User guide for Loqu.com
Catalog:
1. How to Register
2. Managing Your Account
3. Logging In & Logging Out
4. Creating a New Group
5. Controlling your Group
5-1 Settings
5-2 Members
5-3 Alliance Groups
5-3-1 Creating an Alliance
5-3-2 Accepting/Rejecting Alliance Invitations
5-4 Albums
5-5 Events
5-6 Forum
5-7 Bulletin
6. Joining Other Groups
7. Adding Content to your Profile and/or Group
7-1 Photos
7-2 Videos
7-3 Posting in the Forum
7-4 Adding a Blog
7-5 Events
7-6 Cars
8. Managing Your Content
8-1 Editing Content
8-2 Deleting Content
9. Submitting Auto News
10. You Inbox, Invitations and Sending Messages
11. Friends
11-1 Adding Friends
11-2 Accepting and Rejecting Friends
11-3 Removing Friends
1. How to Register
First of all, before you can take advantage of all the features of our site you'll need to register a profile.
1-1 Click on the "Become a Member" button on the front page and you'll be taken to the registration page.
1-2 Now just fill out the registration form with your details, you only have to fill out the fields marked with an * (You will not be able to change your username once it is set so be certain you are satisfied with it before creating your account). Once you're done just click the "Join Now!" button. NB - In the future when you log in you will need to use your email address, not your username, to sign in.
1-3 You'll now be back on the main page logged into your new account, the email address you provided will be used only to notify you of your account details should you request them and to notify you of any important news regarding the site.
2. Managing Your Account
Now your account is set up you might want to personalize it so it represents you and your car tastes better.
2-1 From the main page you will see a window in the top right corner which contains a brief summary of your account as well as links to all the main pages within your account.
2-2 Click on the "Manage my account" link within this box and you'll be taken to the respective page.
2-3 From the page you are now on you can change your email address or password if you so wish, you can also upload a photograph to be used as your avatar, click the browse button and then find the photo you want to use on your computer and press open. Once the path is displayed on screen click save and the photo will be uploaded to your account. NB - Please note that there is a file size limit of 2MB on photos you can upload and if the photo is larger than this it will not upload
2-4 You can now begin to add more details about yourself if you wish, this is optional but it will give other users a better picture of who you are and will make making friends on the site easier.
2-5 Click on the "General" tab which can be found just above the option for changing your email address, this will display options for you to specify your sex, date of birth, home town etc. Fill out what info you want to and then click the "Apply Changes" button at the bottom of the screen.
2-6 Next click on the "Personality and Interests" tab, here you can write a brief description of yourself, write some tags to describe your interests (these can help you find people with similar interests), change your favorite car etc.
2-7 Lastly you can set what notifications you will receive via email from us, click on the "Notifications" tab and read through the list of options to choose which you want, if any.
2-8 That's it, your account is set up for now but if you want to you can come back and change things at any time.
3. Logging In & Logging Out
3-1 On the main page of the website there is a window in the top right corner for logging in. To log into your account you need to use the email address you specified during registration of your account and your password.
3-2 Logging out can be done from the far top right of a page on the site, just click the "log out" button.
4. Creating a New Group
Our site is all about grouping people with similar motoring tastes, if you want to create a group then you're going to want to know how. It very straight forward but we ask that before you create a group you search through the existing groups to make sure a similar group doesn't exist. NB - If a group does exist and it's popular you may want to consider joining that group rather than creating your own.
4-1 First of all you need to click on the "Create a Group" button on the main page or on the Group page.
4-2 Now fill out the details of your new group, all fields are required except the photo but if you want to give people a better idea of what your group is about then you'll want to include one. You can set the openness of the group; it's completely up to you how open you want it to be.
5. Controlling your Group
Once your group is up and running, you'll want to know how to control it, here we'll detail exactly what you can do with your group. To change anything you'll need to be in your groups Control Center, to get there Log in and then click on the "Me" at the top of the screen.
