Quick start guide

Your settings

Before doing anything else, you may want to review your settings and decide whether you want your name or email address to appear on the site. You can also link to your personal website if you have one. In the future, you can always change your email address or password if necessary.

Editing a landmark

When you go to any landmark page while logged in, you will see several new buttons for making changes:

Upload photos allows you to post one or more photos for this landmark.

Edit my photos lets you add/edit/rearrange/delete any photos that you've already uploaded here.

Edit landmark lets you make changes to the landmark's facts and categories.

Add essay gives you the ability to add free-form information that isn't covered elsewhere on the page.

Add video lets you embed a YouTube video

Uploading photos

The standard photo uploader tool lets you select up to 9 photos from your hard drive to post. You can also package your photos into a ZIP archive and the system will automatically handle all of the photos (with no limit).

JPEG photos are preferred, although the system will attempt to use other common formats (however, they will be converted to JPEG). There's no need to upload photos that are larger than roughly 2 megapixels, as these will take longer to transfer without any additional benefit. If you are concerned about visitors accessing high-resolution versions of your photos, you may wish to upload lower-resolution versions only (as long as they are at least 400 pixels wide or tall).

After the photos are uploaded, you will have the opportunity to preview them, reject any photos that you don't wish to use, write a title and description for each, and determine how you wish to be credited for them. You can always go back and make changes by using the Edit my photos or Edit this photo controls on the landmark page. Other users (except the Webmaster) will not be able to modify your photos.

Adding a landmark

To add a landmark that isn't already listed, you can use the Add landmark link in the black bar at the top of every page. Then, you will see a Google Map widget to select the location of the landmark. You can enter an address or GPS coordinates to zoom to a particular location, drag the map icon around, or right click to "teleport" the map icon to a particular spot. The system will try to determine the state, county, and city that you have selected. If you are satisfied, click the "Add landmark here" button to continue.

If you already know the landmark's county, you can also go straight to the page for that county and click the Add landmark here link at the top right of the page.

Next, you will see a form for entering the landmark's details. Follow the directions and complete as much of the form as possible based on what you know. If in doubt, select the most reasonable choice, or leave it blank. After saving the form, the system will give you the link to the newly created landmark page. You can always edit the landmark in the future if you realize you made a mistake or if you find updated information.

Categories and tags

Categories and tags are an important way to organize landmarks, making it easier for people to research them. Each landmark fits into exactly one category (i.e. Lighthouse, Round barn, Hospital, Monument, etc.). If unsure, you can select a general category like Structure, Building, or even Miscellaneous. It's not possible to add a new category directly, but let me know if you would like to suggest one.

Meanwhile, landmarks can have many tags. These are a more specific way to group landmarks together, such as by architectural styles, builders/architects/contractors, famous people associated with the landmark, owners, year and decade built, year and decade demolished, National Register multiple-property submission groups, cities, and more.

From the main Tags page, you can use the Add Tag link to create your own tag After creating a tag, you can add landmarks to it one-by-one from each landmark's edit form.

You can also use the Add landmarks here button from any tag page to add multiple landmarks by doing a keyword search and selecting the landmarks you want to include.