Since the update 3 weeks ago we have seen a surge in non class web sites being built on Class Creator. While you can build anything you'd like here, please remember that your non class site is occupying a specific school and class year space in the system even though it's not related to the school.

If you wish to build a non class site here for your organization, club, association, neighborhood, church etc. please follow this procedure:

1) When creating your site select any school name and a year nobody would be using, like 1925.

2) When finished with the new site wizard click your Change Design link and remove the class year entirely.

3) Change your school name to whatever your site name is.

4) Edit your home page and turn off all right modules (if NOT a membership site). This will allow you to utilize the entire body area for home page content.

5) Click the Preferences link and change the global variables Classmate and Classmates to the name of your choice (if a membership site).

6) Clicked Edit Site Pages and disable your Classmate Profiles page (if not a membership site).

7) Even though you have removed the year and school name, this only affects the display on the design. Your site is still tied to a school and year in our database. Go to www.ClassCreator.com and click Contact Us. Send us the link to your new non class web site. We will disassociate the site from the school/year you selected. This way your site won't get found when somebody is actually looking for the school you selected when you built your site.

Note that all search engine optimization built into Class Creator sites will continue to function so your non class site can be found on Google and other search engines. In fact when we break the ties to a school/year it will get found better and function as an independent web site.

We'll come up with a better way to build non class sites here in the future but for now please contact us to break the tie when you're done so we avoid both internal search confusion and Google search confusion.

Thank you.

When I created the site, ocmsc.com, for our sailing club about 2 and a half years ago I think I used, California, Irvine Class of 1900. I just looked in Locate School and it appears you have already broken the tie. If not and you need further information please let me know.

Thanks FC. We actually still had your sailing club showing in our school locator. I disabled it.

If I had looked at previous posts I'd made I wouldn't have had to guess at Class of 1900. No big deal if it can't but can that be removed from my left pane info on this forum? Or should that be these fora? My last Latin class in high school was a long time ago. Actually 1958 not 1900. Still a long time ago though.

Hi FC

I wasn't able to change it in our admin so I'll have to ask the programmers to make an exception to not display the class year when we have unchecked the school locator checkbox. I'll add this to their list.

Thanks,

Jessica
Class Creator Support

Thanks Jessica.

Gone.

Yup©, Jessica had it taken care of within 10 minutes of her post.

Am I able to convert my already established website to a Non Class Website?

I would like to get away from the Class orientated features.

Thanks

Stan Miller

Yes. You can follow the exact procedures outlined above.

Hi Brad -- I have two sites, one for our high school class and one for our condo association. Could you check the association site to assure that everything is as you've indicated. When creating the site, I put the association name under school and did not indicate a year (if I recall). Thanks.

Oops I do see a year.

Brad.....Hope all is well with you and yours.

I am in need of some real professional guidance and who better than you?

The high school I attended, Patrick Henry in Minneapolis has a foundation to provide continued quality educational support to the school and to recognize alumni who have continued to support the school and uphold positive community values. If you check their site it may explain more for you.

They currently have a website (phhsfoundation.org) using a service called "fatcow". It available to students to all graduated classes and is not year specific. They do receive tax deductible donations to assist students as well as school activities like the band, sports and academic program.

What do you know about this service if anything?

Is it as easy to maintain as class creator?

Is it as user friendly as yours?

Would this be an organization that would be better benefited by using your service?

I am asking because they have contacted me to assist the with their website. This for a guy who 5 years ago barely knew uppercase from lower case. They must really be desperate!

Any advice, thoughts or comments will be much appreciated.

Jim

Jim,

Thanks for this post, it had me look at the site. It lightened my day, Jim. I'm still laughing at their the line " The HeiferCratic Oath". Their site has a bit of the look of GoDaddy, so I looked around their site to see if they may be in Scottsdale (location of GoDaddy) and had a bigger laugh at this: "Contacting The Moo Crew". I am not laughing at the company but how can you not laugh at that. Even if CC was FC, I cannot imagine calling the CC staff the "Moo Crew"! (You are welcome, CC!)

