Feathered Flyer for UK Birdkeepers

Publishing Articles on FF • Your Own Webpage • Web Graphics • Web Reports • Message Board Explained

Web Assistance -

As part of our objective Feathered Flyer would like to encourage more Bird Keepers onto the web, to share their knowledge and experiences. We know that building your own web page can be a slow and often very steep learning curve so we would like to help. Having been in the web business for a quite a few years now we have seen thousands of scams and schemes that pretend to offer 'free pages' and are aware that these are in fact clever marketing guises to simply use your effort to sell you something later on, use your site as a free billboard or just get hold of your personal details to sell on as marketing databases.

Our offer has no hidden strings, we are just enthusiastic about birds and want people to learn more about them. If you are a keeper and would like a page we will do everything we can to help you acheive it, from designing custom graphics to uploading pages - Just Ask!

Here's how to publish an article -

If you have experience of bird keeping and do not mind sharing your experience in the form of an article we would love to hear from you. You do not have to be a wonderful writer or have qualifications in aviculture just an enthusiasm for bird keeping and and a willingness to share it with others. You can submit articles by emailing them to articles@feathered.flyer.co.uk or simply fill in our online factsheet assistant. Without your assistance we cannot continue to increase awareness and standards of bird keeping in the UK and Worldwide, so thanks!.

Your very own web page-

If you would like to have your very own web page detailing your collection of birds or maybe just the birds that you have in the garden we would like to help. There are some wonderful examples of birdkeeping webpages on the web already, so if you would like a little assistance with deciding what you would like on yours check out the sites on the 'favourite links' page. If you know roughly what content you would like on your site and have some pictures to go with it you can send in your ideas by email and we will put together a draft of what your page may look like for you to view and amend in just a couple of days. All we ask of you is that the content is your own intellectual property and pictures that are not yours have the specific authority of the originator to use them. You can email your text and pictures in the following formats:

Plain Email
HTML Email
Microsoft Word Document (Mac or PC)
Raw ASCII text
Jpeg (pictures only)
Gif (pictures only)
Adobe Acrobat PDF (Mac or PC - editable please)

Drop me an email if you would like to ask me anything further - laus@feathered.flyer.co.uk

What will my web address be? -

The URL or domain of your subsequent page will be suppllied to you ASAP and will probably be something like "www.feathered.flyer.co.uk/johnsmith". If you would like even more influence over the content of your pages and would like to have your very own webspace I can also help out. I can recommend and even set up such a space for you. If you are happy with a sub-domain (stick with it, it's not as complicated as it sounds) such as "www.yourchoice.flyer.co.uk" I will happilly set it up for you and send you all the FTP and Dial-Up details. If you are not 'au fait' with such expressions don't worry we will be here every step of the way. I cannot comment on uploading to your own webspace as all ISPs are very different but I will gladly consider individual cases as they come. The only ISPs I would prefer not to deal with webspace wise are actually AOL, PIPEX, EASYSPACE and YELL for reasons I can't begin to cover in this page - let's just say 'they are to the internet what blood mites are to aviculture'.

Any queries please get in touch - pages@feathered.flyer.co.uk

Building your own site! -

If you have already built a site but just need to upload it somewhere or just want a bit of help getting started we will try and offer what assistance we can. Amongst are ranks we have a range of experience with different website building packages, just drop us a line saying what you need help with and we will try and assist. Going back to the uploading side of things, if you have spave but don't know how to upload it I'm afraid we can't help- that would require us to have your UserID and Password details which we do not really want to be responbsible for. If you don't have space but need some you can email your site to us and we will upload it to our own space or nominated space that we have helped set-up.

Web Graphics -

I will slowly but surely add general royalty free graphics in a separate FF section in the future, but for now I have supplied a few links below for you to use where you can pick up some pretty good graphics for free.

Remember - beware of those animated Gifs, they will slow your page down!

Site Name	Content	Website Link
Littlebirds	Gouldian Finch graphics galore, great links page too - if you are a Gouldian person!	http://www.lunarpages.com/finchkeeper/littlebirds/freegr/webgr.html
Zooish	Loads of Bird Animations and graphics, as well as tons of other creatures alive and extinct!	http://www.zooish.com/Birds.htm

Web Reports -

I have been asked alot recently for advise from people who already have a site but want an honest opinion as to 'what I think of it'. If the truth be known, any site which promotes birdkeeping and helps others is a great site, but I think most people would like to know if their site is performing at the optimum and thereby viewable by as many people as possible. In order to try and help those that would like to know such things I have developed a website performance report which aims to provide a bit of insight from the angle of the average browser. Some pointers to consider when building a site are listed below, btu if you would like me to do a report on your site I would be happy to help. I am not saying that we are self-appointed gurus, but as a professional web designer myself there are some aspects and restrictions that I work to as standards. These not only enhance the performance of sites but will encourage people to revisit very often. Of course if you don't want constructice criticism - please do not ask!

