Frequently Asked Questions

Even if you have already decided to have a website, please read our reasons for having a website if you have not already done so. This may give you some further ideas about what to put on your website.

Below are some frequently asked questions, regarding both FreemasonsWeb websites and masonic websites in general.

Will my name and picture appear on the website?
Does having a FreemasonsWeb website automatically mean I'm conforming to my governing body's guidelines?
Our lodge/chapter already has a domain name and/or website, can we host a FreemasonsWeb website?
What domains are available, and what will my sub-domain be?
How do I access my email?
I already have my own email address, can I use this instead?
I'm worried about viruses and SPAM - what protection do I have?
Will guest-book entries automatically appear on my website?
What types of membership are available?
What would I use the membership levels for?
Do I have to offer membership on my site?
Why should I choose FreemasonsWeb when there are free sites available?
How can FreemasonsWeb offer websites at a cost less than other providers?
Will you be offering a wider choice of skin-styles and product features in the future?
What guidance do you provide in using the FreemasonsWeb CMS?
I'm having problems viewing Freemasons-Web and/or my website on my browser

Will my name and picture appear on the website?

Your name, picture, or any contact details can only be published with your specific consent.

This is a requirement laid down in the website-guidelines of the governing bodies of all orders in every constituency.

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Does having a FreemasonsWeb website automatically mean I'm conforming to my governing body's guidlines?

Whilst your website will conform to most governing bodies' guidelines as standard, there is still much under your control that you will need consider.

Below are some of the main points you should keep in mind:

1. Names, pictures and contact details can only be published with the individual's specific consent.
2. Under no circumstances should you publish the name of any degree candidate on your website.
3. It is your responsibility to ensure that you respect the copyright of any images or text you publish on your website.
4. Links to commercial websites are generally forbidden by most governing bodies (the only exceptions being your web-designer, or hosting company - e.g. FreemasonsWeb).

Note this list is not exhaustive. You should refer to your own governing body's website guidelines if in any doubt.

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Our lodge/chapter already has a domain name and/or website, can we host a FreemasonsWeb website?

The short answer is yes, however there are several options open to you.

A sub-domain is automatically created for you when you purchase a FreemasonsWeb website. As all the information on your site is held centrally on our web-server's database, you cannot simply "copy" the site over. However, you have the following options:

1. Set up web-diversion on your domain to redirect your website to your new FreemasonsWeb site address. Most domain providers supply this feature as standard.
2. Alter the DNS entries for your domain to redirect your website to your new FreemasonsWeb site address.
3. Use a frame-page to "contain" your FreemasonsWeb website.Note: Some domain providers may already offer this facility as part of their web-diversion.

Alternatively, FreemasonsWeb can host/register specific domains for you at an extra cost. The extra cost is to cover the fees we have to pay to register or transfer the domain name, and also the limits on the number of domains we can host on each web-server.

Note: There is no extra cost for using one of our standard sub-domains.

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What domains are available, and what will my sub-domain be?

You have the choice of one of the following domains:

• subdomain.masonic.lodge.org.uk
• subdomain.masons-lodge.org
• subdomain.ra-chapter.org.uk
• subdomain.ra-chapter.org

You have complete choice over the name of your subdomain, as long as it is not already in use. We recommend one of the following formats:

• www.mytown-number.domain - e.g.:
     www.helensburgh-503.masonic-lodge.org.uk, or
     www.helensburgh-522.ra-chapter.org
    
• www.lodgename-mytown-number.domain - e.g.:
      www.st-george-helensburgh-503.masons-lodge.org
    
• www.lodgename-number.domain - e.g.:
      www.st-george-522.ra-chapter.org.uk

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How do I access my email?

