How do I sign into photophlow for the first time?

Signing into photophlow currently requires the use of a flickr account. You must also authorize photophlow to 'read' your flickr photos.

Loading any room or page on photophlow.com other than the main page, the blog or this help section will display a link prompting you to sign in. If it is your first time using photophlow, click the "sign in" link and we'll send you over to flickr so that you can authenticate and authorize photophlow to work with your flickr account. Once this process is complete you will be sent back to the page you were trying to enter in the first place, fully signed in and ready to use photophlow!

Is authorizing photophlow dangerous?

Authorizing photophlow is primarily a way to let us verify who you are on flickr so that no one can impersonate you. We also use "write" permissions so that you can leave comments and tags and 'fave' flickr photos from inside photophlow.

We will never ask you for your flickr or yahoo password, and flickr will never provide that information to us. For more information about authentication, please see the flickr FAQ entry on the subject.

Can photophlow access my private photos?

Authorization does allow us to view your private photos, but this permission is one that we do not use. We may eventually introduce features that will allow you to share your private photos with friends and family through photophlow, but you will always retain full control over who can and cannot see your photos.

For more details, read our privacy policy.

What the heck is an "anteroom"?

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anteroom

photophlow's anteroom is meant as a kind of staging area for you to blah blah

How do I activate my room?

Activating your room is easy! Just enter the room that corresponds with your flickr account, and that room will be activated so that other users may visit it.

After you've authenticated your flickr account, a handy link to your room will be displayed in the the photophlow "anteroom". Clicking that link will open your room and activate public access to the room if it hasn't been activated already

How do you determine the "most active!" rooms?

There's this Magic Donkey..

Actually, it is simply a list of rooms with the most people currently using them.

You can hide your room from the "most active!" list by clicking the "settings" link at the top left of your room and un-checking "list in the "active rooms" section". The default setting for group rooms is checked, while the default setting for personal rooms is unchecked.

Why don't you list all of my contacts?

If you have more than 500 contacts, we'll only display friends and family in the "your contacts" list.

This helps to improve page load time.

What are "notifications"?

Hanging around in a photophlow room for hours on end and waiting for someone to show up isn't our idea of fun.

Notifications are a way to avoid this. Once you've entered and tested your notification information, we can notify you via IM or email when someone has entered a room that you're set to receive notifications from.

Which events will trigger a notification?

By default, we'll send you notifications when someone enters a room that you control, but we can also send you notifications regarding rooms that you do not control. Simply enter "notify me" for a room and activate notifications from that room.

Why am I not receiving notifications via MSN or GOOGLE TALK?

MSN and GOOGLE TALK require you to authorize Photophlow to we can send you instant messages.

You can prompt Photophlow to send an authorization request to you via IM by clicking "test notifications" in the anteroom. After loading and connecting your preferred IM program, click "add as a buddy" back in Photophlow's "verify IM" panel. If Photophlow isn't already authorized, your IM program should receive a message asking for such permission.

Grant photophlow permission to send you messages, and notifications will be sent to you when appropriate.

Why am I not receiving notifications via AIM?

AOL Instant Messenger has a setting for controlling who may or may not send messages to you. If you have "Allow only users on my Buddy List" selected, or another more restrictive setting, Photophlow will not be able to send messages to you.

You may have this filter enabled unknowingly, since the setting is saved on AOL servers.

To get around this filter, manually add "photophlowaim" to your buddy list.

Okay, I tried everything but am still not getting notifications!

The wide variety of different IM services and clients are tricky beestes with sharp teethes and unruly temperaments.

If you find IM notifications aren't working for you, try manually adding the photophlow bot for the service you're using to your buddy list.

Here are the bot names:

AIM: photophlowaim
YAHOO!: photophlownotifier
MSN: photophlow@hotmail.com
GTALK: photophlow@gmail.com

If notifications still don't go through after manually adding the bot to your buddy list, you can always try using an alternative IM service to see if that improves things.

p.s. .. and if at all possible, avoid using MSN messenger.

Can I control who is able to enter my room?

Once you're inside your room, find the 'settings' link at the top left corner. Clicking it will reveal the settings control panel for the room you're in.

You'll find a section called 'privacy', that will allow you to restrict entry to the room based on your flickr contacts list. Figure out who you're comfortable letting into your room and then click the 'save settings' button to return to your room.

How do I ban and unban people from my room?

To ban an account, hover over the icon of someone in a room you control. From the descending menu, click the "ban user" link. Confirm the banishment and the banned account will be immediately ejected from the room, unable to return.

To unban an account, click the 'settings' link at the top left corner of a room you control. Use the "unban" links in the list of banned accounts to unban people as necessary.

How do I stop people from reading my room's history?

Click the 'settings' link at the top left corner of the room. Uncheck "publicly display the 'history' of messages left in this room" to hide the record of activity in the room.

In group rooms, history is made available by default. In personal rooms, history is hidden by default.

How do I create a room for a group I administrate?

Group rooms do not exist until a group administrator elects to create a room for that group.

To create a room for your group, go to the anteroom and find the section labeled "your groups". If you are the admin of a flickr group, you'll find a select menu with a list of the groups you control. Select a group from this list, and you will enter the newly created room for that group!

