Cloister Notes
This post contains step-by-step instructions on how to format your whisper, add a picture or a video, or get a Gravatar (picture of you beside your whispers). It also contains all other cloister related information including our (simple) guidelines for posting. Mother Superior of the Cloister will be glad to help you with any of these issues, but please consult this page before asking her help.
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How do I “whisper in the Cloister” (comment on a post)?
At the bottom of every post is a blue bar, on the right of which is an underlined link indicating the number of “whispers” attached to that particular post. Click this link and you will be taken to the post page. Near the bottom of the post page is a section entitled “Whisper in the Cloister”. In the first field, enter your name as you would like it to appear online. If you leave it blank you will be “anonymous”. The email field is optional. (Please note: you will need to enter your email if you would like your Gravatar to appear. Your email will not be seen/accessible nor shared with anyone. ) Then simply enter your comment/whisper and click the ‘Submit Whisper’ button.
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How do I put a photo in my whisper?
Look for the “add an image to your whisper” link under the “Submit Whispers” button.
Important: Enter the FULL internet address of a picture you want to share that is hosted somewhere on the internet.
Will work: http://www.example.com/picture.jpg
Won’t work: www.example.com/picture.jpg
The max size of the picture you’re linking to should be no more than 600×400 to prevent formatting issues and slowing the page down.
You cannot upload pictures directly from your computer’s hard drive into a whisper-in-the-cloister as it is a high security risk for the monastery. Solution? Image Shack. It is free. You don’t have to register. And you can get a link-address for your picture in less than a minute.
Here’s how:
1. Go to Image Shack and click “Browse”. This will upload a picture from your computer.
2. Click the re-size box. 320×240 is the default. Perfect. (640 x 480 is acceptable.)
3. Click START UPLOAD.
4. When done, it will give you the DIRECT LINK TO IMAGE address. Copy this. (Only this link will work.)
5. Paste the DIRECT LINK TO IMAGE address into the proper field here at the Cloister. (i.e. Paste it in the blank field that appears after you click: “Add an image to your whisper by clicking here.”)
Formatting tip:
When you are finished with the text portion of your whisper, enter two hard returns (click “enter” twice) before adding a photo. This means the photo will be under the text not beside it.
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How do I get a Gravatar (profile picture) to go with my whispers?
1. You go to gravatar.com and sign-up for a free account.
2. Then all you do is upload the picture you want at the Gravatar site, and when you “whisper”,
3. Fill in the email address associated with your Gravatar account, and your picture will appear.
Entering your email address in this field will not make it visible to others; it will not be published nor made public, and it won’t make it vulnerable to spam, so please feel safe in filling in this field to display your Gravatar.
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How do I embed a YouTube video in my whisper?
Paste in the URL e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch… directly into the whisper (you don’t use the “add an image” function) and then add the letter “v” right after the http. So it would look like httpv://www.youtube.com/wat….)
Some YouTube videos have the embedding feature turned off. If this is the case, simply paste the link into the whsiper without the “v”.
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Why was my whisper was removed?
Whispers are only moderated if they do not meet our guidelines for the Cloister. (Personal attacks or unkindness, overt or subtle, will not be posted. This includes sarcasm and unsolicited advice/”teaching”.)
If a majority of our group (acimmonk, Jane-Admin, Emm-admin, Mother Superior, Bonnie, and Dreamy) feels that a post doesn’t meet the guidelines discussed in the post Cloister: Our Quiet Path then we will delete it before (or after) it reaches the Cloister.
We don’t have the time to send out emails or explanations as to why your whisper was deleted, and none of us want to play referee, so that’s the simplest solution we could come up with outside of a free-for-all every other weekend. No one will ever be banned. If someone writes an unkind post it won’t be posted. If they write one kind post every five years, it will be posted. So speaketh the mob of monks. They don’t like “mob rules”, unless, well, unless it’s their mob. Then they seem pretty much OK with it.
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Why are links no longer permitted in the cloister?
As explained in, The Missing Links, there are daily attempts to advertise or promote a site or service within the Cloister. We do not want it to become a bulletin board or flea market; it is a warm place of friendship, fun, sharing and learning.
Additionally, if we allow one link and not another, people become offended and long discussions ensue as to why their link was not allowed. Since we do not have time for these discussions, the simplest solution was to make the Cloister link-free (except for inter-monastery links, and links to Cloister-essential places like gravatar.com and imageshack.us
If there is something you’d like to see added to Cloister Notes, please let us know.
December 11th, 2009 at 5:35 am
I think good lasting place for this bulletin-icon would be together with the faq-icon -otherwise it would disappear from the site,right`?
