Frequently Asked Questions
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Here are the instructions for translating each individual Module, the Installation translation is different.
The open-source Modules that Matt has written have been translated in several languages. Modules are pieces of software that plug into Drupal, the open-source platform we use.
Here's what to do.
Download Poedit, helping software
Open the attached file in poedit
You should see the English strings and spaces for the translation
Save the file as cforge_custom.nl.po and return
Notes
1. Any word preceded by '@' or '!' is a variable and should not be translated
Example
!user is @years years old
!user hat @years Jahre
2. Anything in angular brackets "<"should not be translated
Example
You must "/not" click this
"/Jamais" cliquez ici
NB: Translating the CF Install interface and the CForge website are done differently, please see seperate FAQ for those.
Presently, the installation is available in the following languages :
- English, French (finished)
- Spanish, Portuguese, German (1-days work to finish)
Yes! We can import your Community's information so that you can start trading within a few hours. In order to motivate you to supply us with correctly formatted data, we request a donation of €20/hour for this work. A file that is prepared according to our requirements should take approx. 1 hour to import.
Please see the file attached, and please see this page for donations www.communityForge.net/donate
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Liste_a_preparer_pour_importation.xls | 32 KB |
An upcoming LETS client mentioned the work she was doing to get the members of the group behind the project, and in response I jotted down this survey, which might be put into Survey Monkey or printed and done face to face.
- We need to move the accounting to an online system to free up resources. Do you have any fears about entering your own transactions, offers and wants online?
- If you could get up to date information online, and print it out yourself, would you still want the committee to prepare, copy, and post that?
- Could you envisage any benefits to the group of participating in a wider network of complementary currency communities?
- How much might you use cash LETS?
- In the current economic climate, what role if any should our group be playing in the wider community?
- What is the optimum membership for a LETS group, and why?
- Demurrage is a tax on positive balances, it encourages spending. It also sends money back to the centre. Do you think we are ready for more advanced mechanisms such as tax?
- What kinds of new members should we be trying to attract, if any, and where would they be reached?
- Please order the following priorities for our group:
- Increasing membership numbers
- Increasing member participation
- Helping other LETS communities move forward
- Increasing our local profile
- Giving more with to local community
- Making better use of technology
- Please prioritise the following.
- LETS is an excuse to meet interesting people
- LETS builds community, and community is important
- LETS could be a critical economic lifeboat
- LETS encourages more sustainable living
- LETS helps marginalised people feel valued
- LETS can make use of resources which official money can't
- LETS bring political power back to the grassroots
- LETS is tax-free earnings
- LETS provides a way for 'alternative' people to thrive outside the system.
The default installation allows you to personalise:
- typeset and width
- menu items
- the way new members sign up (with or without permission)
- messages sent to new, and activated members
- currency settings (min. & max. etc.)
- messages sent concerning transactions
- activities of interest in your calendar
- News items on the first page after logging in
- newsletter mailing lists
- offers and wants categories
- document categories
- image gallery categories
If you'd like to go even further, for Local Admin who have proven themselves, communityForge.net offers user/1 access in order to allow them to:
-move the blocks (in the left and right margins) around or make new ones
-Add or remove columns from lists
-Set up Google analytics
-Add new fields to the user profiles
-Add another field to explain your offers and wants in more detail
-We can make your transactions and balances private even within the system
etc. Read more
Please see the form for requesting a site at http://communityforge.net/request
Community Forge has time to talk to you and work out what the best kind of site for you is. We can work with your existing data, livery and internal procedures, and we can work with whatever web skills you have to save you money. You can have a site off the shelf, cheap, or if you have more developed ideas, we will customise for you, or better, extend the software for all to benefit. Write to us telling us all about your community, it's relationship with the internet, your budget, your skills, and any planning or design work you've done so far, and we'll get back to you with some solid options. Read more
Our colleagues, Community Exchange System have worked with us to produce this direct comparison.
Cyclos is serious, open source, specialised software. Many communities find that high investment is needed to get Cyclos running and integrated with their other sytems, although a dedicated group successfully collaborated to deploy this software for most of the Taushringe in the Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Another technology looks promising, OSCurrency, but it is far from finished, and is built using a less popular framework.
