How To: Create an Account

Note: This article is about logging it to this website - if you are trying to access the
          Lasqueti Wireless Internet Connection, please see lasqueti.ca/services/broadband

Creating an account for lasqueti.ca is easy.

• Go to Create New Account
• Fill out the form by choosing an ID and password
• You will be logged in automatically and your account details will be sent to you via e-mail.

That's it! 

Some information of interest:

• Having trouble logging in?  See books/how-to/login
• Once you are logged in, you'll see your "Personal Navigation Menu" in the left sidebar.  This allows you to quickly access content relevant to you.
• If you are logged in on your home computer - don't log out.  The site will "remeber" you for up to a month so you won't need to log in again, even if you close your browser and shut-off your computer!
  If you see your "Personal Navigation Menu" in the left sidebar, then you are already logged in.
• Please ensure you always log-out from the website (link at bottom of personal menu) when using a public computer.  Even if you close the browser and shut-off the computer, your  "session" with the website remains active and the next person to use the computer will be able to use your account (and thus modify or delete your content on the site!)

Create a listing for Ride-share Coop

How-To Add yourself to the "Ride-Share Driver" list

The Lasqueti Transport Coop is a ride-share cooperative that supplies rides to those who need them.  To become a driver for the Coop, you must meet some basic requirements.  Then, simply add an entry to the Ride-share Drivers listing - here's how:

1. Log-in (you must be logged in to post to the website)
2. Post to Website... Person (from menu in left sidebar)
3. Enter your Name - the name you want people to call you when they need a driver - usually your first and/or last name.
4. Select "Ride-share Driver" under Person is.... - it is VERY important to choose the right category here or you might end up listed as Lasqueti Dead!!
5. Optional, but highly recommended -  you can browse and then upload a photo - usually a photo of yourself, but could be of your car, or a small logo or other icon.
6. The Description allows you to add other information to your listing - most importantly your contact info - you may enter whatever makes sense for your listing.
   The first 200 characters will be shown in the summary list, so start with your phone number, e-mail, or other contact info.  Additionally, you could include hours or days when you are typically available, the type or capacity of your vehicle, or other useful information for those seeking a ride.
   You can format your description using the simple web editor - see How-To Format Your Post
7. Press "Submit"

You should see your new listing in full.  Notice there is an "Edit" tab at the top of the page - you can always return to this page and click on this tab to update or delete your listing.  You should also see that your listing has been added to the main Ride-share Coop Drivers listing.

Voila!

Post Article on Page

Attach an article with your latest news, poems, or ramblings to your page!

If you maintain a page on the website, you can have a dynaimc article attached to it.  Each time you add a new article it automatically replaces the one that was previously displayed on your page.  All the articles you write are saved and available in your "blog".  For example, you might use the articles to:

• Post latest news or information about your page (e.g., see free store page);
• Post your latest poetry, ramblings, or writing;
• Write a regular "column" that supplements your page.
  
• (Note: if you want to post photos, it would be better to have a "mini-gallery" on your page.)

This feature needs to be added to your page, so contact the webmaster if you want this capability.

Step-by-Step : Post an Article to your page:

1. Log-in to lasqueti.ca (you can only post content if you are logged in)
2. Select ->Post to Website... from your personal menu (- see How-To Navigate Site articles).
   • select ->Blog entry from the sub-menu
3. Enter a meaningful Title for your article - it should be concise but descriptive.
4. Optionally, you can add Additional Subjects to the article by simply typing them in (see below)
5. Enter the Body of your article - this is the main text of the article.
6. Select the page this article is Related to.  This is the page where your article will appear.  Only pages you "own" will show up in this list - if the list is empty, you don't maintain any pages - that's OK, your article will still appear in your blog.  If you want to maintain a page on the site, contact the webmaster.
7. Choose "Preview" if you'd like to review how your post will look on the site before submitting it.
   Choose "Submit" to post your article to the site.

When you view the article, you'll see that it has "View" and "Edit" tabs.  The View tab shows you what others will see when they see your article.  The Edit tab allows you to go back and change ANY of the information you entered above, or even delete the article to remove it from the site completely.  If you do delete the current article, your previous article will automatically show up on your page again (it always shows the latest article).  You can ALWAYS edit your own posts on lasqueti.ca.  So relax - mistakes happen, and you can fix them!

