User Guide1. RegisteringRegistering at Scribas couldn't be simpler. Simply go to our Register page and complete with your desired username, password and your e-mail address. Member names must be 3-14 characters. Membership LevelThere are three levels of membership on Scribas:
When you sign up, you will be a New Member. As a New Member, all new content that you create will be moderated. Once our site moderators have confirmed this content to be suitable for Scribas, you will quickly find your membership level moved up to Full Member, at which point your content will be published without moderation. We promote our most consistent contributors to Senior Member level. There are also Site Moderators and Administrators on Scribas. 2. Your AccountWhen you have signed up and confirmed your membership by e-mail, you can then visit your your main account page can be found by clicking on the menu item My Account which you will find in the menu once you are logged in. Member InfoThe top panel on your account page contains your photo and some basic information such as your membership level, bookmarks and the date you joined Scribas. If you are viewing another member's account page, you will also see here a link to follow them if you find their content interesting. Member ToolsThis panel will only be visible when you are on your own account page and, depending on your membership level, there are many options available to you here, allowing you to create content, edit your account and check your tracked content and members. If you are still a New Member, some of these options will not be visible to you. Member's ContentThe rest of a Member's account page shows the content they have created, divided into different types and showing the most popular or viewed. Their most recent comments are also shown. Edit AccountIf you press Edit from your account page, you will be able to make changes to your account. Listed below are the settings you can change. Account InformationYou can change both your e-mail address and your password here. Please ensure your e-mail address is correct as you will receive important account information there from time to time. SignatureAlter the signature that you would like to appear at the end of your forum posts on Scribas. PictureThis allows you to upload a photo that will be visible on your member page and also on any comments you make. We will automatically resize anything too large. Front Page 'Local Member Boxes' configurationOnce you have a profile created, you will be able to see boxes on the right side of the front page showing Scribas members from your country, your hometown, etc. This is the section where you can decide which of these "local" boxes show or remain hidden. Contact SettingsThere is a site-wide Contact feature on Scribas and that can be turned on and off here. This allows other members to contact you. Any messages sent through Scribas will be delivered to your e-mail address. Other members will not be able to view your e-mail address, which is kept private. Time Zone SettingsThis is where you can change the time zone that will determine all time zones shown on Scribas. This will ensure that times shown on comments and forum posts, for example, are accurate. 3. Your ProfileYour profile on Scribas is the page that carries basic biographical information about you and allows others to know something about you and find you using our search tools. We recommend our members create their profile as soon as possible after registering with us. Until you do, you will see a reminder box on the right hand side of the site. Completing your profile improves your user experience on the Scribas site because it will make it easier to find both content and other members who are more relevant to you. The information you can enter in your profile is divided into four sub-categories:
Only the Location section is required - the rest is optional. Remember that Scribas is a site about memories and nostalgia when entering your Location information. If you currently live in California, but spent most of your life in New York, you should enter "New York" for your location, making it easier to trace other people from the New York area and be traced yourself by New Yorkers. Remember: you can always change the location on your Profile at any time. Profile PrivacyAlmost none of the information is required but the more you fill in, the better a service we can provide for you across the Scribas site. When you create or edit your Profile on Scribas, you will be given the chance to make it private. This means that those who are not members will not be able to view it. It also means your Profile will not appear in any of the search tools on the site. Using Your Profile To SearchAfter you have filled out and saved your profile, you can click on elements such as your year of birth, city and school. Clicking on these links will bring you to our search pages where you can find other Scribas members who share the same information. The front page of Scribas also contains boxes that rely on you completing your profile as fully as possible. These boxes will contain information about other Scribas members you may be interested in: members from your hometown, members from your school, etc. Finally, the Local section will only function for you once you have completed your Profile. 4. LocalOnly after you have completed your profile will you really see the "local" power of Scribas. As well as improving the power of the many search tools across the site, our Local section will spring to life. If you are logged out or do not have a profile, you will not see all the parts of Local that are referred to here. Local Content - By clicking on the "Local" item in the main menu, you will find yourself on a page where content relevant to you has been listed. If you are from Scotland, you will see all the content that has been tagged with Scotland. If you are from Indiana, likewise. Clicking on Local will instantly give you access to blog posts, forum threads, videos, images and everything else we offer on Scribas - all locally relevant to you. Remember, you can alter the location saved in your Profile at any time - Local content will switch with you effortlessly! Local Members - Clicking on the "Local Members" sub-menu under Local will present to you a list of members who share either your hometown or your state/country. Local Members' Content - Here you will find the content created by all the Scribas members who share your hometown. In this way, the content on Scribas that is most relevant to you is only a click away. 5. Your Scribas BlogAll members on Scribas have the chance to begin their own blog. You can use this blog to write about all your memories. You can also add a photo to each blog entry and can be categorized using tags to improve your blog's organisation and to allow you to group similar blog entries together. What can I write about?Blogs are traditionally used as a type of online diary, but here at Scribas, our members' blogs serve as a memory archive. Our blog entries include members' memories on everything from their first dog to their last day at work and much more. Your Scribas blog is designed to allow you to document all thoughts and memories as they pertain to your life. Here are some ideas on what you can include in your Scribas blog, though this list is by no means exhaustive:
Writing Your Scribas BlogAfter you have registered on Scribas, your Scribas blog can be found by clicking on the link My Blog which you will find under the menu heading Scribas Blog, once you are logged in. Click on the "Post new blog entry" link at the top of the page and you can begin to write your blog entry.
