Indiepublic FAQ

Frequently asked questions (added as I answer them):

1. How do I add a Flickr badge on My Page?
2. How do I display my Etsy shop on My Page?
2a. How do I center my Etsy Mini badge?
2b. Does my Etsy Mini badge change as I add or sell products?
3. Can I add my own Blogger/Myspace/Xanga page to Indiepublic?
4. How do I make links under "I have been featured on"?
5. How do I make links under "My work is sold at"?
6. How do I add an Indiepublic Badge to MySpace?
7. How do I add an Indiepublic Badge to Blogger/Blogspot?
8. Why is my profile picture not showing up?
9. How come emailed pictures don't show up?
10. In the profile, what exactly is a retailer?
11. How big is the banner at the top of the page?
12. How big is the Indiepublic logo at the top of the page?
13. How do I display more posts in my Group forum?
14. Why is my profile picture blurry?
15. What is my Indiepublic blog's URL?
16. Is nudity / erotic / sexually suggestive work permitted?
17. Is it okay to add a link/price to my photo's caption?
18. Does this site work with Opera?
19. How do I delete or edit photos that I've uploaded?
20. How do I upload my own banner to my profile?
21. Why am I unable to see/accept my friends requests?
22. How do I unblock someone?
23. How do I stop receiving emails from Indiepublic?
24. Why do my photos say "Me" instead of my actual name?
*. Is that an automated welcome message from IndieAdmin?

1. How do I add a Flickr badge on My Page?
At this point, the social networking software that Indiepublic runs on does not work with Flickr badges.

2. How do I display my Etsy shop on My Page?
Simply login to Etsy and click "Your Etsy" in the top left corner. Then, towards the bottom of the greyish bar on the left side of your screen, click on "Etsy Mini". Follow the on-screen instructions to customize your badge, and copy the code for the FLASH VERSION ONLY (Javascript does not work). Afterwards, go to "My Page" on the IndiePublic site and find the box in the center of your page near the top labeled, "Your Indiepublic Box". Click on the grey "Edit" button on the top right, and in the first, one-line text box type in a title (e.g., "My Etsy Shop"). Now, click once in the second, larger box and paste the Etsy code you copied previously (NOTE: the FIRST text box is only one-line thick and is for titles only; DO NOT paste your code there). Click the "Save" button when you're done.

2a. How do I center my Etsy Mini badge?
The full instructions are here.

2b. Does my Etsy Mini badge change as I add or sell products?
Yes! Etsy Mini pulls its product information directly from your Etsy store, so as you add or remove inventory, it will correspondingly modify what items it displays. Once you've installed it on your Indiepublic page, you don't have to do a thing! =)

3. Can I add my own Blogger/Myspace/Xanga page to Indiepublic?
Absolutely! Simply go to "My Page" and then look on the left side for a box titled "RSS". Click on the grey "Edit" button; you should see several fields including "Title" and "URL". For "Title", type in the name of your blog. For "URL", you will need the web address to your RSS feed. PS - If you do not know how to find your RSS feed, contact IndieAdmin with your blog address and I'll find it for you! =)

4. How do I make links under "I have been featured on"?
To do this, you will need to know a little bit of HTML code, but it's pretty simple:

... where "YOURSITE" is the web address (also known as a URL) for your link. For example, if you wanted to link to Yahoo, YOURSITE would be replaced with http://www.yahoo.com. "Name of your link" can be anything you want; it's just a title.

To add multiple entries, just hit "Enter" on your keyboard and paste the same code again, changing it slightly for the link you want to add.

5. How do I make links under "My work is sold at"?
Please see the answer to #4 above.

6. How do I add an Indiepublic Badge to MySpace?
Adding a badge is simple. Click Get More Badges and for the badge you'd like to use, highlight and copy (Control-C on PCs) the code under "HTML Embed Code". Then, login to your MySpace account and edit your profile. Somewhere within your "About Me" section, paste the code you copied above and save your changes.

7. How do I add an Indiepublic Badge to Blogger/Blogspot?
a) Login to your Blogger account as usual.
b) You should see your Dashboard. In the oval "Manage Your Blogs" section near the top, look for the link that says "Manage: Posts, Settings, Layout". Click the "Layout" link.
c) Around your sidebar (or wherever you'd like to put your badge), click "Add a Page Element".
d) You should see a big list of things you can add. You want the "Text" element; click the "Add to Blog" button just underneath it.
e) You'll now see a text box; just paste your badge code into the big box labeled "Content".
f) Click "Save Changes".
Note: You can not add an Indiepublic Badge to your "About Me" box; Flash code is not accepted and it will give you an error. You will need to follow the instructions above and use a "Text" box instead.

8. Why is my profile picture not showing up?
It may take 15-30 minutes for new profile pictures to show up across the rest of the site, especially on the homepage and under the "Members" section. If you've updated your profile photo and it's been longer than 15-30 minutes, you can try doing a "hard refresh" on your browser as it may simply be calling up the old image. On PCs, you can accomplish this by holding the CTRL and F5 keys at the same time. On Macs, you will want to hold your Command, Shift and R keys.

9. How come emailed pictures don't show up?
If you are sending pictures via your cellphone or email, you will be presented with an email address similar to "YOURID123@www.indiepublic.com". There is a bug with this address and you will need to replace "www.indiepublic.com" with "indiepublic.ning.com" in order for the email to work. We are working on a permanent solution but currently this is the best fix available.

