FAQs


Table of Contents


Q: What’s a “Bailwik?”

A: Bailiwiks are places that people care about. We take our name from the somewhat old-fashioned word “bailiwick,” which means area of expertise or responsibility. We liked the word because it resonated with our sense of mission: taking responsibility for our little corner of the world and helping other people do the same for theirs. We dropped the “c” because we love Wikipedia — and we hope our communities will be collaborative creations like any good wiki.

Back to top


Q: Can I join a Bailiwik if I don’t live there?

A: Yes, but you might not be able to “stay joined.” We allow our users to automatically join any bailiwik they choose, then hand off supervision of the membership list to our bailiffs. Our communities are for people who share a connection to a place — and we trust our individual community creators to define how strong or weak that connection should be for their Bailiwik.

Back to top


Q: Who can see what I post?

A: Anyone who joins Bailiwik can see anything posted to any Bailwik. Doing this, however, generally requires navigating to that Bailiwik and reading the content posted there. (The exception to this rule is content from Instagram, which in some cases can be seen on multiple Bailiwiks, as discussed below.) While we believe the requirement of registration and the burden of navigating to a particular community offers some impediments to abuse, we think the safest assumption for users is to consider Bailiwik essentially public. We took this approach to the privacy question because we are philosophically inclined towards a more open mode of interaction — and because we felt that promises of privacy on a publicly-accessed social network would be of questionable worth and could create a false sense of security. We’d rather be honest with our users and trust them to act accordingly. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy.

Back to top


Q: Can I post anything I want on Bailwik?

A: Like most other social networks, Bailiwik imposes some “outer boundaries” on material which may be posted. Please see our Terms of Service for a fuller exposition of our standards.

Back to top


Q. How can I crop my cover photo so it fills up the whole cover photo box?

A. Unfortunately, the cropping tool contained in the Bailwik Admin panel is a built into the platform we’re using to build the first version of our site — but there is a work-around. Try posting the photo as a either a blog post, using the pencil icon, or as a photo, using the camera icon. Once the photo appears on your front page, click on the link next to it that says “cover photo.” This will bring up a different cropping tool that works better.

Back to top


Q. I see some members’ Instagram photos appearing on multiple Bailiwiks, but my posts only appear on my Bailiwik. What gives?

A. Instagram photos are treated differently from regular posts, in part due to the Instagram interface. Regular posts only appear on the bailiwik to which they are posted. If you have linked your Bailiwik account to Instagram, the Instagram photos you have chosen to share will appear on all bailiwiks of which you are a member. They can be removed at the discretion of the bailiff.

Back to top


Q. How can I place a photo on the map outside my bailiwik?

A. To do this, you will need to start your post from either the camera icon or the pencil icon in the icon menu. Clicking on these icons will open a “create post” window containing a miniature locator map. You can move around within this mini map beyond the boundaries of your bailiwik and drop your post wherever you like. (The reason you can’t do this on the “big” map is that the pointer turns into a map-moving “grabbing hand” once you are outside your bailiwik to enable people to reposition the map on their browser.)

Back to top


Q. I am the Bailiff of a Bailiwik, how do I get more members and get them to submit content?

A. Great quesiton! We’ll have a whole new section on how to promote your Bailiwik coming soon.

Back to top


Don’t see a question/answer you need? Please contact us.