Is anyone using it yet? Is it very different?

You may not have noticed, or forgotten about 'My Hub', which is the second item down next to your avatar.

Clicking this, will take you to a page which displays your recent posts in the centre. The right-hand side shows information relating to your account, such as:

Your friends
Loops you run
Saved posts
Your recent activity
Blocked and muted users
Your recent comments

The left-hand side has many links, including the number of loops you use, and your account settings.

You can easily create a desktop link to Scooploop (or any other website), with one click, as follows:

1. Go to Scooploop in your browser.
2. Adjust browser window to enable you to see the desktop.
3. Now click and hold on the padlock at the start of the address, and keeping the mouse button down, drag to the desktop and release.

I've been trying to find some material to help tenant neighbours but the best source is Shelter's website (https://england.shelter.org.uk/) - every page of which keeps greying out, so that I can't copy any of the text, use its hyperlinks etc etc. Even its contact page does this and the links for accessibility etc at the foot of each page are unusable, too.
No other site that I look up greys out, so the problem can't be with my laptop.
Is there any general technical reason why this greying-out might happen to a UK website?

I've e-mailed Shelter and tried messaging them but their autoreply on Messenger unhelpfully only says that they aim to reply within 5 working days, which is hopeless for issues like this.

https://bit.ly/3REQnVR

Having trouble with Chrome so have been using Firefox but some of the things on Gmail are not there.
How do I get all the info and files from Chrome Gmail to Firefox

On my laptop on Chrome
On FB I play 3 games every day, suddenly 2 of them will not load and the message says ' your browser does not support this function' - well it always has and was okay yesterday.
I have not had any updates installed recently
It is working okay on my tablet

Further to tip No.1 - What did I say?

To find the post or comment that you made, you will have to go to your profile to find its location, unless, of course, you can identify it from what you have said. In your profile, you can choose to have it display your posts and comments separately, Clicking on your post/comment, will take you to the post to see what others have said. However, if the post has been deleted, then the only way you can do this, is to remember who else was in the post, and then go to their profile.
If a post or comment was made by someone that is no longer a member, then depending on how they deleted their account, you will see their comment as 'anonymous' or 'this comment was deleted by its author'.
The deletion of an account to remove all data, only removes it from Scooploop, it does not remove it from the web, where it may stay visible forever. Other ways to see your posts, are to go to the particular loop and click on 'My activity' or, if recent, see those and more information in 'My Hub'.
There is also the loop's Search facility, not the Scooploop search at the top of the page. You cannot, of course, look in private/closed loops. There are also hidden loops.

Worldwide Radio will give you access to about 50,000 radio stations around the world. You can add it to Chrome. Its main advantage, if you are a music lover, is that it has a built-in equaliser. This will allow you to adjust the sound to fit the type of music you are listening to. It also has its own volume control. If you click the image in the top right of the program window, it will take you to its website if it has one: https://bit.ly/3pL7f1f

*See comment below.

If someone you know has a personal alarm necklace or wristband, check that they are aware of how the Digital Switchover may affect them. This company's website explains the situation: https://bit.ly/3AlaCAB

At the bottom of the drop-down menu for a post is 'Save', clicking this will add the post to your 'Saved posts', which is in your drop-down menu next to your avatar. Should anyone add to the post, it will be included in your saved post. Should this post have comments removed, they will also be removed from your saved post, also, if the post should be deleted by Scooploop, it will disappear for good.
To ensure that you will always have the post, you can use the 'Save as' menu choice in your browser, but this will only save the post as at that time. To keep it up to date, you will have to save it again.

I have been trying to create space on my iPhone so that I can install latest
update, which seems to be quite an important one. I have reduced my apps. I have cleared cache on safari, cut a load of photos and videos. One of the apps that is taking up a lot of storage (2.12GB ) is Scooploop! Can I do something other than delete the whole app?

To see everything that you have said on Scooploop, go to Settings, then Extras, then My Information, or click here: https://bit.ly/3TkFaeH

Increase viewing area of a webpage: if you press F11, the site you are viewing will fill the screen, repeat to return to normal.

Moving down a webpage: No need to scroll or click, just tap the spacebar.

Where's my mouse pointer? You can find your pointer by tapping Ctrl, you will see a circle zooming in to show where your mouse pointer is. You can activate this feature by typing 'mouse pointer' into the taskbar search box, then in the box that appears, click the tick/check box at the bottom, then click Apply and OK.

