Christarchy!

What is Christarchy?

Christarchy! is a growing network of people who want to put the ethical teachings of Jesus into practice (living simply, caring for the poor, practicing hospitality, making peace, etc.) Jesus calls us to a revolutionary way of life. He challenges the economic, political, social, and religious status quo, and we seek to follow him in this.

Technical questions and site functions

What software do you use for this site?

The site is built on WordPress, the blogging platform, with the Buddypress social networking plugin.

Can I have a blog?

Absolutely! If you hover your mouse over the “Blogs” tab on the header navigation bar one of the dropdown options will be to create a blog. A full blogs FAQ is coming soon. Also, if you create a group you can choose to create or associate an already-created blog with the group.

My blog entries are showing up in the Activity Stream under my own name. That isn’t supposed to happen!

No, it isn’t, it appears to be a bug. To fix that, go to your blog dashboard, click on the users tab, click “Your Profile,” and make sure the “Display name publicly as” box is set to your username.

Can I change my profile privacy so only logged-in members can see my profile information?

Unfortunately, there is no middle ground between “everyone,” which includes nonusers, and “friends.” The developer has promised a “logged-in users only” feature for the next upgrade of the privacy script. However, you can edit the privacy settings on each field, which could be extremely helpful. We recommend making things like email addresses, real name, and such visible to friends only.

Do I have to accept the site administrator’s friend request upon registering?

No, but if you don’t his feelings might be hurt.

What if I want to let another user know I’m talking about him/her in a status update?

You’re in luck, because all you have to do is put @ before the username (e.g. @orpheus42 to tag the site administrator) and it will notify the user. This should also work with posts to group activity streams.

Can I edit my status updates if I make a typo?

Status updates can be updated for up to an hour after they are posted.

Can I make it so that Twitter updates my status posts?

Unfortunately no, the plugin we had to do that is malfunctioning and every time Twitter is down it breaks the whole site. Given how much Twitter has been down lately, that’s a bad thing. We are exploring possible alternative solutions.

Do I have to join a group to post in the forums?

Yes. Forum posting is tied to group membership and there is nothing we can do to change this function without seriously re-writing the core Buddypress code. This is why we strongly suggest you join the Global group upon registration. Its forum is for general discussion not related to any particular topic.

Can I start my own group and forum?

Yes, all users can create and administrate groups and forums, and they can set permissions and privacy settings as they please. Public groups will show up on the Groups page and any user can join them. Additional settings allow control over whether groups are listed and whether they can be joined with or without invitations. In addition to forums, groups allow uploading documents in various formats, link sharing, wall posting, and other functions. The group administrator can control user permissions within the group.

Can I invite any user to my group?

No, you can only invite users who list you as a friend.

Can I post pictures, embed videos, etc. in forum posts?

Yes, the forums use bbCode for a number of formatting options. You should see a row of buttons above the box into which you input text for a forum post that will insert bbCode tags. Also, if you simply enter the URL of a YouTube video, a Flickr image, or files at many other media hosts, the file should be automatically embedded in your post (complete list).

What if I think someone’s forum post is really awesome and want to let the author know what I think?

You’re in luck, because you can assign forum posts a thumbs-up if you think it rocks. If enough users rate a post it will be marked with fancy colors and stuff. Alternatively, if someone posts something you think really stinks, you can give it a thumbs-down. If enough users do this, the post will be hidden and require clicking to reveal what it was everyone else thought was so bad. If you’re anything like the site administrator, you’ll want to see them all anyway out of morbid curiosity (and then wish you hadn’t).

If I can give thumbs-up OR down to forum posts, why can I only rate activity stream posts as “like”? Isn’t that just a little Facebook-ish?

Hey, we don’t write the plugins, we just upload the files and tweak the code as need be. If you’re unhappy with a function, join the Buddypress development community and pitch in to rewrite the code!

What’s the difference between clicking “like” and “favorite” on a status update?

If you click “favorite” it will add the update to your profile under the “favorites” tab. “Liking” a post is the “like” feature on Facebook where it shows how many people like a post. Likes post to the activity stream; favorites do not.

Your events feature seems pretty limited. It doesn’t even post new events to the activity stream, and I can’t invite others to it. What gives?

The old Buddypress events plugin broke when they released the latest version of Buddypress. A new one is in the works through a Google Summer of Code project, but it won’t be ready until August at least. Until then, we’re looking for a better temporary solution than what we have. The best way to do events right now might be to create an event and then make a blog post or page about it, then post a link in your profile. It’s cumbersome, but hopefully a better solution will be available soon.

How do I share links?

There are two ways to get to the link-sharing function. First, there is a huge link in the header. Second, you can choose it from the dropdown “My Account” menu. That will take you to your links directory. Click the “create link” button and have at it. If you enter a YouTube video URI it will embed the video into a popup window when the link is clicked. Links can be customized with categories (required), avatars (either uploaded yourself or taken from the site linked), your own comments, privacy settings, and more. Once a link has been posted to your own links directory, you can share it with any group of which you are a member (if the admin allows). Also, other users can add links you’ve listed to their profiles, assuming they meet the requirements of your privacy settings. Links can also be directly added to groups (again, if the group admin allows).

That seems like a lot of work. Can’t I just put a link in a status update?

Of course you can, and that would be fine – but it won’t catalogue them for later use. If all you want is to quickly share a link without saving it for sharing or later use then posting it in a status update will be fine. However, users can add the status updates with links in them to their favorites, just like all other status updates.

Can I upload images to my profile?

Absolutely! On your profile or the “My Account” dropdown menu simply select “Album,” click the button for “new post,” and follow the directions. Privacy settings for the photo album include a “registered members” selection, the height to which profile privacy settings currently aspire. You and/or other users can comment on images.

Can I upload images to groups?

You can, through the “documents” function. There isn’t a separate images gallery for groups because we haven’t found a fully-functional plugin for that yet.

Why can’t I share with Facebook?

We’re working on that, we’ve had problems getting connectivity through the Facebook API. Once that’s worked out there will be options for sharing content between Christarchy! and Facebook. As with Twitter, you will have control over what information is shared with Facebook. Facebook will never be able to see profile or other information that is not publicly available.

This site is awesome! Can I invite my friends?

We thought you’d never ask! You sure can, there are links on your profile and in the “My Account” dropdown, as well as a widget on the right side of your browser window. Feel free to tell everyone you know about Christarchy!