Additional Subjects

• The site provides a set of "official" categories for classifying content. 
• You can create your own classification categories simply by entering terms in the "Additional Subjects" field. 
• Once you have added a new category "term", all content "tagged" with that term can be viewed together simply by clicking on the term wherever it appears.
• For example, if you write articles about the Bird Count, then "tag" those articles with the term "bird count".  You could also tag photos or news articles.  All of this content will be summarized together automatically under the new  "bird count" category.  Others can add items to this category simply be tagging their articles or photos as "bird count".  Cool eh?

Manage your Market Page

"Market Pages" were created for the Lasqueti Market Association, primarily as an easy way for farms, bakers, and craftspeople to maintain the listings in the Lasqueti Farmer's Market.
A Market Page allows you to maintain a list of produce or products you offer for sale.  It is an easy and flexible way to keep your page up-to-date with what you currently have available.  If you want to be part of the Farmer's Market and maintain your own Marktet Page, please contact the webmaster.

How-to Maintain your Market Page

Note: you must be logged in to maintain your pages - the website "knows" that you "own" these pages, and so provides all of the editing options that are not visible to other users on the site.

A Market Page has 3 distinct components:

1. The Market Page itself - this contains basic information about the farm or producer.   It has a web address (URL), which will be something like lasqueti.ca/jewel box farm  or lasqueti.ca/wild isle foods
   Once this page has been set-up, you should not need to change it often.  If you do need to change some of the information on this page, you'll see an "Edit" tab along the top of the page (this is only visible to the "owner" of the page).  When you edit your page, you can change the photo and "biography" text that appears in the right sidebar, you can change the "Teaser Image" that shows when a link to your page appears in a list, and you can change the content of the page Body itself. 
   For more help on using the web editor to format your page, please see How-to: Format your Posts.
2.  A List of Products - your product list is shown at the bottom of your page, and displays an alphabetical listing of all of your "available products".  This list of products also shows up in the Farmer's Market.  You can manage your list of products using the "Edit Product List" tab available on your Market Page.  Here you can set the availability of your products (make sure you press "Update"  to save your changes!), and edit or delete products from the list.
3. A Set of Product pages - each product in your list actually has its own page. In fact, your product list is actually just a summary of all your product pages.  The product page can contain extra details that don't show up in the list.    You can Edit an existing product either by visiting its page and selecting the Edit tab, or by visiting your "Edit Product List" tab and selecting the Edit link beside the product.  See below for adding a new product.

These 3 components are linked together automatically by the website, so that everything shows up where it should - your farm is listed in the Lasqueti Business Directory under Food lasqueti.ca/marketplace/business/directory, your products appear on the Browse Products page lasqueti.ca/marketplace/market/browse,  and you are listed in the Farmer's Market lasqueti.ca/marketplace - you don't need to worry about how to get stuff in the right place, it is all taken care of. 

Adding New Products

You can add a new product by visiting your Market Page and selecting the "Add Product" tab, or by selecting "Post to Website... Product" from your personal menu (in the left sidebar). 

Every product must have a Title - this is required.  The title is what shows up in the product lists, so should describe the basic product.  E.g., "Cucumbers", or "Rye Bread", or "Dreamcatchers".    The only other two fields that you must always fill out are the Lasqueti Market category and the "This is related to..." page selection:

Important: In order to get all the "automated linking" stuff to happen, you need to ensure that you select your farm in TWO places on the Add Product form:

1. At the top of the form you'll see a drop-down selector labelled "Lasqueti Market" - you must select your farm here so that your products show up in the Farmer's Market.
2. Near the bottom of the form is a drop-down box labelled "This is related to..." - also select your farm here - this attaches the product to your Market Page.

Ideally, this would be automated or at least require only one select, but I couldn't find an easy way to make it all work - I may be able to streamline this part of the interface in future. 

