Anybody is welcome to read the information on YCNet, and read the discussion board messages. However, we ask you to register and become a member of our community if you want to take part in interactive things like writing discussion board messages and joining webchats. This is for two reasons - firstly, it helps us to make sure that YCNet is a safe place for you and that only young carers are using the service. But secondly, it makes the place more fun, as you can see who's writing what, make friends and keep in touch with people.
It's easy to register for an account with us - just click
Register on the left hand side. You'll need to choose yourself a username (and remember not to include your surname in it), and tell us some other details like your name and email address. You'll also need to choose yourself a password, and remember it! When you've done that, you will be sent an email with an "activation code" to confirm that your address works - so check your inbox and follow the instructions there.
The most common reason for this is that you made a mistake when you typed in your email address. So, the first thing you should try is to go back to our registration page and fill in the form again. If that doesn't work, it may be that the message we sent you has been put into your "junk", "bulk" or "spam" folder by mistake, so you could try looking. (We've written some instructions for how to make sure this doesn't happen - go to
http://www.youngcarers.net/interactive/whitelist.asp to read them.) If neither of these solves the problem, email us at
youngcarers@carers.org and we'll try to help.
When logging in, if you don't select the Remember Me option you will be automatically logged off (usually after 20 minutes). To stop this happening, select the 'Remember Me' option when you next log in.
Remember, you don't need your actual username to log into our service - just your email address and password. If you've forgotten your password, just go to the login page and click on '
Forgotten your password?' and type in your email address. You'll be sent your password by email - you then just need to log in and change your password to something you'll remember.
User Profile & Settings
What is my profile?
Your profile is the place where all the settings about you are stored - things like your username, your email address and so on. You can look at yours, and change it, by clicking on your name on the left hand side after you've logged in. Remember - although you can see your email address in there, it is never shared with any other users or displayed on the website.
What is an avatar?
Your avatar is a little picture that you choose to be displayed next to your discussion board messages. It can be anything you like, but it needs to fit our normal safety rules - so, you can't use a personal photograph of yourself or someone you know, and it can't be anything that might offend other people. Other than that, it's up to you!
How do I set my avatar?
Find a picture you'd like and send it to us at
youngcarers@carers.org, and we'll set it up for you within a day or so. Avatars are displayed at 80x80 pixels, but don't worry too much about that as we can change the size for you if necessary.
What are the other icons/avatars that show up next to users?
There are many different icons that can show up next to usernames in the
forums. Common examples are administrators, moderators, or top posters. Other
images may be displayed based on groups the user belongs to.
Why am I required to log in to post and view members?
You will be required to be logged in before viewing/using these areas. This is
primarily to protect the privacy of users who have shared their information.
Privacy & Security
Who can read my discussion messages?
Just like before, the discussion boards can be read by
anyone on the internet. That’s one reason why it’s so important not to put any of your contact details there. However, the only people who can write messages, or reply to ones that are already there, are members and staff of the Youngcarers.net community.
How do I change my password?
After you've logged in with your old password, click on your name on the left hand side. This will bring up your profile page, and you can change your password from there.
How do I change my username?
You cannot change you username yourself; however, if you really need to change it for some reason, email us on
youngcarers@carers.org and let us know.
How do I change my email address?
After you've logged in with your old email address, click on your name on the left hand side. This will bring up your profile page, and you can change your address from there.
What profile settings are required?
The only profile setting that is required is your private email address. This
is the email address that is used when you subscribe to the forums, when a
forgotten username/password is emailed. The private email address is never
shared or displayed publicly.
What if I don’t want my name displayed in the member lists?
The website shows various lists of users - for example, who is online at the moment, and who are the newest members. If you'd rather your name wasn't included in these, click on your name on the left hand side, then choose
Site options and select
No next to
Display in members list.
Reading & Writing Messages
What is a Forum group?
A Forum group is a group of related forums.
What is a Forum?
A forum is a set of discussions that are all about similar subjects. So, on our website, we have a ‘Chat and chill’ forum, a ‘Welcome newbies’ forum, and so on.
What is a thread?
A thread is a group of related messages. So, if one person writes a message and then a few people reply to that message, they are all collected together into one thread. You can think of a thread as a specific conversation.
What do the thread icons mean?
Thread Icon Definitions.
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Topic with posts you have not read.
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Topic with posts you have read.
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Popular topic with posts you have not read. A topic becomes popular after a
certain number of views and posts (administrator defined).
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Popular topic with posts you have read. A topic becomes popular after a certain
number of views and posts (administrator defined).
-
Announcement you have not read
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Announcement you have read
-
A pinned topic with posts you have not read. Pinned topics are displayed before
other topics until they become unpinned.
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A pinned topic with posts you have read. Pinned topics are displayed before
other topics until they become unpinned.
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A pinned popular topic with posts you have not read. A pinned topic with enough
views or replies to become popular.
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A pinned popular topic with posts you have read. A pinned topic with enough
views or replies to become popular.
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A locked topic with posts you have not read. Locked topics do not allow
replies.
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A locked topic with posts you have read. Locked topics do not allow replies.
How can I search for a particular discussion?
Just go to any page on our website and look at the top right hand side. There, you can type in the word or phrase you want to search for. Remember to type it into the
Search boards box if you’re looking for discussion messages.
How do I start a new conversation/thread?
When you’re looking at one of the forums, click the button that says
Start a new discussion. If you’re already logged in, you will be taken straight to the page where you can write your message; if you’re not logged in, you’ll be asked to do that first.
How do I reply to an existing post?
