offers by logging in and changing your profile details. http://www.grownups.co.nz/

• If you are a GrownUps Member and would like us to delete your membership, please email us here.
  

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2. Discussions:

2.1 – Edit / Delete Comments

This is a feature we have added so that you can edit a comment you have made in the forums, or delete a comment when necessary. You can only change posts made by yourself. If you delete a post, the post itself will stay in the forum but will be replaced by a message saying that you have deleted your own post.

2.2 – Subscription to Threads

When you subscribe to a discussion thread, you will be notified by email each time someone makes a new post.

To Subscribe to a discussion:

• Find the discussion thread you’d like to follow and open it

• At the top of the page, click on the button saying “Click here to subscribe”

• You are now subscribed to the thread and will be notified when a post is made

To Unsubscribe from a discussion:

• Open the discussion you would like to unsubscribe from

• At the top of the page, the button will now say “Click here to unsubscribe”

• Click this button and you will no longer receive notification of new posts

Alternatively:

• Go to the Discussions drawer in your purple MyGrownUps Toolbox

• This will show the discussions you are currently subscribed to along with a red X next to the title of each discussion

• Simply click the red X and the discussion will disappear from your Toolbox, it has been unsubscribed

2.3 – Changing Font Size

There is a feature on the top, right-hand side of the GrownUps page, under the Search Box, where you can change the font size throughout the whole site. To make the text bigger, click the plus (+) sign, to make it smaller, click the minus (-) sign, and to return the text to the default size simply click the “Default” button.

Please note that to change the font size in the chatroom, you will have to change the font size of your Internet Browser.

Mozilla Firefox:

• Open the Tools menu and then Options menu

• Click on the Contents tab

• In the Font box, increase the Size of the text

Internet Explorer:

• Open the View menu and go down to Text Size

• Here you can choose to set the text as Larger or Largest

2.4 – Posting a Photograph or Image from Photobucket (courtesy of Ronbu)

(Revised June 2010 by Ronbu)

Sizing the Image

It seems best to prepare your image beforehand as a .jpg (or other compatible type) using your usual photo editor and resize the image ready for display on the GrownUps forum. Irrespective of the orientation of the image (landscape or portrait) width is the limiting factor. For the column in which it is to be displayed the ideal width is up to 475 pixels to nicely fit the text column.

It is recommended that you set the resizing tool to “maintain aspect ratio”. It will then automatically determine the height of the image for you. When the image is ready, save it in a directory where you can find it later. You might want to set one up specifically for this purpose.

Photobucket

If you already have an account here skip the next section, otherwise:

Create a Photobucket User Account
If you have not already set up an account you will need to do so now. Be prepared for a very slow response on this site and try to be patient, I find it quite frustrating! I have used Internet Explorer in the past and it was taking about three times as long to do things as what I was used to on other sites I connected to. I now use Firefox and the speeds are remarkably better.

• Go to Photobucket at: http://photobucket.com/login

• Left-Click on “Join Now” in the dark blue banner at the top of the page.
  

• Fill in your user name and password then your password a second time using the three boxes provided.
  

• Left-Click the blue “Next Step” button and work your way through any further instructions that come up.
  

• Once you have set up your user account you can come back and log in at any time.

Creating an album, Privacy, and Uploading to Photobucket
When logged in you will be on your home page. This will show the default album and any albums you have created will be represented as thumbnails. Each thumbnail will display a copy of one of the images from that album (or will show that the album is empty if it contains no images yet).

Note that your default album is likely to be a public album until you make it private. You can do this if you wish by following these instructions for the default folder; but it may be better to keep it public and then create sub-albums, each of which can be made either public or private as follows.

• Select the “All Albums” tab (in the light blue area above “All My Albums”).
• Rest the cursor on the name of the album for which you want to change the status.
• Select “edit”.
• Select the circle along-side the type of album you want (public or private). The selected option will show a black dot.
• Select “Save”.

Any album that is private will have a closed padlock symbol beside its name.

Note that if you make the default folder private the subfolders will automatically be private too.

Left-click on the name of the album where you want to store your new photos (They can be shifted later if you get it wrong but it's far easier to do it right the first time. Also once you post images back to Grownups, moving photos will break the link to the photography thread and the image will be lost in the related post there.)

When you are in the album you want, look for “Upload Images & Video” and left-click on the green button. (Experiment with the other options here later if you want.)

A window will open that is displaying directories on your computer. Navigate to the folder where you have your prepared image(s) and left-click on the name of an image. If you want more than one image at the same time, hold down “Ctrl” while you select them.

The name of your selected file(s) will appear briefly in the square blank box to the right and after a moment or two the screen will change.

You will then be presented with a thumbnail of your image and three self-descriptive boxes. Here you can enter a title and description for your image and add some tags if you wish. Remember to select “Enter” when you are done.

Experiment with the other options on this page later if you wish.

If you do not wish to add any data simply select “Cancel”.

After another short delay a thumbnail of your image will appear in your album along with any name, etc, that you have added.

Obtaining the data need for posting the Photo in GrownUps

So you've got your first image in Photobucket, congratulations!

Now look below the title of your photo. There are four lines of text. The third one is labelled “HTML Code”. This is the line that you need.

(I find it convenient to turn all the others off. This can be done by selecting “share” above the image thumbnail, selecting “get link code” from the tabs and unchecking the boxes along-side the ones you do not want. Then select “Save” or, if you've changed your mind, “Cancel”.)

Left-click ONCE anywhere on this line. You may briefly see the word Copied on a yellow background as the code that is needed for your post in GrownUps is copied to the windows clipboard. If you don't you will need to press “Ctrl + C” (hold down the CTRL key and press the “C” key) to achieve the copy.

