This page is only accessible to logged-in Organizing Group members.
The information on this page is extremely confidential; if it were to leak out it would enable the website to be hacked or altered, and the details of our Supporters could become known. So please make sure that no one else knows your login credentials, that your username remains hard to guess and that your password is very strong.
The safest way to do this is to use a secure password manager such as Dashlane (the free version is fine) and to set the Equal website credentials to require your master password to be entered before they can be accessed.
The reason why I (Phil) have created this page is to make sure that someone else can take over the website if I were to be out of action – run over by a bus, seriously ill or whatever.
The websites
Websites? Yes! They are:
Both sites are WordPress-based dynamic sites, which means that most of the pages and posts are generated automatically from the sites’ database. To safely make changes to the sites’ structure or appearance, you must be experienced at creating or maintaining WordPress websites. If you’re not, find someone who is. You can ask Allan Scott – see below.
Credentials
The admin credentials for both sites are the same:
Username: RotationalSparrow
Password: cHqdhpMSd2GxBy
If you need full administrative control of the site, log in using these credentials rather than your own.
FTP access
It is unlikely that you will need FTP access unless you need to edit the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) files named style.css, which are found in the /wp-content/themes/equal folders. As with everything else, make sure you know what you’re doing, and make a backup of the file before making changes.
If you do need FTP access, I recommend the widely-used open source FTP client FileZilla, downloadable from https://filezilla-project.org/download.php.
Use the following credentials (all other settings can be left as the defaults):
Host: ukm3.siteground.biz
User: ftp@cofe-equal-marriage.org.uk
Password: @7}52r4#w~^e
From the root of the remote site, enter the folders that correspond to the two websites: books.cofe-equal-marriage.org.uk and cofe-equal-marriage.org.uk. (Ignore the other folders.) The sites themselves are in the respective public_html folders.
The main website:
https://cofe-equal-marriage.org.uk/
The chief functionality of the website, namely the system for signing up Supporters, is provided by the Participants Database plugin, which is complex and very powerful. It has its own menu entry towards the bottom of the left-hand menu on the admin dashboard. Read about it at https://xnau.com/work/wordpress-plugins/participants-database/.
Also important is the store, for selling merchandise. The store functionality is powered by the WooCommerce plugin. Both are currently disabled because they need a working PayPal or Stripe account and a linked bank account. When we have those I will re-enable them, and also restore the donations widget.
For specific instructions for how to do various tasks, for example sending out a newsletter to all verified Supporters, please see the Admin ‘how to’s page. If there’s nothing there yet, or very little, please be patient and come back later.
The Recommended Books website:
https://books.cofe-equal-marriage.org.uk/
If you’re not familiar with this, do go and browse through it. The site is still a work in progress: the books database is largely complete, though of course new books need adding all the time, but the interface is still very basic. I need to add facilities to search for books in different ways: by title and author, of course, and also by subject, genre, ‘suitable for’, and other categories.
The books database and its display is powered by an amazing plugin called Pods – see https://books.cofe-equal-marriage.org.uk/wp-admin/admin.php?page=pods-help.
To add a new book or edit the entry for an existing one, you must be logged in as an author, editor, publisher or administrator. I sent round instructions some time ago, and intend to add a fuller version of these to the website under ‘FAQ’.
Website hosting
NB Don’t alter anything here unless you really know what you’re doing!
Website hosting is nothing to do with the content of the websites. For website content, see The websites.
The websites and email are hosted on Siteground by a friend and former colleague of mine, Allan Scott of Mill House Media. If there are problems, or you need advice, you can contact Allan at allan@millhousemedia.co.uk or by phone/text at 07770 956293.
If necessary you can log into the Siteground control panel using the following credentials – though speak to Allan first if you can:
URL: https://login.siteground.com/login
Username/email: phil@theflyingsofa.org.uk
Password: Nnd7$N?a#biz
Domain name hosting and management
NB Don’t alter anything here unless you really know what you’re doing!
Our domain name, cofe-equal-marriage.org.uk, is hosted by OVH (ovh.co.uk) under Allan Scott’s account. It is set to auto-renew annually, so no action should normally need to be taken. Contact Allan if there’s a problem or if I’m out of action long-term, to make sure the renewal fees are paid. I’m not giving the OVH credentials because their control panel is labyrinthine and I doubt if anyone other than Allan or I could navigate it.
The domain name records are hosted by Cloudflare under Allan Scott’s account. They shouldn’t need to be changed, but if necessary you can log into the Cloudflare control panel using the following credentials – though speak to Allan first if you can:
URL: https://dash.cloudflare.com/login
Username/email: allan@millhousemedia.co.uk
Password: UJ97jcZTf85y2F
Of course, you must not alter any settings for domains other than cofe-equal-marriage.org.uk.
[/passster]