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The
following
information has been put together to assist new coordinators in
creating and maintaining Saving Graves Project websites.
Adopting
a Country or
County Website
How
Do I Adopt a Saving Graves Website?
What's involved in creating a Saving Graves page?
Can
I take over an existing site as is?
How do I find out if I can take over an existing site?
How
much time will this involve?
What type of information do you expect hosts to provide?
Do
I Have To Live in the Location I host?
Do I Have To Speak the Native Language of the Country or County I Host?
Do
I Have To Know Web Design (HTML)?
Do I Have To Use A Specific Software Program or a Special Computer?
How
Do I Register My Site With Saving Graves?
How Do I Register My Site With Other Search Engines?
Websites,
Uploading
and Other Technical Stuff
Where
Do I Store My Pages So Everyone Can See Them?
Do
I Have To Pay For My Own Space?
Creating
Web Pages
How Do
I Make A Web Page?
Are Any Page Restrictions, Number of Pages or Number of Pictures?
How
Do I Upload Files To The Internet?
If
You Want To Leave...
What Do I Do If I
Become A Host And Want To
Resign?
How
Do I Adopt a Saving Graves Website?
If you are interested in joining our project, please contact the state,
country or regional coordinator of your area of interest. Usually the
national coordinator maintains an index and will identify which states
or counties are "available for adoption". Each project may maintain
their own set of rules and standards in addition to those set by Saving
Graves so make sure to read any pertinent information that
the national or state coordinator may have online regarding their
project sites.
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What's
involved in creating a Saving Graves page?
Keep
in mind, a Saving Graves page's purpose is Assisting visitors who come
to the site most likely in need of assistance with a cemetery related
problem in "your" state, and most if not all visitors come with
specific questions that they want answers for. We are first and
foremost to assist our visitors to the best of our abilities.
In order to become a
coordinator web creation and maintenance is of prime importance to the
success of our project. However, it is now possible to create websites
without much knowledge of html due in part to the new breed of HTML
Editors that work just like a word processor. You should be familiar
with html and know how to upload files to the internet. Additionally,
it is helpful to have a basic understanding of internet forms, mail
lists, and other tools.
We understand that
maintaining a web page can seem like a monumental task for one person.
For the past two years Saving Graves has been the work of one person,
so I can relate to this. Don't fret! Feel free to gather a few friends
and volunteer for a state or other division as a group. If
there is currently a coordinator covering the area you are considering
becoming a volunteer for -- feel free to ask them to stay on as a
partner/helper. I'm sure that they would love to have help.
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Can I
take over an existing site as is?
Currently, this will not be an issue. All volunteers coming in will
receive the current Saving Graves page as a starting point. But if all
three of the following are a 'yes'...
1 - The
site is up for adoption (ie, 'New Coordinator Needed')
2 - The resigning host AND
Saving Graves agrees to let you have the site as is.
3 - If you know how to make
the appropriate changes to reflect your host status (replacing old
Coordinator's name & address with your name & address)
and know how to update the site (keeping information current)
Then
there should be no problem and you will be able to take control of the
site once you receive a "go ahead" from Saving Graves and get the
necessary information.
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How
do I find out if I can take over an existing site?
When you volunteer to host the site, make mention that you're
interested in taking over the site as is. You will be notified whether
or not this is possible when Saving Graves replies to your message.
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How much time
will this involve?
It
depends on you. How much time are you willing to put into hosting a
site? It's the quality of what you do, not necessarily the quantity,
but we do require that you ensure that your site stays
current. The goal of Saving Graves is to provide as much free cemetery
preservation information as possible. The more info you can add,
better...and more valuable to your visitors...it will be!
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What type of information do you expect hosts to provide?
When you are
accepted as a coordinator, you will receive a copy of the current
(original) page and all Endangered Cemetery Reports that we currently
have on your location. This should get you up and running quickly once
you have web hosting space to store the site. Above and beyond that you
should try to focus on what's available in your chosen area. If for
example you're hosting Idaho, you should let visitors know what
cemetery preservation resources they have available for them in the
different link categories; what resources are 'special' to Idaho; where
in Idaho these resources can be found. Keep in mind that most Saving
Graves visitors are not even located within the state or region that
they are researching in, let alone the same nation.
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Do I
Have To Live in the Location I host?
No.