10. In the profile, what exactly is a retailer?
There's been some confusion as to what a "retailer" is in the profile questions. What I mean by retailer is someone who carries products primarily created by other people; e.g., My My. If you are a designer or artist and have a shop on Etsy whose products are all yours, you should select "Independent Designer/Artist" and NOT retailer.

11. How big is the banner at the top of the page?
When creating your own custom banner for your page, you should aim for a width of at least 955 pixels. However, the height will vary depending on which theme you choose; in most cases, a minimum of 105 pixels should do.

12. How big is the Indiepublic logo at the top of the page?
The Indiepublic logo spans approximately 250 pixels in width and 60 pixels in height. Keep in mind that your theme may "push" the logo downwards or upwards.

13. How do I display more posts in my Group forum?
If you are the group owner, you should see an "Edit" button on the titlebar of your group. Click on it and then next to "Show", select the number of discussions you'd like visible. There are a maximum of 20. If you are NOT a group owner, you can request that they increase the groups visible by contacting them. The group owner can be found on the left sidebar, near the bottom where it says "xxxx created this group on Indiepublic."

14. Why is my profile picture blurry?
The picture you uploaded is probably too small. You'll need to use a picture that is at least 200x200 pixels. Also keep in mind that it may take 15-30 minutes for your picture to update across the network, so please be patient if you have recently updated your photo. As a last resort, you can also try a "hard refresh" of your browser to force it to load the latest image. On a PC, this can be done by pressing your Control and F5 keys simultaneously; on a Mac, you can do this by pressing your Command, Shift and R keys at the same time.

15. What is my Indiepublic blog's URL?
Your Indiepublic blog's URL can be found by going to your blog's box and looking in the bottom right corner. You'll see a link titled, "View Archives"; this is the actual URL to your blog. To retrieve it, simply right click on "View Archives" and then select "Copy Shortcut" ("Copy Link Location" in Firefox). You can then paste this URL wherever you please.

16. Is nudity / erotic / profanity / sexually suggestive work permitted?
In a word, no. Although I personally support artists freely expressing themselves, Ning's own policies require that sites with nudity be converted into closed (non-public) networks. Art of course is subject to interpretation so I will review offending incidents on a case-by-case basis, but as a general policy nudity, erotic, profanity and sexually suggestive work is not permitted on Indiepublic.

17. Is it okay to add a link/price to my photo's caption?
Absolutely--and in fact, I'd encourage you to do so to help visitors more easily find your product.

18. Does this site work with Opera?
At present, Opera (at least for PC users) runs extremely slowly when loading any Ning pages (including Indiepublic). Symptoms include an hourglass that never stops loading, as well as very slow/jerky scrolling. For an optimal viewing experience, you will need to use either Internet Explorer or Firefox when visiting Indiepublic.

19. How do I delete or edit photos that I've uploaded?
There are actually several ways to do this, but here's the quickest method:
1. Click here to go to view your photos.
2. You should see a thumbnail gallery of all your photos. Select the one you wish to edit.
3. Now you should see your picture, along with an "About Your Photo" box on the right side; just underneath is "Edit Photo Information" and "Delete Photo".

20. How do I upload my own banner to my profile?
1. First, click on "My Page" on the main navigation bar.
2. Next, click "Edit Page Appearance."
3. You should see quite a few themes; since you're customizing your own, scroll down until you see the section labeled, "Now Customize Your Page ..."
4. In that section, there should be a subsection labeled "Page."
5. Find the item titled "Sides". You should see both a color palette button and an image upload button. Click on the image upload button (it's the second one).
6. Select "Upload an image from your computer", and then navigate on your computer to the banner you've created (if you need sizing instructions for your banner, click here; also click here for additional notes on the Indiepublic logo).
7. Click Save to apply your changes.

21. Why am I unable to see/accept my friends requests?
This is an occasional issue that can be fixed by clearing your cache. Click here for instructions on how to clear the cache for your specific browser. If this does not work, please submit a bug report to Ning.

22. How do I unblock someone?
At the top of any network on Ning you'll see a thin strip of color that has a friend icon and an envelope icon. We call this the Ningbar. Click on the friend icon and you'll see 4 sections: "My Friends, " "Received," "Sent," and "Blocked." Click on "Blocked" to bring up all the people you've blocked from contacting you. Click "unblock" under the member you'd like to remove from your list of blocked people. That person will now be able to contact you.

23. How do I stop receiving emails from Indiepublic?
To stop receiving emails, follow these steps:
a) On any page, look to the top right and you should see a box similar to, "Hello [your ning ID]". In this box, click on "Edit My Profile".
b) Look for a box on the left that says "Your Ning Profile" on the upper left. Click on the link that says, "Change your Ning profile".
c) You should now see your account settings. Scroll down until you see the "Email Settings" section and then select the "Let me check these myself".
d) [OPTIONAL] If you want to stop receiving emails from the Ning network as a whole, uncheck "Keep me up to date with new features and other news from Ning!"
e) Click the "Update Profile" button.

24. Why do my photos say "Me" instead of my actual name?
Any photos you upload will always show "Me" when you view them, but all other people who view your photos will see your actual name. For example, all my photos currently have "Me" underneath them, but others will see "IndieAdmin".

*. Is that an automated welcome message from IndieAdmin?
Nope, that's really me! =) I, along with the fabulous Indiepublic Greeters, constantly check for new members. We think it's important to personally welcome every new member.