Welcome to the Operation Just Cause Page Builder's Help Area!
The purpose of these pages is to give those of you
who are new to making Operation Just Cause Remembrance Pages a little help
in getting started. Nothing on this page should be considered a prerequisite
or a rule for membership in the organization or in the ring. The purpose
of this page is to give those who are just getting started a place to turn
for general information and, more importantly, pointers to sources of help
and information on building their remembrance pages.
We also offer membership in the OJC ring.
This isn't for everyone though. There are guidelines that must be
followed. If you are interested, check it out before you make
a remembrance page: OJC
Ring The following seven steps are suggested for building
an OJC website. We hope these steps will be helpful to you. If you need
any assistance, please feel free to ask any of the Operation Just Cause
staff members.
We have building an OJC webpage broken down into
seven easy Steps. You may either read through the page as a whole or simply
click on the links below to skip directly to that part of this page.
The first step of making an OJC website is to Adopt a missing
serviceman. Simply go to the OJC Adoption
Page, fill out the form, and within a few days you will be mailed a
bio for one of the men still missing in Vietnam.
Next visit the Ring Page,
and look over the page creation guidelines. There aren't many rules, just
enough to keep us organized and eliminate commercial exploitation. If you
have any questions about the guidelines or about the ring itself, feel
free to contact us.
Do
A Little More Research
The best remembrance pages are those which incorporate a little
extra and put a human face on the man who you are talking about. Pictures
of the adoptee, unit patches, and any other appropriate personalization
add a great deal to the human interest your page will generate.
There are many places on the web where you can get more information,
from search engines to casualty search sites such
as the No-Quarter Vietnam Wall Search
page.
You can also do your own research offline. There are a few hints
on searching available to you by selecting this link.
Begin
to Build Your Webpage
It is way beyond the goal of this webpage to teach the language
of writing webpages using HTML. The HTML
Writers Guild offers lots of resources to help with this. You can also
ask members of the OJC staff for help if you need it. In addition there
are several programs out there that can almost build your pages for you.
For you die-hard do-it-yourself types, follow this link for a
short list of tutorials on html.
All of this presupposes that you actually have a place to put
a webpage. If you do not, then you may be able to get free space to put
a webpage from any of these organizations.
Make
Some Useful Links
One of the real positive things about the WWW is that you can
link resources together. The OJC pages are no exception!
Take a couple of days, and explore the ring and the web and make
links to other interesting pages that you find which are related to this
issue. We of course suggest you link back to OJC sign up resources, but
feel free to link to any number of other places.
Add
Some Artwork & Audio
The beauty of the World Wide Web is that it can disseminate
huge amounts of information quickly. Sadly however most 'websurfers' are
looking for more than a textual experience.. To that end you will probably
want to add some graphics and/or some audio to your website.
When using graphics or audio please make sure they are legally
yours to use. Do not use copywritten items which are not offered by the
author for use. This includes scanning photos or artwork from publications.
The last thing you need is a copyright lawsuit. Also its imperative that
you give credit and a link to anyone who you have used graphics or audio
from.
Incorporate
The Ring HTML
Once you have all of the rest of the page made, its time to
decide if you want to join the OJC webring. If you choose to join the ring
you will need to incorporate some special html for the ring to operate...
Go to the Ring's Join Page and use the
form to request access to the ring. Be prepared to give your URL and your
Email address. In short order you will be mailed the HTML coding for your
place on the ring.
Within a few days, an inspection will be made of your page, and
you will be sent confirmation that you have been included in the OJC Webring!
You're almost done!
Polish
Your Project
Now it is time to add some dimension and intrinsic value to
your project! Operation Just Cause is all about persuading our elected
officials to DO something about those who are unaccounted for. We are not
just about webpages.
Your project is really not truly complete
until you have written your President, your Senators, and your Representatives
in congress asking them for a full and total accounting of your adopted
POW/MIA.
The link below will give you direct email access to these individuals.
Some people even post the letters that they mailed their elected
officials and the responses to those letters.
One last thing, When your page is complete,
please send a message to mailroom@ojc.org
telling us that you finished and letting us know the web address where
it resides. This will allow the OJC staff to update their records to include
your site.
That's It!
Thank you very much for your interest in Operation Just Cause
and the POW/MIA issue.
Hopefully if you have completed the steps above you will be pleased
with the results. We very much appreciate your efforts and the time you
have taken to help spread the word about this important issue.
In closing, if you need further help or information maybe one
of the following links will help you.
The OJC Main Menu (formerly called the Swithcboard) is the primary
resource for those involved in this organization.
Visit Comm Central to find out how to contact other members or
any of the staff.
The OJC Yellow Ribbon Campaign is also open to you if you are
interested in going a step beyond and really get involved on a personal
and local level with this issue.
