What is the Story Board? The Story Board is a place where registered users may post articles of interest to other users. It is called a "Story" Board only because it has to be called something in order to describe it. In actuality it is a method by which users can share family history knowledge with other members of Ripples Across The Years families.
It is NOT a Message Board/Forum. It is NOT for posting queries, etc.
Registered Users are permitted to post stories/articles as long as the following guidelines are observed:
2. Sites associated with Ripples Across The Years are family sites. This means stories must be in good taste, suitable for young children to read, and respectful of the privacy and feelings of living people. We expect users to adhere to our Privacy Statement.
3. This is NOT a Message Board. Any postings of this type (queries, etc.) will be deleted. We have implemented a Message Board for this purpose.
4. Postings must be relevant to the family history of sites associated with Ripples Across The Years. For example: Findings of census research concerning the Fulfords; anecdotes from the life of John Pigott; Highlights of battles in which the Baers served, etc. Examples of unacceptable postings would be: Tale of trouble encountered with a clerk while doing census research; a story of how an individual slighted another individual; a recounting of re-enactments of battles. Sites associated with Ripples Across The Years are: The Fulford Saga, Carteret County Pigotts, Down East Chadwicks, and Baers of MD & PA.
5. Users should make every effort to ascertain the validity of their postings. If a posting is later determined to contain errors or otherwise should be revised, the user is expected to maintain his/her posting to correct these errors and to make whatever other revisions should be made in order not to mislead others with inaccurate material..
6. Where appropriate, users should cite their source.
The administrator of the Story Board will be the sole arbiter of whether or not the rules of usage are being followed. Anyone determined to be abusive of the privilege of posting on this board, will be banned from further participation and the abusive material will be summarily removed.
The Story Board is composed of Categories and, in some cases, Sub-Categories. Where Sub-Categories exist, users should NOT post stories under the higher Category. Guidelines have been established for the usage of each category and/or sub-category. These guidelines are available on the Story Board under each category and/or sub-category. Users should make every effort to post in appropriate categories. As long as we all adhere to this guideline, the easier it will be for us all to locate stories we are interested in at any particular time. Categories and sub-categories are maintained by the administrator. Suggestions are always welcome.
Stories are like magazine articles. They may describe events/situations in an individual's life, the place where a family lived, a cemetery where family members are buried, etc. Stories are the next level under categories/sub-categories. Each story is broken into chapters. Titles for stories and chapters should be meaningful. Guidelines, available on the Story Board under each category, have been established for proper usage of story titles and descriptions.
Users are permitted to add their own stories under appropriate categories or sub-categories. While stories can be "locked" so that only the originator is permitted to add chapters, it is recommended that this not be done. Someone else may have an important piece to add to the story. Only the administrator can delete stories. The administrator reserves the right to "unlock" a story if the administrator deems this should be done.
Users are permitted to add, modify, delete chapters under stories. Only the originator of a chapter may modify/delete that chapter.
The Story Board administrator, at his/her descretion, may relocate stories from one category/sub-category to another if it is deemed the story has been inappropriately categorized. The administrator may revise the story title and/or description if it is deemed necessary for clarity.
Only Maturity Level “G” (General) should be used. Any story or chapter requiring a different Maturity Level is not suitable for this Story Board. The administrator reserves the right to remove any stories not of a General Maturity Level.
Normally it should not be necessary to select a category from the “New Story” screen. If you have followed the path from the top down to the sub-category where you wish to add a story, the category should already be selected. Stories should always be posted in the lowest available sub-category.
The administrator will establish new categories/sub-categories as needed and as time permits. The administrator will re-categorize stories as necessary and, again, as time permits. The administrator does not move chapters from one story to another. That is the responsibility of the user. If you post a chapter to the wrong story, delete it and re-post it.
Postings to the Story Board will not be reflected in the normal site UPDATE LIST section. Update Notification will not be sent to subscribers. When the Message Board becomes available, a place will be provided for Notification of updates to the Story Board. Users should make an appropriate entry in the Message Board whenever they post to the Story Board if they wish other users to be aware of their posting. Users should check the Message Board periodically to see if there have been any Story Board postings they might be interested in. The Story Board administrator will endeavor to periodically send notifications to subscribers about updates that have taken place since the last notification.
There are two paths for access to the Story Board. One is from the Research Center. The other is from an individual's Family Group Sheet in Family Trees.
Normally, the user will be taken to the appropriate category on the Story Board based upon his/her access point. Once there, the user may proceed to other categories by following the links at the top of the page.
The Story Board is opened in a separate window in order to make it easier to return to either the Research Center or Family Group Sheet without backing up all the way. To exit the Story Board, one needs only to close the Story Board window.
Movement within the Story Board is pretty straightforward. Generally, there is a "menu" in the top left-hand section of the screen showing the path from the "Top" to where you are currently located. This is true as long as you are at a category/sub-category level. You may "backup" in the categories by clicking on one of the titles in this "menu".
The next "section" of the screen will contain: (1) titles of sub-categories; or (2) titles of stories/articles. To move to the next level, click on the desired title.
At the story/chapter level, the left-hand "menu" changes. "Table of Contents" will take you back to the listing of the chapters within the selected story. "Full Text" will display the entire text of all the chapters of the story so that you may scroll through without making any other selections. This may be a good option for stories that have multiple but brief chapters. You may switch back and forth between these options.
To exit the story/chapter level, you must select the "Stories List" at the bottom of the screen. This will take you back to the next higher level.
In the right-hand top section of each screen is another "menu". This menu is pretty self-explanatory.
At the category/sub-category level, the right-hand "menu" allows you to Register, Log In, or add a New Story. You MUST be a registered user to Add a New Story.
At the story/chapter level, the right-hand "menu" allows you to Add a new chapter or change the Settings for the story. Only the story originator may change the story settings. All stories should allow any registered user to add chapters. Only the Story Board administrator may delete stories.
Underneath the Chapter Title/Description is an option to Edit Chapter. This option will allow the chapter originator to edit the chapter title or contents or to delete the chapter entirely.