Frequently Asked Questions About California Local Membership

When signed in, you'll see a drop-down menu on the upper right side of the California Local site window with your first name as the title. 

Click to display the drop-down menu, and select Profile.

In your member profile, you'll see a button titled Change Password.

Click it and follow the instructions.

Not a problem.

Use a web browser to visit California Local, and click on the Sign In button. When the Sign In form is displayed, click on the Forgot Password link and follow the instructions.

Your member profile is how to get to all of your “stuff.”

It has quick links to things you’ve posted, it’s where you change your password, and it’s where you can sign up to be a paying sponsor.

Members who are signed in often see Bookmark or Unbookmark buttons in the upper right side of certain views, such as Community Group or Government or Media Ally overviews or Article pages.

Bookmarking causes a bookmark to be saved in your My Bookmarks page. Clicking on bookmarks in the My Bookmarks page takes you to the bookmarked item. Unbookmarking causes the link to be removed.

When you are signed in as a member,  you'll see a box titled Help Keep It Fresh in the right column of various list and detail views of information.

If you notice incorrect or out-of-date information or see that we’re missing something that you know about and want to share, click the Help Keep It Fresh Tell Us button, and fill out the form that will be displayed.

Thanks for helping keep California Local accurate and comprehensive!

All member contributed content is displayed with a link titled Flag.

If you see inappropriate content, click the Flag link associated with that content. Fill out the form that appears.

Be sure to note how the content violates the code of conduct.

California Local staff will review the code violation report and the reported content and take appropriate action.

Your emoji is meant to represent your mood, your personality, what kind of day you’re having, whatever.

You can choose and set your emoji via the Change Emoji link in your member drop-down menu.

Your emoji appears with your name when you post a public comment or are the author of some other kind of content on California Local.

You are automatically signed out of your session on California Local if you have been inactive for over 60 minutes.

This is a security precaution to limit the possibility of you stepping away from your computer for a long period of time and having another person use it to post something under your name.

No. California Local does not perform autosave in forms or content editor.

It’s a good idea to compose longer pieces of writing as plain text in your favorite auto-saving text editor, and then copy and paste it into the California Local content editor.

Just follow the code of coduct.

Discussions consist of three components:

A Discussion Topic set by California Local editors, which defines the overall subject under consideration, such as "What are your thoughts about the XYZ Project"

Discussion Threads, posted by California Local members, which address the topic, such as "The XYZ Project looks good but I have questions about traffic impact."

Comments under Discussion Threads, posted by California Local members, which address or riff off the thread.

You need to be signed in to your California Local account to post a thread or comment in a discussion.

Discussion threads can be upvoted or downvoted to signal agreement/approval or disagreement/disapproval.

Authors or discusion threads and comnent may edit or remove them at any time.

Member content such as discussion threads or comments or milestones, etc., can be flagged by other members as violating the California Local Code of Conduct, which is always displayed in member participation areas.

Reports of code violations are reviewed by California Local staff, who check the content in question and either disagree and unflag the content, or agree and mute the content. The content remains in the database, but is not displayed. The member who violates the code is sent a message notifying them of the content being muted, with the reason why. 

Escalation for repeat offenders can include muting the offender, meaning their posting privileges are suspended, or booting the member, meaning their password is changed and they are locked out of their California Local account.

Members who frivolously and repeatedly report other members for code violations may also go down the escalation path of muting and/or booting.

Information about your elected representatives is displayed on the My Reps page.

When signing up for membership, we ask for your zip code to be able to broadly identify your community and to localize your California Local experience. Based on this information, we're able to establish your county and, if within an incorporated municipality, your city or town.

We match that up with information about your county and city governments to make available the contact information for your elected representatives.

The Find My Elected Reps form on the My Reps page asks for your full address to query our database for information about your current member of the US House of Representatives and your current California State Assembly member and California State Senator. These elected officials represent specific geographic districts in the state and your full address is required to establish in which district you reside and vote.

The results of the query are saved to your account and displayed on the My Reps page. 

In the interest of protecting your privacy, the address entered into the Find My Elected Reps form is not saved.

Use the contact information on the My Reps page to connect with your elected representatives to let them know your positions on issues which are important to you.

California Local staff maintain the information about local city and county governments, elected bodies and elected representaives in our database.

Information about state and federal officials is imported using the Google Civic Information API from information collected and maintained by the Voter Information Project.

Your monthly or one-time non-tax deductable monetary sponsorship of California Local is appreciated and necessary for us to do our work.

We use the Stripe secure payment service to process your financial sponsorship. To ensure your security and privacy, we don't handle the transaction or save your credit card information.

If you choose a monthy sponsorship (thanks!), you are able to easily cancel at any time for any reason by signing in to your California Local account and going to the My Accounts page.