From an admin point of view, Jim... I purchased my domain from GoDaddy a year before I found Class Creator. If you look at GoDaddy and FatCow, you will see their businesses are the same. I had a small free site before finding CC - not with GoDaddy. Finding CC was key to me because their business began with class/reunion sites. That was my choice then and would be my choice again.

Gwen ... thanks for your response but now I am a little more confused. I know nothing about GoDaddy. Do they have staff that does the website for you or staff that helps you with your website or are you on your own?

Can you explain "Domain"? Do you need a domain name? What does it do for? Is there any benefit with having on? Why don't we need or have one with CC?

And I take it that this foundation would work on CC as Brad outlines above.

Jim

Oh Jim, I am so sorry to have taken you away from the upper and lower case.

Let me say this, there are many businesses out there that will build a web site for you... if you have the money but why do that when we we've found Class Creator and have control of content, no third party and so on? Hence the reason I am very happy being right here.

A domain name is what you type to get to a site. Yours is http://www.classcreator.com/Minneapolis-MN-Henry-Sr-1963/. One of mine is www.mchs1970.com. It is simply easier for classes to key in and give to others, which is why I go with domains.

That shared, you can buy a domain name for your site, Jim. Go to your site's PREFERENCES page. Scroll all the way down to the bottom. Right under the Google Analytics box is this: "Note: You must have a domain name to use this feature — if your site does not have a domain name please leave this box blank. Click here to register your own domain name." Click on that link in the last sentence. (Yes, you can do this right from your site!)

But before you do, I ran a search for you after checking your TAP profile to find your class year.
These two domain names (site addresses) are available now: (note: the www is not necessary to input when searching for a domain)

phhs63.com

patrickhenryhs63.com

There are foundations on Class Creator. Hopefully one will reply or someone will give us a link. If I find a TAP member has one, I will let you know!

Hope you had a good Sunday!

Interesting...so you say it will take more than just knowing uppercase and lowercase? BUMMER DUDETTE!

I would prefer to move the current website to CC if at all possible, but a few questions remain.

This webpage would not be year specific. It would be open to the public. All alumni, parents, friends. Anyone who has an interest in the high school. There will be no profiles. It would be much like going to Bing....typing in maybe phhsfoundation ...and be taken to the webpage. Much like typing in say..jcpenney.

No personal log ins. No personal profiles, data or photos. No personal access other than to read. No real interaction.

Just an informational/educational webpage that keeps the community updated on the school and what the foundation is doing.

Can this be done?

Jim

You already have a domain name for the site you are inquiring about: phhsfoundation.org You might be able to use that for CC depending on who/how fatcow controls that name.

From your description Jim, it appears as if you are interesting in replicating http://phhsfoundation.org/ with no requirement for any of the specific tools of CC.

If so, then the organization is best served where it is. It is also much less expensive! Right now fatcow is $40 for a YEAR. The closest thing CC has is their most expensive option - $179/year.

The only reason one might convert to CC for your foundation is if the process of creating web pages (using the tools fatcow provides) is not understood.

The value in CC is in the extra CC programmed things that you say you don't need - membership tracking, event tracking, easy page creation and so forth. IOW, the value of CC depends on the user's skills and requirements.

The #1 thing that CC provides is membership database control.

Funny, Jim!

I add to Jack's #1 - unmatched customer support.

Yes, as Jack mentioned, this can be done. You're essentially just using the web site building tools available here. You would go into your Edit Pages area and toggle off the Classmate Profiles page. You can also turn off the login box on the home page. And you can also turn off all of the right modules. When you do that the normal 2 column home page layout collapses back down to 1 and you can fill the body area with anything you want.

If you start a trial site and give it a whirl let me know if you run into any issues.

JAMES LANGE wrote:

I turned down the request from the school foundation but have now received one from an HOA.

So from what you are saying Brad what I wanted to do for the foundation was possible. Is tat correct?

The HOA does not want member profiles listed either. Just to use as information center for the community. DOABLE ?

Jim

In the process of building a non school site.

It is to be a non member site without profiles.

How do home owners access site to view meeting minutes and announcements?

jim

Jim, There are HOA sites on CC! I'll see if I can find some for you.

Jim Lange wrote:

There's a couple ways I can envision accomplishing what you want. One would be to leave the pages open to the public. Another would be to password protect the pages and give the password to everyone in the association. There are most likely other approaches but those two immediately come to mind.