Categorizing your blog entryYou will be given the chance to choose one or more categories (or tags) for each of your blog entries. You can also choose to click on a popular category that has already been used by many other Scribas members. Blog tags are usually best kept short - one or two words, such as Pets or Childhood Memories. Adding a photo to your blog entryYou can optionally add one photo to each of your blog entries. Any large photos will automatically get resized. CommentsOther Scribas members will be able to add comments to your Scribas blog. If you see any inappropriate content in any of the comments attached to your blog posts, click on the yellow triangle at the top of the blog post to report it to us. Alternatively, you can contact the site administration team and we will look at removing it. 6. FlashbacksWhat memories come flooding back to you when you see the opening credits of Starsky & Hutch? Or, going a little further back, those of I Dream Of Jeannie? When you see old black and white photographs or listen to a radio clip from more than fifty years ago, you begin to recollect where you were, what you were doing, how things were in years gone by. The memories awakened in this way is what Scribas is interested in so this is why we made our Flashbacks section - to get the memory juices flowing! For a great collection of multi-media memories, head over to our Flashbacks section. We also have our own Flashbacks forum where you can ask and answer questions about TV shows, commercials, radio shows, old photos or indeed anything relating to memories you have and would like to share. VideoScribas gives you the chance to embed videos from popular video websites. 
So what video content might you like to upload to Scribas? If you go to our Video section, you can see the type of categories of video that Scribas users have put on the site. Our most popular categories include:
We are especially keen to see the following types of video.
PhotosWith Scribas, you will have the chance to add some of the thousands of old photographs either lying around in dusty boxes in your house or sitting on your computer in digital format. Color or Black & White, think of all those photos you would like to have a permanent home for:
When you add a photo to Scribas, you'll have the chance to enter the following information:
AudioSome of the greatest memories of the previous century came to use through the medium of sound: Churchill's determination and grit across the BBC airwaves, Orson Welles causing an entire nation to panic and flee from imaginary aliens. Scribas did not want to ignore the treasure trove of audio memories that exists and so we created a section for the most famous sound moments in history. 
We also realise that some of your best memories may be stored away on sound files. You may want to upload onto Scribas:
Currently, we can accept any sound files in the mp3, wav, wma or ogg formats, preferably with bitrates of 16, 32, 64, 128 or 320 kilobytes per second. Please note that our automatic Flash audio player will only function with mp3 files and that higher bitrates will result in large file sizes. There is an upload limit of 2mB per file, so try and keep audio bitrates low. For speech, bitrates of 16-32kbps are perfectly acceptable. If you have any problems playing audio files with the built-in Flash Audio player, you can use the direct download link at the bottom of each Audio page. 7. IconsWhat is an Icon?What do you remember from your childhood? Or rather, what do you remember from your childhood bedroom - or from your childhood garden? No doubt, it's those small things, your favorite toy or game, that gadget you just had to have, that type of skirt you and all your school friends just had to have. These are the cultural Icons that Scribas would like to celebrate in our Icon section of the website. Types of IconThink of these Icons as being like bricks in a cultural wall. They were the stuff of everyday life for kids and adults alike. Each decade has their own Icons and the decade wouldn't have been the same without them:
And many more besides. When people are remembering their past, the things they reminisce about the most, alongside their favorite TV shows and songs are the things, the objects that decorated their work time and their play time, their bedrooms, lounges and kitchens. It is these Icons that we celebrate at Scribas. 8. HubsWhat is a Hub?A Scribas Hub is like the hub of a wheel, a central place to which other content (the spokes of the wheel) can be attached: blog posts, forum threads, images, videos and so on. Scribas Hubs allow like-minded members to join together and collect content into a central archive that reflect their common interest. You can create hubs dedicated to a general interest or something more specific like a town, school or TV show. Let's say you create a Hub for your hometown, Anytown. You and other members can now attach other content to the "Anytown" Hub. In this way, the "Anytown" Hub gradually becomes almost like a portal in itself, with an ever-growing body of content related to Anytown. The members of a Hub will become like a mini community by themselves. Types Of HubThere are a variety of different Hub types on Scribas:
Why form or join a Hub?Whatever the reason for its creation, Scribas Hubs are a great way for people to share content and be in closer contact with each other.
