Update to Login and Registration process

An improved login system has been introduced.  The previous login system was affecting performance and had other issues, which has hastened its planned replacement.  It is accessed by this button on the home page.

When a person requires access they click on the button and are presented with a request for their email address.

If the email address exists then they are prompted for their password and given the option to be sent a password reset.

If they don’t have an account they are prompted to enter their name and register. Only first and last names are required. A password is generated and their username is their email address.  They are logged on immediately and can continue on to what their purpose is (enter a competition or join a club)

Will all users need to log in with their email address now?

Yes. The reason for this is the level of support calls regarding logging in and confusion about what email address the person has used.  The use of email addresses as usernames and this two-step access process is being widely adopted and will reduce access problems.

What about capturing address and profile details?

MyPhotoClub offers services to many different usage scenarios.  In many cases, only the person’s name is required. The privacy philosophy employed here is to only request information when it is required for the usage scenario.

Requests for personal information will at the point of requirement:

• Before a person joins a club or enters a competition, they will need to complete their address and contact details if the competition or club requires this information. (this process is under construction)
• Address and contact detail will continue to only be available to the management team of their club or competitions they enter.

What about Profiles?

Profile pages will be redeveloped to be more useful and more integrated into MyPhotoClub.  Each account holder will be able to decide who can see their profile.  Profiles will not be viewable until this redevelopment work is completed.

regards

Colin

by MyPhotoClub Colin, June 1, 2018

Online judging – a new option for judging your competitiions

An online judging system has been developed and is now available for all competitions.

This system is very simple to use and offers a new method of judging not previously available.  Features are:

• More than one judge is used – as many as you wish
• Each judge awards a score from 1 to 5
• Their scores are added together to give a total score for each entry
• The judges may enter the competition, as the score for their entry is ignored, and the average of the other judge’s score is used in its place
• Invitations to judges are by automated emails
• Judges simply view the first entry in full screen
• A score is assigned by pressing 1 to 5.
• The score is saved and the next image is displayed.
• Once all entries are scored they are grouped by their score.
• When finished the judge clicks a button to finish.

This process can run in parallel to the normal award system and has no effect on those results

The competition steward has a view of each judge’s progress and can close off the judging whenever they choose.

Please give the system a try.   Select a published competition and send the judging request to yourself.

Online Judging is accessed through the Competition Management page of your Management page.

Note: Currently only members of your club can be selected to judge. this will be expanded to allow anyone to judge and also to send invites to a group.

 

by MyPhotoClub Colin, May 10, 2018

Website updates – Roles & Access, and menu/navigation bars

Some important upgrades are being implemented across the MyPhotoClub network.  These updates are occurring now, and may affect access to the system. Please read carefully and complete the work to your Roles and Access page soon

Roles and Access

An improved, more targeted, approach to access is being implemented.  This is managed by the Roles and Access page in the Club Managment area.

The new format page is directly below the existing page. Please complete this form in one session as all previous permissions are replaced when the first update of a role is done.

The main features of this page are:

• a suite of standard MyPhotoClub roles to select from – these give the permissions that role requires. Where applicable this role is used for reply-to email addresses and signatures in system generated emails and pdf documents. e.g the president’s name is used on the award certificate.
• personalised role names – if your president is called the Chairman then you can enter this as the Local Role Name.
• alternate email addresses – if you have a generic email address then this can be entered. This email address will then be used instead of the member’s email address currently in the role. A checkbox allows for both email addresses to be used. If this checked. Note: this is not active yet. Please fill in if required.
• indicate if on the committee – sometimes a member has a role but is not on your committee.  Use this check box to form the committee group.
• place in contact form – a system generated contact form will be implemented soon. This will enable multiple roles to be contacted.

A new navigation/menu bar

Progressively each page on your website will be modified to incorporate a new navigation/menu bar. The features of this are:

• Home and Members Area button.
• A Management button for those persons listed in the above-mentioned Roles & Access page.
• A single Hi ‘your name’ button for access to personal views of the website.
• Help and Logout button

sample navigation/menu bar

Relocated navigation/menu bar on the front page

A new set of menu buttons for the front page has been established. The buttons are located on the top of the welcome to our club post.  The reason for the location is so that they appear at the top of the screen when viewing on small screens.