This will take you to your profile page, click on the Car Groups Tab and then on the Car Group you wish to modify.
On the left hand side of the page you'll see a button labeled "Control Center" click there and we can start making changes.
5-1 Changing the Group's settings
If you want to change the Group's description, photo, access type or any of the other settings you set when creating the group read on to find out how.
5-1-1 From the control panel on the left of the screen click the settings button.
5-1-2 On this screen change which ever settings you wish to, once you are happy with the changes you've made make sure you click "Modify Group" at the bottom of the group to save the changes.
5-2 Changing Member settings
Keeping the group constantly up to date can be time consuming if you're doing it alone, here you can assign admin powers to other members and/or remove people from the group if you wish.
5-2-1 From the main Group Control Panel click on the "Members" button on the left of the page.
5-2-2 From here you will see a tile displaying the names and avatars of all the members of your group, you can send them a message, give them moderator powers or remove them from the group.
NB - to remove moderator powers from a person go to the moderator tab at the top of the page, find their tile and click "remove moderator"
5-3 Alliance Groups
Alliance groups are groups you are friends with, by being allied you can write in each other's forums as well as a few other things you'll discover.
5-3-1 Creating an Alliance
If you find another group you think has a lot in common with your group you may wish to create an alliance.
5-3-1-1 Firstly you'll need the name of the Group as well as the Group leader's name. Once you have those, click on the "Alliance Groups"
5-3-1-2 Now click on the "Add an Alliance Group" Tab.
From here type in the Group's name and the Group Leader's name into the corresponding boxes as well as a brief message why you think you should be allied. Click 'send invitation' and if they think you should be allied they'll accept.
5-3-2 Accepting/Rejecting Alliance Invitations
Other Groups may have the same idea as you and think you should form an alliance, if they send you an invitation it's entirely up to you whether or not you accept.
5-3-2-1 From the "Alliance Groups" page, click on the "Invitations" tab
5-3-2-2 You can now see all the outstanding invitations you've received. Accept or decline them, it's up to you.
NB - If you accept an invitation you can revoke an alliance at any time from the main Alliance Groups page, just click the ' remove' button underneath the offending group.
5-4 Albums
Albums are a great way to share photos with your group members if they're all similar to each other or just of a recent event a few of you were at. Here's how you set them up.
5-4-1 Click on the Albums button on the main Group Control Panel.
5-4-2 From here click on the Create an Album tab, in this tab you can name the album as well as give it a brief description. Once you're happy click "Create Album". This will move you to the "Edit an Album" tab where you can start adding photos.
5-4-3 Upload the photos you want to from your computer and if you wish to give any of them a description click on the edit option beneath the uploaded picture, a new window will open up for you to enter the description.
NB - In the future if you wish to edit an existing album just click on it from the main Albums page within the Group Control Center.
5-5 Events
You can add events that might interest other members of your group, for example a date to all meet up or the release of a new movie etc. Here's how.
1. Click on the Events button on the main Group Control Panel.
2. Now click on the "Create an Event" tab.
3. Enter the details of the event in the relevant boxes (all boxes marked with an * must be filled in) and once you've checked everything is correct click "Create Event" at the bottom of the screen.
NB - You can add a photo to your event if you wish using the console on the page.
5-6 Controlling your Forum
As your group grows you'll find that the forum is the best place for you all to collectively discuss anything. "But where is the forum and how do you use it?" I hear you ask, here's what you need to know. You might be wondering where the forum is, well at present there isn't a single forum for everyone to use but rather each group has it's own forum, so if you want to post you'll have to join/create a group and use that forum. We did it things this way because you can go into other groups and see what's going on in their forum but if you want to post there you'll have to join that group, simple. NB - If you create an Alliance with another Group you can post on their forums too.
As a groups creator you are given administrator powers in the forum and as a result can prioritize what topics you think are important and if you wish to delete the posts you think are irrelevant. Here's how you do it.