Geeze... all I had to do was to scroll up to find one in Myrtle Beach, SC! CLICK HERE
Here is a thread on the topic:
Creating an HOA site with Class Creator

Hey FC...How you doing? You seem to come to my aide a lot. Appreciate it.

Ok...here is deal ....

I currently have the HOA site open to public. Not happy with that as meeting minutes may have financial reports.
If we password protect do we need member profiles or will it be just a generic log on?

I set myself up as root temporarily. How do I get in to edit pages?

I thought the link below got me there but when I go there it cannot find the site.

classcreator.com/Coon-Rapids-Minnesota-Wildwood-Village-Hoa-2014/login.cfm

Jim

Hi Jim,

I believe I found your site at the following address, give it a try and let us know.

http://www.classcreator.com/Coon-Rapids-Minnesota-Wildwood-Village-Hoa/class_index.cfm

Jim,
My daughter is a licensed Property Manager in Charge of her own business and manages a couple HOAs. As a former property manager and her admin assistant, I found a HOA on CC that makes sense in how the properties are listed. (It was found in the thread I shared after FC's post above.)

Ellicott Mills

Sorry I missed the question about not listing member profiles, Jim. I have a reference site on CC that is not listed in my signature below and yes, you can choose not to make that page active. Be sure to have your log-in address (page address) saved where you can access it. You'll need it to edit the site.

In order to keep info private, the system password may be what you choose to use. I strongly suggest that from the start you post on the site, announce via email and at each meeting... should a homeowner sell a property or a tenant move out, the password will be changed and emailed/mailed by USPS to all CURRENT HOA members. It is similar to changing the locks but will affect all homeowners and tenants.

Let us know how the site works for you and your suggestions for future HOA sites, please.

JAMES LANGE wrote:

Jim Lange wrote:

Jim,

Edit the home page to make the log-in box inactive. I can see you thought of doing this because you copied the URL needed to log on with the log-on box inactivated, http://www.classcreator.com/Coon-Rapids-Minnesota-Wildwood-Village-Hoa-2014/login.cfm. Everyone else would access the site using the link Gwen posted in reply #26.

Go ahead and password protect any pages you want. If anyone accessing the site tries to go to a password protected page they will be asked to enter the password. Member profiles are not needed as no one logs onto the site.

Hope this helps.

[Edit] Of course you need to keep the profile you've created as root admin. But no other profiles are needed.

Brad,

I know this is a little late but since I built our website a few years back does this still apply to us?

You're all set Harold.

I was going to take advantage of the Non Class website, and setup a website for our HOA association. I followed the instructions, but seem to still see CLASSMATE and CLASS related terms on my site. Did I do something wrong?
http://www.classcreator.com/Coconut-Creek-Florida-1900/class_admin_preferences.cfm

You'll only see "classmates" in your own admin functions. Your members won't see any of those items. Are you seeing "classmates" on any page of the site your members would see? I.E. everything under your public link block and your Member link block should utilize the classmates plural variable set on your Preferences page. Nothing you see under your third link grouping, Admin functions, is visible to any of your members.

OK...I see now.
Do you know if you have other HOA associations using the site? I am not sure it will work for this purpose?
Rather than a Classmate list, I believe that I want a list of all of the units in the complex. I am struggling with a method to indicate whether the unit is rented or owner occupied and contact info for both. Would also like a method to download forms, such as parking permits or applications for new residents/tenants. Do
you think this will be possible?

You could add OWNED names as "Classmates" and RENTED as "Guests" or you could put "(Owner)" or "(Renter)" after the last name.
You could upload PDF files of the forms to your File Vault (Edit Site Pages, Edit Home Page, Content Editor, click the LINK button (3rd from right on 2nd row) and then BROWSE and UPLOAD to upload the PDF and then insert a link to that PDF)

Here is a sample (live and working) HOA website for you to view: www.ellicottmills.org . It looks like they put the address as the name with the last name of the owner/renter in parenthesis after the last name.

12/30/13

I am very interested in whether I can build a non class web site on Class Creator.
Presently I am one of the administrators for fairbornhighschool1964.com. My name is Gayle Reed and I am the coordinator of our reunion committee.