You can access your email through your browser, or via an email client such as Outlook™

Browser Access

For browser access, point your browser at http://webmail.my-subdomain

Your subdomain will be the last part of your site's website address, e.g.:

For website address:	Email access is at:
www.lodge-example-1234.masonic-lodge.org.uk	http://webmail.masonic-lodge.org.uk
www.example-1234.ra-chapter.org.uk	http://webmail.ra-chapter.org.uk

Your username is full email address, e.g.: secretary.lodge-example-1234@masonic-lodge.org.uk

Your password is the password that was entered when ordering your website.

Email Client Access

For Email Client access, you will need the following information:

Server:	Enter the part of your email address AFTER the "@" sign - e.g. masonic-lodge.org.uk
Username:	Enter your full email address, e.g.: secretary.lodge-example-1234@masonic-lodge.org.uk
Password:	Enter the password that was entered when ordering your website.

Note that you should use the 'POP3' protocol for reading your emails.

The 'SMTP' protocol can be used for sending emails, but you must ensure that your email client is set to log-in using the same login details as above.

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I already have my own email address, can I use this instead?

You are free to continue using your own email address, however you may consider setting up mail-forwarding on your new FreemasonsWeb email account. This will ensure any emails sent to your FreemasonsWeb email account will be sent on to your existing email address.

Note however, that if someone else replaces you in office, you should let them know so they can change the forwarding address.

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I'm worried about viruses and SPAM - what protection do I have?

All our email accounts offer virus and SPAM protection as standard.

Virus protection can be applied to both incoming and/or outgoing emails. Note however, that although virus protection will shield you from most viruses, you should avoid opening any email attachments unless you know exactly where they have come from.

You have various options available to you to strengthen your SPAM settings and how your SPAM is dealt with (e.g. marked as SPAM, or deleted).

As an additional deterrent, try not to publish your email address anywhere on the site. Certain individuals "crawl" web-pages looking for email addresses to send SPAM to.

There is a "contact-us" page facility, which your visitors can use to send you emails. This page includes a "catchpa" security code which helps to stop automated emails being sent via your website.

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Will guest-book entries automatically appear on my website?

By default, all guest-book entries must be checked and authorised by you before they will appear on your website.

Although this option can be turned-off it is not recommended, and may contravene your governing body's website guidelines.

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What types of membership are available?

There are two types of visitors to your website: public visitors, and members.

By default, all the content of your website is visible to the public, but you are free to limit pages or events to certain levels of membership.

For someone to become a member, they must first register on FreemasonsWeb, which is free for anyone to do so.

Being a member of FreemasonsWeb does not grant them membership access to your website. The member must first "request" to become a member of your site at any of the following levels:

• Basic Member - Used for members of other lodges/chapters who wish to keep in touch with what is going on at your lodge/chapter, and have access to pages/events not available to the public.
• Full Member - Members of your own lodge/chapter, who can be given access to additional pages and/or events of your choice.
• Site Managers - Members who have been given limited authority to alter the content of your web-pages within the FreemasonsWeb CMS.
• Site Administrators - Members who have full control over your web-site page-content,style and preferences.

Only Site Administrators can authorise or deny membership requests. You may also choose to authorise membership, but at a lower membership level than requested.

There is no limit to the number of websites you can become a member of, but you are only a member at the level you have been authorised at. For example, you can be a Site Administrator of your own lodge, but a Basic Member of another lodge.

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What would I use the membership levels for?

A typical use of membership levels is as follows:

• General Public - Can see all social events (excluding VIP social events) on your event list.
• Basic Member - In addition to the above, they can see VIP events and any degrees you are conferring.
• Full Member - In addition to the above, they can see events marked as committee meetings, or special meetings.

Of course this is just an example, you are free to assign membership access as you see fit.

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Do I have to offer membership on my site?

No. Member login can be turned off, in which case all of your website will be visible to the public.

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Why should I choose FreemasonsWeb when there are free sites available?

There are many companies offering free web-hosting, however most use advertising banners to support the cost of that hosting. Having adverts or links to commercial companies on your sites is forbidden under the guidelines of most governing masonic bodies, who strongly advise against the use of free web-hosting.

