Help

It is not necessary to sign up neither to be able to read the messages that other users have sent to Eskup nor to see the contents on existent topics. However, signing up is essential in order to send messages or to enroll to follow other users and/or topics and to be able to see in one board at a time ("LO QUE SIGO") all those messages you are interested in.

No. Once you have chosen a nickname, you can't change it. Anyway, you can create a new account, using a different nickname and another e-mail address.

Yes. The bottom of the avatar shown in their profile contains the logo of EL PAÍS, such as you can see in the next example:

No. The process to be a registered user of elpais.com allows you to access Eskup and vice versa, but if you have not chosen yet your exclusive user identifier or nickname, you'll be asked to choose one.

We call boards each of the places where message lists are displayed. For instance, the boards that appear when you access Eskup are:

• "LO QUE SIGO": (what I'm following) public messages (those that are not private) sent by users you follow and on the topics you follow.
• "TODO" (everything): all the public messages sent by the users.
• "Privados": (private) the private messages that other users have sent to you or those you have sent to them.
• "Mis mensajes": (my messages) every public messages you have sent.
• "Menciones": (mentions) every public messages that mentions you.

You can put a text in bold or italics using standard HTML tags: <b>use </b> for bold and <i>for italics</i>. Those are the only html tags you can use and the only way in which you can change the text style in your messages.

No. Image and text alignment is done automatically depending on the original image's size. Images will appear at a maximum size of 432 pixels width and 880 pixels high. If you put them larger they will be automatically rescaled. If they are smaller they will appear as they are. Under 250 pixels width, Eskup will align the photo with the text. if the image width is larger than 250 pixels, the photo will not be aligned with the text:

To include a video in your message all you have to do is indicate its URL in the message text. We currently support links from youtube.com, metacafe.com, dailymotion.com, vimeo.com, current.com, video.google.com, video.google.es y vids.myspace.com. You just have to insert the link, include text if you want to and publish. If you put several URLs of videos only the first embedded video will be shown. The rest will appear as URLs from cort.as. A video and an image may be shown at the same time in the same message. You can decide, for example, that the image appears above the video (this is the case of images where the witdh is less or equal than 250px) or below the video (for image width greater than 250px).

Yes. When you include an URL you must leave a blank space between the URL and the rest of the text. That is to say, URLs cannot be attached to any other character.. If you don't follow this rule incorrect URLs will be generated in the URLs shortening process.

No. When you want to include an URL in a message of Eskup you don't have to manually shorten URLs to "save" characters in the message as Eskup does it automatically for you if by doing so a "significant saving" of characters is achieved. For this reason, URLs of less than 30 characters long are not replaced by a cort.as URL. Moreover, if you let Eskup do it automatically, a tooltip will be shown in the shortened URL.

Yes, you can. When you detect any error in a message you have sent, instead of sending another message with the corrections, you can choose the option "Editar mensaje" (Edit message) from the "Más opciones", (More options) menu, include any corrections in the text and send it again. This way you will avoid the existence of messages containing the same information or errors. Remark: the message's date does not change when introducing corrections, so the chronological sorting of messages does not change when editing them.

When the reply/edit/forward form appears, below the "Responder" (Reply) / "Actualizar" (Update) / "Reenviar" (Forward) buttons (respectively) there is a "Cancelar" (Cancel) button, so you can press that button to abort the operation. You can also reload the page and the editing window attached to the message you were about to reply/edit/forward will disappear.

Yes, in the option "Borrar mensaje" (Delete message) from the menu "Más opciones" (More options) below each message. If you have sent the message to several topics, when you delete it it will disappear from every topic. If the message you have deleted belongs to a conversation (in the conversation thread it will appear with the deleted message mark on it "(borrado)".

You can't just delete an image from a message: you have to delete the entire message. If you want to keep the message without the image, we suggest you to copy the text into a new message, send it and then delete the message containing the image you want to eliminate. If you do it following these steps, deleting the old message once the new one has been published, you will be sure the original text does not get lost.

Yes, he can do so. When you delete a message from your "Privados" (private) board your copy is the only one deleted. That is to say, the rest of users to whom you have sent a private message have their own copy of it in their "Privados" (private) board (unless they delete it by themselves). Thus you can delete from your "Privados" (private) board every message you have already read and you are no longer interested in, as the addressees will not be affected by this action. In the same way, you can delete the private messages sent to you by other users, as they will still keep their own copy.

