What?

We need you to have an account on our system if you wish to comment on an article (post).

Why?

• We feel that is always better to have real, named users on our site.
• Having to registry means you are more likely to see comments from humans than web bots.
• Spammers and trolls usually don’t want to take the time to register. The fewer of them the better.
• Known someone’s name or nickname leads to a more respectful exchange of ideas

Account

We understand that although you can create an account on this site many users wish to use an existing Social Media account as their log-in (e.g. Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.)

Apart from the benefits to the community (see Why?), your account give you access to a profile where you can add more details about yourself. It is also the self-serve section for modifying things like your email address, display and real names, passwords and other items.

How to Register and Use My Account?

We have a number of FAQs in this section to help you with this.

Menu And Sidebar

You can register by clicking on the register link under Account on the sidebar. The account sidebar  and menu items change once you are logged in.

NOTE: If you do not see the Register link or the Register Menu item you are probably already logged in.

Direct Link

You can also use this link to go to the Register page.

Login

You can click here to log in to the site.

Menu And Sidebar

You can login by clicking on the login link under Account on the sidebar. The account sidebar  and menu items change once you are logged in.

NOTE: If you do not see the Login link or the Login Menu item you are probably already logged in.

Yes we offer you the option to login via the following social networks

	• Facebook
	• Google
	• Twitter
	• Linked In

When you are on the login page select the social media connection you wish to use or login with an existing account.

Menu And Sidebar

You can log out by clicking on the logiout link under Account on the sidebar. The account sidebar and menu items change once you are logged out.

NOTE: If you do not see the Log out link or the Log out Menu item you are probably not logged in.

Reset Password now

Lost Password Link 

Notes and Alternate Method:

Go to the login page and follow these instructions

1. Click on Lost you password? at the bottom
2. Enter the Username or E-mail of your WordPress admin user, then click on Get New Password
3. You should get an email with the subject [WordPress Site] Password Reset. The body of this email will contain a link below the text To reset your password, visit the following address, go ahead and click on that link.
4. Type in your New password, confirm it, then click on Reset Password

It does not send you your password, it sends you a link to set a new password. We cannot send you your original password as we only store an encryption/hashed version.

Yes, you can delete your account. We really hope that you do not feel the need to do so, but we both understand that you may need to or want to. If there is anything we can do to help you before or after you decide to delete your account please let us know via our feedback page. We will be sorry to see you go and thank you for using our site.

How to Access Your Profile

When logged into the site you can get access to your profile by clicking on your name on the Account part of the sidebar or “Profile” menu item.

How to Delete Account

At the bottom of your profile there is a link to allow you to delete your account. This link will  ask you to confirm the delete.

What is not delete?

Your public comments are retained as they are part of a conversation that should remain intact.

What to Do Before Deleting Your Account?

We recommend editing any comments you have made before deleting your account. Once your account is deleted you will not have access to your old comments.

We can answer some questions – please complete the contact form.

As many user may guess, we use WordPress as our underlying platform. With the popularity of WordPress there are a many, many web sites with answers to common questions.

Yes, you can link your social media account to your account on this site. You do not need an account on our site to use the social media login features.

Social Media Login

1. Go to the login page (log out first if required)
2. Login using your social media connection

When logging in via social media the system checks to see if an existing account has the same email address as the one returned as part of the social media login.

No Email Match

• When no match is found the system creates a new account for you.

Email Match Found

1. Option for creating a new account using the social media connection; or
2. Chance to link the social media connection to your existing account
   1. You are to authenticate using the existing account credentials as part of the process

How to Access Your Profile

When logged into the site you can get access to your profile by clicking on your name on the Account part of the sidebar or “Profile” menu item.

Change Email

You can select a new email address by editing the field. There are a few items to keep in mind:

1. You will receive an email to your old account explaining the changes you have just made
2. The change will affect your profile picture unless you use the same picture for this new email address on your Gravatar account
3. It does not change your newsletter, email address if subscribed. Please see the “How can I change my email address?” section of the newsletter FAQs.

Change Name

You can edit your first and last name. These changes could affect the display name for your account if you have selected them in the “Display name publicly” setting.

Change Nickname

You can edit your nickname. The nickname is the default setting for the “Display name publicly”, so for most people this will affect the name on the comments.

Change Password

There is a button to start the change password process. It generates a complex password for this account. You can edit this field and change the password if you wish. If you forget your password and cannot login you can start a recovery process from the login form.

Change Username

Username are created during the account registration phase and cannot be changed.

Gravatar is a service that profiles images associated with email addresses. You create your own account on Gravatar.

Once that completed you add your email address, the one you associated with you on this site. Then you add an image for the email address.

Your profile picture is defined on Gravatar. We use this picture on the site.

Please contact us immediately, using the contact form. We prioritize these requests and will quickly respond.

What is Displayed?

• Your display name*
• The date of the post displayed based on Universal Time (UTC), also called Greenwich Mean Time [GMT]
• Your avatar image**

*Controlling Your Display Name

When logged into the site you can get access to your profile by clicking on your name on the Account part of the sidebar or “Profile” menu item.

Here you can select what type of name is show using the “Display name publicly as” field. You can select a new name or nickname and choose which to display.

**Your Avatar

The site uses Gravatar to pull an image associated with your email address. You will need to create a Gravatar account and assign an image to the email address you have selected for this site.