Frequently Asked Questions - Recently Updated Pages

Welcome to Wetpaint FAQ

wetpaint — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 11:37:01 CDT

This site is no longer in use. Please go to Wetpaint Central (www.wetpaintcentral.com) for all help, FAQs, suggestions, and bug reporting.

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wetpaint — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 19:15:40 CDT

1. About Wetpaint Sites

wetpaint — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 16:20:32 CDT

Have questions about using your new site? Check out Using Wetpaint Sites.

Q. What is a Wetpaint site?

A. Wetpaint sites are "click-and-type" websites that are easy to start and even easier to expand, because you can invite anyone you like to add text, photos, links, and other content to your Wetpaint site. To add or edit content, all you need to do is click the EasyEdit button to activate an editing toolbar similar to what you'd see in programs like Microsoft Word. Then just start typing!

Q. What do people use Wetpaint sites for?

A. Wetpaint sites can be used for all kinds of things. Here are just a few:

Personal Uses - You might want to start a Wetpaint site where you post photos for your family and friends to see and share. This is an easy way to keep people connected to what's happening in your life and helps you avoid sending out tons of email.
Reference - Are you an expert on fly-fishing or do you have the inside scoop on all the best Hollywood gossip? You could start a Wetpaint site as an online reference for like-minded people. Imagine passionate online discussions about the latest Brangelina gossip or trends in fly-fishing lures with people from around the world.
Clubs & Organizations - Are you the one tasked with getting the local PTA group online and up to speed? It's easy to start a site for your group using Wetpaint. And even better -- you can delegate. The Wetpaint platform makes sharing the workload much easier.

Q. How do I get my own Wetpaint site?

A. It’s easy to start your own Wetpaint site. Just go to Wetpaint and follow the three-step site creation process:

Choose a name for your Wetpaint site
Pick a design from the selection of templates (you can customize the masthead area with a logo or image if you want)
Create a Wetpaint account

All told, the setup process will take you about one minute to start your Wetpaint site. You can then start adding content, customize your profile page, and invite others to help you build and use the site.

Q. How are Wetpaint sites different from other websites?

A. The biggest difference is that Wetpaint sites are EASY. Where other collaborative sites expect you to know complicated syntax or programming knowledge, all you need to know to do on a Wetpaint site is click a button and type.

Q. Does it cost anything to get my own Wetpaint site?

A. Wetpaint sites are free. Wetpaint places contextual ads on the page which are relevant to the content of the page. These ads defray the costs of running the Wetpaint servers.

Q. Does Wetpaint support other languages?

A. You can pretty much use any language you like on your Wetpaint site. At the current time, however, all Wetpaint tools and Help content are only available in English. Shortly, we expect Wetpaint to be fully localized.

Q. Can I alter the Wetpaint CSS file to create my own customized look?

A. Right now, no. You may choose from the 18 site templates currently offered for the look of your site. You are able to customize the masthead space of your site with a logo or image file (.jpg, .gif, .png formats are supported). Let us know how important this feature is to you on our Bugs & Suggestions site.

Q. Can I search all Wetpaint sites to find information I need?

A. Yes. Just visit the Wetpaint.com homepage. There is a search field on the upper right that will surface sites relevant to your search query.

Q. Why do some of the Wetpaint sites seem to recognize me but not others?

A. Once you have signed into a specific Wetpaint site, the site will remember you if you ask it to. Wetpaint sites don’t automatically recognize you because people often like to adopt different user names and profiles depending on the site they’re contributing to.

Q. Can I move my existing blog, wiki, or forum to Wetpaint?

A. Absolutely.

Q. Can I use my own domain name when I start a Wetpaint site?

A. You can choose whatever name you want for your Wetpaint site. The address will be formatted so it reads YOURNAME.wetpaint.com.

Q. Can I get an email address for my Wetpaint domain name?

A. No. Let us know how important this feature is to you on our Bugs & Suggestions site.

Q. What web browsers does Wetpaint support?

A. You should be able to read any Wetpaint site regardless of your browser. However, if you want to create, add, or edit a Wetpaint site, we suggest you use the following browsers:

Firefox 1.0.7 and higher for PCs and Macs
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 for the PC
Some functions of Wetpaint are supported on Safari, others are not. We're working hard on complete Safari support.

Q. Can I import content to my Wetpaint site?

A. Moving content to your Wetpaint site is easy -- all you need to do is cut and paste. Highlight the text in the original website, blog, or forum and select the copy option from the right-click menu. Go to your Wetpaint site and click the EasyEdit button. Where you want the text to appear, place your cursor and select the paste option from the right-click menu.

Q. How much storage space can I use?

A. At the current time, Wetpaint does not have a storage limit. However, Wetpaint may need to impose a maximum in the future.

Q. How many Wetpaint sites can I make?

A. You can make as many Wetpaint sites as you want. Wetpaint will keep an eye out for inactive sites and will email the originator if the site remains inactive for a period of six months. If no further activity occurs, Wetpaint will deactivate the site to free up the URL.

Q. Can my Wetpaint site support audio or video?

A. At the current time, Wetpaint supports YouTube videos. We're working on other video support. Wetpaint does not currently support audio attachments. Let us know how important media hosting is to you on our Bugs & Suggestions site.

Q. Can my Wetpaint site support attachments?

A. Wetpaint does not currently support attachments. We expect to have this capability soon. Let us know how important this feature is to you on our Bugs & Suggestions site.