There are various ways to turn off a PC, one of the quickest is to have a desktop icon to do it. To create the icon, do the following:

1. Right-click in an empty space on the desktop, click NEW then SHORTCUT
2. Copy and paste into the text box the following: shutdown.exe -s -t 00
3. Click NEXT, then type SHUTDOWN in the text box, then click FINISH.

You can leave the icon that appears on your desktop as it is, or change it to show the power icon as follows:

1. Right-click the icon.
2. Click properties at the bottom.
3. Click 'Change icon' button, bottom middle.
4. Click OK in the box that appears.
5. Choose the red power icon, and click OK.
6. Click Apply and OK on the remaining widow.

You can now position the icon above the Windows Start icon on the taskbar.

If you want to share part of a webpage with someone, without having to describe where it is on the page, you can do this in Edge as follows:

1. Select the text you want to share
2. Right-click and select 'Copy link to highlight' at the top of the menu.

You can now share this link as you wish, and keep it if you want to refer to it in the future.

Visit the Radio Garden and plant some seeds. You can spin the globe and zoom in to any location to listen to a radio station by clicking the dot shown on the map. You can also visit their website if they have one. Should you get a security warning, that is because the site is HTTP and not HTTPS, which, in this case, is nothing to worry about:

https://bit.ly/3rF54vu

The update that caused me problems yesterday now wants to install, I have paused it for 35 days but how can I stop it from happening again ?

Since having an update earlier today my sound as gone very quiet.
What can I do to get it back to normal ?

If you want to save energy, note that a charging pad uses twice the amount of a normal charger.

You should never accept a friend request on Facebook from anyone that you do not know:

https://bit.ly/3bs6GFQ

Microsoft is expected to release Windows 12 in 2024. Remember Windows 10 was forever?! There are currently more people using Windows 7 than 11.

The Internet and the Web are two different things. The Internet is the world-wide connection of computers/servers. The World Wide Web is on the Internet, but is not the only web; there are other webs, the most famous of which is the Dark Web. The Dark Web is not all drugs, stolen credit cards, stolen Paypal accounts, and assassins, it is also home to whistleblowers and organisations that are prohibited in certain countries, such as the BBC, Facebook and the CIA. Emails use the Internet, not the Web.

The Dark Web is not accessible via the usual browsers and search engines, it requires a special browser called Tor.

Unless you are at GCHQ, or your Internet service provider, this is the stuff of TV/films. My IP currently shows I am in Leeds (not!). By various means you can show your IP as anywhere in the world. Back to Netflix!

I have a Samsung S21 but because I don't use it for accessing SL, I usually transfer any photos to my desktop which uses Windows 10.

I've been trying to upload a photo to SL and to Next Door but it just says not a valid format. I thought I uploaded photos taken on my phone before so I don't really understand what's gone wrong or what I can do about it.

I can type the message but the send is too far down to see and click because the bottm bar of meet the team etc. covers it.

This is probably a really silly question but ... should I shield my router in the heatwave ?
It is on the window ledge and in full sun.

I need to write an email and know if it has been read. There was a post a little while ago about seeing when an email had been read - not sure which S/loop group it was on, can anyone remember, please - thanks.

Why is there no option to turn off commenting / close discussion on a post I have created ? Same in different loops.

On Monday I had FTTP installed, had 2 days of problems with the phone but that is okay now but ...........
On my laptop when it has been on sleep or shut down it is taking ages to boot up, much longer than before, surely this isn't right - it's supposed to be faster fibre.

My Gmail account has both but Outlook just has junk.
in Gmail the folder is not highlighted with new stuff like Outlook so you have to remember to look for it aand it is not easy to find.

If you are called by someone on BT that has been switched over to a digital phone line, they will show as Withheld, even if you have them entered in caller display. This is due to the caller not having opted out of the 'Permanent withhold number' feature. This can be done online in their account settings, or by calling BT.

https://bit.ly/3uj5jPW

In the last 2 days lots of ads have been coming straight into my inbox instead of junk and I cannot block them.
This is in Outlook.

Please read this link first. Click here, or the image at end of this post : https://bit.ly/3wHX9CB

Mojeek is based in Brighton, and was the first search engine to not track searches. Its features are:

1. Results are based solely on the words you enter.
2. Does not store personal information.
3. Ranks pages by relevance using its own 'algorithms', rather than those of Google and Microsoft
4. Finds results ignored by other search engines, and places popular sites further down the results.
5. Faster than Google.
6. Does not autocomplete entries.
7. Searches must be spelt correctly.