5-6-1 Click on the Forum button on the main Group Control Panel. And you will see listed underneath all the topics 3 buttons:
Delete - does exactly what it says.
Sticky/Unsticky - sticks a topic to the top of the forum meaning it won't drop out of site as it gets older replaced by more recent topics.
Hot topic/Cold topic - use to highlight topics you think are important and/or interesting.
With these 3 buttons you can control the board.
5-6-2 To use any of these features just select the tick box next to the topic you wish to change and then click on the button you want to use, that's all there is too it.
5-6-3 If at any time you feel a topic is no longer hot or doesn't need to be sticky you can undo the process by clicking in the tick box of that topic clicking the button in question again. NB - If you delete a topic it's gone for good so think carefully about whether or not you want to do this, you might offend a few group members if they find their topic has suddenly disappeared.
5-7 Bulletin
What's the difference between the bulletin and the forum I hear you ask? Well the bulletin is for one off announcements, people can't reply to them directly so it's only really useful for announcing group changes or anything else you feel the rest of the group needs to know.
5-7-1 To create a Notice click on the Bulletin button on the main Group Control Panel.
5-7-2 Now click on the "Create a Notice" tab.
5-7-3 Now fill out the details of the Notice and then when it's finished click "Post Notice"
NB - As the group controller you can delete other group members notices if you think they are irrelevant or inappropriate, just click the X to the right of their notice when on the "All Notices" screen.
6. Joining Other Groups
You can't create every group on Loqu, in fact chances are good that if you can think of a good idea for a group someone else will have already created that group. If that's the case and their group is already quite big then you creating a similar group is probably going to be a waste of time unless the other group is badly run. So if you can't beat them, join them.
6-1 Joining a group is easier than crossing the street, firstly go to the group's home page.
6-2 Once there you'll see a button in the top left corner under the group's avatar which says "Join this Group", click it.
6-3 A window will open asking you to confirm that you want to join the group, click yes and you're now a member.
7. Adding Content to your Profile and/or Group.
Want to spice up your profile? There are plenty of things you can add to it to make it more interesting. Read on to find out how.
7-1 Photos
All photos you upload to your profile can be shared with the groups you join. It's a great way to show off your cars, cars you've seen, what you look like, what you've been up to or anything else you think will interest them.
7-1-1 Adding a Photo
7-1-1-1 From the main page go to the top right window and select the photo option, you'll be taken to the relevant page inside the control center.
7-1-1-2 Now you can either upload a picture from you computer by browsing for it, or you can upload the picture via a URL, just copy and paste the URL into the box if you choose to do it this way.
7-1-1-3 Before you publish your photo be sure to give the photo a title, a description if it needs one and whatever tags you think will make it easier for other people to find. You don't have to include tags with the content you submit but the more you input the easier it will be for other people to find it and the easier it will be for you to find similar content if you want to look for it. Writing tags is easy, just think of the keywords you'd associate with the content you are adding and type them in separated by a comma. For example a picture of a Koenigsegg CCXR could be tagged; Koenigsegg, CCXR, photo.
7-1-1-4 Before you click publish, check the advanced options window. There are 2 tick boxes, one to allow comments on the photo and one to allow the photo to be shared with your groups, make sure this is ticked! Now click "Publish".
7-1-2 Editing Photos to Appear in your Groups
7-1-2-1 If you have already uploaded photos and wish to share them with your groups, go to your control panel and click manage posts
7-1-2-2 Look to the right of the names of the various photos you've uploaded you will see 2 icons underneath the title "action" Now just click on the pencil icon to edit the details of your photo.
7-1-2-3 From this page you can see the details of your photo, now just click the tickbox next to option to share the photo with your group and save the changes.
7-1-3 Albums
Albums are discussed in more detail in 5-4.
7-2 Adding a Video
7-2-1 Editing Videos to Appear in your Groups:
7-2-1-1 If you have already uploaded videos and wish to share them with your groups, go to your control panel and click manage posts
7-2-1-2
Look to the right of the names of the various photos you've uploaded you will see 2 icons underneath the title "action" Now just click on the pencil icon to edit the details of your photo.