Log out from Photobucket. The place to do that is near the right hand end of the dark blue line that runs across the top of the page.

Posting in GrownUps

Now log in to GrownUps and go to the Photography forum (Discuss > Hobbies, Sports & Clubs > Hobbies > Photography).

Find the post comment box and type in any introductory text you may want. On a new line paste from the clipboard (Ctrl + V) to drop the code from Photobucket – it will look something like this:



That code calls up your photo when you submit your post in GrownUps.

You can optionally add any other text to complete your comments in the space under the code. CHECK through what you've typed and make any corrections. DO NOT change any of the code though.

Well Done! Submit your post and watch it display in the forum column! The text will appear and a few moments later so will your image – well hopefully!

WARNING: do not attempt to edit your post after posting it or you will lose your image (and any smileys if you've used them) from the posted comment. All is not lost though as the image will still be in Photobucket and its HTML code can be put into a new post to re-display it.

TIP: I find it useful to prepare my post, complete with pasted in image-link-code, in a text editor such as Wordpad and when I am done with the editing of it copy and paste the whole post at once into the Grownups column comment box. This avoids the risk of losing your post if something goes wrong while you are working, as you can progressively save it to a file while it is being put together in the text editor. When you are happy that the post is successfully in Grownups then is the time to delete the file and / or the text editor version unless you want to save it for some other purpose.

2.5 – Removing a Classified

To remove a classified that you have placed, please follow these steps:

• Login to GrownUps

• In your MyGrownUps Toolbox, open the Classifieds drawer

• Click on the paper and pencil symbol next to the title of the classified you want to remove

• Once the edit page has opened, scroll down and click on the button saying “Click here to delete this classified listing”

Alternatively:

• Login to GrownUps

• In your MyGrownUps Toolbox, open the Classifieds drawer

• Click on the title of the classified you want to remove

• Once the classified has opened, click on “(edit)” next to the title

• In the edit page, scroll down and click on the button saying “Click here to delete this classified listing”

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3. Clearing Your Cache:

3.1 – What is a Cache?

A cache is a temporary storage area where frequently accessed data can be stored for rapid access. Once the data is stored in the cache, future use can be made by accessing the cached copy rather than re-fetching or re-computing the original data, so that the average access time is shorter.

In short - it is a small, fast memory holding recently accessed data. A cache is designed to speed up subsequent access to the same data.

3.2 – Internet Explorer 6

1. Once your browser is open, click the Tools menu and select Internet Options.
2. Make sure the General tab is selected.
3. Click Delete Files in the Temporary Internet Files section and click OK.

3.3 – Internet Explorer 7

1. Once your browser is open, click the Tools menu and select Internet Options.
2. Make sure the General tab is selected.
3. Under "Browsing History" click "Delete"
4. In the new window, click Delete Files in the Temporary Internet Files section
5. Alternatively, clear your cache for just the current page you're visiting. Press and hold [Ctrl] on your keyboard, then Press [F5] or click on the Refresh button (square button on the toolbar with opposite-facing arrows).

3.4 – Mozilla Firefox

1. Once your browser is open, click the Tools menu and select Clear Private Data
2. Remove checks from everything except cache. Leave cache checked.
3. Click Clear Private Data Now

3.5 – Safari

1. Once your browser is open, click the Safari menu and select Empty Cache
2. Confirm the action by clicking Empty in the pop-up window

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4. Listing an Event

An event can be listed for free in the GrownUps Events Calendar, found in the News section.

To list an event, please go to the Events Calendar page:

• Scroll down to the heading “Upcoming Events”

• Click on the link in the grey box to the right of the heading, this will take you to Event Finder

• On the Event Finder page you will have to register (or log in if you are already a member)

• Click on the tab at the top of the page called “Add Event”

• Fill out the form and your event will be listed.

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5.  Manually Entering a Competition

For each competition there is a link where you can click to enter. This link will open your default mailing program (such as Microsoft Outlook) so you can send your answer in to us.

If this doesn’t work for you, or if you wish to use a different mailing program, you can enter the competition by sending an email to register@grownups.co.nz with the competition name in the subject heading (e.g. “Wordfind Competition”). Then simply email us your name, address, and answer to enter the competition.

(Note: Competition entry will be made easier as we add new features to GrownUps in the next few months.)

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6. Games Help:

6.1 – Update Your Flash Player

The games on GrownUps use the Adobe Flash Player program, if you are having problems viewing or playing any of the games, and you have an old version of Flash, you may need to update your Flash Player.

You can do this by opening the game you would like to play. Above the game screen there will be a link to take you to the Adobe website where you can download the newest version of Flash.

If this link does not work for you, you can try clicking this link below:
Adobe Flash Player Update.

6.2 – Firewalls Affecting the Games Page

A firewall is used to increase computer security. It is equivalent to a door lock – it permits only authorized users, such as those with a key or access card, to enter. A firewall has built-in filters that can disallow unauthorized or potentially dangerous material from entering your computer system.

The firewall generally reviews content and decides whether it is trustworthy or not. They often come with a built-in list of programs which they will block automatically, unless the user changes the settings.

Usually this is not a problem, however, occasionally we have found that a Firewall program will block the Flash Player from loading the game. Here is a list of the Firewall programs that some users have had a problem with in the past.

• ZoneAlarm
• Norton Antivirus
• McAfee

To remedy the problem, you may need to add GrownUps (and the games page) to your firewall’s list of trusted sites so that it does not block the program from loading.

For help in this matter, we would suggest that you consult your fellow members in the Technology & Computer Help discussion forum.

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