Can I control who is able to enter my group's room?

You betcha! Click the "settings" link in the top left corner of your group's room. Then select either "only group members" or "any flickr member" from under "who is allowed to join this room?"

What kind of groups can have rooms?

Photophlow doesn't support the creation of rooms for private groups, or "Invite Only" groups. We also do not support the creation of rooms rated 18+ on flickr.

What is "Manual Mode"?

In "Manual Mode", the photo viewing and search areas will only update if you manually click a photo or search message.

You can use this mode in a busy room to view photos and search results without interruption.

What is "Private Mode"?

In "Private Mode", the searches you make and the photos you view will not be broadcast into the conversation area.

This mode is useful when you want to search for and view photos in a room without disturbing the other people in the room.

Why won't my photo appear in search results?

Photophlow currently only allows users to search for and share public photos. Private photos, Friends-Only and Family-Only photos are not supported.

Also, If you've used flickr settings to exclude your photos from the Flickr API, they may not appear in certain searches.

Finally, for the time being Photophlow only supports photos moderated as "safe". Photos marked "Moderate" or "Restricted" will not be visible.

Why won't the photo appear any larger when I click "magnify"?

Photophlow may not display a larger version of a photo for a number of reasons.

One reason is if there isn't enough room in your browser to display the larger version. This happens especially often with "Tall" photos, in portrait orientation.

Also, if the photograph wasn't uploaded in the larger size, there may be no larger size for photophlow to display.

Further, if the photographer has restricted downloading the "large" size via flickr, either completely or to friends or family only - we will respect this restriction and not display the "large" sized photo.

Why is there a limit to the number of invitations I can send?

Photophlow is still in the testing stages. While testing, a smaller number of invited users is better suited to help test the functionality and stability of the service. Photophlow won't be "invitation only" forever, but in the near-term it's necessary for us to put some limits on how many people can join.

What if I send an invitation to the same person twice?

If you send an email invitation to someone you've already sent an email to, Photophlow will re-send the the first invitation you sent, and the number of your remaining invites will remain the same.

How do I 'opt out' of or 'permit' email communications?

All email from photophlow should include an "opt out" link, directing you to a page where you can opt out of email communications from photophlow.

If you have opted out and wish to reverse this decision, go to the 'permit email' page, where you can re-allow photophlow to send you email messages.

Opt out page: http://www.photophlow.com/optout/

Permit email page: http://www.photophlow.com/permit/

How do I prevent Photophlow from displaying my photos?

To hide your photos from Photophlow and other sites like it, check "Hide your photos from searches on 3rd party sites that use the API?" on flickr's "Hiding from search" settings page.

Can I prevent people from seeing the "large" version of my flickr photos?

If there is enough room in a user's browser to display a large sized photo upon clicking "magnify", Photophlow will display the large version of that photo if a large version is available.

However, if the owner of the photograph has restricted their "download permissions" in any way, we will not display the large sized photo.

Can I make the text in Photophlow easier to read in Windows XP?

Photophlow has a lot going on, and sometimes we need to use fairly small text to fit it all in. This text is 'anti-aliased' or 'smoothed' by default when using Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP, or any browser on Windows Vista or OS X.

In Internet Explorer 6 or Mozilla Firefox on Windows XP, however, text can look jagged and difficult to read. Fortunately this can be solved by enabling "ClearType".

To enable clear type in Windows XP:

1] Right-click the desktop.
2] Select Properties.
3] Click the "Appearance" tab.
4] Click on the "Effects" button.
5] In the "Effects" window, check "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts"
6] select "ClearType" from the drop-down menu

How do I set myself "away" or "back"?

To set yourself "away", type "/away" into chat. To set yourself "back", type "/back" into chat.

You can associate either action with an image from your photostream by tagging the image "phlow:status=away" or "phlow:status=back".

How do I use those smile/frown/wink photo things?

The smile,wink and frown messages are called 'photo-emotes'. You can display a photo-emote by typing /smile, /wink or /frown into chat on a line by itself. Photophlow will automatically replace the text with the appropriate 'emote'.

By default we'll display some specially commissioned photo-emotes by one of photophlow's favourite photographers, Lú_.

.. However, if you'd like to create your own *personalized* photo-emotes, just tag your own photos with "phlow:emote=smile", "phlow:emote=wink" and "phlow:emote=frown" to link your own photos to the emote trigger commands. It can sometimes take a couple minutes for photophlow to sync up with flickr tags, but with a little patience your new emote will appear. Tagging your photo via Photophlow's magnify view tends to speed up this process, but there may still be some delay.

Try to use photos that crop in closely on your own face. Close crops tend to get the emotion across better... and have fun with it!

What's the current list of available photo-emotes?

/smile , /wink , /frown , /wave , /approve, /disapprove, /ponder, /doh , /lalala , /laugh , /lol , /shrug , /yawn , /rock , /paper , /scissors , /yay , /yodel , /yum , /phlows , /dance, /kiss and /chop

you can personalize the emotes by tagging your public photos phlow:emote=smile , phlow:emote=frown , phlow:emote=ponder etc. etc.