Heritage network for Roseto Valfortore-Italy and it's sister city Roseto-PA
Start Here!
Please read through this note prior to getting started and especially if you are new to networking or not familiar with the things you see.
Check the Bulletin Board - Suggestion Box whenever you log on to see any new information posted by members.
This blog (web log), is an ongoing conversation from me to you so check it often.
As you browse through this network, keep in mind that before this venue came about, we were merely a message board. We chatted, helped each other with some ancestry, remembered the good old days! I think we've grown considerably. When all of us contribute with pictures described in detail, names we've heard about for decades FINALLY put to faces, stories, great information, directions, maps, etc., the town of our forefathers lives on. The more you contribute here, the more themes and ideas I can come up with to make this a cohesive, living entity!
NEW MEMBER SIGN UP - As you see here, it is the standard sign up sheet that you will find on almost any website that has members. If you've clicked Sign Up (new member), instead of Sign In (already a member), there is a link at the top to take you to that screen. PLEASE DON'T SIGN UP FOR A SECOND ACCOUNT IF YOU'VE FORGOTTEN YOUR PASSWORD! There is another instruction on what to do in case you've forgotten your password, or are having problems later in this blog.
Enter your email address as your ID. Make sure it is a legitimate email since you are agreeing to Ning's Terms of Service. You will receive your notifications through whatever service you enter here.
Password is any combination of letters/numbers, no symbols, and if too short or long the prompt will tell you when you click Sign Up. You are asked to enter it twice to avoid automated sign up by a computer program.
Date of Birth (DOB) is required by Ning to abide with laws against minors signing up on social networks where adult content may exist. (Although Ning has those type of sites, Two Rosetos is not one of them, rest assured.
Authentication is merely being able to enter the code you see in the right-hand box, in the left. Even I have problems with some of the more bizzare ones but this is a little easier to read.
When you're all done, click the Sign Up box.
PLEASE AVOID SIGNING UP OR JOINING MORE THAN ONCE - If you forget your password or your email has changed, do not create a new account/profile. As this image shows, there are easy links to help you:
One account/profile is all anyone needs and the flexibility built into the system gives you more control than most any other social network. The process for deleting an account is long and everything that was ever posted by that account and to that account by others will be destroyed. I would rather not have to APPROVE memberships before they appear; but if this practice continues, I will have no choice. As site administrator, my main job is to assist you, so please allow me to help rather than confuse the rest of the membership.
Questions about your Account info please see My Page/Profile under Information Central Forum Topic.
For the Two Rosetos Terms of Use please see The Rules under Information Central Forum Topic.
Ning Privacy Policy and Terms of Service can be found at the bottom of every page.
Need more technical help? Visit the NING help center and look at the MEMBERS section for FAQs on most everything.
New member approval has been initiated. Those wishing to join will sign up and as soon as I examine accounts to be sure that duplicates do not exist, they will be allowed to participate. This will also avoid any persons with less than honorable intentions from getting in and offending current members. I have recently required that new members fill in the profile question regarding their Rosetan roots instead of answering the questions with scarce information on why they are joining.
FURTHER DEFINEMENT OF PHOTO UPLOADS AND HANDLING - I have updated the information on how this should be handled. Please see the HELP TOPICS (mouse over the HOME tab and click on the SITE INDEX subtab), and click on Upload Limts -Photo Handling.
WHY BLOG? - A blog (short for weB LOG), is merely a journal, diary, expression vehicle. You each have one within your My Page and you can use it for any purpose you like. A suggestion would be to keep track of your ancestry on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You've met cousins on Two Rosetos and your Latest Activity holds them for awhile. You can transfer those postings over to your blog and embelish them with thoughts, plans, get-togethers and other relevent ideas.
For one of the best examples of blogging human interest narratives see: Lynda Matthews' Blog
If you need more help in coaxing you, there is also a nice widget that prompts you to make entries. You can place it in your My Page Text Box if you like, or in MySpace, Facebook, etc. Here is the website: www.widgetbox.com/widget/ancestories2-stories-of-me-for-my-descendants
The My Page tab is your profile page which allows each member to edit the appearance of their page (colors, themes, etc.), change your profile (click My Profile Settings in the right column), and add/manage their personal BLOG (diary and conversational section). Be creative, chatty, informative,,, whatever suites your whim. You can also rearrange the different features (Latest Activity, Comment Wall, Profile, etc.); most everything in the left and center columns.
NING has an internal Message Center that is close to an email system but very lame. Fortunately, they are constantly making improvements and this functionality is scheduled for some changes. In the upper left corner you will see the Ning logo, your name, an envelope, and a pawn figure. The pawn deals with the friends you invite or who invite you and you will get notifications should someone wish to invite you to be their friend. The envelope is the message center. When it changes to the word NEW, you've got mail! During the last upgrade, Ning put additional linkage to the Message Center and Friends in the box located at the top in the right column where you sign out. These will not change to NEW; but will open the same functions as the ones at the top.