 

 

 

 

 

by MyPhotoClub Colin, May 4, 2018

Competition Pointscore has been updated

The Competition Pointscore page, accessible through Members area button has a fresh look. On first entry to the page the help page will be shown.  This will now occur whenever an update is applied to any MyPhotoClub page.

When a member visits the page the pointscore tables for the areas they most care about (the most recent and if grades are used, their grade) are the most accessible.   All other competitions are accessible by revealing the filter buttons.

This page now only shows the sum of points awarded to entrants and not individual scores.  Individual scores continue to be visible using the View Completed Competitions page.

The page is designed to work well with phones, tablets and on your computer.

Your comments will be appreciated.

 

by MyPhotoClub Colin, March 5, 2018

Competitions from previous years now accessible

Each club can now view all competitions, and their entries, that have been conducted with MyPhotoClub.

The View Completed Competitions page now has a row of year buttons at the top of the page.  By default the current year is displayed. To show a previous year simply click on the year button and that year’s list of competitions will be displayed.

 

by MyPhotoClub Colin, February 21, 2018

Welcome to Pennant Hills Photographic Club

Last night Elizabeth and I traveled down to Pennant Hills Photographic Club to meet their president, Nancy, and competition steward, Tony, as they presented MyPhotoClub to their members.  Their presentation on why the members should endorse their recommendation was great to hear.

In a nutshell, their evaluation showed that they would substantially reduce their workload in running competitions, provide a simpler method of recording results and present the members with simple straightforward entry process.  From a club perspective, Nancy highlighted that with the competition system, membership management, and integrated communication by website, email and social media, committee positions should be less daunting to take on.

An easy night for me as I just had to answer a few queries and give a quick run through the basics of the system.  The members endorsed the proposal, so welcome aboard Pennant Hills PC!  Their site is at https://pennanthills.myphotoclub.com.au

 

by MyPhotoClub Colin, February 6, 2018

Changing a post and sending an updated email.

We all do it. You finish writing a post, and it’s not until you see the message arrive in your inbox you notice the typos, or that Saturday is the 15^th and not the 19^th!

Each post has a category feature, and when the emails for that post are sent the category POST SENT is checked.  This prevents the message being sent if a minor edit is done to the post.

However, if the changes made to the post warrant sending another message, then simply clear this checkbox.  When the post is updated it will be sent by email again.   Tip:  Add the word Update  to the title to let members know that this is not the same message sent a second time.

If you cannot see the category section, click on the Screen Option in the top right corner (when editing a post) and check the Categories box.

This message is sent only to webmasters of your club, so please forward this message to anyone who writes posts on your website.

 

Colin 

by MyPhotoClub Colin, January 23, 2018

Newsletter by email changes

The system previously used for sending emails when a post is made on your website  (MailPoet) has been replaced with an in-house solution.  The main reason for this change were problems with the maintaining the mailing list, especially when an email address changed.

The new system uses the membership list directly and also uses the current header image on your website.

At the bottom of the message you will see an address block.  If your address is not showing correctly, go to

• Club Management > Settings > Site Settings.
  or
• Competition Management > System or Special Tasks > Site Settings

This new approach allow me to communicate more easily to webmasters of each site as each person receiving this is a member of the webmaster group for your club / competitions.

kind regards

Colin

 

by MyPhotoClub Colin, January 22, 2018

Group Payments and Discounts now available for competition sites.

With the opening for entries of the Maitland International Salon of Photography on October 1st, a new feature is being released  – group payments and discounts.

Competition organisers can elect to turn this feature on and set up a discount schedule.  Everything else is automated, with no further action required.

To setup a group  simply press the Group Entry button and select Create a Group.  Enter a name and a four digit PIN number.   The system emails an acknowledgement of the group name and the submitted PIN number.  This information can then be sent to all potential group members.

