Wilderness.com Help Page

Take a Tour of the Site

Take our tour of the site for an introduction to our features!

Frequently Asked Questions

  • General Questions
    1. What is this site about? What is the Wilderness Adventure Society? Who are you people? This site is the main outlet for the Wilderness Adventure Society, which is dedicated to helping people experience and share their adventure travel stories. We have a much longer description here.
    2. What browser should I use for this site? This site works best in a browser that understands CSS3. This includes Firefox (version 3 and newer; free download here), Safari (versions 3 and newer), Opera, and Internet Explorer 7 and newer. Internet Explorer v6 will work, but it isn't as pretty.
    3. How can I contact an adminstrator about an issue? The easiest way to contact the administrators is to send a message; messages are private, so they are perfect for reporting an issue. The list of administrators is available here.
    4. Someone is annoying me; can you tell me who is member XXX? We do not give out member's information without a subpeona. If a member is harassing you, you can blacklist the member or turn off messaging. Harassing posts and comments can be deleted and reported as abusive using the links provided.
    5. Who do I contact regarding copyright violation/DMCA takedown notices/Patriot Act wiretapping? Submit takedown notices to the administrators using the contact info here.
  • Membership Questions
    1. Why should I become a member? Membership allows full access to the site, including posting Adventure Blogs and profiles. Since membership is free, and we do not share your information, there is no reason not to become a member.
    2. Can I stop being a member? The easiest solution is to stop logging in, and ignore the site from now on. You can disable your account from the Update My Profile link; disabling your account prevents anyone from viewing your profile, but your Adventure Blogs, photos, and comments continue to appear as before. While your account is disabled, you can do nothing when logged in but re-enable your account. Only you can re-enable your account by logging in.
    3. What's the difference between a regular member and an organization member? Organization members should be used to represent a club or organization, rather than a single person or family. Organizations have different profile questions tailored to a club/org, org members can send a message to all friends at once, and orgs can submit their events to our Event Calendar which are then shown on the org profile. This makes it easy to keep members informed of your upcoming events and such.
    4. What benefits does a Patron receive? Patron status has many benefits, which are fully detailed here. Briefly, patron status is shown with your username across the site, removes all restrictions on the site, and gives you access to travel grants, contests, and outstanding photo submission. You also receive the warm fuzzy feeling of being a supporter that keeps the site running.
    5. Can I sign up for someone else? You can start the process, but membership must be confirmed by the owner of the submitted email address. Thus, you cannot sign up someone else without their help.
    6. How do I change my email address? Use the link from your profile page.
    7. How do I change my username? Your username must be unique, so cannot be changed after it has been registered and confirmed.
  • Photo Questions
    1. What are the rules for photos?
      • We accept photos in JPEG, GIF, or PNG formats
      • Photos larger than 930 pixels wide or 1239 pixels tall will be resized, preserving aspect ratio. Photos tagged as being a background at upload may be up to 1860 pixels wides.
      • We suggest using smaller photos if possible, to speed your upload times.
      • By uploading photos, you certify that you are the copyright holder of the uploaded photos. You also agree to provide a irrevocable free license to Wilderness.com and its parent company to redistribute, repackage, resize, produce derivative works, and/or use your uploaded photos.
      • You retain copyright of your uploaded photos, so you may use and sell them elsewhere.
    2. How do I resize a photo? We recommend using Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, or another photo-editing program. In that program, rescale the image and save as JPEG or PNG format. Then upload the new photo to this site.
    3. How many photos can I upload? Depends on your membership and what you are uploading to:
      • Non-paying Members have a limit of 100 photos total...
      • Profiles can have up to 15 photos...
      • Adventure Blogs (excluding the entries) can have up to 8 photos, but only 1 is displayed...
      • Entries can have up to 50 photos each...
      • Patron Members can have any number of Outstanding Photos...
    4. How do I remove my photo limit? Upgrade to a Patron Membership
  • Location Questions
    1. How does Wilderness.com store locations? We store locations as latitude, longitude pairs. All methods of entering locations on the site result in a stored lat/lon pair, or a named place that has a latitude and longitude. All searches by location are done by calculating spherical distance from the search point.
    2. So how do you get a city name again? We use the excellent service at Geonames.org to map a latitude, longitude position to the nearest town.
    3. Also see our Location Help page.
  • Adventure Blog/Trip Report Questions
    1. What's an Adventure Blog? What can it have? Adventure Blogs are a trip report of one of your adventure trips. Adventure Blogs (stories) are a collection of entries, along with a set of sports, a summary of the whole blog, and one photo. We suggest using one Adventure Blog for each trip, even if the trip is only one day long.
    2. What's an entry? What can it have? Entries are the parts of an Adventure Blog; they hold the bulk of the writing and photos, and include locations, dates, and additional planning information. Entries can have up to 50 photos each, but you can have multiple entries for a single date if you have lots of photos. We recommend using one entry for each section of an adventure, whether that section is defined by date, location, or sport.
    3. How are Adventure Blogs organized?

