Frequently Asked Questions

Primary navigation is achieved using the menu items across the bottom of the header. These primary menu items give the user access to the District content of the site.

This site has two content areas, organized by pertinence. As this site serves the district, the majority is designated to that purpose, and may be called the 'District Area'. The second, or 'Lodge Area', is accessible by clicking on the Lodges item in the primary menu.

When you are logged in, a personal navigation menu will appear on the right side giving you access to your account and other functions you can perform as a registered user. In the Lodge Area, a menu labelled 'Lodge Group' will appear on the right side of your screen when you are logged in, and the menu functions shown will apply to the particular Lodge Group you are viewing.

A Secondary menu is located at the bottom of the screen. The secondary menu items are service links pertaining to the web site, and not the district.

To summarize, the District stuff is at the top, web site stuff is at the bottom, and everything for you, the user, is on the right hand side.

As a result of malicious activity on the site, we have implemented a Turing engine called CAPTCHA to determine if the poster is a person or a program. The first time you fill in a form to log in or to post content, you will be presented with an image of 5 letters and numbers, and will be asked to copy them into the box below.

We hope to prevent future attacks by automated posting programs that have been distributing offensive material to the site. We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope you will understand the necessity for an open and accessible site like frontenacmasons.ca.

The menus reflect what is available to you.

For instance, as an anonymous visitor, you will see a 'Log In' item at right. After you have logged in as a registered user, this item disappears and you will see a personal navigation menu on the right. As an anonymous user, you can view all the content, but you cannot create any. Once you are logged in, you can manage your user profile, create content, and edit any content you own. But, since you are logged in, you no longer require the log in function, and that menu item disappears.

The 'Lodge Menu' only appears when you are logged in and in the lodge area of the site. Each lodge is handled as a distinct group, much like Google Groups, and the functions available apply to the particular group you are in, and whether or not you are a member of that lodge group.

When logged in as a registered user, the first item in your personal navigation menu is 'Memorial Announcement'.

When a brother dies, his lodge may schedule a Masonic Memorial service. Because time is of the essence in such arrangements, any Brother making such arrangements may log in to their account on this web site and create an email to be sent to the brethren of Frontenac District to notify them of the arrangements. This may be done from any computer with web access, and the Brother does not have to wait until they get home to use their own email account.

The email will be moderated, and goes to the Listmaster, who will then forward it to the Memorial Email List.

The front, or home, page is a special page which gives the title and teaser of a new post, so it can be brought to the attention of our visitors without them having to find it by chance as they browse the site.

Certain content types by default appear on the front page (District Events and Announcements). Others can be promoted to the front page by opening up the 'Publishing Options' item when you are creating or editing the page, and checking the 'Promote to front page' checkbox.

When you are creating the post, you will notice a button which says 'Split summary at cursor' above the body text. After you have entered the text for the page, place the cursor at the end of the teaser portion, and click on this button, and the portion you designated will form the teaser on the front page.

There is no password protected information on this site. Anything that a logged in user can see, can also be read by our anonymous visitors. However registered users do have several privileges.

1. Registered users can add content to the site. We rely on our users to make sure that if we do not have an event or a degree posted, that they will post the information for all to see. Registered users can also leave comments on posts where available.
2. Registered users can subscribe to email notifications of new content posted on the site.
3. The district distribution list for Masonic Memorial services is based in the user list of the site. To receive such emails, you must be a registered user.

As a visitor to frontenacmasons.ca, you will see a "Log In" item in the primary menu. Select it, then select the "Create New Account" tab.

You will be prompted to enter a user name and a valid email address. Please use your real name as a user name. It makes user maintenance much easier. Spaces are permitted in the user name. Please be careful entering your email address. Make sure you have entered it accurately.

On registration, you are also prompted to join Lodge Groups for the various lodges in the district, to subscribe to notifications of site updates, and to include or exclude your email address on the district Masonic Memorial distribution list.

When you have completed the registration form, copy the 5 letters and/or numbers that appear in the CAPTCHA image into the box provided (no spaces), and click on the 'Create new account' button.

An email will be sent to the address you provided, which will contain a link and instructions. When you get the email, click on the link, which will verify your email address, and your account will be created. You will be taken into your profile page, where you should immediately set your password.

When you are logged in, as a registered user you will see a personal navigation menu on the right with your user name at the top. Click on the 'My Account' item to go to your profile page.

You will see a number of options as tabs at the top of the page.

Select 'Log In' on the primary menu, then the 'Request New Password' tab. Enter your email address, and the server will reset your password and send you an email.

When you receive the email, follow the instructions, and when you are logged in, go to your account and change your password to whatever you wish to use.

Log in to the site, go to 'My Account', select the 'Edit' tab at the top and change your email address.

You are already a registered user on the site.

Select the 'Request New Password' tab and enter your email address. Use the password sent to you, go to your profile, and change your password to something you can remember.

Use your email address to log in. It will work as well as your user name.

We thank users for using their real names (first and last) as user names, as it makes user maintenance much easier. But it can create some issues if you do not retype it exactly as originally entered. Your registered email address will work just as well as your user name, and will be easier to type correctly.

When logged in, select 'My lodge groups' from your personal navigation menu, then 'Other groups'. Click on 'Join' next to the lodge group you wish to join, then confirm the choice when asked.