All the other fields are optional - use whichever ones you feel are suitable for your purposes:

• Photo - choose Browse to select an image from your PC, then Upload to upload it to your page - see How-to: Upload Photos Step 7 for detailed instructions.  The site will automatically re-size photos, but if it is a very large file you may need to scale it as there is a maximum upload size.  A tiny copy of the photo will show up in the product lists, and the full-sized image will appear on the product page.
• Summary - the text you enter here appears beside the product title in lists, so keep it short!  This is intended to give the variety, or other pertinent details.  E.g., "Long English", or "Organic", or "variety of sizes"
• Full Description - add all the details you want!  This does not show up in the lists, but does show on the product page if someone clicks on the product link to find out more.  Go nuts.
• Price - totally optional.  Make sure you give the units, e.g., $1.50 per lb, or $5.00 each, or $3 per bunch.  The price only shows up on your Market Page - never in the Farmer's Market - this is to avoid a "race to the bottom".  You can change the price any time, just like anything else, by simply editing the product page.
• Availability - only "Available" products appear in the lists, so select "Not Available" if you want the remove a product from your product list.  This allows you to maintain a stock of products, but only show a sub-set of them at any given time, obviously the ones you currently have available.  You can most easily manage product availablity on the "Edit Product List" tab on your Market Page - here your "Available" products are listed first, followed by the "Not Available" ones.  You can set each products availability right on this page without having to go in and edit each product separately - but don't forget to press the Update button to save your changes!

That's it.   There is a fair bit to learn here, but once you've done it a couple times, it should be an easy process.  If it's not, or if you need some extra help, please feel free to contact the webmaster.

Use the Lasqueti E-mail List

January 2022 until further notice
Temporary Hold on Covid-19 Opinion Pieces

Subscribing to the list

To subscribe to the Lasqueti E-mail List, you must have a "connection" to Lasqueti and its community.  Simply visit:  https://lists.lasqueti.ca

• Select Lasqueti Maillist.
   
• Fill out the Subscription Form - it looks like this:

The system needs to confirm you email, so watch for the confirmation message and follow the instructions to complete the process.

Note: email providers with aggressive spam filters (e.g., gmail) often classify these messages as spam.  Be sure to check your spam / promotions folder on gmail and drag messages back to your inbox to "train" the spam filter.  Better yet, whitelist all email from lists.lasqueti.ca

Sending Messages to the List

The Lasqueti e-mail list is semi-automated, but every message is "moderated" by one of several community volunteers before being sent out to you.  The list moderators ensure that spam is removed, and that submissions don't include long "reply quotes" or "signatures", or other irrelevant and distracting stuff (see Moderatrion Guidelines for details).

Please get time-sensitive postings sent in as early as possible - certainly by early evening - or your message may languish "in the queue" for a day.  You can (and should) post event notices, important announcements, or classified ads on the Lasqueti web site (see http://lasqueti.ca/books/how-to/create-content ) - such posts are automatically cross-posted to the e-mail list. This allows anyone who checks the website, including those who do not subscribe to the e-mail list, to learn about your post right away.

If something very important, and time-sensitive, and comes up at the last moment, you could consider calling one of the moderators, wake them up and ask them to get out of bed, turn on their computer, and approve your posting. It had better be important and have just come up, and not be late because you didn't get around to it earlier.  And should be followed-up with a nice loaf of bread, a chocolate cake, or other offering of appeasement ;-)

Managing Your Subscription Preferences

An account on https://lists.lasqueti.ca is required to manage your subscription preferences.  This is not the same as a subscription to a particular email list - it is an account on the web service to manage subscriptions.

"Sign Up" for an account using link at top-right.  You will need to confirm your email address, as usual.

Once logged in, use the drop-down menu under your name in top-right corner too access your "Mailman settings".  Here you can manage your subscriptions with "Global preferences" (defaults that apply to all your list subscriptions), or "List-based Preferences" to override your default preference for individual subscriptions.
The "Account" settings on this same menu allows up to update your personal profile and change your password.

The screenshot below shows the preferences you can configure for your list subscription(s).

Moderate the Lasqueti e-mail list

The Lasqueti E-mail List allows people with a Lasqueti connection to exchange information important to Lasquetians. Messages sent to the list are moderated to maintain the list’s nature, purpose, and usefulness. 

This "how-to" provides technical documentation for moderators on how to use the Mailman moderation queue.  Please see the Moderation Guidelines for information about how moderators should make decisions about messages sent to the list.