Address is: www.mojeek.com

Just been told by my supplier [Talk talk] that if I change from FTTC to FTTP my landline will not work and I would have to use a mobile phone.
is this right and the same for all suppliers ?

Please read this link first. Click here, or the image at end of this post : https://bit.ly/3wHX9CB

Ecosia is "The search engine that plants trees". They donate all the money they make from adverting to climate action, 80% of which finances tree planting. To date, they have funded the planting of more than 151 million trees. Its features are:

1. Searches are anonymous.
2. Data not collected to create an advertising profile.
3. Search results are basically the same as other 'Bing'-powered search engines.

Learn about Ecosia here: https://bit.ly/3sMOiNB

Please read this link first. Click here, or image at end of post : https://bit.ly/3wHX9CB

Startpage, "The world's most private search engine", was given third place in a recent review. Its advantages are:

1. It uses Google's search results, but not its tracking.
2. Does not store your searches or 'IP address'.
3. Does not put a 'cookie' on your device.
4. Does not share your personal information.
5. Searches are anonymous.
6. Does not use a 'filter bubble'.
7. Does not manipulate/prioritise search results.

It has 'add-ons' for Chrome, Edge and Firefox.

It address is www.startpage.com.

This group is invaluable for those who know about it and has potentially a very wide reach, which I hope will expand ever more over time.
Many older people find face-to-face support with unfamiliar IT a pleasanter experience than confessing to all one's ignorance in a public forum, however. So I was delighted to find that the perpetually-changing system of local digital support seems to be going from strength to strength. I hope that other areas are able to offer similar support, too.
The problem has always been the wildly fluctuating availability of funding but perhaps political appreciation of the need for facilities that promote such inclusivity has become normalised. This new backer is a charity that I hadn't heard of before, which doesn't mention anything about how it's funded, but maybe it's relatively new.
https://50pd.uk/

Please read first: https://bit.ly/3wHX9CB

Brave Search was launched last year. It has its own search index, and only uses other search engines when it cannot find the required information in its own index. If you click Info at the top right of the search results, it will tell you where the results came from.

Brave search does not collect information about you, your searches, the links you click, and does not share any data with advertisers. Unlike Google, it does not manipulate the search results. Included in the results, you may see 'Discussion' highlighted, these are results concerning conversations which have taken place about your searched subject.

Brave Search is currently in 'Beta' and does not have adverts, but when out of 'Beta' it will. These will not be based on personal information. You will be able to pay to avoid seeing adverts, this already happens with catchup TV and YouTube. Many websites rely on income from adverts and donations to survive.

The address of Brave Search is: https://search.brave.com/

I've been using this year-old Dell laptop to attend Zoom classes with no connection issues, but trying to attend meetings held via Microsoft Teams is a disaster.
The connection drops as soon as the meeting formally begins and I end up spending the whole time struggling to renew the connection and rejoin the meeting, while auditing the meeting by telephone - unaware who's talking, since I don't know this large group. It means having to be muted whenever the connection is restored, and to turn the volume on my laptop right down, to prevent feedback, when I'm asked to speak by telephone.
The weird bit is that yesterday's disastrous Teams meeting was at exactly the same time as I normally have a Zoom class - so it's not just the awkward time of day/internet traffic locally that's causing these problems.

Is there a substantial technical disparity between the two platforms? Does Teams (in meeting mode) perhaps demand radically more bandwidth, or something like that, than Zoom does?

Please read first: https://bit.ly/3wHX9CB

A recent survey named DuckDuckGo as the best way to search the web anonymously. Its advantages are:

1. It does not share details of your searches.
2. It does not collect personal data.
3. It does not manipulate the search results.
4. It does not store cookies on your devices.

DuckDuckGo receives its income from advertising, but you can turn this off in its menu which is top right on its search window: Click Menu, then All Settings, then Advertisements, then click ON to turn adverts OFF.

DuckDuckGo gets its results from its own 'Web Crawler', 400 other sources; the main one being Bing, Microsoft's search engine.

Instead of changing your browser's search engine to DuckDuckGo, you can access it and any other search engine from your bookmarks bar. If you want to have access to more than one search engine, you can put the links in a folder on your bookmarks bar. DuckDuckGo also has 'Browser Add-ons'.