You can reply to an existing post by clicking
Reply or
Quote. The only difference is that
Quote will include a bit at the top of your message that shows everybody exactly what you’re replying to (so, it will include the message you’ve just read).
What does Quick Reply do?
When you click
quick reply, a box appears that allows you to write a really quick reply to the message you’re reading. To make things faster, it doesn’t show you all the usual options (like smileys and tags). If you want to use things like that, you’ll need to use the normal reply method instead.
What are the tags about?
Tags are a really useful way to see what everybody’s talking about on Youngcarers.net, and to find messages that interest you. Basically, they’re a list of keywords that tell people what your message is about. So, if someone writes a message about caring for their mum who has diabetes, they might choose ‘diabetes’ and ‘mum’ as two of their message tags. When you go to the discussion board front page, on the right hand side you’ll see a list of the most popular tags at the moment – the bigger they are, the more people are using them!
How do I use tags on my messages?
When you’re writing your message, click on the
Select tags button at the bottom. You’ll see a list of all the tags that are currently being used on the discussion boards. Place a tick next to any of them that apply to your message, then scroll across and click
OK. Or, if you’d like to use a tag that nobody else has used before, simply type it into the box underneath your message. (You can type more than one if you like – just put a comma between them.)
What does the ‘change view’ button mean?
This allows you to choose between two different ways of seeing all the messages in a thread.
Flat view is the most straightforward – it shows you all the messages in a list, as you might expect.
Threaded view groups them together into chunks, according to which messages are replies to which other ones. It’s a little difficult to explain, but if you find it confusing we’d recommend you just stick to
flat view!
Why does it take a while for my discussion message to appear on the boards?
Every message is checked by a member of the Youngcarers.net team before it appears on the discussion boards. This is so that we can make sure our community stays a safe and friendly one – for example, we make sure that people aren’t giving out any details that might be unsafe for them, and we make sure things don’t go up there that might upset other people too much. We check the messages several times a day, 365 days a year, so they usually get through pretty quickly.
When I look at a forum I can’t see any messages – what’s going on?
This might be for a couple of reasons. Firstly, perhaps nobody has written any yet – in which case, feel free to write a message yourself! Or, perhaps you’ve used a “search” or “filter” – for example, you might have searched for all messages that are less than one day old, or everything written by a particular user. If there aren’t any messages that match what you’ve searched for, you won’t see anything.
I posted a message on the discussion boards but I can’t find it now – what’s happened?
There are a three things that might have happened:
- If you wrote it within the last few hours, it might not have been approved yet (see “Why does it take a while for my discussion message to appear on the boards”, above). If that’s the problem, then it should appear soon!
- It might have been moved into a different section. There are different discussion boards for different kinds of chat (see “Why are there several different discussion boards?” above). So, for example, if you posted a joke in the ‘Who do you care for?’ board, we might have moved it into the ‘Chat and chill’ area.
- Very occasionally, we don’t allow messages through because they’re not appropriate for our boards. This might be, for example, messages that are very upsetting, messages that are not from young carers, or messages where people try to give out their email address. If this has happened, we’ll send an email to let you know.
What are the different icons next to threads?
The icons next to threads when viewing a forum indicate different status. You
can move your mouse cursor over these icons to see what the different status /
types of threads are.
What are Emoticons?
Emoticons are graphical images that can be added within the body of a post to
add emotions to the post. Common examples are the use of smilies within the
contents of a post. There is a pre-defined set of emoticons,
however the administrator can add additional ones.
What is an announcement thread?
An announcement is a special post type that is always displayed at the top of a
forum for a fixed amount of time. The purpose of an announcement is to
increase the visibility of certain topics.
What is a sticky thread?
A sticky topic is a special post that causes a post to stay at the top of a
forum for a specified amount of time. A sticky topic is similar to an
announcement, but an announcement is displayed separately from other threads
and usually does not allow replies.
What is a locked thread?
A locked thread is a special post that does not allow replies. You can still read what’s there, but you can’t add any more messages to it.
Can I sort threads when viewing a forum?
Yes, you can sort threads when viewing a forum by oldest and newest. The
default sort for a forum is to display the newest threads first (last post
descending). To sort simply click on the options button at the bottom of the
screen and select your desired sort order and click 'Apply'.
What is the red/green icon next to a user’s name when viewing a post?
This icon indicates the user’s online status. A green icon means the user has
been active recently (usually within the last 15 minutes). A red icon means the
user has not recently been active. You can hover your mouse over this icon to
see details about the user’s past activity.
I can’t access a forum I know exists.
If you are attempting to access a forum that you have visited before, but now
receive an ‘unknown forum’ error there are two likely causes. The first cause
is that the forum you are attempting to access is private and you are not
signed in. The second cause is that the forum has been removed.
User Groups & Permissions
What are permissions?
Permissions control what you are or are not allowed to do while browsing the
site. The permissions you are granted control all aspects of your view within
Community Server.
What is an Administrator?
The YCNet team are the administrators for YCNet. They have full
permissions to perform any action, e.g. moderating posts, approving users, and
so on.
What is a Moderator?
The Online Youth Workers are the moderators for YCNet. By default a
moderator can perform any number of tasks within a particular forum or set of
forums. This includes approving posts, moving posts, deleting posts, editing
posts, or banning users. If you have a problem with a particular forum the best
place to start is to email the moderators at
youngcarer@carers.org.
What is a role or User Group?
A user group, also known as a role, is a group of users who shares the same permissions. A role
can also be used to display an image for a user in that role.
How do I join a Role or User Group?
Users are assigned to user groups by the administrator. If there is a
particular group you wish to join, please send an email to
youngcarer@carers.org.