My non class interest is to have a vehicle to advertise the book I wrote about caregiving. It is called Caregiver's Checklist: A Personal Experience. I am looking for a site to promote it. Needless to say, getting the notice dated 12/28/13 about the Free (ads) plan gave me reason to hope Class Creator might work for me.

Go ahead and follow the directions to create a non class site. Please shoot me a link when you're done. What are you doing exactly? If your book is helping caregivers we'll likely comp your site and make it free no ads. I spent two year as an unexpected caregiver so this topic kinda hits home with me. I made one terrible male nurse, but I came out if it with a whole new respect and regard for....well, more than I can describe here.

The book includes 4 sections re end of life care:
Medical, Financial, Legal and Funeral.
For the most part, the information is universal such as
the documents you need to find and have available.
But there are also some parts that need to be updated...
for instance when the book was written in 2006 Medicare Part D was in its infancy.

I would like to provide the book to every caregiver.
And it would be nice if I could recoup the printing costs.
But I have also given away many copies to caring families
who were struggling...

Blessings and peace.

Great. Got it. Send site link when ready.

I created a non class site and used a old, old year. It shows as part of the site URL. It shows up in many page captions also. Can a site be built without a year?

Hi Earl,

I removed the year from the URL. If you sent out any emails yet you'll want to let them know the URL has changed a bit to:
http://www.classcreator.com/Ogden-Utah-Weber-College/

Will the site members be adding by year? If they are you can leave the settings as is. If you prefer to show all members in one list without selecting a year you can select the following under Manage Classmates > Enter/Edit Classmates

Separate Classes by year on Classmate Profiles page.
Show all Classes together on Classmate Profiles page.

Jessica
Class Creator Support

I am trying to build a non class website and I can't seem to get past the first step of five.
I am going to class creator and clicking on build site, fill in information, but unable to get to second step.

Are you able to type in your school name and select it from the dropdown? If so are you then able to select your year? If so what specifically happens when you attempt to proceed to step 2? Do you see an error message?

My best guess based on the information is this has something to do with your browser. You are using Internet Explorer 7, which is 4 browser versions outdated. Try upgrading to the current Internet Explorer and I suspect you'll have no issues.

QUESTION: If I turn off the login box (since people will not be registering and logging in), how do I then get in to the site to handle my admin tasks?

Go ahead and turn it off. The site will give you all directions you need.

I would like a link on the home page for Non-School Sites. Can we start a list to see how they are setting up their sites. Looking for family geneolgy, & assisted living center. Go!
1.

OK Brad. One more question. I have built my site and I have everything marked to not require login. On my Leave A Message For Mara page (which is the Message Forum page)I have it marked to not be restricted to Supporters (Classmates) only. Yet when I am logged out and I click on that link and click Post Response, I get an error message saying that "you must be logged in to leave a comment". I really want this open without making people get a Guest account - especially since I have the login box turned off.

So you're wanting the public to be able to use the Message Forum? Is that correct? Message Forums are tied to a user name, a photo, etc. (i.e. tied to an account). If you're looking for a place for any person from the public to just post at will the Message Forums won't work for that. Maybe you can explain a little more about what you're trying to accomplish and we'll see if there's any good solutions.

Yes. I did want "anyone" to be able to post. But don't go to a lot of trouble looking for ways to do it. Mara (as named in the url and logo) will also have a FB page so perhaps I can make a comments page on this site that will link people to her FB page to post comments. And I'd also link people from her FB page to this site.

Thanks.

Hi Barbara,

You can set something up using www.jotform.com. Submissions can be shown below the form or on another page and you can choose to receive a copy of each via email.

John C. brought this to our attention back in 2011, I believe. I had a jotform guest book on two of my sites. In fact, we were on jotform to see what we could use on TAP (www.theadminsplace.com).

Give it a try. I'm not a Jotform expert but if you get stuck, send me a message.. I'll see if I can help.

Hi Brad,
Can you disassociate my non school site for me.

http://www.classcreator.com/Queens-New-York-Ps-193-1905/

Thanks

Done.

I do not see the Classmates Profile page when I click Edit Site Pages.