Q. Can I use HTML to create or edit my Wetpaint site?

A. No HTML code is necessary to create or edit your Wetpaint site. HTML code cannot be used on Wetpaint sites.

Q. Can I create my own tools or widgets to bolt on to my Wetpaint site?

A. At the current time, no. Let us know how important this feature is to you on our Bugs and Suggestions site.

Q. Do you have any manuals or instructions for Wetpaint sites?

A. We don't produce printed manuals, but we have a Help section that details the ins and outs of using Wetpaint.

4. Using Wetpaint Sites

wetpaint — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:40:06 CDT

Q. Can I make my site private? I don't want anyone else to be able to see my site.
A. At this time, we do not support private sites. If you build a site, it will be viewable to anyone who finds it.

Q. I don't want other people to edit my site. How can I stop that?
A. As a site creator, you can change who can contribute to your site. Remember, anyone can comment on your site, but you can limit editing of pages to whomever you choose. If you don't want anyone else to contribute, follow these steps to change your permission so only people you invite can edit your site pages.

Log in to your site
Go to Settings in the upper right corner
Click on Who Can Contribute
Click on the I Want to Change this Setting button
Choose the Only People I Invite option
Click on the Next button
Confirm you want to make this change
Click Done.

Q. How do I add an image/video/link/table?
A. Our Help section has easy to follow step by step instructions for all of the features in the EasyEdit Toolbar. Go there now.

3. About the Company

wetpaint — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 16:03:54 CDT

Q. Who founded Wetpaint?

A. Wetpaint was founded by a collection of individuals who hope to inspire individuals through technology to contribute to their communities. Ben Elowitz serves as Wetpaint's Chief Executive Officer.

Q. How does Wetpaint make money?

A. Wetpaint makes money by placing contextual advertising links on Wetpaint sites. The revenue generated from the advertising helps offset the cost of the technology, hosting, bandwidth, and coffee.

Q. What's with the name Wetpaint?

A. Wetpaint got its name from the fact that Wetpaint sites are never really done -- the content is always changing as a passionate community guides it, evolves it, and helps it grow.

Q. How many people work at Wetpaint?

A. There are 15 members of the Wetpaint crew. If you're interested in helping us apply the second coat, check out our job listings.

Q. Where is Wetpaint located?

A. Wetpaint is located in lovely downtown Seattle, Washington ... Pioneer Square to be exact. If you want to drop us a note, our mailing address is:

83 South King Street
Suite 850
Seattle, WA 98104

Here's a map to us.

Q. How do I contact Wetpaint?

A. You can send us a letter at the address above. You can call us at 206.859.6300. You can send us a fax at 206.859.6301. Or you can send us an email at info@wetpaint.com. We'd love to hear from you, especially if you're doing something really cool with Wetpaint.

Q. Who funded Wetpaint?

A. Wetpaint was funded by Trinity Ventures and Frazier Technology Ventures.

Q. Does Wetpaint license its technology?

A. Wetpaint is a hosted service. If you are interested in licensing the Wetpaint technology for your own applications, please contact our business development group via email at bizdev@wetpaint.com.

2. Privacy & Terms of Use

wetpaint — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 16:01:16 CDT

Q. Will you ever sell my private information?

A. No ... never... not going to happen. We like you too much to ever do a thing like that to you.

Q. Will you ever, EVER pass my personal information on to anyone else?

A. In certain situations, yes, but these situations are very limited. They include, for example, working with vendors and contractors who need it to do their jobs, or when the law requires it. For full details, see the privacy policy on this site or on the site you are concerned about.

Q. Are children allowed to register?

A. Our registration features which collect personal information are intended to be used by those age 13 and over.

Q. Does Wetpaint require that I accept cookies?

A. Wetpaint does not require that you accept cookies, however, some functionality on Wetpaint sites may be disabled if you decline to accept cookies. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to accept it.

Q. What does Wetpaint do with the information collected from cookies?

A. Wetpaint primarily uses cookies to collect anonymous usage statistics, to help us understand if users are actively logged in to Wetpaint to enable certain features, and to keep track of editing and submissions to the site. We do not store any personal information in the cookies.

Q. How do I opt out of communications?

At this time, the best way to opt out is to edit your profile information using the My Profile link on your Wetpaint site of interest or contact us if you have further concerns.

Q. Can I contribute copyrighted content to a Wetpaint site?

A. Only if you are the one who owns the copyright, or you have the copyright owner's permission. It is your responsibility to make sure that everything you post is your own original work or that it is allowed by the copyright holder to be posted by you.

Q. Who owns the copyright to content published on Wetpaint sites?

A. If it's your work, you do. If you post your own original work to a Wetpaint site, you are still the copyright owner of your individual submission.

Q. What are others allowed to do with my content that I post on a Wetpaint site?

When you post your content on a Wetpaint site, you give Wetpaint the right to add it to the site and retransmit it to the public, or use it for other purposes. Additionally, your content will be made available to others to redistribute for non-commercial purposes. They can do this by way of a Creative Commons license, which is automatically granted.

Q. Which Creative Commons license is used, and what does it allow?
Your content will be made available to other users under the Creative Commons' Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. This license lets people republish content from Wetpaint sites, as long as they are not using it to make money for themselves, as long as they attribute the content (e.g. with a link), and as long as they make the content available to other users on the same basis.

Q. Can I chose between different types of Creative Commons licenses?

A. So far, no. Any site you create with Wetpaint carries the Creative Commons' Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License right now.

Q. Can I use the Gnu FDL for my content?

A. So far, no.

Q. Is there anything else I should know about copyrights, trademarks, licenses, and other terms of use?

A. As a matter of fact, our lawyers would love it if you would read the full terms of use on the site you are asking about, or read our example terms of use from this site. Enjoy!