Using My Swirl Online Help Topics
- Getting started: what should I do once I've signed up?
- My location: my address couldn't be geocoded, but Swirl is showing me as being located in the middle of nowhere?
- Inbox: from where do My Inbox messages come, and should I send messages through My Inbox or through the Swirl Messenger?
- Placemark photos: not all image types supported in the slideshow viewer?
- Photos: some of the photos I've uploaded aren't showing up yet?
- Friends: initiating and accepting friend requests.
- Swirl Forum: Using My Swirl
My location: my address couldn't be geocoded, but Swirl is showing me as being located in the middle of nowhere?
In the middle of "No Name," to be precise. That's No Name, Colorado, and I assure you, it is a real city. When we can't geocode your address, and we have difficulty generating any sort of fallback coordinates (say, e.g., by using your zip code, state, country, nearby address, etc.), we banish you to No Name, CO until we can sort things out. And by sort things out, I mean until you can locate yourself on a map. In theory, it should only happen in a small percentage of cases, but in practice. . .we'll see.
To correct this, head to My Preferences | My Account, and you'll be prompted to manually geocode your address via a map.
Inbox: from where do My Inbox messages come, and should I send messages through My Inbox or through the Swirl Messenger?
Inbox messages will include service alerts from Swirl, messages from members who are not on your friend list, friend requests and responses, and non-IM messages from friends. Sometimes IM messages will show up here as a failover, but this only happens when a friend sends you an IM while you're unavailable and we can't get the message added to your IM queue for whatever reason.
Send a message from your inbox if you want your message to show up in someone else's inbox. Don't use your inbox for instant messages; use IM for that. If you're contacting someone who is not on your friend list, your only option is to send them a message from your inbox, because only friends can IM each other.
Placemark photos: not all image types supported in the slideshow viewer?
The slideshow viewer is available on place details and person details pages. The viewer is a Flash application, and Flash doesn't support all common image formats, namely PNG's. If your phone supports JPEG's (most newer phones), your place photos will be taken in this format and will display in the viewer. If your phone only supports PNG's, they will not be uploaded to My Swirl, as they would cause display problems in the slideshow viewer. We are aware that this is not ideal, and we will be taking steps to remedy the situation.
Friends: initiating and accepting friend requests.
It is very important to understand that Swirl is not like MySpace or Facebook, where you go friend collecting and try to add as many random people as possible to your friends list. When we refer to friends in Swirl, we are using the literal interpretation. These are your actual, real-life friends. You hang out together, know each others phone numbers, where each other lives. Swirl friends are not acquaintances around the globe that you've stumbled upon; they are people who are close to you and who you trust. Please do not initiate friend requests to people who you don't know, and don't accept friend requests from people you don't know.
Photos: some of the photos I've uploaded aren't showing up yet?
There are three reasons why photos you've recently added to My Swirl don't show:
- They are in the virus scanning queue. All photos are scanned for viruses before they are sized. If the server is particularly busy or the queue is full, it might take several minutes for the photos to show up. Normally it will only take a second or two.
The index hasn't yet been rebuilt.When someone views a place or person details page, the photos displayed are part of an index. The index is cached for several hours to improve performance. When the index is rebuilt, the photos will display to all members. Note that this will not affect your or your friends' viewing of these photos. You will be able to view them immediately in My Swirl, and your friends will be able to se them immediately when they view your activity. But when others visit your person details page, they might be viewing the old index. A solution to this will be deployed in the next minor web site release.This issue was resolved in build 0.8.1 10.17.2007.- Your cache needs cleared. Photo references are stored in XML files downloaded by your browser. Youor browser might be using a cache version to display the page. Just hit 'Refresh' to force a reload.