Creating A New HubAll Scribas members can create new Hubs, but all new Hubs are moderated before publication. Moderation usually only takes a few hours. If you want to create a Hub, go to the Hubs page and begin from there. You can also find a link to create a new Hub on your main account page. Before creating a new Hub, please use our search tools and listing of existing Hubs to see if another Scribas member has already done so. When creating a Hub, fill out as much information as possible. This will make the process of moderation and publication as simple and rapid as possible. Joining a HubIf you find a Hub that interests you, joining is simply a matter of clicking on the "Join" link that you’ll find either on the right side of each Hub or near the top where the Hub's general information is listed. Adding Content to a HubFirst, you will need to join the Hub in order to be able to attach content to it. There are then two ways in which you can add content to it:
Becoming a Hub AdministratorOnce you create a new Hub on Scribas, you become its manager. You will not be able to quit the Hub unless you hand over the administrator role to another member of the same Hub. As the manager of a Hub, you will have the following abilities:
A Living HubHubs exist on Scribas for the collection of similar content: photos, blog posts, forum threads, video and audio pages and so on. Things you might want to write about may include the following:
These are the pieces of the puzzle we would like Scribas members to co-operatively put together in the Hubs on the site. Once this is done, a Hub will become a growing, living entity and a wonderful resource for its members. 9. Using The SiteHere, we outline some other aspects of the Scribas site and explain how to best utilize the tools at your disposal. Scribas StatsWhen you first visit the front page of Scribas, you'll notice a box on the right with the title Scribas Stats. Here is what you'll find in this box alongside your location (if you have completed your profile) and the length of time you've been a member.
The Scribas ForumThe forum provides a quick, clean way for Scribas members to communicate both with each other and with those who work on Scribas. Above all, the forum allows our members to ask questions relating to the content they've read, seek clarification or suggest changes. Use descriptive, clear titles on your forum threads. "Trying to find store keeper" isn't a helpful title to someone scanning numerous thread titles. "Trying to find lumber store manager, Portland OR, late 1930's" is far more likely to get responses, which is, after all, what you are interested in. Following MembersAmong all the interesting nostalgia-based content that is created on Scribas, you'll no doubt find members who are of particular interest to you: perhaps they are from your hometown, went to your high school or perhaps you just enjoy their writing. You can follow these members on Scribas. This is like bookmarking them and you will then be able to keep up to date with any new content they add to Scribas. To follow a member, click on their name to go to their account page and click on the Follow Member link. Once you have started following some Scribas members, you'll find the link "Followed Members" in the menu. Clicking this will bring up a list of followed members and their content. Liking PagesAt the bottom of each Scribas page, you will be able to give a thumb up to a page. You won't be allowed to vote for your own content. This means you liked it and wish to show your appreciation. This allows us to create lists of "best rated" pages such as: Page ToolsBookmarking PagesScribas offers you two chances to bookmark pages that might have attracted your attention. In the top right hand corner of most pages, you will see the "Bookmark This" symbol ( At the bottom of each page is a section called "Share & Mail" where you can e-mail a page to a friend and share Scribas content on various online social/bookmarking sites such as:
Reporting PagesWe do our best at Scribas to keep spam and abusive content off the website, but we also rely on you, our members, to help us in this endeavor. In the top right of every page, you'll also find a small image ( You may click on the report icon for different reasons, for example:
We can then make a decision about withdrawing it from Scribas. If you are unsure about any of the content you see on Scribas, you can always contact us. Printable Version of PagesIf you want a printer-friendly version of a Scribas page, simply click on the printer icon ( 10. SearchThere are several ways in which you can search for both content and users at Scribas. On the top of the search page, you will find tabs that allow you to use the Scribas search function to find different things. There are also specialized searches for different types of content: Basic SearchThis is a keyword-based search that allows you to look for words and phrases across the Scribas site. Enclosing your keywords in quote marks will return significantly fewer results. Content - Advanced SearchOnce on the search page, clicking on the Advanced Search link will open up a new section of the search page will be allow you to search only in specified Regions or Forums and only within pages of a certain type. Members' NamesFrom the basic search page, clicking on the "Members" tab will open up a search for members based on their username. This will allow you to find members on Scribas even if you only partly know their username. Remember, this searches for a member by their username, not their real name. Member SearchThis is a very useful search which will give you the opportunity to find members even if you don't know their username. You will find three filters at the top of the page: Year of Birth, Town and State/Country. This will allow you to narrow down your search. The more filters you use, the fewer results you will get back. All of the filters are optional. You will also find a tab, "Member Locations", where you will find locations listed out in alphabetical order, so you can easily drill down and find your hometown and the members on Scribas who live there. Education SearchUsing the Education Search, you will be able to track down old school and college buddies at the click of a button. Search the Scribas member database for those you spent the best years of your life with. There are two distinct search tools you can use - By School and By University. In both of these searches, there are a number of optional filters. There is also another tab under Education Search and that's School List Here, you will be able to drill down through country/state, cities and finally see a list of schools our members have listed in their profiles.
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Log InSign UpJoin Scribas today and be a part of the Internet's memory site. Further Help?You can ask questions about how to use the site on our support and suggestions Forum. Watch Video TourWatch our video tour of Scribas: Take Tour >> Social |
). By clicking on this, the page will be added to your own list of bookmarks which you will be able to access from your main account page.
) that you can click to report a page for a variety of inappropriate content. Clicking on that icon will alert site moderators that something may be wrong with that page and we'll check it out as quickly as possible.