A "normal" user can only edit (and delete) messages he/she has sent. In addition, there are some pages, like conversation threads ones and the one of the "Enlace permanente" (Permanent link) of each message that don't allow to edit or delete a message. However, you can edit and delete your messages from the boards "LO QUE SIGO" (what I'm following), "Privados" (private), "TODO" (everything) "Mis mensajes" (my messages).

When Eskup has automatically shortened the URL, it knows the original URL and can display a tooltip with it.
If, on the contrary, it was the user who pasted manually the shortened URL, there is no available information about the original URL. In addition, you must consider that this extra information is lost in case the message is edited to update it.

Yes. In the link "Opciones" (Options), in the section NOTIFICACIONES DE Eskup (Eskup's NOTIFICATIONS) section, check the options "Quiero recibir notificaciones cuando un usuario responde a uno de mis mensajes, o me menciona" (I want to be notified when a user replies to one of my messages or mentions me" or "Quiero recibir notificaciones cuando un usuario me envía un mensaje privado" (I want to be notified when a user sends me a private message) you will receive in your e-mail account a message with the corresponding notification.

When you click on "Versión móvil" (Mobile version) you turn to see Eskup in the format adapted to mobile devices. If you prefer the usual Eskup interface you can restore its appearance by clicking the link at the end of the page of the mobile version that states "Versión completa de eskup »" (Eskup's complete version). Any way, if you close all the browser windows and open Eskup again it will recover the usual appearance.

Before answering, we advise you to consider the fact that depending on how you send the message to yourself it could eventually end up appearing in the board "TODO"(everything). If you are the only addressee of a private message, that message will not go to your private board "mis mensajes" (my messages) but will be shown on the "TODO" (everything) board instead. If the private message has several addressees among which one is yourself, the message will be then sent to every addressee (including yourself) and not to the "TODO" (everything) board. That is why we advise you not no to send private messages to yourself and you will prevent them from being seen by others because of a small lapse of concentration.

In the first case, you can choose the target users among the ones that received the original message (except to those who may have decided to turn down any private message sent by you). In the second case, if you don't have the authorization to write in one of that topics, you'll be warned, giving you an opportunity to apply for the authorization; if yoy have yet have authorization to write in all the topics, you can send the message to all topics you choose.

It depends. For example, if you are interested in breaking news, it is advisable that you sign up for following the topic "Última hora (Breaking news)" instead of following the user "EL PAÍS" (with nickname el_pais) (the editorial team), who are the ones who usually write on that topic. But as this user is not the only one who can write on that topic, you will miss interesting messages, as, for instance, those containing information alerts (sent by the user "urgente" (urgent)), as well as those thay other users authorized to write on the topic "Última hora" (Breaking news). It makes more sense to follow a user when your interest focuses on what that specific user might say, regardless of the topics that user participates in.

You can start following a user in several ways:

• If you know the user's name, after pressing the button the button with the magnifying glass icon, you can start typing the first letters of his name, and a field containing a list of user identifiers than match the piece of name you have written will start to be displayed.
  If you select one of them and accept (or click in the "Buscar" (Search) button), pressing the return key, a series of pages with information on users from the previous list will appear and, among other things, it includes several icons, one of which lets us to follow that user (if we still don't do it) and the other to give up following him/her (if we already did).
• If we are watching the list of followers of any user (or the list of users he/she follows) we can also follow them ourselves clicking the corresponding icon, in the same way indicated above.

The easiest way is going to the list containing every topic and clicking the icon at the left of their names, which allows us to sign up to follow it or stop doing so.
Another way is by going to the topic's page itself and on its heading with information on the topic to click the tab "Quiero seguirlo" (I want to follow it) (or "Quiero dejar de seguirlo" (I want to stop following it), accepting the confirmation request.

In your LO QUE SIGO board you can see messages sent by users your are follow, plus the ones sent to the topics you follow. Then, the messages you see in that board should be ones sent by any user to one of the topics you follow.

The only use of following yourself is in order to be able to see in the board "LO QUE SIGO" (what I'm following) the messages you have sent.

When a message has originated a series of answers (for example, from several users replying multiple times to diverse messages), the easiest way to restore the original conversation order is by clicking the link the conversation icon (it appears at the end of every message that is part of the conversation) or in the username that was replied (at the left of the message). In such page the collection of reply messages generated by the original message is represented in a tree structure. Here you can see an example so you get an idea of how the messages look like in a conversation, here you can see an example.