From this page you can see the details of your video, now just click the tickbox next to option to share the video with your group and then save the changes.
7-2-2 From the main page go to the top right window and select the video option, you'll be taken to the relevant page inside the control center.
7-2-3 The site doesn't store videos themselves but rather the embed code from sites like Youtube, so to upload a video you need to find the relevant video on Youtube etc. and copy the embed code.
7-2-4 You'll need to upload a picture so people can get an idea of what the video is. You can either upload a picture from you computer by browsing for it, or you can upload the picture via a URL, just copy and paste the URL into the box if you choose to do it this way NB - You have to upload a picture or you can't publish the video.
7-2-5 Before you publish your video be sure to give the video a title, a description if it needs one and whatever tags you think will make it easier for other people to find. You don't have to include tags with the content you submit but the more you input the easier it will be for other people to find it and the easier it will be for you to find similar content if you want to look for it. Writing tags is easy, just think of the keywords you'd associate with the content you are adding and type them in separated by a comma. For example a video of F1 highlights could be tagged; F1, Formula 1, race, highlights, video.
7-2-6 One final thing, check the advanced options window. There are 2 tick boxes, one to allow comments on the video and one to allow the video to be shared with your groups, make sure this is ticked! Now click Publish.
7-2-7 To Edit Videos to Appear in your Groups:
If you have already uploaded videos and wish to share them with your groups, go to your control panel and click manage posts
Look to the right of the names of the various photos you've uploaded you will see 2 icons underneath the title "action" Now just click on the pencil icon to edit the details of your photo.
From this page you can see the details of your video, now just click the tickbox next to option to share the video with your group and save the changes.
7-3 Posting in the Forum
So how do you post on your group's forum?
7-3-1 First of all you'll need to get to your group's forum. If you're already there skip to step 3, otherwise go to your profile window in the top right of the main page and click on the groups link. Then select the group you want to post in from the list.
7-3-2 Click on the Forum tab at the top of the page that just loaded.
7-3-3 If you want to start a new topic o the forum just type a heading in the topic "title" box and then type whatever you want to type about in the "body" box, then click "Post New Topic". NB - If you are the creator of this group you have admin powers and can mark topic posts to make them more important, see section 6.6 for more details.
7-3-4 If you want to reply to a topic in the forum you need to click on the topic in question and you'll be taken to it, then just fill out the body and the title if you wish and click "Add Reply"
NB - For more information about the forums, specifically the Admin controls see 6-6
7-4 Adding a Blog
7-4-1 Creating a blog is simply enough, click on the blog link in the profile window on the main page.
7-4-2 Then just give the blog post a title and then type whatever you want to in the box below.
7-4-3 If you want to insert an image into your blog click on the picture logo and then paste the URL of the picture and it will be uploaded automatically.
7-5 Events
For more information about how you post Events see 6-5
7-6 Adding and Modifying your Cars
We figure you're going to want to show off your cars to each other so we've created option for you to "create" your car(s) within your profile, once that's done you can post photos of your car as well as any other details about it.
7-6-1 From the main page go to the top right window and select the cars option, you'll be taken to the car management page.
7-6-2 Click on the "Add a New Car" and then add the details of your car, you only have to add as much detail as you like
7-6-3 Once the car is created you will see it on the main "manage cars" page, now click edit and you can upload pictures of the car to its profile.
7-6-4 If you upload more than one picture to the car's profile you can select which photo will be the main photo by clicking the head icon below the picture, also should you choose to remove a photo you've uploaded just press the X icon below the one you want to delete.
7-6-5 That's all you need to know, repeat the process for as many cars as you have/wish you had and your garage will be full in no time
8. Managing Your Content
Keeping track of all the content you added can be complicated if you don't know how.