Access to the Moderation Queue

The list's moderation queue is maintained on a simple website, which shows all messages that are awaiting moderation.

You will need to "Sign Up" for an account at:   https://lists.lasqueti.ca
Then, on lists where you have moderator role, this gives you access to the moderation queue:
https://lists.lasqueti.ca/postorius/lists/lasqueti_maillist.lists.lasqueti.ca/held_messages

Email Notification

As a moderator, you will receive an e-mail notification from the system whenever a new request to the list requires moderation.  The notification contains a copy of the message, just as it will appear on the list, so you can review it before proceeding to the moderation queue. 

Moderators also receive a daily notification if there are outstanding tasks in the moderation queue for that day.

Moderation Tasks

There are two types of request that may require a moderator's approval:

• Subscription Requests:  when a new user subscribes to the list, this request goes into the "Subscription Requests" queue.  The moderator should verify that the request comes from someone with a "connection to Lasqueti", as defined in the Moderation Guidelines, before approving the subscription.
• Held Messages: when a non-member or moderated member sends a message to the list, it goes into the "Held Messages" queue.  The moderator should verify that the message conforms to the Moderation Guidelines before approving the message.

Using the Moderation Queue

Each moderation task held in the queue is listed with a number of "actions", with the most commonly used actions being: "Approve", "Reject", and "Discard" 

To moderate a set of requests, tick checkbox beside each message to process, and press button with desired action.  If you want to review the message itself, or supply a detailed rejection message, you can click the message link to process the message individually.

For a given request, the moderator may choose to:

• Accept /  Approve : this action accepts the message for publication on the list, or approves the user to be a list recipient.  Once completed, you can't undo this action.
• Reject : this action sends a message back to the person who made the request, informing them that their request was rejected.  This is a serious action, and should not be taken lightly - the moderator should always provide a reason why a request was rejected.
• Discard : this action simply discards the request, without informing anyone.  This action should be used to discard spam or duplicate messages from the list.

Protocols for Moderating

• Generally, the job of moderating is shared by several people.  So, by the time you get to the moderation queue, you may find the task has already been handled by another moderator.
   
• List moderators may (and should) simply Discard messages that are obvious spam or duplicates.
   
• List moderators should never user their position to censure opinion or block legitimate access to the list, and should always choose neutral, non-confrontational language when responding the moderation issues.
   
• List moderators should always provide a reason if they Reject a message sent to the list (see below).
   
• If you are unsure about what action to take with a request, simply leave the message on the queue, where it can be dealt with later (i.e., perhaps after obtaining additional information or conferring with other moderators).
   
• Please see the Moderation Guidelines for more complete information about moderating protocols and procedures.  There is also some sample text for common "rejection letters".

Dealing with Posts that need to be edited

Occasionally a post will need to be edited, usually because it's subject line is missing or meaningless, or because it contains a large "reply quote" or long-winded "signature", or because the contents are unacceptable in some way. Moderators are unable to make any edits - they can only accept or reject messages.

• If a message requires some editing to be acceptable for publication, you will Reject the message with an explanation about what needs to change to make the message acceptable for publication.  The system will send out a "rejection letter" to the user, containing details about the message in question along with your reason for rejecting, and with this line appended: "Any questions or comments should be directed to the list administrator at:   lasqueti_maillist-owner [at] lists [dot] lasqueti [dot] ca."
   
• Be sure that your explanation invites the user to make the requested edits and to re-submit their message - these are important instructions to always include.
   
• If a user disagrees with an editing request, and wants their message published "as-is", then we have a very rare event, and the moderators will need to decide what to do as a group.
   

Tips for Moderators

• Refer users to the Moderation Guidelines if they want to know what criteria you are using to make decisions.  Refer them to the list administrator if they are giving you grief.
   
• Use text from the sample rejection letters to keep things consistent, and ensure your language and tone are neutral.
   
• If you use the Firefox browser, you can "pin" the moderation queue page as a permanent tab on your browser - this is very handy.  Simply browse to the moderation queue page, right-click on the tab, and select "pin as app tab" - now this tab will always be there, whenever you open your browser.