Before continuing we clarify what we understand by messages bearing relation with the user those that:

• are direct replies to messages sent by the user (a user has clicked the button "Responder" (Reply))
• are messages where the text @user is written (because a user has written it manually in his/her message)

You can see the messages that mention you by:

• clicking the link on the number after "Menciones:" (Mentions), in the column "Mensajes", inside the box related to your status in Eskup
• clicking the "Menciones" (Mentions) tab that appears above the list of messages

In the same way, you can find the messages that mention other user going to his/her board. For example, for the user "EL PAÍS" (with nickname el_pais) (the editorial team) you can get the messages mentioning if in the tab "Menciones" (Mentions) that appears below the user's information box or in the link with a number after "Menciones:" (Mentions) in that box.

In addition, the messages mentioning you will appear highlighted in the boards:

The syntax is the same as that of Twitter: when in a message you include the text @smith (separated by blank spaces from the rest of the text) a link to the user's Eskup page whose identifier is "smith" will be generated. Remember that attached to a @smith there can be no character other than a blank space; if there is, that text will neither be clickable, nor will it be taken into account as the user "smith" reference. Thus, the following expressions will not be considered as valid references:

• (@rivero) (because there are no blank spaces between the brackets and the user's identifier)
• @rivero. (because there is no blank space between the dot and the user's identifier)

However, the following expressions will be valid references:

• [ @rivero ] (because there is a blank space between the square bracket and the name)
• @rivero , (because the comma is separated from the name)

All public messages (those that are not private) you send can be seen by every user on the board "TODO" (everything). If when sending the message you have chosen the option "Enviar también a..." (Also send to...) and you have selected one or several topics, your message may be also seen en the board corresponding to each of the selected topics. Those users who follow a topic where you have sent a message will also be able to see it —on their board "LO QUE SIGO"— (what I'm following). A private message —that you may send to one or to several addressees simultaneously— can only been seen by the addressees of your private message (in their respective "Privados" (private) boards.

Each user will see in his board "Privados" (private) those private messages he/she has sent to other users or those which have been sent to him/her.

You can't prevent anyone from following you. What you can do is forbid someone to write private messages to you using the option "Bloquear" (block this user). You may also block or unblock a user whenever you want by clicking on the corresponding icon as shown next.

There are two possible solutions: press the button "Parar la recarga" (Stop reloading the page) on top of each video, or open a new window containing only that message using the option "Enlace permanente" (Permanent link) from the menu "Más opciones" (More options).

URLs writen on messages must always be delimited by blank spaces. If any other character is attached to a URL, then the generated short URL will not work. To solve this problem you have to edit the message again, delete the short incorrect URL, include the original URL again (separated with blank spaces from the rest of the text) and update the changes. We will show you next some examples on URL formats. The following URLs will not be considered valid in messages:

• ... And you can see it in Eskup (http://www.eskup.com) ... (because there are no blank spaces between the brackets and the URL)
• ... on page http://www.eskup.com/, que corresponde a ... (because there is no blank space between the comma and the URL)

but this URLs will:

• ... And you can see it in Eskup ( http://www.eskup.com ) ... (because there are blank spaces between the brackets and the URL)
• ... on page http://www.eskup.com/ , corresponding to ... (because there is a blank space between the comma and the URL)

The limit of the images size you can send bears relation with the number of megabytes that image takes, not with its size in pixels. The size of the image must be less than 2 megabytes. The supported formats are JPEG, GIF and PNG. Any other format will not be considered valid. Even admitting the said formats, the images are processed and always converted to JPEG.

You must have indicated in your Eskup profile, and have checked the checkbox "Sí" (Yes) of "Perfil público" (Public profile), so the data will be available to be shown to all the users.

To be able to write on a topic you must have previously requested to write on it by pressing the button "Quiero escribir" (I want to write). If you have not completed this previous step for a certain topic it will not appear in the list of topis you may choose as your message destinations.

Not every topic available in Eskup is open for anyone to write freely. For instance, on the topic "Última hora" (Breaking news) only elpais.com editorial team may write. In other cases the topic's moderator shall be the one to decide if he/she authorizes (to write on the topic) the user requesting to do so, following whichever criteria he/she deems appropriate (knowledge about the topic, reasonable number of participants. etc.). Anyway, in the majority of topics the user can start writing by just pressing the "Quiero escribir" (I want to write) button of that topic. If you are not authorized to write on a topic you will see an icon with a closed padlock on the corresponding board.

