Tutorials & FAQ

You don’t know what to do? We have answers to your questions.

image films

Support via rocket.chat

If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the FAQ and tutorials, you can easily post your question to the public Rocket chat channel #wechange-support. Here users from our community help each other.

FAQ: Your Questions, Our Answers

Registration & profile settings

NEW: Is my voluntary contribution to WECHANGE a donation and do I get a donation receipt?

The monthly contribution you choose is not a donation, but a voluntary payment for an electronic service. We can therefore not issue a donation receipt, you will receive an invoice from us. The selected amount is the gross amount including 19% VAT, the VAT will be shown on the invoice.

How do I register on wechange.de?
You register by filling in your emailadress and your avatar into the form on https://wechange.de/login. After the activation of your account by the administrators you will recieve an email with an activation link. As soon as you logged in afterwards and set your password you will be able to set up your profile, join a project or create one.
My email address is already used, how is that possible?
You are most probably already registered on the plattform. Try to log in (if you didn´t try yet). If necessary you can backout your password. If the provided member information looks new to you, your email address might have been mistakenly used by another member.  In that case please inform us via email support@wechange.de.
How do I log on to the wechange platform?
You can log on to the wechange platform by entering your access data on https://wechange.de/login or by clicking the button „Log in“ on the top right corner of the website. If you haven´t registered yet please sign up on https://wechange.de/signup/ .
How do I change my notification preferences?
Click on the profile picture in the top right hand corner, then you’ll see the option on the drop down menu “Notification Preferences”. Here, you can choose separate settings for the forum as well as for your groups and projects. You can choose from the following settings:
  • All notifications
  • No notifications
  • Individual notifications
Please note: the option “Individual notifications” involves more effort, but that way you get exactly the information that is important to you. 
How do I log out?
By clicking on the profile picture in the top right-hand corner, you can find the option on the drop-down menu ‘log out’.
I have forgotten my password. What can I do?
On the login page https://wechange.de/login, click on the menu on the left on the option “Forgotten password”. It opens in a new window. Here you need to give your e-mail address and instructions on how to change your password will follow in an e-mail.
How do I change my password?
Click on the profile picture in the top right-hand corner and you will find the option “My Profile”. Click on “Edit Profile”, then on “Change Password” (in the left menu bar). This will open up a new window, where you must first give in your old password and then the new password twice.
How do I change my email address?

Click on the profile picture in the top right-hand corner and you will find the option “My Profile”. Click on “Edit Profile”. Here you will find all your basic information, including your e-mail address. Just fill in the new e-mail address here and then click on “Save” below.

 

How do I change my name, profile picture, location and interests?
Click on the profile picture in the top right-hand corner and you will find the option “My Profile”. Click on “Edit Profile”. Here you will find all your basic information and can change, for instance, your e-mail address, name, profile picture, location and interests.
Who can see my profile and how can I change these settings?

Click on the profile picture in the right top-hand corner and you will find the option “My Profile”. Click on “Edit Profile”. Under “Who is allowed to see you on the platform?”, there are the following options:

  • Team members only: your profile is only visible to others in your project. You will not appear in the list of “People” in the overhead bar.
  • Logged in members only: all users who are logged in to wechange.de can see your profile. You are shown in the list of “People”.
  • Everyone: Visitors who are not logged in can also see your profile.

 

How do I delete my profile and user account?
Click on the profile picture in the top right-hand corner and you will find the “My Profile”. Click on “Edit Profile”. By clicking on “Delete profile”, your user account and all the information deposited in it will be irrevocably deleted. Access to your groups and projects is then no longer possible.

Caution: In case you are registered to other portals with the same user account, the deletion affects these portals too! If you would like to leave a project or a group, select instead in the corresponding space, “leave”, without deleting your profile.

 

How do I change the language and in which languages is wechange.de available?
On the right-hand side of the menu bar on the top side of the screen there is a language toggle, that is by default set to German (DE). With a click on this setting, you can change the language to English, Russian and Ukrainian. Caution: Content created by users stays in the original language and is not translated.
What is the difference between Groups, Projects and the Forum?
Group: With a group, you can create a digital space for internal organisation, planning and knowledge exchange with other people. Within a group, any number of Projects can be set up, by the whole group or just a part. In a group, you can find the following functions: news, calendar with event function, task management, data storage, documents (Etherpads) for collaborative writing of texts and tables, as well as a market place function.

Project: Projects are subunits of a group. Projects always make sense then when within a group many different activities are being organised, which are of limited duration or only affect a portion of the group. A project can be created by users themselves and project-admin independently managed and also be deleted again. It has the same functions ready to use as a group.

