Backups

The Online Committee will occasionally create a copy of everything on our website to store as a file in their computer in case of problems. This would enable us to restore everything if a hacker somehow destroyed it, or one of us messed things up somehow. Because our site is automatically backed up by WordPress it’s unlikely we’d ever need to use our backup, but it does provide an extra degree of protection. Below is a description of the simple steps to create a backup file, and some information about the more complex process of using one to restore the website in the event we ever need to.

Backup

1. Log in as Administrator (other Roles don’t have access to this feature).

2. Click “My Dashboard” and then “Tools” and “Export” as in this screen excerpt:

Export screen (top left corner)

3. Check the settings (defaults are probably best).

4. Save the file on your computer and/or a CD for safe storage.

Note that multiple copies saved by different people are a good idea.

Restore

1. Determine if the entire website must be re-created; or just the Pages, Posts and Comments.

2. If just the latter, log in as Administrator and click “My Dashboard” and then “Tools” and “Import” as in this screen excerpt:

Import screen (top left corner)

3. Choose the “WordPress” option near the bottom of the list and follow the directions.

Recreate Site

We’ll probably never need to do this! To recreate the site, contact WordPress first to see if they can help. They might be able to do it for you, or perhaps enable you to at least use our familiar svmha.wordpress.com address rather than starting from scratch with a new address.

Potentially Helpful Info:

Theme: Fadtastic

Widgets:

Sidebar 1

• Recent Posts
• Calendar (Posts by Date)
• Archives (Posts by Month).

Sidebar 2

• Text (Handy Links)

<B><P><a href=”http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?id=1394″>Local News</a></p>
<P><a href=”http://www.wunderground.com/US/CA/Santa_Barbara.html”>Local Weather</a></p>
<P><a href=”http://stvincents-sb.org/”>St. Vincent’s</a></p>
<P><a href=”http://www.hcd.ca.gov/codes/ol/ombpg-menu.html”>CA Ombudsman</a></p>
<P><a href=”http://www.gsmol.org/”>GSMOL Online</a></p>
<P><a href=”http://www.comocal.org/”>CoMo-CAL Online</a></p>

• Recent Comments (no title, show 8, no avatars)
• Blog Subscriptions (Notification of Posts)
  • Logged in: “Click the button to get notifications of new Posts on this site in your email.”
  • Non-WordPress: “WordPress Subscription – Click the button to enter your email address and subscribe to WordPress (see our <a href=”https://svmha.wordpress.com/help/”>Help</a&gt; page) so that you can then click here again to subscribe to email notifications of new posts here on SVMHA.”
  • Subscription Button: “Get Update Emails”
• Text (Admin)

<B><a href=”https://svmha.wordpress.com/wp-login.php?action=login&amp;redirect_to=https://svmha.wordpress.com/”>Log IN-Home Pg</a></b><BR>
<B><a href=”https://svmha.wordpress.com/wp-login.php”>Log IN-Dashboard</a></b><BR>
<B><a href=”https://svmha.wordpress.com/wp-login.php?action=logout&amp;redirect_to=https://svmha.wordpress.com/”>Log OUT</a></b>

Settings:

General

General Settings

Writing (default settings)

Reading

Reading Settings (excerpt of screen)

Invitation Text:

Hello,

The San Vicente Mobile Homeowner’s Association invites you to join our online community.  On this website you can find information and documents related to your Board, find out what’s new in your neigbhorhood, and enter into the dialog.

How to Join SVMHA online:

1. In this email you received from “WordPress” click on the link after the words:
“To accept this invitation, visit …”
*NOTE: If clicking doesn’t take you to a signup screen, copy the link and
paste it into the Location window of your web browser application to reach the
signup website.

2. Be sure you have some handy way to take notes, either on your computer or a
pad of paper you’ll be able to find later.  On your web browser’s screen will be
the screen to “Get your own WordPress.com account…” and in the “Username” box
type in the name you’d like (see attached file 2-NewUserSignupScreen.jpg where
“Test” was chosen).  Write down this name on your pad or in the file on your
computer.

3. Choose a password and be sure to write it down.  Note the password strength
indicator, that will change as you improve the quality of it.  Choosing a Strong
password is HIGHLY recommended, to prevent hackers from gaining access to your
personal info and potentially that of other users.  Strong passwords will
contain both letters and symbols.  Do NOT use anything easy to figure out, such
as common words.  An easy method is to make up a “sounds like” phrase containing
numbers that’s relevant to SVMHA and all in one word, for example: ta2sv4fun!
That is: Test Account (ta) to (2) San Vicente (sv) for (4) fun!  Of course,
don’t use that password since the hackers can now find it online and defeat our
security.

4. Type in the email address you’d like the SVMHA website to use for contacting
you.  This will also be handy if you lose your password, because the site can
email a new one to you.  Click the “…terms of service” link if you’d like to
see it, or click the “I have read…” box if you’re a trusting person.

5. Choose whether you’d like to just have an account for use on the SVMHA site,
or the default selection which is to additionally start your own site.  Either
is fine, since you don’t have to ever use the site created if you forget to
click the button for “Just a username…”

6. You’ll be taken to a new screen where you can customize your account a
little, but if you do be sure to write down what you put there.  Instead though,
it’s easier to simply ignore that screen and check your email.  A new email will
have been sent to you from WordPress and inside it will be the line “click on
the following…”  If clicking on it doesn’t work automatically, again you can
copy it and paste it into the Location window of your web browsing software.
Rather than click the link to log in on this screen, it can be helpful to
instead log in by clicking on “Log in” at the lower right under “ADMIN” on the
SVMHA website https://svmha.wordpress.com/  This will probably be the login
screen you most often use, so it will be familiar and your web browser may have
an option to automatically remember your name and password for convenience.  You
can also click the “Remember Me” button on the login screen so that the website
may remember you too (note this may not always work depending on your browser
settings, so be sure to keep the signup info you wrote down).

7. Now the easy part: click on stuff and explore the website.  You can update
your profile and have some fun looking around.  We’ll probably put some help
pages on the SVMHA site and you can find some generic help on their Support site
http://en.support.wordpress.com/

This is an automated message sent by the WordPress.com subscription service, and below is their information on how to “authenticate” you and thus protect our site from advertisers and hackers.   Thanks for your patience with this process, and please do let us know how we can improve our additional directions above to help future subscribers with the process.

Discussion

Discussion Settings (screen excerpt)

Also – Show a subscribe to comments; Don’t show avatars; Default avatar blank

Media

Media Settings (screen excerpt)

Writing (block search, allow normal)

*Note that you might want to have a backup of the “Users” screen.

Good Luck! 🙂

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