Diligent researchers might investigate Cclite, GETS (commercial), Ripple and Regenerosity, Local Exchange, and there are a number of other ideas out there which are not at all ready for communities to deploy. For another opinion see Stephen DeMeulenaere's page.
Our software, based on Drupal, is the only community currency trading software built on a social networking platform. That means thousands of software developers can set up similar sites, and many of them could easily modify the software. As a popular open source project, the code is very high quality and continually improving. And we take a more holistic view in terms of building up a community of users who can support each other.
Our community accounting software is a zero balance system which is compatible with timebanks accounting. If you want to run a system like timebanks we can therefore help you.
However there are other aspects of the official timebank methodology which are not handled by the software yet. For example timebanks often use brokers instead of an offers wants directory, and members can specify which times of the week they are available.
Yes! We can import your Community's information so that you can start trading within a few hours. In order to motivate you to supply us with correctly formatted data, we request a donation of €20/hour for this work. A file that is prepared according to our requirements should take approx. 1 hour to import.
Please see the file attached, and please see this page for donations www.communityForge.net/donate
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Liste_a_preparer_pour_importation.xls | 32 KB |
Please see the form for requesting a site at http://communityforge.net/request
You have two solutions:
-you are a CF Contributor and have access to user/1 on your installation and have the knowledge to change a theme, you may go ahead and do it at your own risk.
-you ask CF to customise your site. For simple color changes, the cost will be less than €100.
Tip: We are looking for communities that would like to create custom Drupal Themes. That theme will then be offered as a choice to communities using the CommunityForge hosted solution. That's called Pooling resources, and that's what sustainable communities do.
The Community offers training 3 or 4 times a year. There are 3 levels:
1. Committee and Local Admin
2. Local Admin with full Access
3. Contributor to CommunityForge
Read more
The default installation allows you to personalise:
- typeset and width
- menu items
- the way new members sign up (with or without permission)
- messages sent to new, and activated members
- currency settings (min. & max. etc.)
- messages sent concerning transactions
- activities of interest in your calendar
- News items on the first page after logging in
- newsletter mailing lists
- offers and wants categories
- document categories
- image gallery categories
If you'd like to go even further, for Local Admin who have proven themselves, communityForge.net offers user/1 access in order to allow them to:
-move the blocks (in the left and right margins) around or make new ones
-Add or remove columns from lists
-Set up Google analytics
-Add new fields to the user profiles
-Add another field to explain your offers and wants in more detail
-We can make your transactions and balances private even within the system
etc. Read more
If you access the list of ALL content via the menu Manage > content, you will see all content that has been created on the site (offers, trades, activities, stories) even if the member is no longer Active. This is normal. The offers and wants of the Blocked members however, will not be displayed to other members when they search via Categories.
Community Forge has time to talk to you and work out what the best kind of site for you is. We can work with your existing data, livery and internal procedures, and we can work with whatever web skills you have to save you money. You can have a site off the shelf, cheap, or if you have more developed ideas, we will customise for you, or better, extend the software for all to benefit. Write to us telling us all about your community, it's relationship with the internet, your budget, your skills, and any planning or design work you've done so far, and we'll get back to you with some solid options. Read more
Here are the instructions for translating each individual Module, the Installation translation is different.
The open-source Modules that Matt has written have been translated in several languages. Modules are pieces of software that plug into Drupal, the open-source platform we use.
Here's what to do.
Download Poedit, helping software
Open the attached file in poedit
You should see the English strings and spaces for the translation
Save the file as cforge_custom.nl.po and return
Notes
1. Any word preceded by '@' or '!' is a variable and should not be translated
Example
!user is @years years old
!user hat @years Jahre
2. Anything in angular brackets "<"should not be translated
Example
You must "/not" click this
"/Jamais" cliquez ici
NB: Translating the CF Install interface and the CForge website are done differently, please see seperate FAQ for those.
Presently, the installation is available in the following languages :
- English, French (finished)
- Spanish, Portuguese, German (1-days work to finish)
The Community offers training 3 or 4 times a year. There are 3 levels:
1. Committee and Local Admin
2. Local Admin with full Access
3. Contributor to CommunityForge
Read more