FAQs: How do I ... ?

Submitted by David on

Here are answers to the questions we hear most often.

If you have a question that isn't answered here, please leave a comment below.

Regards, David

Comments

Adding images to comments for places works properly by clicking on the icons on the right hand side. This does not work for streets, neither using Microsoft Edge nor Firefox. Please check.

Is there anyway to list images as thumbnails from the result of an image search? Currently when I search I'm presented with a list of image titles and have to click in to view. Am I missing a search setting or is it not an available function?

I just clicked on a link to 'Police Station at Sai Kung' in the latest newsletter, but it led me to a screen that was empty except for the message "You are not authorized to access this page."

I'm logged in, so  what's the problem?

In the Chronicle and Directory of China, Corea, Japan, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Netherlends India, Borneo, The Philippines &c, for the years 1901,1902 and 1903, there is a Miss Jones living in the Wesrbourne Villas on Botham Road. Does anyone have any information on the lady?  It is a long shot but she may be my Great Grand Aunt. Or not.



Cheers.

Can you "Create a Person" on this site for your Miss Jones and give us her first names and the possible dates that she might have been in Hong Kong and her birth and death dates? In "Where to find Hong Kong's History" in the lefthand column of this site you can also be taken to the link to the Carl Smith Records where you will find several ladies with the surname Jones. She is not listed in the 1904 Ladies Directory. I don't have the earlier ones.

I have looked, alas could not find the person's initial on the Carl Smith's record, :(   My great aunt Edith Jones got married in 17 December 1902 which is why it may be her. She would still be in the 1903 edition.  Again, just a long shot and thank you for replying. 

David, currently the "new comment" email doesn't work. Have I accidentally switched it off, or is there another problem? If I should have switched it off, how can I reinstall it.

Regards,

Klaus 

Hi Klaus,

I've just made a quick test:

  1. I edited your account to change the email address to a gmail email account I use
  2. I added a test reply comment above
  3. I set your account's email address back to the original value.

The website log showed that the 'new comment' notification was sent, and I received the notification email in my gmail account.

So it looks as though the notification emails are being sent out correctly. Could they be blocked by your ISP, or put in a spam folder by your email client?

Regards, David

In the case of  "Places" posted by Admin, is it possible for a contributor to replace the question marks in the title that relate to the first known date of the "Place" with the actual date, if found by them?

Hi David

I lived in HK during the 1960's - 1970's and have quite a number of photos to upload. It seems I need to approach you to create a Gallery for me - please name it "1960s-1970s Brian Witcombe's photos". Thanks

Brian

 

I get notification mails when I post a comment and someone replies/adds other comments. I do not get notification mails when I post a place or a topic of Forum, and someone gives a comment. Could you please check. 

Hi Klaus, please go to My Account and click Edit. Make sure that Receive content follow-up notification e-mails is ticked, and then click Save. Then you you should receive notifications if someone comments on a Place or Forum topic you created.

Regards, David

Hi David, thank you for the quick answer. I've already activated this ticking box with "All comments". The other options "no notification" and "Replies to my comments" seemed unsuitable for me. I recently posted Early petrol stations in Hong Kong, a comment was not notified by email . I only saw it when I was scrolling down "What's New".

What can I do?

Regards, Klaus

I tried to add the list of Hongkong Volunteer Corps "Efficients" for 1895-1896 which included my grandfather, but I was thrown out. I used the "Add New" under "Book/Page", but I suppose it is a Government Report. I couldn't see how to add a partial Government Report. I typed it the list out as a Word document which I then copied into the box. I also couldn't enter the years 1895-1896 into the date boxes as the dates don't go earlier than 1900.

Klaus, sorry for the late reply. I just checked your account and see that the box to the left of 'Receive content follow-up notification e-mails' is not ticked. If you tick that and save, you should receive notifications in future when someone comments on any pages you've created.

David, I do not find any box in my account in connection with notification. I have  chosen

Receive comment follow-up notification e-mails - All comments

That's all I find in my account under "Edit". There is a ticking box for Google Analytics, but not for notification. I usually use Microsoft Edge, but I tried on Chrome and Firefox, too, and there is no box.

 

Thanks Klaus, I understand the problem now. The missing 'Receive content follow-up notification e-mails' is a bug, so I'll need to investigate.

I think I've fixed it now - please could you try editing your account again, and see if the 'Receive content follow-up notification e-mails' box is now available to tick?

I seem to be unable to follow the guidance in Advanced photo upload.  I only see the word 'Directory'' on its own and clicking on it does nothing.   The instruction says go to the Directory block (?)  and choose 'images & photos' .   Presumably the 'Directory block' has sub menus which include 'Images and Photos'   I even tried a Search on Images & Photos but that was no help!

If you point mein the right direction and I am able to upload multiple photos,  will the 128mb limit, shown on the single photo upload page, still apply?

Thank you

John Watson

I uploaded a photo of some bathing clubs at Lai Chi Kok.   In one of the spaces at the bottom of the page , where you can name persons , places, organisations etc., I entered Bathing Clubs, Lai Chi Kok.  A drop-down list appeared showing lots of entries for Lai Chi Kok but, when I went to the top of the page there was a notice, sidelined in red, which read 'There are no content items matching Bathing clubs, Lai Chi Kok.  What have I not done, or done wrong?

Thank you

John Watson

There must be a Place page on the website for the building you have in mind, and you need to choose that page from the drop-down list. I've added notes about how to do this in the updated FAQ linked to in the previous comment.

