Renewing the identity of French in New England
Help
FAQ
General
Who are the Yankois?
A Yankois (pronounced yang-kwah) or Yankoise (pronounced yang-kwahz) is a New Englander of French descent. The word comes from "yankee" and the French ending -ois, as in Québécois, and is meant as "French Yankee(s)."A more full description is available here.
Should I write in French or English?
Since this site is a product of full participation by its members, it is up to everyone to choose the primary language they would like to use. With that said, French is the common heritage of all Yankois, whatever their origin, and this site would be providing a valuable service by acting as a place where we can develop and practice our French skills.Beyond that, it is encouraged that, whenever possible, translations into the other language be provided as a courtesy to new-comers or those who want to immerse themselves in one language as completely as possible.
Why make Chez Yankois?
Yankois Media was founded to be a company that makes its money by catering to the Yankois community with products and services of specific interest to it. This pins our success on its health and we hope that Chez Yankois can help to make it thrive.Why use Chez Yankois?
Chez Yankois is an opportunity to discover the numbers, activity and heritage of our Yankois brothers and sisters and to form bonds with our cousins from Canada, France and throughout the world. Where Facebook and MySpace are able profile-hosting networks and communication tools, we can be that and more! We can be a true expression of real community. Our mere presence here betrays our common interests. We already have more concrete bonds based on our like backgrounds than any standard friend list or network connection elsewhere.In short, you already belong here so you might as well speak up!
My Page
How do I change my theme?
Go to the edit appearance page where you can select an existing theme, tweak one with custom colors and images or create one from scratch.How do I add a song to My Page?
Go to the My Page tab, scroll to the My Music box at the bottom on the left-hand side and click the add music link. This will take you to a page where you can use a special in-page music uploader or, if that doesn't work, you can choose to add music using the simple uploader or by links to mp3s on the web.Can someone download a song I add to My Page?
While we enjoy and encourage the character created by adding music to your profile, in order to avoid potential legal issues, we do not allow other users to download those songs that you add. They will simply have to visit your profile when they want to hear it :-).Photos
How do I upload photos?
Go to the My Page tab, and click the photos link beneath your profile picture. This will take you to a page where you can use a special in-page photo uploader or, if that doesn't work, you can choose to add photos using the simple uploader. As you upload you are given the opportunity to apply keywords or "tags" to your photos in order to help organize them.You can also upload photos directly from your cell phone. For more information see this page.
How do I create an album?
To create an album the photos need to already be uploaded to Chez Yankois, so be sure that you or another member has already done this before you try to add them to an album.Once you've done that, go to the My Page tab, and click the photo albums link beneath your profile picture. Here you can view all the photos uploaded by you or all members of Chez Yankois and filter them by keyword if they were tagged when they were uploaded. To add pictures to the album, simply click the image you'd like from the left and drag it into the place you would like it in the album.
If you fill an album page and would like to add more, simply click the Next Album Page link when it appears.
TIP: If you find that photos you drag into the album aren't inserting, trying holding the mouse still for a moment once you've dragged the picture you want into place before "dropping" the photo to give the album time to recognize the photo.
Once your album is full, you can choose a photo to be the album cover, entitle and enter description for your album and save it.
Videos
How do I upload videos?
Go to the My Page tab, and click the videos link beneath your profile picture. This will take you to a page where you can use upload one video at a time or or, if you have a lot of videos, you can choose to add them using the bulk uploader.You can also upload videos directly from your cell phone. For more information, see this page.
Also, if you have a YouTube channel or a favorite video there you want to share, you can post videos directly from YouTube or Google Video. For more information, see this page.
Groups
Who can create a group?
Anyone! If you're interested in something French or want to share an interest of yours in French or if you just want to meet like-minded people then search here to see if your group already exists and, if not, click here to get started making your new group.Events
Who can create an event?
Just as with groups, anyone can post an event!Whether your event is for a French club, a get-together of a Chez Yankois group, an event sponsored by a business or non-profit or even a private get-together with your friends, you are welcome and encouraged to list and organize it here.
Yankois Media and Chez Yankois post a lot of events, do they host them all?
Periodically the admins of Yankois Media, the company that supports Chez Yankois, add events that have come to our attention that have not been posted by the event's organizer. Over time we hope to have the organizations that actually host these events post them, but in the meantime all of us can help keep each other in the loop by posting these events.Chat
Who can use the chat function?
Anyone with an account on Chez Yankois can chat!How do I use the chat function?
When you are signed into Chez Yankois, there is a message on the bottom of the screen telling you how many members are currently online. If you click on that message, a box will open showing a list of members who are currently online. To send a chat message to everyone, enter your message in the text box at the bottom and hit the enter key.If you would like to chat with a specific person who is online, click on their name and select the “Private chat” option. A chat invitation will be sent to that person, and when they respond, you can enter your messages in the text box and hit the enter key.
What if I am signed in and I don't want to chat?
You can enjoy Chez Yankois without showing up on the list of members who are available to chat. When you are signed into Chez Yankois, there is a small green circle in the bottom right corner of the screen. If you click this circle, you will be removed from the list of members available to chat.Store
Why sell merchandise?
Operating Chez Yankois is, unfortunately, not a free proposition for us. While it is worth it to provide this service to the Yankois community, in our early days we have only meager savings to defray our costs.So rather than charge admission or fees for some services, we sell a small selection of Yankois pride merchandise as our only source of income (the ads on the right are a requirement of our hosting service provider).
Accent Keyboard
What is it
Since all Yankois are Americans, it's appropriate to make the assumption that most of us use the standard U.S. "qwerty" style keyboard which isn't designed to type French-specific characters. To reduce every barrier to communicating in French possible, we've added an in-page keyboard that includes all of these accented characters, guillemets and more.In order to use it, simply click into any text box on the site and it will automatically appear. Clicking on a key will insert its value into the textbox where you had been typing, allowing you to continue your message as quickly as possible.
The en|fr and fr|en buttons
These allow you to write bilingual text and allow the reader choose whether to read the English or the French.Each button inserts a snippet of text that informs the web browser that there is a translation above it and below it. The browser then hides the translation beneath it and adds a button that the user can press to swap the translation they can see.
The "en|fr" button tells the web browser that English is first and French is second, and "fr|en" tells it the opposite. The choice of language that comes first is up to you: lead with your best foot forward, or solicit assistance with your weaker language by putting it front and center.
Disabling and Reactivating
If you don't want to use the keyboard, just click into a text box to display it and click the "disable" link at the bottom. If you've done this and want to reactivate the keyboard, click here and it will come back the next time you load a new page.Browser Compatability
We regret to say that, at the moment, this keyboard doesn't work with all web browsers. Specifically it doesn't work with Safari, Google Chrome and browsers that share their code. Rather than keep keep this keyboard from the majority of people who use Internet Explorer and Firefox, we've made it available and will continue to work toward support for other browsers.We will enable it in these other browsers, when we've fixed the remaining issues and will post to the site blog when this has happened.
Help Discussion
If you still have a question, you might be able to find some help with it in our help forum.Last updated by Chez Yankois Jul. 14, 2009.
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