DuckDuckGo has a special feature called 'Bangs', see the comment below for details.

The next search engine will be Brave Search.

As mentioned, please do not comment about other search engines in this post.

Please read this first: https://bit.ly/3wHX9CB

Google search is not what it used to be. It gathers more data than other search engines and manipulates the results of searches. The results you see are based on what it knows about you, and manipulation of the results by 'SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)'.Someone else performing the same search will get different results, this is achieved by putting you in a 'Filter Bubble'.
When you perform a search, at the top of the results you will see the number of results it has found. These results aren't available, here is an example you can try: search for Windows 11. I got 5,270,000,000 results, but there were only 10 pages of results available, giving 91 results.
Google now has new and currently trending information at the top of the results, and puts older articles and less popular sites lower in the results, even though they may be more relevant to what you are looking for. You can also find lower quality results near the top of the results because the designers of the website have used 'SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)' to improve their rating.
Another method that Google is using, to manipulate what you see, is 'AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). They use 'AMP' links in their results to show you their own ads. The results give you no indication that you are vising an 'AMP' site, and not the original source. Web designers are forced to create their sites in accordance with Google's specifications, or they will be moved down the search results.
Google is well known for the amount of data it collects from its users, and the ads that you see on millions of websites are based on this.
If you have a Google account, visit https://myaccount.google.com, and you will see what Google knows (or thinks it knows) about you, such as location, gender, hobbies, and interests, etc. Here you have some control over what Google can do.
In a recent survey of search engines, DuckDuckGo was rated the best. This will be the subject of the next search engine post.
As mentioned, please do not comment about other search engines in this post, you can do that in a coming post about that search engine.

https://bit.ly/3lFjYjM

I shall soon be posting information about various search engines one at a time. As this is a non-techie loop, I shall not be explaining any technical terms. If you wish to investigate them, I have put them in inverted commas, so that you can google them!
Please do not comment about other search engines in the posts, otherwise, they will be hidden in another search engine's post; you can do so when I post about that search engine.

If you use services such as Amazon/Paypal/Google, you will have met up with 2FA. This involves receiving a text message or email containing a code that you must enter in order to complete whatever you are doing.
If you currently receive this code by phone, then it is important to set up an alternative method* to receive it, in case your phone is not available, working, or receiving a signal. You can sometimes tick a box to say 'Trust this browser', but if you are in the habit of 'cleaning' your device, then that may not work.

*Look at the settings of your account.

You can read all about the subject here: https://bit.ly/3PBm4Pp

I've been doing the CovidenceUK survey for nearly two years with no problems but some use more difficult formats.
Those using Qualtrics - which seems to be much favoured by major academic institutional research studies - remained stubbornly impenetrable for months. Then someone to whom I'd rehearsed the whole problem suggested changing browsers and lo! that finally gave me access to the latest survey I wanted to take.
I had looked online in case this system were notorious for incompatibility problems but didn't spot anything this basic.

So, if anyone has a Qualtrics-based survey to do, then don't try to tackle it via Microsoft Edge. Google Chrome works - at least for me.

Deceptive design patterns (also known as "dark patterns") are tricks used in websites and apps that make you do things that you didn't mean to, like buying or signing up for something. The purpose of the following site is to spread awareness and to shame companies that use these practices: https://bit.ly/3Pk8nUW

* This 30 min BBC podcast gives examples of what to avoid: https://bbc.in/39qeQgG

I've seen it before but asked someone this morning why her comments kept being littered with tiny dotted boxes containing the letters OBJ. She has no idea - they're not a substitute for any emoticon that she intended to include, for instance - and she can't see them when she looks at the same conversation.
Does anyone know what might be causing this - and how to stop it happening?

I'm very happy not to have had to pay Microsoft a huge subscription for their Office suite when I don't need half of it, just simple word-processing and spreadsheet software, but this Word-substitute has a few tiresome aspects.
Even if I've created a new document in LibreOffice Writer, I can't then open it again directly by single-clicking on it. That triggers Word, which I (obviously) don't have, trying to force me to start a subscription in order to use my document. I can only open it from a file manager, using the "open with" option, which is tedious.
And Writer persistently displays every long document in a two-page wide format, which is much harder to use than a simple, single-page one that scrolls down (not across and then down).
Can these issues be prevented at all, please?