Welcome! If you are here, then I assume you are a member of Wessex OC and are looking for a guide on how to post something here.

Before you post for the first time

There are certain things that you need to have done before you write a post:

1. You have to register on this website. You can use your social login (facebook, Google) so you would not have to remember your password.
2. You need to let one of the Wessex OC editors (most of the committee members are editors) know that you have registered.
3. The Wessex OC editors need to link your registered user account to the entry in the Members directory. This makes sure that all the navigation works well on the website. They also need to add you the appropriate permissions, because only Wessex OC members are allowed to make posts on this website.
4. You should update your profile details. Strictly speaking, this is not technically required, but your profile looks a lot better if you upload a picture of yourself that you like, and provide all the right contact details and social links. Don’t worry – your personal Email and phone number is only displayed on the website for fellow Wessex OC members – they are not visible for the general public. This is an easy way to make sure we can contact each other as well.

Okay, that’s done – so what can I write about?

Anything, really. We are a community so anything that is interesting to you and want to share, we will gladly read. That said, there are some topics that we particularly look for members to share their thoughts on this platform:

• When you have been to a Wessex Event, you can write up your thoughts on that event. You can even link that back to the event in our event directory and it will show up on the event page, along with others’ thoughts of the same event, so we can compare notes. You can even upload your pictures if you have some.
• When you have been to any orienteering event, and you have something interesting to share. Well, it does not even need to be an orienteering event, but the more closely related, the more interested we will be. So a running event, a symposium on using mapping software or other technology, an online seminar about mental preparation… they all fit the bill.
• Things that you spotted on the Internet or elsewhere that can be useful for clubmates. For example, a special discount event for running gear.
• Any activity you are doing where you are (or were) counting on the support of the club or its members and want to share. For example, a charity running event you are preparing for, or the progress of mapping a school for their orienteering classes, or negotiating the launch of a new Permanent Orienteering Course.
• Any external news that are of interest for the club. For example, news items about changing access to a nearby forest, or about the health benefits of what we do – or maybe even about the club itself!

Right, but I already wrote about this on facebook/twitter/my own website…

Well, first of all, remember you can link your profile on the most popular platforms to your profile here. For example, if you provide your twitter account, we can display your tweets on your profile and you don’t need to do anything. In that case, once you post it there, it will appear here magically. But often, it may make sense to just write a short introduction sentence and include a link to the original article – in that case, that may be all of your post here. That way, at least we will know you have written about it and we will be able to easily navigate there.

In other cases, it will make sense to copy the article over here. Or, just use this website. It will be your judgement ultimately.

Why haven’t you told me how to post yet?

Here it goes. To start, just click “New Post”. You need to be logged into the website to be able to do this. Use the admin menu at the top, or do this directly from your member page.

Then, you need to do the following:

Post title: Make sure you choose something that will make us want to look at your post and know what it will be about.

The content: This is where you add the main text, and this will be displayed on the website. You can use the rich edit functions like in any main word editor, and use “Add Media” to upload pictures that you want to use for the article for illustration, or just an attachment to download from the post. Note that the formatting will be updated based on the styling of the website, so make sure to check how it will look by clicking “Preview Changes” before you publish the post if you have done some more advanced formatting.

There are also some more information elements you should provide about the post, so that the navigation for the website is working well, and we can find your post from all the relevant places. These are described below.

Categorising your Post

Think of categories as a filing cabinet. You should choose the most relevant category – but don’t worry if you won’t find an exact match, just use the most appropriate.

Note that there are some categories that we don’t recommend you use, because they have special meaning. BOF News, SWOA News, Club News, and Home are used by the Wessex OC Editors to publish posts for the membership and visitors, and they appear more prominently across the website. You can use these categories if you want, but your posts will not behave the same way as those made by the editors: they will not show up in the restricted places, and this may confuse you or others. It is easier to use other categories instead.

Tagging your post

If you have used tagging elsewhere, it is exactly the same here. If you haven’t, tags are basically keywords that you can choose for your post. As you type them, the system will suggest tags that were already used by others (or you) previously. You don’t need to use them, but if you do, this will make navigation easy. For example, if you write about your experiences in the British Orienteering Championships, you can tag it with British Orienteering Championship 2017, and someone else can use the same tag: that way, if any visitor clicks on this tag, they will see all the posts by all members on that same event.

You can also use multiple tags – so you can say that a post is about Parkrun, New Years Eve, Volunteering and Running at the same time: we will know what it means! But more importantly, this will show up on all lists on Parkrun, but also on Volunteering.

Linking your post to an event

Whilst you can always use tags to note the event you are writing about, there is also a functionality when it comes to writing about an event that Wessex OC hosts or records. Anything that is listed in our Events calendar (including the Night and Summer League events), you could find by typing its name in the Related to Event box. Once you have selected it, the website will show that you have written about this event – both in your post list and also on the event page. So if you have been to a Wessex event, make sure to write at least a few words about your perspective afterwards and link it to the event!

Don’t forget to save it!

We have all done it – after much typing and editing, we forget to save it. Annoying! So make sure you click the “Publish” button to publish everything you typed and selected to the website visitors. If you are not finished but need to do something else – click “Save Draft” and you can come back to finish writing the post and publish it later.