This section answers the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) that you may have when using Sparrou. If you still have any questions or doubts that are not answered, please contact me and it will be added here for the whole community.
General
Do you have to be registered to use Sparrou?
No, everyone can play and learn with Sparrou. However, for some functionalities that need to save your information, you must be registered and have accessed with your user.
For example, you must be registered to add data to your Observation Diary, Create Groups and Edit your Profile.
You can register or access your account from the human-shaped button on the top right of any page, or from this link.
What elements can be pressed or clicked?
Any brown text is a link, so clicking on it will take you to another page. Don't miss out on everything Sparrou can offer you by exploring all the links!
In addition to links, all buttons and some elements in some games will also have a click behavior. If you have doubts… experiment and press or slide everything you think is appropriate! 😀
Keyboard shortcuts
At Sparrou website for desktop (computers, laptops, and other devices with a physical keyboard), these keyboard shortcuts are available by pressing the keys indicated:
- Alt+M: Open main menu (top left).
- Alt+U: Open user menu (top right).
- Alt+C: Open the share page modal window.
- Alt+B: If there is a search box on the page, the cursor hovers over it to start searching.
- Alt + ⬅️: Go back to the previous page (as if you pressed the "Back" button in the browser).
- Alt+ ➡: In a game with a next button, advance to the next species (as if you pressed that button).
- Escape: Close the open menu or modal window, or whatever you entered in a search box.
I have not received the email to activate my user
When you register as a user, you will receive an email with a link to enter your password. Make sure it's not in spam or junk mail.
If it's not there and after a while it hasn't come to you, get in touch contact me and indicating your email and username.
Collaboration
1. How to propose changes in a species?
If you have detected information that you can contribute in any species (such as a name in a language, an error that you have seen, a taxonomic change, etc…) we invite you to propose changes. It's so easy!
To do this, from the user menu (top right of the screen) click on Propose changes or go directly to summary list.
Once in the summary list, you can see which species do or do not have their names in the different languages that are available in Sparroualong with other information. And from the relevant button you can propose your changes comfortably.
If you want to collaborate to review the changes proposed by users, please send a message. The more we are, the more we will grow, the more people we will help and the more countries we will fly to!
2. How to add photos to a species?
To contribute your photographs, send them from the summary list. You will be able to see the photographs that each species has and you will have a button to send your material easily. Thank you very much!
3. How to add audio to a species?
To contribute your audios, send them from the summary list. You will be able to see the audios that each species has and you will have a button to send your material easily. Thank you very much!
Groups
1. What is a group?
A group is a unique functionality of Sparrou in which a registered user can create a totally personalized grouping or list of birds. In addition, on the group page there will be a button to play the game you want only with the bird species of that group, allowing you to create custom games as well.
Normally, a group is created to group species from a specific location (a city, town or region), from a habitat (lagoon, field, park, etc…), from some trip or field trip, from a specific time of year , or any other idea that comes to mind.
When creating a group it is mandatory to add a title, a permanent link, a description, a distribution, the visibility of the group (public or private) and some species of bird, amphibian, reptile, etc.
The animal species available to create a group are all those that are available in Sparrou at that moment. If new species are added later, they can be added when editing a group in the same way as when creating that group.
2. How to create a group?
In your user menu (top right of the screen), click on Create group. You can also do it from your user area, in the menu of Groups and clicking on Create group. Next, you must fill in the following fields:
- Degree: Write a title that reflects the type of species that the group includes and where this group is found. That is, it responds to a what and a where. A good title is essential so that others can find your group among others, and identify at first glance what the group will contain.
- Permanent link: It is the link that you can then share. Typing in the title will automatically create a “friendly” link based on the title. Normally this is enough, but if you later change the title, you should ideally edit the permalink leaving it blank so that it is redone again. Once you publish the group, it's best not to change the permalink again.
- Description: Write a short description that details a little more what the group will contain. It will appear under the title on the group page, and what you write will also be taken into account when a user searches for groups on the web, so you can play with the words (it is a good idea to add some synonyms) to make the group easier to find
- Distribution: Select the region in which the group will be displayed.
- Public Group: Select whether your group will be public (everyone will be able to see it from the list of groups) or private (it will only be accessible from its link and will not appear in the list of groups).
- Species: Select all the species you want to be in the group. To facilitate the search you can filter by type of species, distribution, family or order. For now, you can only search by the name of the species in Spanish.
- Author's name: Write the author name of the group, if you want it to be public. It can be a person, organization, association, etc.
- Author link: Type the link to the author's page (optional, and only if you have entered an Author Name).
Once you have filled in everything correctly, all you have to do is press the button Publish.
When you finish publishing a group, it is advisable to click on its permanent link (under the title) or on the "Preview changes" button to see how it looks now that it is public for the entire community, and check if there are some error or want to modify something.
3. How to edit a group?
You will only be able to edit your groups, and it works the same way as creating a group. To do so, in your user menu (top right of the screen), click on Edit my groups.
Ideally, when editing a group, you only change the species, the description or at most the title. If you change the permalink or distribution, you will break the current link and all the people who have saved that link will not work, so check all the data (and especially the permalink and distribution) carefully when creating your group so that you do not have to modify it later rather than to add or remove species if necessary.
4. Where are the groups displayed?
Groups are displayed in different places:
- In the lists of each region. For now only the Iberian Peninsula, but it will be expanded as there are collaborators from other countries (more information in Community). All currently available species that are in that group will be displayed.
- In the games: Each species in a group will be in each game depending on the information that bird has. I mean, in the game MemoryVisual You can only play with the species that have at least 2 photographs. and in the game Listening Practice, only each species with audio will be displayed when playing with that group. Therefore, the more information each species of bird has, the more it will be available in more games. That is why the help provided by the community by proposing changes from its beginning is so important. user area.
5. Examples of groups that can be created
The possibilities for groups are practically endless, but here you can get inspired by some examples of groups of birds that could start with:
- birds of…
- Parrots of…
- Songbirds of…
- Granivorous birds of…
- Insectivorous birds of…
- Calves of…
- Rarities of…
- Occasional birds of…
- Waders of…
- Ducks and geese of…
- Gulls of…
And only with seagulls could groups of different places be created:
- Gulls of the Iberian Peninsula
- Gulls from inland areas of the Iberian Peninsula
- Seagulls of the Iberian Mediterranean coast
- Seagulls of Catalonia
- Gulls in the province of Barcelona
- Barcelona city seagulls
- Gulls of the Ebro Delta
- Gulls of Sant Carles de la Ràpita
- Many others between regions, cities, towns, etc.
Aren't there a lot of different combinations? Now that you're inspired, access your user area and create your groups.
6. Can I create private groups?
All groups are public by default, so they will appear in all sections and lists where groups appear for the enjoyment of the entire community. However, it is possible to create private groups that will only be accessible by directly sharing the link with whoever you want.
Also, at any time you can edit your group and change this public or private visibility preference.
I would like to encourage you to create a public group to increase the total number of groups available for everyone who wants to learn and play, but if you want to create a private group to be used only by you or whoever you want, or in a reserved area, you can easily indicate it to create your group.
7. Featured Groups
Featured groups are manually chosen as being of most interest to users and appear before other groups everywhere groups are displayed.
If you want a group you've created to appear as a featured group for a while, contact me and we value it.