Forum: The WECHANGE-Forum serves as a place – across the platform – for networking and exchange of news. Formally it is a group, to which all WECHANGE users are automatically added. The Forum also contains the standard group functions.

 

How do I create a new project and what should I be aware of?
Click on the project overview at https://www.wechange.de/projects on the left-hand menu “Create Project”. You then have the possibility to enter the name and location, to choose suitable tags for its subject category, to assign the project to a group, to upload a project logo and to change the visibility settings.

(Please note: For the project to be easily found, it is helpful to use the logo of the group it belongs to and a project name following this pattern: Group | Project xy).

 

How can I subsequently change project details?
Click on the Project overview at https://www.wechange.de/projects on the left-hand menu “Create Project”. You then have the possibility to enter the name and location, to choose suitable tags for its subject category, to assign the project to a group, to upload a (another) project logo and to change the visibility settings.

(Please note: For the project to be easily found, it is helpful to use the logo of the group it belongs to and a project name following this pattern: Group | Project xy).

How can I deactivate a project or delete it?
If you are the Administrator of a Project, you can deactivate a project in Project Settings (a later reactivation is generally possible, see “How can I reactivate a deactivated project?”). If all information should be irrevocably deleted, contact system administration. The desired project and all the information belonging to it, will be completely and irretrievably deleted from the system.
How can I reactivate a deactivated project?
In order to reactivate a deactivated project at a later date, contact the system administration and give the details concerning the project. The old data and all project members will then be once again available.
How can I adjust the visibility of my project?
In the project overview at https://www.wechange.de/projects, click on the left-hand menu on “Security”. You can then choose between the following options:

  • Only Groups/Project internal: the content of the group/project are only visible to logged-in people in your group/your project as standard.
  • Public (visible without being logged-in): the content of the group/project are visible for everyone (even without registration on wechange.de). In the project overview, the project is then labelled as “Public”.

Please note: you can set differing visibility settings for every piece of content in your group/project. Information that is specifically targeted for the public can be seen by other people via your group’s/project’s microsite. (See: What is a microsite and how can I use it?)

 

 

How can I invite more people to a group?
Only group administrators can add more people, who are registered on the platform, to the group. People interested in joining the group can click on the “Join now!” button on the group’s microsite. The group administrator will then be informed and can either accept or decline the application to join. In addition, people can also be directly invited into the group by group members via an e-mail invitation.
How are Group Administrators assigned or changed?
The person who set up the group is automatically an admin. There must always be at least one Group Administrator, but there can also be more admins, or indeed all group members can be made administrators. This happens by the admin going to the Members Overview, and on the far right, next to the name of the corresponding person, clicking on the downward pointing arrow and changing the status to “Admin”.
What is the microsite and how can I use it?
The microsite is the publicly visible welcome site of every project and every group. It will be shown to every person who is not registered or logged in. Here, you can present your project or group for external people and display the most important information (group/project logo, description, contact, location, topics).

 

How can I adjust what is shown on the microsite?
What is or is not shown on the microsite is determined by you. On the left-hand foldout menu, next to “General Settings”, there is an extra space for the microsite.
How can I create a new event?
Click in the group/project overview on “Events”. A large calendar will open up. In order to add a new event, either click on the corresponding day or enter in the event title in the box underneath the calendar and click on “Create”. After that, you can fill in all further details in the corresponding fields.

 

How can I change an event?
Events can be changed only by the creator of the event or portal administrators. By clicking on the downward-facing arrow to the far right of the calendar entry, a menu opens. There you can select “Edit” and change the event.

 

How can I adjust the visibility of an event?
Events can be set to be internally available for a group or a project, for logged in users in the Forum or public and visible to everyone:

  • An event set to Forum can be seen by all logged in wechange.de users.
  • If you have created an event with in your group/your project, the event is only visible to logged in members of the group/project.
  • If you would like your event to be visible for everyone, choose the option “public” in the “Visibility” menu. The event will them be available to everyone on the microsite of your project or group.

 

Can I move events from my group/project to the Forum or to other groups/projects?
No, unfortunately that is currently not possible – but we’re working on it.
How can I agree a date with others?
In the group/project overview, click on “Events” and then in the left-hand menu list on “Event Polls”. A new page then opens, on which you can give the title for the event and select a time. You can also select more than one day, or a regularly repeating day. Every logged in user in the project/group will be informed and can accept or decline the invitation. Upon calling up the event, there is a dropdown menu with the following possibilities: “Going”, “Maybe going”, “Can’t go” and “No choice”. For public events, all logged in wechange.de users can enter in their (non-)attendance, even when they’re not in the group/project.