CAUTION - This site is FREE which means that the advertisters have most of the power. NEVER allow this or any other site to have access to your email addressbook, or you may find that you will lose all your friends when they are bombarded with marketing that you had a hand in initiating.
POSTING EMAIL ADDRESSES ON THIS OPEN SITE - I can't stress this enough. DO NOT POST YOUR EMAIL OPENLY HERE ON THE SITE! If you wish to contact someone on a personal level, Add them to your Friends List so the two of you can send Private Messages through the Message Center. When you post private data on a public open website, you are putting yourself at risk from identity thieves. You are also opening yourself up to spam emails (of which there are far too many already). I stress from the beginning not to post your street addresses or phone numbers for this reason. So please, for your own sake, DON'T POST PERSONAL INFORMATION OPENLY! - Thanks
DID YOU KNOW - In the right column of every screen you have a control for My Friends? When you click that link, you can view everyone in your Friends list on this network and also sort them. At the bottom of that screen you can even broadcast a message to them.
TRANSLATING TOOL - I know the frustration of getting a comment on your page which is posted in Italian by someone who doesn't understand English, and vice versa. I have tried to use page translators on this site but since they are all written in Javascript, they aren't useable here.
There are two alternatives:
- The Google Toolbar has a translator built in (once you initiate it), which will translate any word you place your cursor on top of automatically. If you don't already use the Google Toolbar and wish this function, go to http://translate.google.com/translate_tools?hl=en and at the bottom you will see the download for the Toolbar on the right and what functionality it will give you, on the left.
- The second is to add the translator into your browser toolbar as an icon with this as the url it points to: http://babelfish.yahoo.com/?fr=avbbf-us That way, you can right click this icon whenever you're confronted with a translation issue and have two browsers or tabs that you can switch back and forth with to handle the situation.
New Policy - I have decided that upon signing up, Last name with Family or Personal Soprannome will be mandatory. The purpose of Two Rosetos is to bridge and connect people who did not know they were cousins. You can't really do that if people don't think it's important to state their surname. While I know it's very popular for people to emulate Cher, Madonna, Beckham, etc., and be known by a single name, our site isn't like most other MySpace or Facebook sites without any purpose or substance.
I would also encourage anyone who previously signed up to edit their profiles and enhance that answer with as much detail as possible.
If you would like to be notified of new discussions within the Forums, either through RSS or email, we have a new feature that allows this. Click the Forum Tab, go to the bottom and you can grab the RSS shortcut for your feedreader or click Notify for alerts by email through the Message Center.
RSS Notify– Email me when there are new discussions
MAINTENANCE - I perform a monthly maintenance on the site to get rid of outdated or forgotten items. One of these is the INVITATION list. When you INVITE someone to join Two Rosetos it is date-stamped. When I see any item that has been on for more than 3 months I will delete it. If you feel that you should re-invite that individual, your are more than welcome to do so.
Just a word of warning to the sensibilities of all Two Rosetos members:
If you notice the map which shows people who have been "eyeing" our network you will see that we are being scrutinized by those in former communist nations, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Far East. While we HOPE that these are truly genuine intentions of finding fellow Rosetans or Italian sites, there has already been an incident where "prospective members" were looking to take advantage for a more illicit proposition. I try to be extremely vigilant in screening new members; but should one slip past me, please don't hesitate to bring it to my attention. I will thoroughly check out things to make sure we maintain a decent and respectful network along the lines of it's original intent.
New Birthday Field on Signup
As you'll notice on the new sign up screen, we've added a birthday field. We've done this because it's the quickest way to confirm that someone joining your network is over the age of 13 in compliance with our Terms of Service and Federal law. A member's age will not display automatically but he or she will have the option to display it.
BECOME A TWO ROSETOS HELPER - This is a very friendly site and it's all due to the people that stop by often. If you haven't noticed, our resident expert Cesare is always ready to give out information from his first-hand knowledge of Roseto Valfortore. If you have a wealth of information on Roseto, PA or Roseto VF, I would like to hear from you. We can't have too many experts on Two Rosetos.
LATEST ACTIVITY - A nice feature on NING is the ability to see all the activity in Two Rosetos (HOME tab, right column). I keep it set to maximum (20 events), so that members can get a sense of who's been on and what they've done.
Along with the overall activity, you each have that display on your MY PAGE tab, center column. You can change how much or how little is shown by clicking on the Edit in that box (upper right), and changing the number of events. Setting the number to zero (0), will cause the box to display no activity to other members (even the box will not be displayed to them), and you will only see the top headline stating you are showing no activity. You can change it back by clicking the Edit again.
I have added all the Guestbook Archives in the appropriate Forum. If enough members feel they would like some cross-referencing of this data, I'll see what can be done.
For those of you with personal websites:
This network presents BADGES that you can easily use as a link to this page in your webpage. No charge and feel free to use it!
Last updated by Phil Falcone - Site Admin Oct 25.
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© 2009 Created by Phil Falcone - Site Admin on Ning. Create a Ning Network!