6) Clicked Edit Site Pages and disable your Classmate Profiles page (if not a membership site).

themetrobt - you have renamed your Classmate Profiles page to Metro Family

Sorry...this was for a new I am creating,fnwhs50th. Will check the pages on that one. Thanks!

In the Instructions for First Time Visitors, how do I change the title of number 5 - Communicating with Classmates to Communicating with Owners? I also want to renumber the sections since I do not plan to use #4 the Missing Classmates section, as this site is for my condo association.
I have changed the word classmates to condo owners in the preferences section already, but the title in the divider bar still refers to "Classmates". I clicked on Edit Div but do not know if that function enables changes to the Divider heading.

You can simply go into Edit Pages area and edit your First Time Visitor Instructions. Everything on that page is editable. If necessary just click the "Source" button in the upper left corner. This way you can see the actual code behind the page and update any words here that need to be changed.

I am about to embark on trying to create a non class site. It will also be non member site. No profiles. If successful I’ll need to create 6 more sites. Image sorting in galleries will be key.

I will either leave it open, or I may need a site password, which I would provide to viewers.

Would it be possible to leave the homepage open, where I can put instructions, and password protect the rest of the site?

Also, is it possible to leave some pages open, and other pages require a system password?

I have been reading through all of the threads 2013 and 2014. Has anything significantly changed?

And is there a resource I can go to read tips for non class web sites? Thank You.

Exact same options as your current site.

Passwords for various pages all optional.
You do not need profiles.

Here's my site that is a non class site - JVscripts.

Hi Toni,

You can turn off the display for the sign-in on the home page under the Admin Functions > Edit Site Pages > Edit Page > Home Page in the top section that controls logins, right hand modules etc. you can also turn off any right hand modules you don't need there.

You can leave the home page open and just password protect any other page. You can create a system password for them to access those pages without having to create separate logins.

You will be the only one who needs to login so you can access the admin functions and manage the site.

Jessica
Class Creator Support

Thank You Jessica

Recommend a Responsive Design option vs the old classic currently used for your class site. You will find RD much easier to adapt for your old content. And much better looking

You mentioned galleries - The gallery script I made only works for RD galleries as shown on JVscripts

I could make the JVscripts gallery sort by filename if that is important. Pretty easy change. Wonder if anyone else would be interested in that as an option.

I look forward to your site(s), Toni.

Thanks for the clear instructions, Jessica.

And Jack, the sorter may be a bonus. Would have to try it.

Thank you Jack, I will create a test site and look at RD.
Having the ability to manipulate image sorting via FILE NAME / IMAGE TITLE, Numbers and Letters, is VERY IMPORTANT to me. my sites are on History. Community History, Family Ancestral History, Reunions, spanning time. Images of people, places, documents are all dated.
I carefully NAME my files offline, so they fall in order in my Folders on my computer. I name many beginning w YEAR. or a sequence number, or sometimes with a Name. ALSO important within a gallery, is the ability to be able to Select All, and RE-SORT, over and over, so as new images are added, I can make them "fall in place".

Having the file name visible online, is VERY helpful. so I can skip captions. saves me hundreds of hours. and makes adding captions later easy. since File Name is basic description.
IMAGE TITLE
and
IMAGE CAPTION
In SFly, the File Name defaults as IMAGE TITLE online, and it can be edited online. nice feature. AND there is also a space for IMAGE CAPTION, for elaboration.

Examples
Album within a Simple site. see how images are in alpha/chronological order
https://joppacommunity.shutterfly.com/140

Larger site: album. see captions are file name and i can also add, edit captions. https://joekate1912.shutterfly.com/joekate/61

Sorting by file name and showing the filename was easy to do.

HOWEVER, there's a big gotcha if using CC galleries to upload the images. CC changes the filenames to an internal number, making it useless for your purposes.

If you upload the images to the FILE vault, making folders to correspond to the images you desire will keep the ORIGINAL file names intact.

Then you can manually create a list and that will work for what the modified JVphotocube script.

For CC Galleries, JVphotocube already takes the CC description and shows it below the image.

So the real question: Can (or will) CC change the way images are uploaded for galleries to KEEP the original file name as they do for the FILE vault? I doubt that will happen, but you can ask.

thank you Jack. i'll look into creating Folders in Vault