If you wish to remain informed about the ongoing poll, you can activate this in notification preferences. (See: How do I change my notification settings?)

After successfully selecting a date, the person who set up the poll can transfer the chosen date into the calendar of the project or the group. The poll will then automatically be moved to the archive. To open it up again, you can find it in the event list on the left-hand side under “Archived Event Polls.”

 

Can I collaboratively create documents and tables in real-time on wechange.de?
Yes, that is possible. In wechange.de, you can find the function under “Documents” (also called “Pads”). The open-source programme linked in there, “Etherpad” (for text documents) and “Ethercalc” (for tables) allows all logged-in users in a group/project to simultaneously access and edit the content of a text document or a table.

 

Who can access and edit a Document/Pad?
All logged in users in the group/project where the document was created can read and edit it. Should editing of a document not be possible, click on “Edit” or the pencil symbol in the right-hand corner of the document.

 

How can I save a document (Pad or Table)?
There is no Save button, since Etherpad (Text) and Ethercalc (Tables) automatically save all changes in real-time. In order to go back to earlier versions, there is a “History” function (click on the clock symbol). Via the time list there, you can access earlier versions. You also have to possibility to mark versions with stars in order to find them more easily in the list.

 

Why are entries highlighted in different colours and how can I change it?
Every person who edits a document automatically receives their own colour, with which their entries are highlighted. In that way, you can recognise who has written what. The colour can be changed with a click on the coloured box next to the author’s name. On the cog wheel on the menu bar, you can select whether author’s colours are generally hidden or shown. With the eye symbol “Clear authorship colours”, you can irrevocably remove the shading for a selected part of the document or the whole of it and turn everything to white.

 

 

What is the difference between "Documents" (Pads) and "Files"?
“Documents” refer to text documents (“Pads”) and tables, which you create within wechange.de itself and can edit together with others in real-time. “Files” refer to files that have been internally uploaded within a group or project, which can be files of various formats and created externally from wechange.de, for instance, PDF files, photos etc. The uploading of entire folders with all the subfolders belonging to them is also possible (depending on your browser, currently only possible with Firefox 50+, Google Chrome and Opera.)

 

Where and how can I upload files?
Files can be uploaded in all groups and projects. To upload, choose “Files” in the collapsible left-hand menu bar. Here you can select files or directly via Drag & Drop upload files to the desired area.

 

What file types/formats can I upload?
Essentially, any kind of file format can be uploaded, for instance PDF files, photos etc. Whether other users can open them, depends on whether they have installed the necessary programme to open such files.

 

Can I also upload whole folders with content?
Yes, the uploading of folders together with subfolders and files is possible (depending on the browser, currently only with Firefox 50+, Google Chrome and Opera).
Who has access to the files and how can I adjust the settings?
You can change the settings yourself to decide who has access to files uploaded by you. To do that, click on the downward-facing arrow to the right of the uploaded file and select “Edit”. Then you can change its visibility by clicking on the globe symbol. There you can choose between three options:

  • Only me: no-one apart from yourself has access, neither other users from your group/project, nor anyone else.
  • Team members only: other than you, only people from the group or project where the file was uploaded have access.
  • Public (visible without login): the file can be seen and downloaded by everyone, even by people who are not part of the group/project or who are not registered on wechange.de.

Please note: there is no differentiation in who has the right to read and who has the write to edit. Everyone who has access can find, open, read, download, rename, move, delete or overwrite files.

How can I integrate the calendar with calendar programmes on my smartphone or tablet?
  1. Copy the URL from the calendar and download it.
  2. Import it as an iCal calendar into the desired programme. For instance, on Apple Calendar this happens by selecting “New Calendar Subscription.”
NEW: How can I change my voluntary contribution?

You can change the ammount of your contribution at any time. To do so, open the “Your contribution” page and change your contribution using the slider or enter it manually. Your changed contribution is valid from the time of the next debit.

NEW: What does WECHANGE cost me?

 

We provide our portal wechange.de for all users free of charge. All available tools are fully usable, setting up projects and – NEW! – groups is also free of charge. We only have to be careful when it comes to the amount of storage space required and therefore pass on additional costs to those who create them. For projects and groups 2 GB are included, each additional GB will cost you 1 € / month.

WECHANGE is only as good as we make it together. This costs money. But we don’t want to be dependent on third-party funding, nor do we want to copy the questionable business practices of the big data giants. Instead, we rely on voluntary contributions from you, our users. It’s up to you to prove that this is possible!