      Adventure Blogs are collections of entries, so we suggest using one entry for each portion of a trip. Depending on the trip, it may be easier to break apart your narrative by date, location, or sport.

      You can use entries as you wish or need; we do not have rules or requirements on when to use a new entry in a Blog. We suggest considering entries kind of like chapters in a book; use a new entry whenever there is a natural break in the narrative of your trip. Thus, the common ways to break up a trip narrative into entries are:

      • By date, like a diary or trip journal.
      • By location, where each entry corresponds to a new destination in your trip.
      • By sport, where each entry reflects a single sport you did during the trip.
      • Or some combination of these; such as a trip where you went to Moab, UT for mountain biking (first entry), then continued to the San Rafael Swell two days later for canyoneering (second entry), and finished with some hiking in Arches National Park (third entry) later that day.

    4. Why are Adventure Blogs collections of Entries?

      Because making stories out of collections of entries allows other members to find your stories when they want to. Without the structure of entries, we could not build a search system that allows members to reliably find stories of interest.

      Also, a structure built out of entries is understandable to everyone, and allows really easy input from your trip journals that you probably already have. But, our format is flexible enough for every type of trip we have come across, while maintaining the easiest interface we can for authors and readers both.

    5. How many entries can an Adventure Blog have? As many as you are willing to write. Each entry may only have 50 photos, however.
    6. How many photos can an Adventure Blog have? An entry? An Adventure Blog can have up to 8 photos loaded, but only one will be displayed (the first photo shown in the list). Entries can have up to 50 photos.
    7. What's this "Creole" markup stuff? Creole is a markup language allowing the use of formatting, links, and images without requiring the writer to know HTML. There is a help page here.
    8. Do you have a Creole tutorial/help page? Try this page.
    9. Where can I use Creole? Generally, anywhere that will be shown to other users. You can always tell where Creole is supported by the appearance of the Creole Help links and markup buttons.
    10. What does the Private box/flag mean? Adventure Blogs marked Private can only be viewed by your friends on the site. This also means that the editors will give more leeway to a private log in language and photos. Changing the private flag on a story, like any update, opens the Adventure Blog for inappropriate-content reports.
    11. My Adventure Blog has been reported, and is under review; what does that mean? A member has reported your Adventure Blog, or its entries, as having inappropriate content (or content in violation of the Terms of Service). While the log is under review, it will not be publically displayed; the author can still read and update the story and entries, but not other members and guests. Once an administrator has reviewed the log and its entries, the log will either be approved (and be protected from reporting until the author edits the log or entries), or revisions will be suggested to bring the Adventure Blog and entries into compliance with our Terms of Service. Contact the administrators if you have a problem getting a story reviewed.
    12. Why are Adventure Blogs approved? What does Admin approval mean? Approval keeps the site family-friendly. All Adventure Blogs start as approved by the author. If the Adventure Blog is reported as being in violation of our standards, an editor or administrator will look at the story and either accept the Blog as is, or make suggestions for corrections. If an Adventure Blog isn't corrected up to our standard, it will not be displayed or eventually removed. Once approved by an editor or administrator, the Adventure Blog has Admin approval and can't be reported again until the author edits the Adventure Blog or one of its entries.
    13. How do I report Adventure Blogs that are offensive or in violation of the Terms of Service? When viewing a Adventure Blog summary or entry, there are links to report the Blog for offensive or inappropriate material; please fill in the note box with specific information on what you believe is inappropriate or in violation. If the story has been approved by an administrator, you cannot report the Adventure Blog until the author edits the log or entries again. This prevents bullying by mean-spirited members, but allows members to generally police the site for inappropriate content. If there is an Adventure Blog that has been approved, but you still believe it to be in violation of our standards, please send a message to an administrator with a link to the Adventure Blog in question and an explanation of why you believe the log to be in violation of the Terms of Service or inappropriate.
    14. What's considered offensive content in a Adventure Blog? Offensive content is generally described by anything that is not suitable for a family-friendly setting. If small children shouldn't hear or see it, it's offensive. As with pornography, exact standards are impossible to write down, but "we know it when we see it." Keep your language and photos clean, and there will be no problems.
    15. What do the various display options for Adventure Blogs mean? The display options allow you to customize some of the layout of your Adventure Blog when it is shown on the site. The options, and what they control are as follows:
      • Use a custom background? - By checking this box and uploading some Blog photos, you can replace the default Wilderness.com background on this Adventure Blog. Once you have uploaded at least one photo to be a background, check this box and tag the photo as a background. While this box is checked, your Blog will appear with one of the background-tagged photos as its background; the exact photo is randomly chosen from all available each time the Blog is viewed. Background photos are subject to the normal photo requirements and limits.
      • Use logo on top? - By checking this box and uploading a logo image to the Adventure Blog summary, you can show your logo across the top of your Adventure Blog. Upload a logo image as a normal photo, including a descriptive sentence as the caption, and then tag it as the logo image; only one logo may be tagged for each Adventure Blog. Then check this box. Logo images will be scaled to 30 pixels tall, and no more than 710 pixels wide!
      • Show Twitter box? - If this box is checked, and you have entered a Twitter user name on your profile, you can show your latest Tweet on your Adventure Blog page. The Twitter box location and look is fixed to integrate with our Adventure Blog layout.
      • Show Box of latest photos? - If checked, a box of the "most recent" photos will be shown near the top of the Adventure Blog. The photos chosen are the most recently uploaded to the most recent entries, as determined by the Blog entry dates.
      • Show box of latest media? - If checked, the Adventure Blog summary will have a small box for your latest media files and YouTube links, just below the blog entry summary.
      • Show your current location on Blog Map? - If checked, your Blog's map will include your current location, as set in your profile (see Where I currently am). If unchecked, your Blog map will only show the locations of blog entries.
      • Reverse date sort entry list? - If checked, the Adventure Blog entry list will show the most recent date first, rather than the oldest date first (the default). Use this option when you want readers to see your most recent updates first, rather than reading about your trip from the beginning to the end.
      • Show a charity link? - If checked, a box with a link to your charity giving site will be added to the bottom of the Adventure Blog summary. Enter the full link URL in the first text box below this option, enter your own message about the link in the second text box down ("link description"), and upload a logo as a blog photo - make sure to check the Charity logo option!
  • Outstanding Photo Questions
    1. What's an Outstanding Photo? As the name implies, Outstanding Photos are exceptional photos which we use for the home page and contests. Outstanding photos are submitted separately from Adventure Blogs, and must be tagged with a location, sport (only one!), and have a title. Outstanding photos that are approved are immediately added to our rotation and are eligible for contests.
    2. Why should I submit Outstanding Photos? Outstanding photos that are approved are available on member's home pages as the Featured Photo, making them excellent advertising for your photography. Approved Outstanding Photos are your entries into photo contests, so the more Outstanding Photos you have, the more likely to win a contest.
    3. Why are Outstanding Photos approved? We approve Outstanding Photos to maintain the family-friendly nature of the site, and to maintain the high standards we have set for our stand-alone photos.
    4. What are you looking for in Outstanding Photos? The editors are looking for photos that are family-friendly, compelling, engaging, and outdoor adventure-oriented. We typically want landscapes and action shots from adventure sports. Photos with adventurers visible are more likely to be approved, but pure landscape and nature is viable as well. Take a look through the current photos for ideas.
  • Private Messaging Questions
    1. What's a private message, and who can read them? Private messages are like a Forum post, but between two members only. Only the receipient of a message can read it.
    2. What if I don't want to receive messages? There is a check box on your messaging page to turn off messaging altogether, and an option to set an automatic response to rejected messages.
    3. What's the Blacklist? How do I change it? The Blacklist is a list of members that are not allowed to send you messages. You can add members from any message they send to you. You can remove members from the blacklist by using the "Manage Blacklist" links from your message listing.
    4. I'm tired of the automated messages; can I stop them? No. We use the automated messages instead of filling your email inbox.
  • Forum Questions
    1. What's my Favorite Forum list? How do I change it? Your favorite forums list gives you quick access to your favorite forums. You can add forums from their pages, and remove forums from the Favorite Forums list.
    2. Who can post to a forum? Any member can post to a forum.
    3. How do I become a Moderator of a forum? Members who create a forum become Moderators of that forum. Administrators can add other members as moderators to a forum. Contact the administrators via the forum or messages if new moderators are needed.
    4. What does a Moderator do? Moderators are expected to keep a forum on-topic and family-friendly. Moderators have the ability to create new threads, close threads to new posts, and delete off-topic or unacceptable posts.
    5. What if a Moderator is deleting posts they shouldn't? Send a message to the adminstrators with examples and your reasoning why the posts should have been kept.
    6. Forum XXX hasn't had a post in years; can I delete it? No. Our forums are indexed by web spiders, and the old posts provide an archive of knowledge for others.
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