These Site Performance Reports will identify;

1. how long it takes people to view your site
2. if anybody can not view your site for any reason
3. how Search Engines will judge your site
4. how east it is to navigate
5. any other platform or set-up compatibility problems.

To have your site assessed just fill in the form below and we will get back to you pronto.

Your website details

	For example: John Smith
	For example: The Birdkeeping Site
	For example: http://www.feathered.flyer.co.uk
	For example: Gold, Technical or Both
	For example: johnsmith@feathered.flyer.co.uk
Yes, I am the site owner!	Only check box if you are the site owner or webmaster
	How would you like to receive your results notification
	See examples of sizes above
Comments:	Anything to add prior to submitting?

Message Board explained -

I will be publishing Frequently Asked Questions about the Message Board here, as soon as I receive some. For now I have supplied a table of explanations for different functions of the message board below, these are also available within the message board by clicking on the 'HELP' button.

PLEASE JOIN UP - AND ENJOY!

Topic	Explanation
Cookies	A "Cookie" is the name given to a small piece of information stored on your computer. This information is set by Ikonboard to remember your member ID and password, last visit times and other preferences. This is not used to collect any other information from you and Ikonboard will only access the cookies set by itself. No other information can be read from your computer. You can elect not to store your member ID and password in a cookie when you log in. Your password is encrypted for extra security.
Emailing Friends	This feature is for registered members only. You can email a topic to a friend by clicking on the link displayed at the bottom of each topic. This will allow you to send a custom message with the email.
Logging In	If you are registered, you may be prompted to log in. This will ask you for the username and password that you specified upon registration. This will allow you access to your members account and your Control Panel. Until you log in, you are treated as a guest. To log in, simply click on the 'Log In' link at the top of the page and enter your account details. If you wish to store a copy of your member ID and encrypted password in a 'cookie' then choose the amount of time from the radio buttons before submitting the form. This will then automatically log you in when you return. If you are using a shared computer such as one in an internet cafe, we recommend that you don't store your account details in cookies for security purposes.
Logging Out	Before you leave the board, you may wish to log out. This will terminate your session and remove the member ID and password cookies from your computer. We recommend you do this if you are using a shared computer.
MemberList	You can browse the member list by clicking on the 'Member List' button found at the top of all the ikonboard pages. You can set your own sort options by adjusting the drop down boxes at the top of the Member List page.
Posting	Posting refers to either starting a new topic of conversation, or replying to an existing topic of conversation. To reply, simply click on the 'add new reply' button at the top of the page and enter your message into the form. If you get an error informing you that you cannot post in that forum, then check to make sure you are registered and logged in as the board administrator may have restricted posting permission for guests in that forum. The same steps apply for starting a new topic of conversation.
Print Topic	This will display a printer friendly version of the topic suitable for printing. The link can be found at the bottom of each topic.
Polls	This feature is for registered members only. Clicking on the 'New Poll' button will allow you to enter your poll choices. These choices must be in the following format. One choice per line, no blank lines between choices and the number of choices must be between 2 and 10. You must also enter a title for your poll and a message to be displayed underneath the poll choices.
Topic Subcriptions	This feature is for registered members only. You can 'subscribe' to any topic on this bulletin board by clicking on the 'track this topic' link displayed at the bottom of the topic. This will add the topic to your 'Topic Tracker' and you will receive notification via email each time a message is posted. Useful if you want to be emailed for replies.
Voting in Polls	This feature is for registered members only. You can only vote once in a poll. Simply click on the radio button of your choice and press the 'Vote' button found underneath the poll choices. Your vote will now be added. These are what we use to judge if submitted sites are worthy of a FF Award.
Control Panel Pers. Info	This help topic covers both parts of this feature. > Personal Profile This profile is viewable by other members of the board. It's allows you to enter any contact information you wish to share with the other members. You may choose to 'hide' your email address from the other members. The board administrator may have chosen to use an 'email form' for other members to contact you. This allows your email address to remain private whilst allowing other members to contact you. Your signature is automatically appended to every post you make (unless you specify to not add the signature when posting). It works much like an 'email' signature. > Avatar Options Here you can set an 'avatar' to that is displayed under your username when you post a message. You can either choose from the pre-installed selection, or enter a URL for an avatar you have uploaded on your server. Alternatively you can send it to me via email and I will upload it for you <laus@feathered.flyer.co.uk>