NEW: I would like to make a one-time contribution, is that also possible?

Of course we are also happy about a one-time contribution. To do so, either a) enter the desired amount via slider or manually and finish the contribution payment after the first payment has been made; or b) transfer the amount directly to our account with the subject “Further development of the platform” and your first and last name.

Bank details:

GLS Community Bank
IBAN: DE34 4306 0967 1180 6747 00
BIC: GENODEM1GLS

NEW: How can I change my payment details?

Aus Sicherheitsgründen speichern wir deine Zahlungsdaten nicht selbst, sondern arbeiten hier mit Better Payment zusammen. Wenn sich deine Zahlungsdaten ändern, musst du deine Zahlungen beenden und anschließend mit deinen geänderten Angaben neu einrichten.

NEW: Where can I view my payments?

In your personal area you can view your payment information at any time. There you will find information about the selected payment method, the amount of your contribution and the date of the next debit. In the “Invoices” section, you can download the invoices for the contributions you have paid so far as PDF files.

NEW: I want to end my voluntary payments, what do I need to do?

If you no longer wish to pay monthly contributions, you can stop paying at any time. Click on “Stop payment” and follow the instructions.

NEW: How can I find the old messages?

Since the switch from our messaging app to RocketChat, all messages etc. now go through RocketChat.

Your old messages have not been lost though. Don’t worry. Here’s how to find them.

Click on your profile picture in the upper right corner and select “My Profile”. Then you will see a button “Old messages app message archive” under your name. All old messages are stored there. However, you can no longer send messages here. This is only possible via RocketChat.

NEW: Which payment methods are possible?

You can choose one of the following payment methods: Direct debit (SEPA transfer), as well as (coming soon) credit card and PayPal. For payment processing we work together with Better Payment Germany GmbH.

I do not receive a registration email - what can I do?

Unfortunately we have difficulties with the registration of new users with the following email providers:

@live.de & @hotmail.de/.com & @msn.de

If you didn’t get a registration email, just write a short mail with the subject “Registration failed” to support@wechange.de and we will activate your account as soon as possible! Thank you for your understanding!

NEW: How do I create a new group?

You can now create a new group yourself at any time – free of charge. To do so, click on “Create group” in the left-hand menu of the group overview at https://www.wechange.de/groups. You then have the option to enter the name, location and suitable keywords, select the appropriate thematic categories and set the default visibility of the content. You can also assign existing projects to the group, add members and, of course, upload a project logo.

All information can be changed at any time, also adding projects and inviting members is possible at any time.

(Note: We recommend to use the logo of the group also for the associated projects and to make the project name according to the following scheme: Group | Project xy).

How can I change the group details later?

Klicke in der Gruppenübersicht unter https://www.wechange.de/groups im linken Menü auf „Einstellungen”. Du hast anschließend die Möglichkeit, die Bezeichnung, sowie Standort, Schlagworte und Kategorien zu ändern, ein (anderes) Gruppenlogo hochzuladen und die Sichtbarkeit umzustellen. Hinweis: Die Einstellungen kann jeweils nur der Gruppen-Admin vornehmen. Damit weitere Personen aus der Gruppe auch Änderungen vornehmen können, muss der Admin sie vorher auch zu Admins machen.

Can I transfer groups or projects to other portals?

Moving between wechange.de and related portals is not possible automatically so far. In special cases it is possible to migrate groups and projects to another portal, but this is quite time-consuming and can only be done by the system administrators. If you need to do this, please contact info@wechange.de.

Is there a storage limit for our groups and projects? And what happens when we reach it?

With the introduction of free groups, we have also given you more storage space. You can now use up to 2 GB for your project or group for free.

We want to offer WECHANGE to all users at a fair price. Therefore, we have to charge for very intensive storage usage. At the moment we don’t have a process in place for this, so for the time being, storage for projects and groups will remain free above 2 GB. Should this change, we will inform you in advance.

Who can create tasks and how does it work?

All users in a group / project can create tasks. By clicking on “Tasks” in the left side menu you first create a task list, if not already existing. You can then create a new task by entering the name of the task in the appropriate field and clicking on “Create”. On the page that appears you can add further details to the task:

  • Description
  • Due date: By when should the task be finished? (“Due by [select due date]”)
  • Assigned to (select user from group / project)
  • Importance (by clicking on the exclamation mark in the upper right corner): !!! = important, !!! = normal, ! = later.

 

A video about to do’s can be found here.