However, your hosting is not the only thing to consider:

• Buying a domain and the associated space is around £6 per year for your domain, and £3-£4 per month for your hosting.
• New domains can take up to 72 hours to be available to the whole of the internet.
• Whether you use free hosting, or decide to pay for it you still need to build your website HTML which takes time and technical know-how.
• A typical website by a professional web-designer is likely to be in excess of £500 (the average cost is around £100 per page).
• Even if you use a content management system such as Joomla or Wordpress, there is a vast learning curve in both creating your website and maintaining it.

If you decide not to use a web-designer, you have all the web-design, content and maintenance to carry out yourself. Also, there are inconsistencies in how different browsers display web-pages which is additional consideration when designing your website.

Compare this with a FreemasonsWeb website:

• Your domain and hosting is all provided by us for only £20.00 a year (less than £1.75 a month).
• Your website will be ready, pre-styled, and fully populated with content in less than 5 minutes.
• The initial cost of your website with an unlimited amount of pages is only £99.99.
• All our websites have been designed by professional web-designers, and have been tested on the most popular browsers on both the PC and Apple Mac.
• FreemasonsWeb websites and the FreemasonsWeb CMS are designed with ease-of-use as the top priority.

FreemasonsWeb appreciate that the secretaries, scribes and recorders of many lodges/chapters are generally not technically minded, and our product is designed with them specifically in mind.

We believe that FreemasonsWeb offer a professional website solution at a highly competitive cost.

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How can FreemasonsWeb offer websites at a cost less than other providers?

FreemasonsWeb offer websites for masonic organisations, and masonic organisations only.

In doing this, we have been able to:

• Remove any ambiguity about how our websites will be used, allowing us to dictate how we store our data, and limit the complexity of using our CMS.
• Make our styling-skins focussed on each order in question (but with the ability to customise), so each design can be used by many customers.
• Hold all of our websites and data centrally, keeping our hosting simpler and easier to manage.

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Will you be offering a wider choice of skin-styles and product features in the future?

Absolutely! Almost all our income is going towards our running/hosting costs and further development.

Any updates will be announced on our website.

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What guidance do you provide in using the FreemasonsWeb CMS?

Guidance in using the FreemasonsWeb CMS can be found in the form of:

• Help links on each page within the members area;
• Video tutorials and a consolidated list of Help links within the "Help & Tutorials" section.

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I'm having problems viewing Freemasons-Web and/or my website on my browser

Internet browsers can differ the way they handle Javascript and display HTML content. A considerable amount of effort was made to ensure that FreemasonsWeb and its websites behave consistently between the various browsers available.

Therefore, FreemasonsWeb and the websites produced by it are designed (and tested) to work with the most popular browsers:

• Firefox (used by 46.4% of all internet users)
• Microsoft™ Internet Explorer 8 (used by 16.2% of all internet users)
• Google™ Chrome (used by 13.6% of all internet users)
• Microsoft™ Internet Explorer 7 (used by 9.3% of all internet users)
• Microsoft™ Internet Explorer 6 (used by 7.9% of all internet users)
• Safari (used by 3.7% of all internet users)
• Opera (used by 2.2% of all internet users)

These statistics are based on the April 2010 statistics provided by www.w3schools.com.

If your browser isn't in the above list, it is possible that you may have issues using FreemasonsWeb, although it is less likely that you will have issues with the sites produced by FreemasonsWeb.

If you are having issues however, we recommend downloading one of the following browsers for viewing FreemasonsWeb sites:

• Firefox (the most popular); or
• Google Chrome (the fastest)

Both these browsers are free to download and use.

In addition, Javascript is required to use the membership and administration side of FreemasonsWeb. If you are uncomfortable with enabling Javascript for general internet use, consider downloading one of the above browsers for administering your FreemasonsWeb website, and continuing to use your existing browser for general internet use (be sure to click No to making your new browser your default browser if you go down this route).

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