December 11th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Hello Monklings!! Monk has added a new feature for us: a Cloister Notes page where we can find answers to all those vital questions like; How do I do the italics and bold thing? How do I post a YouTube video or a picture, or get a Gravatar? And what is a Gravatar anyway? Does “no links” in the Cloister mean “no links in the Cloister?”
Click on the red ‘poster-pin’ icon
just above every whisper box and you will find lots of helpful information about all things Cloister-ish!! It will be on every Cloister page so we can always find it.
If you still need help with something after checking the Cloister Notes, whisper (or scream) “I need help”, but please try this first. It’s really helpful and meant to make our Cloister whispering even more fun and easy!!
Love,
Mother Superior
December 12th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
When they first came at me with this new hyper text mark up language, I screamed NO NO NO NO NO. Dang, now I’m
curiousobsessed about combining italics and bold.December 12th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Good lord, it worked! maybe I could actually return to work and not be afraid of the new stuff. Thanks, Monk & Mother Love. (Good nick name Anne/TX) The new how to format icon is going to be very helpful. I wonder if building new synaptic branches helps on the quest to forgiveness.
December 12th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
::::Big Smile:::: I’m so glad it’s helping you Katrina! Your bolds and italics are lookin’ good!
January 6th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
And here’s my Gravitar–ta da! It’s the album cover of “Birds of Fire” by the Mahavishnu Orchestra (lead by virtuoso guitarist ‘Mahavishnu’ John McLaughlin).
Excellent instructions Mother Superior. Even I could follow them ;-)
Thanks,
Rick
January 6th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
And here is what it actually looks like ;-)
January 12th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Precious Mom, thanks for your help in posting my “deer & cat” photos for Jamie and Bonnie. Your instructions above were excellent, and the problem may lie with my dinky computer system . . . only one gig of RAM and — horror of horrors — dial-up . . . fine for text, but not enough to do much with photos. I’ve seen those red Xs before in emails I receive containing several photos . . . the first photos load but the later ones give me the red X, making me suspect my memory is full.
Still, I’d like to master this if possible.
I’m wondering if this is what I did wrong. I used the “add an image” field separately to get each of the three direct link addresses from Image Shack into my whisper, with a double line between each. Then I submitted the whisper. Should I have clicked on each link to open each photo in my whisper before submitting?
If not, then it must somehow be my system.
January 14th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
OK, so hello to the powers that be today. (Mom? Quiet elves?)
If I wanted to post a relevant cartoon, how can I do that? There is an option labeled “embed”. Can I copy that and place it in the whisper section? Will that work?
Thank you!
January 14th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Hi Lisa — if the cartoon is a picture, you would follow the directions for posting a picture from Image Shack in the Cloister Notes. If the cartoon is a YouTube video, you would post its URL (not the embed code) with a “v” added after http right in your whisper window. Hope this helps,
Love,
Mother
January 29th, 2010 at 8:53 am
Hello Mother… i am not sure about posting pictures. I just tried to post a picture of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and nothing happened, but i used the same technique the other day with a picture of a magpie and it worked then…{wondering if the picture was too big?}..loving hugs to you xoxo
January 29th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Hi Winnie! It could be the picture was too big. The best way to post pictures is the follow the directions for using Image Shack, as their website has an option to resize the picture to use “for websites and email” (that’s the best size to choose)..
The complete directions for using Image Shack are in the Cloister Notes.. pay special attention to the directions to paste the “direct link” into the box that results from “clicking here” in the sentence below the “Submit Whisper” button. That is where we put the links for photos from Image Shack, the website has been programmed to do it right for you…
Hope this helps, give it another try,
Love,
Mother
January 29th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Yes Mother dear i will….. The directions in the Cloister Notes say they are for posting “photos” which i never do. I didnt realize photos and pictures amount to the same thing….
January 29th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
p.s. Mother can you help me with explaining why the youtube clip i just posted in the InfirMary didnt work ? { wonders if it was because i didnt type my email address correctly which is why i realiize, my gravatar didnt show up…..
January 29th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Wow Winnie, they are so famous theyhave their own stamp..and the books were written in1918 – they seem to be very winnie’ish, you must really love that world – looks magical
January 29th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
[Monk edit: Fixed the picture by adding an "img" tag to the beginning of the link.]
January 29th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Re #14: Hi Winnie: The video didn’t come out because it wasn’t a direct link to the YouTube video, it looks like it was a link of someone linking to a YouTube video. (And the link didn’t work so I couldn’t fix it for you.)
January 29th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Hi Monk
I love you!
January 29th, 2010 at 7:07 pm
Thank you Monk – i see now why it didnt work – :) xoxo