What is the activity feed and how can I set what is displayed in it?

In the left menu bar you will find the button “Activities”. Your personal activity feed shows all activities on wechange.de that interest you and that you would like to follow. All activities concerning news, appointments, documents or files from your own and public groups and projects are displayed.

By clicking on the button “Create activity feed” in the left menu bar you can enter a title for the feed and set filter options. The feed can also include activities from other portals (e.g. Wachstumswende.de, plattform.netzwerk-n.de etc.) if you select specific groups/projects there.

You can find our info video here.

How can I write messages and to whom?

You can write messages to all users on wechange.de. Click on the letter symbol in the upper menu bar, then on “Compose” in the left menu bar. Now you can select the recipient(s), enter the subject and write the content of the message. As a recipient you can address single persons, but also whole projects or groups.

A video about writing messages can be found here.

How do I search for individual members, groups or projects?

Click on the magnifying glass icon in the upper menu bar to open a new page. Here you simply enter your search term. You can also filter your search to search specifically within projects, groups or users.

Who can see my profile, data and activities?

On wechange.de you can set very detailed and change at any time which data you want to make visible for which user (groups). You can set the visibility globally, per group / project, but also differently for each newly created element (event, news, document, task, etc.).

What are the meta attributes (tag people, specify location, select categories, add keywords/tags, set visibility) for and how can I use them?

The meta attributes are used for intelligent networking and filtering of all content and activities on wechange.de. They enable the targeted search and also classification of all info, e.g. for filtering your news feeds. The more precisely they are entered, the more appropriate the filter results. You can set meta attributes globally or per group/project, but you can also choose them for each newly created element (event, news, document, task etc.).

How does wechange.de handle my data?

We take data protection very seriously and comply with the strict German data protection requirements. Your data entered on wechange.de will not be used for advertising purposes and will not be passed on to third parties.

How secure is my data at wechange.de?

Data security is a top priority at wechange.de. Data security was confirmed by TÜV Süd in November 2015.

How can I give user feedback and make suggestions for improvement?

We appreciate constructive feedback to continuously improve wechange.de. Feel free to write us at support@wechange.de and we will try to respond as soon as possible! Thank you for your help!

NEW: Privacy & Security - how do you protect WECHANGE and all the data?

 

1. how many times have you been DDOS attacked?

We have not been victims of DDOS attacks yet and have never been blackmailed.

Regardless of that, we don’t have much money to spend 😉 .

2. how do you protect yourselves from other attacks?

The firewalls are configured in such a way that, in addition to https, only the ssh protocol is permitted, for the authentication of which a particularly secure cryptographic key is required (ED25519).

In the event of multiple failed access attempts, an attacker is blocked.

3. what data can attackers capture if they hack you?

If our backup server were hacked, only encrypted data can be captured.

WordPress installations and WECHANGE portals run in individual, separate environments. If an attacker were to gain access to a WordPress installation, they would not have access to other WordPress sites or WECHANGE portals – and vice versa.

We do not collect personalized metadata about users, as advertising is not part of our concept. Accordingly, potential hackers can not find out anything about the usage behavior of the users and also can not read out anything in our internal analysis tool / perform meta-analyses.

Do you always have the latest security updates?

All services that we do not develop ourselves are updated by our service partner as soon as security updates are available.

WECHANGE is programmed in Django / Python itself. We perform Django security updates within 10 days at most.

6) How do you protect against cross-site scripting and the like?

All requests from the browser contain a CSRF (cross-site-request-forgery) token, which prevents other websites from forging requests to WECHANGE.

Is there a WECHANGE app?

An app is not currently planned for the next development steps. wechange.de can, however, also be used on mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) and is being optimized for this on an ongoing basis.

How can I permanently delete my address from the card?

 If you want to delete your address, you can do so by clicking on your profile picture and selecting the option “Edit profile”.
There you had previously entered the address in the field “Where do you live?” and it is automatically transferred to the map.

If you delete this address, it will not be automatically deleted from the map. You have to click the gray button “Delete” again.

Then just click on “Save” in the lower right corner.

And that’s it!

NEW: What can I do if I get notifications even though I turned them off manually in the settings?

If you don’t want to be notified about news from a certain group or project anymore, then you can manually adjust that in your notification settings.

However, there is a small problem:

Currently, the “Follow” feature is technically stronger than the email notification. New users on the platform always automatically follow the forum and projects or groups they join. Now, if you don’t want to receive notifications anymore, you click on the microsite, unfold the description and unfollow the project or group.

Then you will no longer receive notifications from that project or group!