8-0-1 Go to your profile page and click on the control center button underneath your avatar
8-0-2 From here click on the Manage Posts button, this will take you to where we want to be.
8-0-3 On the screen you'll see a list of all the posts you've made with an icon to the right of them to show what kind of post it is.
8-1 Editing Your Posts
8-1-1 To the right of post you want to edit there is an icon in the shape of a pencil, click on that and you'll be taken to the edit page.
8-1-2 Now just change what you want and remember to save.
8-2 Deleting Your Posts
8-2-1 To the right of post you want to delete there is an icon in the shape of an X, click on that.
8-2-2 A window will pop up asking to confirm that you want to delete the post, click yes and the post will vanish from site, never to bother you again.
9. Submitting Auto News
We want people to be able to be able to share news with each other as no news aggregator sites really cater for the motor industry in a decent way. We all like to keep up to speed on things and nothing generates conversation like news. What's more, you can submit your blog entries if you feel you've got something important to share with the rest of us. So if you find some auto related news and want to let other people know about it this is how you can:
9-1 From the main page go to the top right window and select the news option, you'll be taken to the relevant page.
9-2 Paste the URL of the page with the relevant news story into the top box, then give the news story a title, a brief description and some tags to make it easier to find. You don't have to include tags with the content you submit but the more you input the easier it will be for other people to find it and the easier it will be for you to find similar content if you want to look for it. Writing tags is easy, just think of the keywords you'd associate with the content you are adding and type them in, separated by a comma. For example, a news article about the unveiling of a new Ferrari at the Tokyo Motor Show could be tagged; Tokyo, Motor show, Ferrari, Unveiling.
9-3 Once that is done click submit.
10. You Inbox, Invitations and Sending Messages
From your inbox you can view any invitations you've received from other people as well as being able to send your own invitations to other people.
10-1 If the person is already a friend of yours you can add them from your friend list to the invitation
10-2 If you are sending the message to someone who is not yet a member of Loqu, you just have to type their normal email address in like you would in a normal email system.
10-3 To send a message to a member who is not your friend, you'll need to go to their profile page and click the "Send a message" button on the left hand side of the screen under their avatar image, you'll then be taken back to the compose message page.
11. Friends
Aside from the multitude of things you can do on the site we want to encourage people to meet each other. In the groups you join you'll quickly get to know each other and if you want a more direct link to that person's profile and all the content they add you'll want to add them as a friend.
11-1 Adding Friends
11-1-1 Adding new friends to your profile is easy. First go the profile page of the person you wish to add as a friend. Below their avatar image you'll see a button that says "Add to Friends" Click on it.
11-1-2 A window will appear asking you to confirm that you want to add this person as a friend, click yes.
11-1-3 Now you have to play the waiting game until the other person confirms you as a friend.
11-2 Accepting & Rejecting Friends
Chances are good that if you're trying to add friends then people are probably trying to add you as a friend at the same time, here's how you find out who wants to be your friend and what you can do about it.
11-2-1 Go to your profile page and click on the control center button underneath your avatar
11-2-2 From here click on the Friends button, this will take you to where we want to be.
11-2-3 You'll see 3 tabs at the top of the screen, click on the one marked "Friend Requests"
11-2-4 Everyone who has requested to be your friend will be shown in tiles like the one shown below, click on their name to take a look at their profile to see what you have in common (Groups, cars etc.) and decide whether or not you want this person to be your friend. Once you've decided click on either the Approve or Deny button with the tile.
11-3 Removing Friends
Whether you have had a falling out with someone or you're simply doing a bit of spring cleaning because you never talk to the person you might want to remove them from your list, here's how.
11-3-1 Follow steps 1 & 2 above in Accepting and Rejecting Friends
11-3-2 All your friends will now be displayed in tiles like the one shown below, find the person(s) you want to remove and click the remove link within the tile.
11-3-3 A window will appear asking you to confirm your decision to remove them, click 'submit' and they'll vanish faster than a puddle in the desert.