The person who creates a group becomes the group manager and is responsible for making a single online payment for all members of their group.

To join a group each entrant uses the Group Entry button and selects the group and enters the PIN number.   Payment options are then turned off for the group member.  The Group Manager is notified by email when someone joins.

How is the discount applied?

Once the number of group members that have entered the competition crosses a discount threshold, the entry fee due is reduced by the applicable discount rate.  If you don’t reach a discount threshold, the full rate is charged.  If you pay the entry fees and more people join your group the discount is applied to the total entry fee so you get the full benefit of the discounts on offer.

For example, Maitland Salon is offering a discount  of 10% for 10 or more entrants, and 20% for 20 or more entrants.

How do I track my group’s entries?

The Group Entry page shows all group members who are in the group and their entry details and individual fees.   For the group manager, the PayPal payment button to pay fees appears at the bottom of the page.

Can I do the labeling and posting of prints (if applicable) for my group?

Yes, the name of each entrant in the group member list enables you to access their label set.  Each entrant still has access to their labels so they can elect to do this themselves.  Your choice, but every entry must be labelled correctly.

Who can use this feature?

All with all features added to the MyPhotoClub network, this capability is now available to all clubs and competitions hosted by MyPhotoClub.

 

 

 

by MyPhotoClub Colin, September 26, 2017

Updates – Membership Process, links and page layouts

A while back I sent a message out requesting feedback on change to the membership process. Some great feedback was received, and I hope that you will all be happy with the outcome.

The membership core process is still the same – Register – Login – Fees.

The main changes are:

• A “Would you like to join button” appears on the home page for any non members
• If they aren’t logged in they are invited to login or register
• If they are logged in they are invited to nominate their fee payment and add comments e.g. who they paid and how much.
• Fee payments can be Cash, Bank Transfer or PayPal
• PayPal can be through MyPhotoClub or your own PayPal address.  If you use MyPhotoClub a monthly funds transfer will occur. You only pay PayPal fees.
• A settings page allows each club to set these options
• A membership coordinator is nominated, and they receive email notifications.  The coordinator can then add them to the Members group.
  • This is the main change and allows better control of membership.

For renewals the “Would you to like to join” button becomes “Membership renewal”

A settings page allows for these membership setting to be set:

• Fees
• Month fees are due
• Month to consider as payment for next year e.g. If you pay in November your membership is paid for the following year.
• Membership Coordinator

Lots of visual changes are happening with MyPhotoClub!

The drivers for this change are:

• Moving to buttons instead of links for all actions
• Improved usability on phones and tablets
• Layouts that better guides the user through their activity
• New responsive, searchable tables of information such as the Membership List.
• Less reliance on menus
• Buttons under the Welcome Colin (if your name is Colin) will be the main navigation start point
• A “members area” Button will be the ‘go-to” place for members
• A Club Management button will encompass all options currently under committee and webmaster

This pdf file is a presentation regarding these changes:   Membership Process

Please have a look and then feel free to ask any questions.

When will the changes occur?

I will raise a support ticket for each club in the name of your contact. From there we will progress each site’s transition.  Committee members will see Club Management button appear and functionality slowly appear.

The aim is to retire the Members, Committee and Webmaster menu options at the end of the year.

What about the club pages and content?

There will be a single About the Club page where all of these pages will reside.  Depending on who you are the pages available will change.  This is the last stage of the transition away from menus.  Plenty of discussion and fine tuning will occur to ensure your content is made as easy to access as possible.

Will the menu disappear?

No.  Each club can continue to use the menu as they wish.  MyPhotoClub is steadily growing and menu maintenance for all of the ‘system’ pages is not practical.

By removing the menu the capability for a club to choose a different theme becomes a possibility.

What about Competition sites?

The same changes are being implemented.  A Competition Management button will appear with activities divided up in the timeline of the progression of the competition.

 

What is the MyPhotoClub Challenge?

Stay tuned for info on this…it’s going to be big!

 

 

As always never hesitate to contact me with your queries or suggestions

regards

Colin

by MyPhotoClub Colin, September 12, 2017