Below is some help on specific topics.
For a more general overview try here. |
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 How to |
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| join in | Click Log in on the top right hand and then click the New to oddflower? button. Enter a username and password (both at least 6 characters long) and then click join in. You'll be given a default picture and a 'general' folder in My Folders to start off with, but you can change these whenever you choose. |
| add a link | Click My Folders at the top of the page & then click the add link button. Choose the folder where you want to put the link, type the url or paste it in, and remember to write a description that allows others to know what this link is for.
Tip: you can get the url of a site by right-clicking on a link or in the address bar, go to 'copy shortcut' or 'copy'. When you're putting a url into your folders, right-click on the url field and go to 'paste'. |
| copy a link | Click the link you're interested in and then click the copy button. Choose a folder where you want to put the link, edit the url or description if you like, and press ok. The link will be copied to your folder. |
| add a folder | In My Folders, click the edit folders button. Then click the add new folder button, give the new folder a name, and press ok. |
| edit or remove a link | Click the link you want to change or remove. Then click the edit button on the right of the link. From here, you can change the link and press ok, or you can delete the link by pressing the remove this link button. |
| edit or remove a folder |
In My Folders, click the edit folders button. Select a folder from the list and click ok. From here, you can change the folder's name and press ok, or you can remove the folder by pressing the remove this folder button. NB. any links in it will be lost. |
| change your details | In My Folders, click your picture. In the details section, change whatever you'd like. Leave the passwords blank and they'll stay as before. When you've finished, click update details and your details will update. Press done to exit. |
| change your picture | In My Folders, click your picture. In the picture section, press Browse to find a file on your computer you want to use. Click upload picture and the picture will be added to the website. Then press done. If your new picture doesn't appear straightaway, press ctrl and F5 to reload the site. |
| get your inbox as RSS | Click My Inbox, then click the 'my oddflower inbox' RSS icon. Copy the url & paste into your feedreader. |
| get your inbox on your facebook | In Facebook, browse the applications for one called 'oddflower' and 'add' it. Once you've added it, follow the simple instructions & your facebook will link to your folders in oddflower. |
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| What's this? |
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| My People | Your people are people whose links are connected to yours. Their 'affinity' is a measure of how strongly they're connected to you. When you share feed items by pressing the 'share this item around' button, they're shared with these people. |
| Clusters | Clusters are collections of links, people & news. The contents, title and size of the cluster are calculated from the traffic flows between the links it contains. Each new journey in oddflower effects everything, so don't expect things to simply stay put. In oddflower, everything is free to change. |
| Site Map | Each cluster is not just a dynamic directory of links, it also relates to other clusters by traffic flow. Oddflower calculates the relationship between clusters and then plots the results. This acts as a kind of dynamic site map, showing you where attention is focused right now. The size of the blobs shows you their relative importance and the closeness of blobs to each other shows you how connected the clusters are to each other right now. Click them to list the links in them etc. |
| Related Links | Each link accumulates traffic. The more traffic a link has, the 'hotter' and redder it gets. As attention drops off, it goes 'cold' and blue again. The related links are links that have been recently visited from or to the link you are looking at, and hence 'relate' to that link. |
| What is a 'feed' | Many websites now produce feeds, oddflower included. These are lists of new things appearing on them that you can 'subscribe' to in order to stay informed. Oddflower can read feeds for you and generate personalised 'oddfeeds'.
To add a feed, simply press add feed, enter the feed url and choose a folder. To get an 'oddfeed' for another feedreader press an oddflower feed button where you see one. On other sites, you'll find the feed url by pressing one of the familiar orange feed buttons or by pressing the feed button on your browser. Once you have the feed url, just add it to oddflower.
If oddflower can't read the feed, it'll tell you and you can either leave it there (& we'll try to fix it) or you can remove it from your list. If you still want the feed or you'd like to make your feed available to others, just put the feed url into one of your folders as though it were any other link and it will be accessible in most peoples' browsers. |
| Sharing feed items | When you're logged in, you can press the 'share this item around' button. This will post the item to the oddfeeds & inbox of that folder's visitors. Feed items are ranked by how new they are and how much overlap there is between the receiving folder and the sending folder. The more links & traffic you have in your folders, the better your oddfeeds & inbox become. |
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| FAQs |
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| What do I do if nothing's happening? | Oddflower connects things using traffic. As you move from your links and folders to other people's links and folders, you'll be leaving connections to your links in related places. It's up to other people whether or not they visit you back, so the best thing to do is to keep exploring until things start happening. |
| Does my traffic get measured? | No. Numbers of journeys between things get measured, but there is no record of who did the travelling. |
| What do I do if I find inappropriate material? | Contact us with the offending url and we'll take action if necessary. |
| Forgotten password? | Oddflower doesn't have your e-mail address, so all you can do is join in again and copy your old links over to your new user (see above). |
| What do I do if I find an error? | If you find an error, we'd like to know about it. Contact us and we'll sort it out as fast as we can. |
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| Your own oddflower? |
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| Want to try oddflower for work or have your own? | Contact us and we can set up a private oddflower for your people, giving you an instant, ad-free, no-hassle knowledge management system. |
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