Registration

I filled in the registration form but I cannot find the email

Check in your inbox and your 'spam' or 'junk' folder for an email from 'the izwe team', and if you find it, click on the link inside. If you can't find it, try re-registering. If it then tells you that 'the username already exists', contact us at help_ATIZWE_izwe.com, or ask a web-savvy friend/family member to help. 

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Finding my way around

I signed up from inside a conversation but I can't find it again

There are two main ways to find a conversation:

1. If it is public: Search for a word in its name in the search box at the top right. Then select 'conversations' from the drop-down list, and it should appear.

2. Go to the community page of your community (e.g. bexleytalks.izwe.com) 

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I've been invited to a conversation but it says 'this is a private consultation'

Don't be put off. Sign in in the grey left column with your email address and password you chose at registration. You should then be able to see the conversation! If not, check that whoever has invited you used the same email address as the one you're using on the site.

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I signed to a particular community, but seem to be in a different site now

Don't panic, and don't think you won't be able to understand: Read our beginners' guide - it's short and explains how izwe is structured.

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I can't find the forum!

If you're looking for a community forum (to discuss anything about that community) scroll down the central list on the page. If you're looking for a forum inside a conversation, scroll down the 'have your say' list until you see it - if your conversation is called 'education' it will be called 'the education forum'.

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Doing things

How do I send my friend a message?

Go to their profile page, write your message in the box and press 'share'.

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Why can't I see their reply?

On their wall, it displays that they've posted a message but it doesn't display the message - so you can control who sees it. Go to your wall to see their reply. Similarly, your wall displays others' messages to you, but not your messages to others.

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Why doesn't it show this as a continuing conversation?

We believe in protecting your privacy - only people who have been allowed to see both your and your friends wall can see the whole conversation.

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I don't want to 'become friends' with these people!

Don't get caught up by what we call it - you don't have to be close companions! it just means your interested in being able to post on their wall and see what they've been up to on the site. So you can 'friend' people you respect or who share your interests, or someone you have an interesting discussion with in a forum.

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I want it to do something but I can't work out how/it doesn't work

Please let us know! Contact us clicking the 'feedback' tab at the bottom right of the screen and select the suitable category or email us at help_AT_izwe.com

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About izwe, structure and words...

Why isn't this like a normal discussion forum??

Good question. Though simple forum threads are useful, there are other ways to give your views and share your thoughts. Although we do have forums, discussions in different threads can be on very similar topics to other ways to share your views, like calls for ideas, surveys, blogposts, and quickpolls. So we've these different types of tools together by theme, inside 'conversations' (if you are confused at this point, see our beginners' guide, it should make things clearer).

Answer for those used to normal internet forums

If you like, think of each community as one big forum. Each 'conversation' is a topic inside that forum, and 'have your say' element is a thread inside that topic

Answer for those unfamiliar with internet forums

Each community page is like a permanent town hall meeting, each conversation is a specific conversation going on in that meeting, and each have your say element is a different way of joining in with that conversation (through talking, filling in a voting sheet, writing an idea on a post-it note...). For more detail, see our Beginners' Guide (link)

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Dashboard

Your control centre: receives all the updates from your friends, conversations and communities. Displays your messages to your friends and theirs to you. From here, you can also set your status ('what would you change') and create a quickpoll to share with your friends ('ask a question').

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What is my dashboard?

Your dashboard is where you can ask questions, tell your friends and community what you would change in the world (or slightly closer to home) and read the updates from communities, conversations and groups you participate in. It is also where you can see the friends’ activity and read the messages they've left for you.

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What is my profile?

You have a public profile on izwe which allows people to see your participation in groups, conversations and communities as well as read your public profile information. You can change what people see within your privacy settings page. Your profile is where your friends come to share something with you and to answer the questions you've posed. People will never see your dashboard but will be able to view your profile page

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About Privacy and Personal Information

Why do I have to register?

We require that you register with a username and valid email address - this both helps to build community on the site and across different discussions, helps keep comments spam-free, and lets you keep track of what you've taken part in.

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Why do you need my postcode?

The information collected here is to ensure that participation on izwe is by real people and we are providing age appropriate material. As so much of izwe is based on bringing people together in local areas to make better decisions and collaborate on improving your community we also ask you to provide a postcode. This is used for statistics and can be (if you let us) used to display your content and participation on a map for others to engage with. We never locate you to your exact location in order to protect your identity. Everything on izwe can be made private or only available to the people you want to see it.

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How private is my information?

There's much much more to read about this inside our privacy policy and terms and conditions but here's a quick overview. It’s simple: it is as private as you want it to be.

The information you add to your more about you page is completely private within the social sides of the website and is only used behind the scenes to make sure we are as representative as possible and allows us to make better interpretations of the opinions expressed. None of this information is compulsory but we appreciate any answers you're happy to give. When we are analysing the results of surveys and other participation on the website we remove all of your profile information (name and profile picture) and aggregate the information to protect your identity. On the more public side we have made the defaults on the website:

Personal information: Friends only
Address: No-one
Groups: Members
Your activity: Members
Friends: Members
Communities: Members
Conversations: Members

In order to appear on our maps you have to give us permission by ticking the box in this settings page. Even once you've given us permission we will only display a rough location (located only to your area code - the first three digits) and you will not be identified by your exact address. This is all easily changed. And if you think our defaults should be different please do let us know.

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About Ownership and Moderation

Who is moderating the site?

Mostly you (see below). Otherwise, different people in different conversations - organisation staff, community members - you'll see the 'admin' list in each conversation and community page.

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How is the site moderated?

Ideally, you can tell us about any content on the website that you think is inappropriate and we will review it and take it down if necessary - just press the 'report' link by the offending contribution. You can also let us know through our formal abuse process, or by hitting the feedback tab in the bottom right of your screen. We moderate the website in line with our terms and conditions and privacy policy, and we ask for contributions to be in line with our community guidelines - so if it's copyright, abuse, inappropriate for all ages, completely off topic or overtly commercial, it'll be removed. Where we remove a post we will endeavour to provide a good and public explanation but we hope you’ll understand that this is not always possible. Individual communities have their own moderation rights and if they plan on removing anything that isn't covered in the above they will let you know. As might be obvious we operate a post-moderation policy which means occasionally you may encounter something inappropriate - so please report it but we think this is better than having to wait hours or days for your content to appear.

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Other

What is Facebook Connect?

If you use Facebook this allows you to link your izwe account and your Facebook account. We have it on izwe because we think it makes your life easier as it allows you to:

- automatically update your Facebook friends with your izwe activity
- invite your Facebook friends to join you on izwe
- find your Facebook friends who are already on izwe
- speedily log in to izwe when you are logged in to Facebook

We know there's still work to be done with fine tuning this but we've made a start and if you let us know what you want to be able to do between the accounts then we'll work on making it better.

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What does 'beta' mean?

Beta is used to describe a particular phase that a website is at with its development. We are technically in public beta as we want everyone to come along and use what we've built so we can get the most amount of feedback to make it better. It tends to mean there will be a few things that are temperamental (ahem) but we hope you'll be patient.

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Ask a question...

... not only will we answer you, but we might also get to know what our actual 'frequently asked questions' are! Click the 'feedback' tab at the bottom right of the screen or email help_AT_izwe.com

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