Be a Squirrel!
Curlie Directory Personal Pages
Curlie Users
The Curlie directory classifies websites, basically by topic, region and language. For more than 20 years (in its various forms) it has been curated by editors who must pass an application process that demonstrates an ability to follow our editing guidelines. Traditionally, non-editors had very little interaction with the directory.
To allow everyone to get more out of the directory, we are now offering a way to register as a Curlie user. As a Curlie user, you can maintain your own Curlie page, which includes saving links to your favorite categories, listings within those categories, and adding links to your own favorite websites.
Sign up!
The Curlie user registration form couldn't be much simpler, you only need:
A unique username: case does not matter as it is always displayed in lower case, must start with a letter, and contain only alphabetic letters and numbers. If you type a username that is already taken, the form will let you know; in that case, please choose another (we have over 90,000 editor accounts, so many names are already taken).
A password: please keep your account secure with a hard to guess password. Mixing upper case, lower case, numbers and punctuation makes for a strong password. If you forget your password, you can request to have it reset.
A valid email address: If you don't receive a confirmation email and link, please check your spam folder. Adding [email protected] to your address book can help prevent messages from Curlie going into spam.
Maintaining Your Page
All Curlie users and editors can maintain their own Curlie Page. The main content of this page is an organized collection of Curlie categories and website listings. To add categories to your page, browse the Curlie directory and click the icon next to any category path in the main directory. The icon will turn solid to show the category is included in your collection (you can click it again to remove the category). Optionally, you may assign your own descriptive text to be displayed (instead of the category path) on your Curlie page.
When you visit a category that's on your Curlie page, you'll see icons next to each site listing. You can click any number of these to designate them as favorite sites; these sites will be shown with the solid icon whenever you visit the category, and will also be listed under their category on your Curlie page. Even better, you can create your own listings (consisting of a URL, title, and description, just like Curlie listings) on your Curlie page, in any of the categories you select for your page. These personal listings will appear as a separate section of your own personal view of the corresponding Curlie category page, not as part of the category for other users.
You can organize your categories into tabbed groups. A default group is created when you first visit your page, and you can add new ones as you need them. You can assign categories to the groups (by editing their properties, or by dragging/dropping them onto the tab bar), and rearrange the order in which they are displayed within the group. One of the groups can be set as your favorite group (by clicking the heart symbol in the active group tab). That will be the group to which you return any time you visit your Curlie page, and it is also where any newly added categories are placed. You can also mark each group as public or private. If you make your Curlie page public (see below), public groups will be included. It is also easy to rename and reorder groups, so play around and see what works best for you. If you have any questions, just ask at the forum (see below).
Curlie accounts are subject to some limits: you cannot create more than 30 groups, add more than 30 categories, favorite more than 50 Curlie listings, or add more than 50 of your own links. You can extend these limits by becoming a Curlie patron: click the Donate link at the top of category pages to find out how.
Other Features
As a Curlie user you have access to a dedicated section in the Curlie editor forum, where you'll be able to interact with the other Curlie users as well as Curlie Editors. This forum uses the same username and password as your Curlie login.
You can choose whether your Curlie page is visible to everyone, or just to yourself and Curlie community moderators (meta editors). By default, it is private; you can change that on the profile edit form. If you choose to make it public, you can link to the public version of your page from other sites, using the url:
https://curlie.org/public/page?user=your_username
Other options on your profile include:
Homepage: Provide a link to be displayed at the top of your public page.
Hometown: Enter the Curlie Regional category that most closely represents your town and your public page will get its own map!
Time zone: Set your time zone and date format preferences.
Language: Choose your display language. Not all languages are fully translated, but you can help with translations by participating at the forum.
Avatar: Set a picture to display on your public page. Curlie doesn't host the pictures, so you'll need to provide a link to an image on the web.
Email and Password: Update your email address and password.
What's next?
We plan to build more features for Curlie users, and would love your ideas (the forum is a great place to suggest them). We would like to provide customized content, for example based on your hometown category. We are also considering streamlining the editor application process for Curlie users, and allowing you to suggest website links to your favorite categories more easily. Stay tuned!