Not necessarily. Following a topic allows you to read the messages that have been sent to that topic on your board "LO QUE SIGO" (what I'm following) but in order to write on it you have to do the following:

• if the topic is open to everyone who may want to write on it: press the button "Quiero escribir" (I want to write) of the topic.
• if the topic requires pre-authorization for writing purposes: having been authorized by the topic's moderator after having requested being able to write on it.
• if the topic has restricted access for writing purposes: only the members of ELPAIS.com will be authorized to write on it. An example is the topic Ùltima hora (Breaking news).

When a Eskup user considers that the message has advertising aims (spam) or contains insults he/she can notify it to the topic's moderator of that message (through the menu "Más opciones" (More options) so that he/she decides if that message should be eliminated or not. If the moderator decides to delete it the message will disappear from the board related to the topic, although it will still be shown on your board "Mis mensajes" (my messages).

Yes. In each "Opciones" (Options) link in Eskup in the section IDENTIFICADORES EXTERNOS (external identifiers) you can configure the access data to your accounts in Twitter, and Facebook, so that when you send a message to Eskup it is also sent to all the services for which you have configured the access data. Once you have completed the steps required to allow us to send your messages to the targets you want, when you send a message to Eskup you can choose other destinations simply by marking the corresponding checkboxes. If you haven't filled in the data to access Twitter and Facebook, their icons (below the message box) will look like: If you have filled in the data to access to Twitter and/or Facebook, but you haven't clicked their icons to activate those targets: If you have filled in the data to access Facebook and you have clicked its icon to activate that target: If you have filled in the data to access Twitter and Facebook and you have clicked only the icong of the last one to activate it:

In Eskup there is no need to use #hashtag due to the existence of the concept of topic, that makes it possible to keep messages related without having to add #hashtags to the messages. However, if you have linked your Eskup profile with Twitter, it is possible you still want to use those tags so that those who receive your messages in Twitter may do their searches using #hashtags.

A Eskup user can be (or not be) also a Twitter user. The nicknames he/she may have in both sites may not necessarily be the same, nor is there any guarantee that a same nickname in both sites correspond to the same person (for instance, the user oscar of Eskup has nothing to do with the user oscar of Twitter). There is no certainty either on whether a user @johnny exists in Twitter. Lets imagine that the user (of Eskup) @johnny_in_eskup has configured (in his Eskup profile) the link to his Twitter account @johnny_in_twitter so that all of his Eskup messages are automatically sent to Twitter. In this case Eskup knows how to translate the user name in Eskup to his name in Twitter, and in Twitter the message will appear as sent by @johnny_in_twitter. If the user @johnny_in_eskup does not have his Eskup account associated to an account in Twitter, we don't know what his nickname in Twitter is and we can't guess that it is the same as his nickname in Eskup, thus we prevent it from being clickable in Twitter and so it is sent as @ johnny_in_eskup. If we didn't do it in this way, a message sent in Eskup where the user @oscar (of Eskup) is mentioned would appear in Twitter mentioning the user @oscar (from Twitter), which is totally incorrect.

Yes, you can read the messages sent by each user and the ones in every topic using a RSS reader. However, you will be able neither to send messages unless you log in Eskup nor to follow the conversations in an easier manner than that facilitated by the button "Ver conversación" (See conversation) either. You can access the RSS of a user or a topic clicking in the icon at the top of the user's board or the topic's board:

You can access to RSS using the RSS link if the bottom of page:

If you use a content aggregator for reading RSS (Bloglines, Google Reader, ...) and want to access the messages from the topics and users you follow you might be interested in exporting that information using the button "Exportar mis suscripciones en OPML" (Export my subscriptions in OPML"). You will be able to import the resulting XML file into your content aggregator and so you will be able to see the messages in Eskup on your favourite program.

Yes, you can do that using our widget. Depending on what you want to show in it, you can go to a specific configuration page, or to the generic one (that supports all cases):

• Widget to show only user messages: the link is available in that users's information page.
• Widget to show only topic messages: the link is available in that topic's information page.
• Widget to show multiple user and/or topic messages: the link to access to the Eskup's generic widget configuration page is in each footpage: If you choose more than a user and/or topic, the widget header will show a button for each one, and that will allow — to each user that visits the web where you have embedded the widget — choose what he want to see in every moment (of course, among the options you have included in the configuration).

In all cases commented above, you'll can choose the widget size (so it fit to the area where you are going to embed it), and the information fields you wnat to be shown.