If anything isn't clear after reading the FAQ, please let me know and I'll try to explain it better.

I tried several times to upload different photos of the same address, labelling them 1-3 and "courtyard". My photos kept being "renamed" and not uploaded. I finally ditched number 2 and called it "Ladder Street Terrace alternative view" but it was still renamed. I'm afraid I have given up. If it can be retrieved I'd be grateful.

Jill, I'm sorry to hear of the problem. I'm struggling to think what is causing it. Please could you let me know which device & browser you are using, and what is the filename of photo 2 before you try uploading it?

Then go to https://gwulo.com/media/add/image and follow these steps so I can see what the photo is renamed to:

  1. , click 'Choose File' and choose photo 2
  2. scroll down and click the 'Save' button

David, I think my missing photo of Ladder Street Terrace has now been accepted and saved with a different title. I previously had the impression that the Gwulo computer thought that I was trying to replace a preceding photo of Ladder Street Terrace with the one that I uploaded next, albeit with a different number. This one was originally no. 2, but it was replaced automatically with no. 3. Dates, text and tags were all the same. By the by, I have a feeling that I may have already uploaded this latest one soon after I took it (2014) and that you made a comment, but I can't find it through the Search facility. Please delete it if it is superfluous. I use a Mac for uploading and my browser is Firefox.

Hi David. I was trying to edit my post Handover of military areas to the HK Government | Gwulo, mainly to replace photos. However, when I do so, the photos are missing and only the titles are shown. Example (copied)

....time consuming adventure during rush hours.

Queen's Road East @ 1950's, by Dennis WahChan

The general situation during the 1950’s can be seen on this photo from mid to end of the 1950’s.

How can I replace this photo?

Regards, Klaus

Hi Klaus,

That forum post was created before the last big upgrade. When we display an old forum post which has embedded images, I've written code to translate the pre-upgrade embedded images to the current format so they display correctly.

BUT...

When we try to edit the forum post, the new editor doesn't recognise the old embedded images, which is why you see the odd behaviour that you described.

We can still work with this, but it is a more manual process. First edit the forum post as usual, https://gwulo.com/node/44832/edit

In the list of icons above the text, click the one that looks like '<> Source'. That shows you the raw HTML that is sent to the browser, and that is stored to the database when you save the post. For this case it will look like:

 

<p><span lang="EN-GB">Construction of Harcourt Road</span></p>

<p>After the end of WW2, the military and naval premises were repaired from war damages and used further on. Mainly on Hong Kong Island, these areas were situated right in the centre of the developing city. Any expansion to the east was impeded by these areas, mainly in the aspect of traffic (i.e. motor vehicles).</p>

<p>In March 1958, an agreement was reached between the Military and the HK Government to take over Murray Barracks, Murray Parade Ground and the Detention Barracks. (<a href="http://https://www.legco.gov.hk/1958/h580306.pdf">OFFICIAL REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS. Meeting of 6th March, 1958, p.45</a>).</p>

<p>This was an important achievement for the further development of the city, new areas were ready for sale and construction of buildings. This didn’t help with the traffic problem. All of the traffic between the central district and Wanchai had to go through Queen’s Road East (Queensway). Not a wide road, and it had to be shared with the trams, a time consuming adventure during rush hours.</p>

<div class="dnd-atom-wrapper" data-scald-align="none" data-scald-context="sdl_editor_representation" data-scald-options="%20%7B%22link%22%3A%22http%3A%2Fatom%2F32741%22%7D" data-scald-sid="32741" data-scald-type="image">

<div class="dnd-caption-wrapper"><!--{C}%3C!%2D%2Dcopyright%3D32741%2D%2D%3E-->

<p>Queen's Road East @ 1950's, by Dennis WahChan<!--{C}%3C!%2D%2DEND%20copyright%3D32741%2D%2D%3E--></p>

</div>

</div>

<p>The general situation during the 1950’s can be seen on this photo from mid to end of the 1950’s.</p>

I've highlighted the section that records the embedded image. It always starts

<div class="dnd-atom-wrapper" 

and ends 

</div>

</div>

Delete that whole section - everything I highlighted in bold text - but nothing else, then click the '<> Source' button again to return to the regular view.

You'll see that the image title is no longer shown. Now you can insert the new image in the usual way, and save the post.

Please give it a try, and let me know if you run in to any problems or any of the instructions aren't clear.

Regards, David

David

Seems you have been lucky enough to get hold of a collection of my family photos. I would be grateful to discuss this with you as it appears to be my grandfather and my very young father in the examples you show.

Grateful if you could discuss this with me.

Many thanks

James Graham

David

You've kindly created a gallery for my family photos. Previously I've placed them in galleries by date. How do I move them from one gallery to the other via the "Edit" feature without their appearing as if they are "new" photos? Is there a way of doing it without "Edit"? I had been intending to move quite a lot together.

Jill

Unfortunately, the answer is 'no' to both questions:

 - The edit to the gallery name is seen as an update, so the photo will be shown in 'What's New'.

 - We don't have a feature to make bulk edits to images, so they have to be changed one-by-one via 'edit'.

Thank you David

Another question, apologies as it must have been asked before.  On a 'Search Results for ...' page, what is the number given in column 3, next to item searched for in column 2?

Hi there, I would like to change my user name from "sfleechris" to "Siu Lee" for easy reference. Would you please fix it for me? Thank you.

Best regards,

Siu Lee