Is a rule of thumb, if you can see it, you can do it.

The menus are dynamic, and user privileges are analyzed before the menu item is shown. If you have a 'Create ...' or 'Add ...' menu item, then you can do it. If you see an 'Edit' tab at the top of the page, clicking on it will allow you to edit that page. You should be able to edit any page you have created, and moderators have even wider privileges.

We rely on our users to post new content.

When you create a page, your work is being done on your own computer. When you are finished, you MUST send that information back to the web server. If you do not, the work is lost! (Sorry!)

At the bottom of every submission form you will find a button labeled 'Save'. After you have completed your work, you must click on this button, and your work will be saved on the server, and be available to others, unless it is moderated.

Your post was put in Moderation.

Since anybody can create a membership and post content on this site, some content types are placed in moderation before they are published. This is to prevent malicious postings from being made visible.

Once a moderator has reviewed your page, it will be published if legitimate. If the item is time-sensitive, please contact a moderator, or the webmaster, and let us know you have a post in moderation so we can deal with it promptly.

The webmaster, and all lodge secretaries are site moderators. Any one of them has the ability to publish content which is in moderation.

You can, and you should, but not as part of the Degree posting.

When a user clicks on the item you place in the Degree Calender, they are taken to the Lodge page. Place an explanation there, either as a 'Lodge Post' if you are a member of that group, or by editing the lodge page itself if you are a manager.

Every secretary should be maintaining a page of upcoming events and meetings on their lodge page anyway, to let the other brethren know what is happening in your lodge!

The front, or home, page is a special page which gives the title and teaser of a new post, so it can be brought to the attention of our visitors without them having to find it by chance as they browse the site.

Certain content types by default appear on the front page (District Events and Announcements). Others can be promoted to the front page by opening up the 'Publishing Options' item when you are creating or editing the page, and checking the 'Promote to front page' checkbox.

When you are creating the post, you will notice a button which says 'Split summary at cursor' above the body text. After you have entered the text for the page, place the cursor at the end of the teaser portion, and click on this button, and the portion you designated will form the teaser on the front page.

When logged in, select 'My lodge groups' from your personal navigation menu, then 'Other groups'. Click on 'Join' next to the lodge group you wish to join, then confirm the choice when asked.

When you are logged in, as a registered user you will see a personal navigation menu on the right with your user name at the top. Click on the 'My Account' item to go to your profile page.

You will see a number of options as tabs at the top of the page.

When you create an account, or when you edit your user profile, you are given the option of either receiving, or not receiving Memorial List emails.

To change your Memorial List subscription status, click on the Edit tab, then the Subscription sub-tab. Make sure that the Memorial Announcement checkbox is checked if you wish to receive them, or unchecked if you do not. Please be sure to click on the 'Save' button at the bottom to update your profile on the server.

If you do not have an account on the site and wish to receive Memorial Announcements, create an account on the site, and make sure that the checkbox is checked when you create your account.

Memorial Announcements are sent only to the email addresses of registered users of frontenacmasons.ca who have elected to receive them.

There are three types of material to which you can subscribe:

Content Type

A content type subscription will notify you of new content posted on the site. If you subscribe to the Event content type, you will be notified every time s District Event is posted.

Content Type in Group

Like a content type subscription, but restricts the notifications you receive to those posted in the chosen lodge group(s).

Thread

A thread subscription will notify you any time the page has been edited or a comment has been posted.

Log in, and go to your profile.

To stop all notifications, select the Notification Settings tab, and disable the Master Switch.

To manage specific notification subscriptions, select the Notifications tab, and follow the instructions from the Overview.

When logged in, select 'My lodge groups' from your personal navigation menu, then 'Other groups'. Click on 'Join' next to the lodge group you wish to join, then confirm the choice when asked.

When you create an account, or when you edit your user profile, you are given the option of either receiving, or not receiving Memorial List emails.

To change your Memorial List subscription status, click on the Edit tab, then the Subscription sub-tab. Make sure that the Memorial Announcement checkbox is checked if you wish to receive them, or unchecked if you do not. Please be sure to click on the 'Save' button at the bottom to update your profile on the server.

If you do not have an account on the site and wish to receive Memorial Announcements, create an account on the site, and make sure that the checkbox is checked when you create your account.

Memorial Announcements are sent only to the email addresses of registered users of frontenacmasons.ca who have elected to receive them.

The Event List is deprecated and will no longer be maintained.

It has been replaced by the web site Notifications system, which will allow registered users to control which types of notifications they will receive, the frequency of notification, and how those notifications are made.

Registered users can elect either to receive the notifications as emails sent to their registered email address (the default), or as web messages, which they can read by going to their profile and clicking on the Messages tab.

Send your email to secretaries@ or to masters@ frontenacmasons.ca.

If you send your email to secretaries@, all of the lodge secretaries will receive a copy of the email. If you send to masters@, all of the masters and all of the lodge secretaries will receive a copy, on the principal that a lodge secretary should receive copies of all lodge correspondence.

The email addresses that are used to support these mailing lists are the ones maintained by the lodge group moderators and lodge secretaries as the contact emails for each of the lodge pages. If anyone does not receive a copy of the email, or if the wrong person is a recipient, speak to the secretary of that lodge and have them check the contact email addresses on their lodge page.