But it would be helpful and is recommended if at all possible. If you
do not live in the country or county that is of interest to you -- you
should know substantial information about it. This can be done through
personal experience such as trips abroad or through your own years of
research.
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Do I Have To Speak the Native Language of the Country or County I Host?
No.
However, again, it would be helpful and is recommended if at all
possible. It also would be helpful to be familiar with the customs of
the area you are interested in. If possible, you may want to offer your
website in multiple languages.
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Do I Have
To Know Web Design (HTML)?
Yes. Web
creation and maintenance is of prime importance to the success of our
project. However, now you can create websites without much knowledge of
html due in part to the new breed of HTML Editors that work just like a
word processor. You should be familiar with html and know how to upload
files to the internet. Additionally, it is helpful to have a basic
understanding of internet forms, mail lists, and other tools.
Some
programs that are
easy to use include: Microsoft FrontPage, FrontPage Express; Netscape
Composer, Microsoft Word, and many others (free programs are available
at ZDnet or Cnet
http://www.download.com
).
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Do I Have To Use A Specific Software Program or a Special Computer?
No. Even
though we use and recommend Microsoft Front Page, you are free to
choose how to create your web pages - whatever works best for you.
There are several options in web design software (free, shareware, or
commercial products) and many are available now through the internet.
Check your computer software - Microsoft and Netscape include free easy
composers with their browser software!
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How
Do I Register My Site With Saving Graves?
Once
your site is created and online you must notify your upper level
Coordinator so that they can review your site and add it to their local
indexes. The Coordinator will let the Saving Graves webmaster
know of any url changes and additions/corrections that need to be made
to the Saving Graves main pages.
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How
Do I Register My Site With Other Search Engines?
There
are many search engines and crawlers out on the web and you might want
to have them index your site so that researchers can find it when they
do a global Web search (through Lycos', Hotbot,Yahoo, etc.). The best
way to do this is with META tags - hidden tags inserted at the very top
of your file that give information to webcrawlers about your site
(author, content, site description, etc.).
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Are There Other Locations That I will Need To Register My Site With?
Yes,.
Saving Graves Maintains partnership agreements with other groups and
websites such as Internment.net
and GeoGen.
These partner sites send many visitors to Saving Graves and will have
to be notified of any URL changes as soon as they are in place. In
addition, Saving Graves has an extensive amount of links throughout Cyndi's
List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet,
and they also will have to be notified of any URL changes as soon as
they are in place.
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Where
Do I Store My Pages So Everyone Can See Them?
You
will need web space to store your pages online. Many ISP (service
providers) include web space in their monthly fees - check with your
provider. There are also several large websites that offer free web
space - provided that you allow them to place banner ads on all your
pages. We are currently exploring several offers of free web space to
anyone associated with our project. As these develop, more information
will be available.
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Do I Have
To Pay For My Own Space?
Saving
Graves currently provides free hosting space for all National or
State/Province pages. Once you are accepted as a coordinator at this
level you will receive the full details and FTP information.
Coordinators at the County, or similar level are expected to provide
their own hosting, however either the State, National or Project
Coordinators may be able to assist you in locating hosting
space for your pages.
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How Do I Make A Web
Page?
See your
computer owners manual to see if your system includes an html editor.
Microsoft includes a simple html editor as part of their Internet
Explorer software. Netscape Communicator does as well. If you are new
to HTML you might want to purchase a book on simple web design.
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Are Any Page Restrictions, Number of Pages or Number of Pictures?
You
may have as many pictures and pages as you deem necessary for your
website. However, do remember that image files require extra time in
downloading them to the browser screen and this may make researchers
choose not to spend time waiting at your site.
As far
as page
restrictions, please read and make sure you understand the requirement
for each website. You should also check with your regional or country
coordinator to see if there are any additional restrictions imposed by
that project.
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How Do
I Upload Files To The Internet?
Unless you are
using Microsoft Front Page, you will need some form of FTP - File
Transfer Protocol software to upload your files to the internet. Some
ISP's bundle this software into their service software. If your
provider doesn't include FTP as part of your package you can download
freeware and shareware products such as CuteFTP or WS_FTP for free or a
very small fee (see http://www.download.com
for example).
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What
do I do if I become a host and want to resign?
E-Mail Saving Graves and state your intention to resign. We will go
over the options at that time. Please do NOT just abandon the site and
do NOT turn it over to another volunteer without e-mailing Saving
Graves first!
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