| Frequently Asked Questions |
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Frequently Asked Questions
These are an initial set of anticipated questions about Urania.info
and are intended to be more specific to Urania than the
Guidelines,
which are generic and not specific to Urania.
Read this FAQ, but be sure to read the Guidelines
before participating. This is a work in progress and will hopefully
be improved by our members as we mature.
Urania.info is a place where astrologers
can meet, write articles, share information, keep a weblog, and
provide intelligent commentary on the state of astrology as it was and as it is.
We are not limited to any single school or topic area of astrology,
and encourage you to contribute, whatever your interest or
background. Think of Urania as a kind of über mailing list without all
the noise of subscribing to all the mailing lists out there. It's more than that, however, since publishing is a big part of what is done on this site.
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We're trying to figure that out :-) Seriously, Urania so far is just
myself, johnnyc, and my
friend Axel Harvey ,
president of the Hirsig Society. I brought the idea of Urania to the
Society, a charitable organization with the mission of establishing an
astrological library in Montreal.
Axel has been a professional astrologer for 35 years, while I've been
an amateur astrologer since 1986. I'm also the webmaster and site administrator, so if you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me
They liked the project, not only
because it is a brilliant way to facilitate astrological exchanges. but
because it may provide the non-astrologer
public with a noise-free and flame-free window onto the astrological
world. Besides, they had a domain they weren't using: so here we are.
You can read the horoscope for urania.info in astrolog text format at urania's bio page.. Information on the circumstances of her birth can be found in this diary entry.
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The first thing you have to do is click the link included in the
confirmation e-mail you were sent. This link will only activate your
account and will not log you in. Once you've done that, enter the nickname you chose in the username field of the "Login Box",
then copy and paste the password you were assigned into the password
field. Once you've logged in, look for the "Change Your Info" link in
the box entitled [your member name]. This will bring you to a page where you
can change your password to something you can remember. You will need to enter your password again to change anything on this page. Note that all
usernames and passwords are case-sensitive.
The "we" in this question is really the community at large - the
astrologers who read and contribute material on this site. The only firm
requirements are that articles submitted to Urania be
about astrology, formatted in basic html (or you can use Auto Format) and, unfortunately, must be in the English language only.
Beyond that, any article on almost any coneivable
area of astrology can be submitted. Before submitting an article,
please read the submit
stories section of the Guidelines
page.
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Auto Format is a way for people to create html formatted articles, diaries, and comments without having to know html. When you post with Auto Format Mode, _word_ will look like word, *word* will look like word, and a URL like http://urania.info will look like http://urania.info. You can also name links by enclosing the link with in square brackets, so [astrology's weblog http://urania.info] will have the effect of creating a link called astrology's weblog for urania.info. You can also create lists by preceding a list item with * or a number and adding a space. See the Submit Article page for other tips on this feature. Use this mode for posting articles if you aren't comfortable with HTML or don't know what it is.
HTML is the acronym for Hyper-text Markup Lanuguage. Almost all web-pages are formatted
using html for readability and easy linking between pages and other sites. Whenever you see bold text on a web page, you're seeing that because the bold text was enclosed between
<b> and </b>. These are called tags and are immediately interpreted by web browsers as
meaning bold text. The html needed to write an
article at Urania is minimal, and there's even a
"Quick HTML Help" box in the Submit Article page. This should be all the help you
need, because not very much html is required. If you're really lost with this after trying it out, just e-mail me. I'll do my best to help you out.
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(Editor's Note: You no longer have to format articles in HTML if you use Auto Format). The short answer is readability. Text-only articles can be difficult to read and are not a good medium for publishing on the web. HTML gives
articles a consistent look and feel, and allows
the author to format the article to their taste. While we understand the need for articles to be published in a manner that's easy, it's just as
important for articles to be as readable as
possible for everyone. We hope that in time a
solution will emerge that will enable members to
publish html articles in a more friendly way, but for now we ask that you give this a try. It should
only take a few minutes to get the hang of this,
especially with the help box on the submit page.
If you can learn your favourite astrology program, html is really a piece of cake. Honest!
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Sections are a way of categorizing articles, similar to
newspapers. We've created some initial sections which are nothing more
than broad topic areas, in addition to other pseudo-sections like
"Front Page" and "Everything". These sections
are not engraved in stone and if many people suggest changing them we
could decide to rename them, but there is definitely a limit to the number of
sections we can have and it is much easier to alter the list of topics
(see below). For instance, there is no point in having
a section devoted to Uranian astrology when that would mean a section
for every other school of astrology. Instead, we've created a section
called "Technique" that tries to cover them all.
- Front Page:
One could call this is pseudo-section, since it contains stories
from any of the other sections. When our members vote on a story,
they vote it to the sectional page chosen by the author, or, if they really like it, they
vote it to the Front Page. Articles in this section are the best of the best and are
what people see when they type urania.info into their
browser. Articles are not actually submitted to "Front Page", they are
placed there by our members.
- Everything
Another pseudo-section, this contains all stories in all
sections except diaries. Members can choose to be brought to this page each time they visit the site.
- News:
This section can contain summaries with links to
news items on other sites, announcements pertinent to astrology online and offline, and any other new items of interest to the community
- Foundations
This section is about exploring the philosophical, historical, and
scientific foundations of astrology and astrological
technique. Inspired by all those astrologers who have asked the really
tough questions over the years.
- Mundane
Everthing related to Mundane astrology, including current
events. Articles here should be in depth and not merely pointers to
other articles on the Internet.
- Internet
This is where people submit short articles pointing members to
interesting articles and websites on the Internet. Articles here
should contain a link and a summary that gives members an idea of what
it is about.
- Horoscopy
Chart delineation, the art of reading horoscopes put into practice. This is intended mainly for
charts of individuals, or items from an astrologers case book.
- Technique
This is where we get to explore the tools of the trade, and the
various methods of practicing astrology. It can also include articles
specific to a particular school or tradition of astrology, such as
hellenistic astrology, jyotish, uranian, etc..
- Op-Ed
Opinion pieces. This is where members can express opinions on the
state of astrology, the site itself, and any other personal view point
that may be of interest to the community.
- Ask Urania
This is where members put questions to other members on any area of astrology they choose. The idea here is draw from all the experience and knowledge present at Urania to get answers to difficult questions.
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Diaries are equivalent to weblogs, an increasingly popular medium on
the web. You diary is your diary and you can write whatever you feel
like writing in here. It is your personal space on the Web, and is
a good way to connect with other members and friends online. This is where you can
discuss your chart, life, and everything else. Be creative with
diaries - that's what they're about. Or don't.
Whereas it is common in mailing lists to have personal communications
with people not necessarily about astrology, diaries are ideal for
this sort of thing.
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Topics are a way of grouping articles into categories that go beyond
what sections do. They are more specific, and can cross section
boundaries. They are also convenient for search purposes.
All articles are posted under a topic to a section. There are many more
topics than sections, and topics can be added as our members see
fit. If one is posting an article, it must be given a topic and
section. If you feel there should be another topic, say so and we'll
put it to our members. If you submit an article and can't find an
approriate topic for it, don't worry about it. Just find the closest
topic that fits. It's more important to post to the correct section.
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All comments, articles, and diaries are owned by whoever posted them. We have no desire to own anything you write and we will never publish anything except on this site. We do reserve the right to delete anything you write for whatever reason. Comments are not edited except in extreme cases. Plagiarism is not tolerated.
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